Why the Guardian's 'Hamas mass rape' story doesn't pass the sniff test
How is it that journalists are not pausing to question the outrageous improbability of so many of the evidence-poor rape stories being advanced?
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The Guardian has just published the latest in the western media’s endless cycle of stories claiming Hamas committed “systematic, mass rape” on October 7. Its article is headlined: “Evidence points to systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas in 7 October attacks”.
The biggest problem with these stories isn't just the continuing absence of any meaningful evidence for “systematic” rape; or Israel's long track record of lying to justify state terrorism; or Israel's refusal to cooperate with independent investigators; or the racist, anti-Arab tropes that pass for sophisticated analysis in western circles.
It is simply the outrageous improbability of so many of the evidence-poor rape stories being advanced.
The Guardian recycles a supposed eyewitness account of a group of Hamas fighters taking turns to rape a woman at the Nova festival on October 7, then cutting off her breast to play a football-like game with it at the side of the road.
We are supposed to believe this happened when we also know – from facts provided by the Israeli media – that Hamas stumbled on to the Nova festival totally unprepared and on their way to what they assumed would be a major confrontation with the Israeli military at a nearby army base; that its fighters were quickly confronted by paramilitary Israeli police who engaged them in gun battles; and that Israeli Apache helicopters, with little intelligence to work on, were firing Hellfire missiles at anything that moved, based on the “Hannibal directive” to prevent hostage-taking at all costs.
Does any of that add up? Did Hamas’ most disciplined elite fighters – training for years and knowing that this might be their their only, brief moment to take on the Israeli army in a near-fair fight or drag hostages back to Gaza for a prisoner swap before the Israeli military used its air power to overwhelm them – really take time out to indulge in a sick game involving a woman’s breast?
How is it that no one – the Guardian reporter, her section editors, the paper's editors – stopped for a moment and thought “Is this really plausible?” and “Am I being played to advance a nefarious agenda?” – in this case, genocide. Or did they simply recite in their minds – as Israel knew they would – “Believe women!”, especially if they are confirming a racist assumption that Arab men are blood-thirsty, sex-obsessed primitives.
In fact, the Zaka volunteers who are being heavily relied on in this Guardian “report” are Jewish religious extremist men, also with a proven record of lying: they came up with the complete fabrication of “40 beheaded babies”, when no babies were beheaded. Two infants are recorded dying that day.
The woman leading the “Hamas mass rape” campaign – now an academic – is a former spokesperson for the Israeli military. Their job, as any honest reporter will tell you, is to lie to journalists to excuse Israel's incessant war crimes.
What we now know – from multiple credible Israeli sources – is that Israel killed lots of its own civilians on October 7. Ynet, Israel's biggest media outlet, has just published an investigation in Hebrew showing that Hamas successfully took out Israel's all-seeing drone “eyes” over Gaza that day, leaving the Israeli military blind about what was happening. Panicked, Israeli commanders invoked the Hannibal directive, allowing those in the field to order tanks and helicopters to fire at anything that moved.
It was Israel that incinerated the hundreds of cars trying to flee the Nova festival, killing potentially hundreds of the 1,140 Israelis that died that day, as well as Hamas fighters. It was an Israeli tank that incinerated 13 Israeli civilians, and 40 Hamas fighters, holed up in a house in Kibbutz Be'eri by blasting a shell through its front wall.
Israel, of course, wants no one, least of all the western media, talking about any of that. What it needs instead is anything that will help to distract from its crimes against its citizens and justify its committing of genocide against the people of Gaza. So it has every reason to serve up the “Hamas mass rape” story, feeding what it rightly assumes are the Islamophobic prejudices of most Israeli Jews and western reporters.
Journalists at the Guardian, the BBC and the rest of the establishment media are paid to play their role in regurgitating these lies to advance western foreign policy goals. You are not. So please hold on to your humanity – and refuse to play along with Israel and the media’s racist disinformation campaign.
I have written previously about the media’s peddling of deceptions about October 7. You can find those articles at these links:
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When Thomas Sowell was ask if you had any advice on how to combat antisemitism his response was simply one word “fail”. It is rather convenient that it is portrayed in pontificated that somehow Israelis, or settlers. If you wanna talk about true inherent historical rights to land, where israel stands and purposes are much larger area. Kingdom of Judah, predates the Quran and Christianity what do you think it’s called Judeo Christian faith? Where is Palestine mentioned in the Quran? Not once not a single time. The Jewish scriptures and in their holy books, their cities, the Royal line of David and so on these things are mentioned often. It is simply archaeological, historical and religious based fact that the Jewish people created a great kingdom several kingdoms actually before the Muslim and Arab nations even had their holy Quran to worship, and anyone had ever thought of something as silly as the Palestinian
people being the ancestral and rightful caretakers and citizens of the land that they claim with not a single shred of evidence . Literally there is no case to be made there. The Jewish people exited there for millennia and fought many wars with many different nations of that area at the time BUT NONE OF THEM CARRIED THE NATIONAL IDENTITY OF PALESTINE. The Palestinian people are refugees most likely from Jordan, who settled in the area that has been contested for so long now. The name Palestine was given to that area where the Roman Emperor, who finally evicted the Israelites from their ancestral home, and they became a nomadic people without a country, for so so so many years. What name did he give it ….:: Palestine. So as far back as ancient room, the name, Palestine has been a deliberate insult to the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland. It is incredibly ironic, that the same historical event that stripped these really people of their home, and replaced the name for their ancestral lens, with a word associated with their ancient enemies the Philistines . In fact history shows many of the greatest empires have tried to wipe the Jewish People from the planet, from their borders and have accomplished only an enduring hatred of the Jewish people. Why? Because they had been given more opportunities, injured less hardship for shorter periods of time throat history, and they were not able to survive in their cultures in their languages. They were not able to adapt they were not able to survive, which arrives as many of the most important positions advising some of the most important people, and they themselves becoming some of the most influential and important peoples in history. From winning prizes to creating the greatest democracy ever to exist in that part of the world with the GDP surpassing many of the major European nations and innovation that put silicon valley to shame. Not to mention likely one of the greatest armies in the world if not the greatest army. You postmodernist Marxist ideologues with your tribalism and stand standpoint theory Don’t have one fucking brain between the lot of you. Millions of people around the world they’re just tossing back-and-forth the same lies. You realize that shit on Western culture like you have a better idea like there are better countries as far as safety, true equality, not equity, human rights, ability to speak your mind without persecution or violence, and the chance to be the best that you can be make a living for your family. Nowhere in the world does that exist but in the west. You self hating cowards, that know nothing of history no nothing of the sacrifices that people made to put you in the position where you can complain about things that you don’t nothing about I would like to see you in this new world with all these monumental revelations about how to live better what would be a more accomplished society because I bet you you would really dislike that world because I don’t think that it would have very much room in it for any of you .
Give your head a shake, and if there’s anything rattling around in there instead of putting the premise all of your arguments behind what legacy news outlets cram down your throat? Why don’t you try a book by Thomas Sowell. Arguably the greatest economist of the 21st century, one of the most preeminent scholars that we have in this age. You probably not heard of him.? Because he searches for truth and facts even if it’s not popular, even if it’s not what people want to hear he has integrity. Possibly if you have the courage to put some real knowledge in those brains and learn to question bad ideas you might find, Some of your own integrity along the way. Good luck good luck.
I read the article in the guardian and I couldn’t believe it was there! As you said Hamas fighters, are an elite very well trained and to died as martyrs, cannot believe the could have done such horribles acts, there is so much brainwashing and hate in Israel.
breaks my heart that seems more distant a two estate solution