Israel’s greatest failure

He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A foundational desire for the creation of the state of Israel was to provide the Jewish nation with a home, safe from constant worldwide persecution. While Jews now have indeed formed a homeland within the fold of political Zionism, the issue of safety and freedom from persecution has never been satisfactorily resolved.

The creation of the ethno-state of Israel, which came at an incalculable and tragic cost to the Palestinians who inhabited the land before their expulsion and ethnic cleansing, was still not the Zionist coloniser’s most outstanding achievement.

To successfully grab and cling onto power for a quarter of a century, brutally dominate those Palestinians who remained after the original displacement (Nakba) and ethnic cleansing, Israel had to create an origins narrative that falsely endowed them with divine biblical rights to the land that many are still afraid to question. Meanwhile, it needs to be said that Western countries that ratified their illegal land-grab were probably relieved that the Zionists took the bait offered in the racist, antisemitic 1917 British Balfour Declaration.

With the Jewish ethno-state established, the Zionists also had to manufacture and maintain multiple lies about the true nature of their occupation and the circumstances in which the ousted Palestinians found themselves. This was their main achievement. Ironically, though, Israel’s most significant achievement for 75 years has now become its greatest and most conspicuous failure.

Since October 7th, 2023, the imperative to maintain the false narrative and its supporting lies has never been greater for Israel. Israel is now finding that its brutal and vindictive military response in Gaza, a routine undertaking for decades, is now attracting an alarmingly greater scrutiny from the worldwide community.

Following October 7th, the veil on Israel’s settler colonial occupation of the land, its subsequent discriminatory apartheid policies, and systemic oppression of the Palestinian people has been unceremoniously lifted. The world finally sees Israel and its leaders more clearly for who they truly are, by their hateful rhetoric and savage actions.

In the last 20 months, Israeli leaders and spokespersons have become infamous in their desperation to invent increasingly egregious lies to not only paper over the growing cracks but to double down on lies already told and dismissed by an ever-vigilant world audience. Bestselling author of the Divergent series, Veronica Roth, whose maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors, wrote that “Lies require commitment.” And Israel’s commitment to lying is firmly evidenced by its $150 million budget for hasbara.

While the Hamas attack in 2023 was violent and deplorable, Israel’s genocidal response necessitated a vigorous re-lubrication of its propaganda machinery. Hence, the very public efforts by Israel to counter, spin, embellish and exaggerate Hamas atrocities, while repeatedly projecting about their own (especially those on historical record from the 1948 massacres carried out in various Palestinian villages).

Israel has not only been lying to the world. For more than 75 years, it has been lying to its own people. Israeli academic Nurit Peled-Elhanan published two books (Palestine in Israeli School-Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education, Holocaust Education and the Semiotics of Othering in Israeli Schoolbooks), which expose how the Zionist schooling system indoctrinates Israeli citizens from a tender age to believe a false narrative about the foundation of the Jewish State and the complete lies manufactured to dehumanise the Palestinian people.

The success of Israel’s dehumanisation indoctrination programs is manifested in public opinion polls, which have been relatively consistent throughout the genocidal Israeli Defence Force (IDF) retaliation inside Gaza. A recent survey published this month by Israel’s i24 News reveals that 62% of Israelis say that “there are no innocent people in Gaza.” Most Israelis find the lies emanating from their government and media very palatable.

Outside of Israel, though, things are very different today. Many of the original perceptions and biases since 2023 and before are shifting. Israel’s 76-year effort to elevate lying to an art form has failed spectacularly. People now easily recognise the 3 D’s, which have become the hallmark response of Israeli politicians, spokespersons, ambassadors, sympathisers and apologists: Deny, Deflect, Dismiss.

Yesterday’s attack by the IDF on the Nasser hospital in Gaza, which killed six more journalists, is a clear indication that Israel is committed to preventing the truth from being exposed. The comments on X following the release of a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are unequivocally dismissive of the attempt to frame this as just another mistake, in a long list of “mistakes.”

Even talk-show and podcast host, Piers Morgan, the right-wing weasel who masquerades as a liberal, does not believe Netanyahu any longer. The “mistake” narrative started losing its legs after the IDF targeted killing of three aid workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza way back in November 2024. He’s also losing the support of prominent racist Americans like Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene and talk-show host Tucker Carlson.

None of this will, however, stop the lying. Israel is far too invested, and besides, support from Western governments, especially America and England, will continue to prop up this savage regime and its mendacity. I’m convinced that only the imposition of debilitating economic sanctions can bring Israel to its knees, as it did to South Africa.

Sadly, I’m finding it difficult to see any upstanding nations in the world through this haze of hypocrisy. Even South Africa, my own country, while shocking the world by presenting a case of genocide against Israel at the ICJ, still supplies Israel with coal.

Between Israel’s persistent lies and my government’s betrayal, I’m in constant despair…