Jonathan S. Tobin
JNS, July 28, 2025
“But we do know that those who have—either out of malice for Israel or ignorance of facts on the ground—aided Hamas’s efforts to manufacture a famine or have spread misinformation about the crisis to blame the Jewish state for what the terrorists have done are as much to blame for this dismal situation as the terrorists.”
Pictures of starving children are horrifying and motivate decent people to do anything to relieve their suffering. That sentiment is driving the current diplomatic offensive against Israel, in which much of Europe is demanding that the Jewish state end the war against Hamas on virtually any terms.
There is a growing consensus within the mainstream media and the foreign-policy establishment that what is going on in the Gaza Strip has become so grievous that the fighting must end immediately. With even some supporters of Israel saying that after nearly two years of inaccurate if not downright false claims of famine and “genocide” in the coastal enclave, there are now the first credible claims that hunger is spreading, the political and diplomatic situation is beginning to turn even more sharply in favor of Hamas.
Talks derailed by propaganda
Rather than this bringing the war that began with the Hamas-led Palestinian-Arab attacks on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, closer to a conclusion, it has, at least in the short term, made it even less likely. The breakdown of the talks for a ceasefire-hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas that has been pushed by the Trump administration is a direct result of the propaganda victory won by the terrorists. Their strategy to create a famine in spite of the fact that food and other supplies were available to feed the hungry didn’t just create suffering for their own people. It gave them leverage to continue the war they started on the morning of Oct. 7 to not only worsen the plight of Palestinians but also to bludgeon an exhausted and beleaguered Israel into submission. ….SOURCE