As Israel prepares for what is expected to be a ground operation in Gaza following the devastating attack by Hamas on October 7, Vox announced it had answered the “7 big questions about the Israel-Hamas war.”
A joint effort between Vox writers, the piece reportedly explains the ins and outs of issues, including where the conflict currently stands, why Hamas launched its attack when it did, and how the Hamas assault sparked an outright war.
Unfortunately, among the answers were multiple big lies, distortions and omissions — here are the 7 most egregious:
1. Gaza is ‘Occupied’
Detailing what readers “need to understand about Gaza and Israel’s relationship to understand today,” Vox gives a brief history of the conflict that starts with Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, noting that the Jewish state took control of the Strip from the Egyptians after its victory.
While Vox notes that Israel withdrew from the enclave in 2005, it goes on to claim that the “territory nevertheless has remained effectively under Israeli occupation.”
But the truth is that Gaza is not occupied and has not been since Israel withdrew every last military and civilian installation nearly 20 years ago. In fact, Hamas itself even admitted the enclave is not under occupation.
2. Questionable Expert Opinion
Delving into the painful reality that is daily life in the Gaza Strip, Vox ignores the role Hamas plays in compounding the misery, including by diverting humanitarian funds toward building its terrorist infrastructure.
Instead, the piece references the United Nations’ bleak assessment that the territory is in a “chronic humanitarian crisis,” which Vox solely linked to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade and Israel’s numerous military operations in response to Hamas rocket attacks.
Vox also quotes Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi’s view that “pressure being put on Palestinians — it just assumes that they’re insignificant and they will tolerate any degree of humiliation, and that’s just not true.”
Any reputable publication should give enough information about an expert so that readers can decide how much weight to give their view. If Vox had done this with Khalidi, readers would know that he believes it is America’s fault that peace was not brokered when Hamas swept to power in 2006 — not the fact that it is impossible to make peace with a genocidal terror group sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections. How does that sound like an opportunity for the US and the international community to bring about peace?
That’s the level of analysis you get when you invite PLO fanboys like Khalidi on your show, @MSNBC. https://t.co/EB3y6Xoa6W
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 12, 2023
3. The Cycle of Violence
Discussing Israel’s policy of “mowing the lawn” as a way to keep terrorist acts emanating from the Gaza Strip and West Bank to a minimum, which involves sporadic military action in response to attacks as a means of deterrence, Vox complains that this “does not address the root causes of terrorism but only reduces the level of Hamas’s violence temporarily and perpetuates an escalating cycle of violence.”
Correct: Israel’s policy does not stamp out the underlying cause of terrorism. Sadly, Vox fails to note the reason for that — there is no so-called “cycle of violence.” The problem begins with Palestinians and their leaders. The root cause of terrorism is a society that glorifies “martyrdom”; a society that teaches Palestinian children in their schoolbooks that Jews and Israelis are vermin that must be destroyed; a society that rewards terrorists who slaughter innocents with money and respect.
4. Jews Praying in a Mosque
Shedding light on some of the factors that Hamas claims “provoked” its rampage of slaughter against unarmed civilians, Vox gives weight to the terrorist group’s absurd declaration that Jews “desecrating” the Al-Aqsa Mosque is, in part, to blame.
Offering evidence of such incursions by Jews into the Muslim holy site, the piece states: “Earlier this month, Israeli settlers had been entering the al-Aqsa Mosque atop the mount and praying, which Hamas termed ‘desecration’ in a statement on their offensive (which they’ve named Operation Al-Aqsa Storm).”
That this needs to be repeated so frequently is tiresome: Jews are not “entering” the mosque and praying. Jews are entering the compound in which the mosque is located — a compound that is the holiest site in the world to the Jewish people as the site of the ancient temples.
5. Jews Above the Law
In a bid to explain why Hamas attacked when it did, Vox manages to subtly shift the blame away from murderous terrorists to Israel and the “plenty of outrages” that have recently riled up the Palestinians. Among them, Vox contends, is the government turning a “blind eye to settler violence against West Bank civilians, including a February rampage in the town of Huwara.”
The horrifying scenes that occurred in Huwara earlier this year were met with shock, anger and condemnation by the majority of Israeli politicians.
Israel’s top military officer Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said it “should not have happened” and took responsibility for failures to prevent the incident.
Numerous settlers who allegedly took part in the rampage were arrested and investigations are ongoing. Israel is not “turning a blind eye” to criminality by Israeli settlers.
6. Gaza Under Siege
Following the Hamas invasion and in light of the near-constant rocket attacks from the enclave, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, which means completely cutting the territory off from electricity and blocking the entry of food and fuel.
However, according to Vox, the total siege is not a new policy because “Gaza has been described as effectively living under siege since 2007, as documented by United Nations experts, journalists, and human rights researchers.”
Vox fails to explain how Gaza could have been under siege since 2007 when, in all that time, Israel has facilitated the entry of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods into the Strip. Indeed, since Hamas rose to power and before its attack this month, trucks filled with goods passed over the Gaza border unimpeded virtually every day.
7. Israel’s Disproportionate Response
In describing what Israel’s declaration of war on Hamas really means, Vox laments an asymmetry in the firepower both sides possess: “Israel, an undeclared nuclear power, has received tens of billions of dollars of US military aid. This past weekend, Hamas ruptured Israeli society with wanton violence and mass killing. But it is the Israeli state that retains the capacity to perpetuate an all-out war on the Gaza Strip. Israel has often responded disproportionately to suicide bombings and rocket attacks from Hamas, partially as a deterrent strategy.”
Only Israel is accused of acting “disproportionately” in its defense of its citizens and is accused of going too far when its innocent civilians are maimed and murdered by terrorists.
The British writer Douglas Murray said it best when asked about whether Israel is being proportional: “But if we were to decide that we should have this fetish about proportionality, then that would mean that in retaliation for what Hamas did in Israel on Saturday, Israel should try to locate a music festival in Gaza and rape precisely the number of women that Hamas raped on Saturday, kill precisely the number of young people that Hamas killed on Saturday… proportionality in conflict is a joke.”
Douglas Murray says that “only the Israelis” are expected to have the “proportionate response” in a conflict.
“That would mean that in retaliation … they should find a town of exactly the same size as a town like Sderot and go door to door and kill precisely the same number of… pic.twitter.com/SIlS9aQ9Vt
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) October 12, 2023
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Photo credit: Yossi Zeliger via TPS
