Analysis

Why Biden, MSM Spread Fakes About Israel-Palestine Crisis Without Repercussions

19:06 GMT, 13 October 2023
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Ilya Tsukanov
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The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has given speedy rise to dishonest actors in the mainstream media and online spreading fakes about the crisis. Sputnik spoke to respected podcaster Craig ‘Pasta’ Jardula to get a sense of why the old adage of ‘a lie travels round the world while the truth is putting its boots on’ continues to hold true today.
Sputnik
Social media platforms and legacy newspapers, TV channels and news websites have become flooded with fake news related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with both sides working feverishly to create and spread digitally manipulated images, use footage from unrelated conflicts, and spread unverified information of unspeakable carnage by their enemies to support their respective narrative.
Perhaps the most gruesome of the claims to date is the allegation by Israeli media that Hamas fighters have been going around beheading babies, with the allegation spreading like wildfire in Western outlets without any proof whatsoever, and even winding up used by the US president in remarks in support of Israel.

Fire and Forget Tactics

The White House was forced to “clarify” Joe Biden’s claim this week that he actually saw and had “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children” in Israel, with administration officials admitting that the president was referring to Israeli reports on the matter, not any photographic or other evidence, which officials admitted Biden and his staff had not actually seen or reviewed.
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Such 'fast and loose with the facts' tactics aren’t surprising, says Craig ‘Pasta’ Jardula, co-host of the Convo Couch and AM Wakeup, and recent guest host on the Jimmy Dore Show, since the goal isn’t about presenting credible, verified information.
“They have been successful in controlling the conversation. Whether they have to walk it back eventually or walk it back off the record, when [Biden] says that in a press conference or a platform where a lot of people see it, the message already gets out there,” Jardula told Sputnik.

“So it’s almost like the same tactics I think a lot of the left used when it came to talking about Russiagate. They get it out there, and anything they have to retract is done behind closed doors and the general public, the normies out there, the people who are not in our political echo chamber or involved in politics, they automatically think that Hamas is just a terrorist organization and will do awful things,” in this case, behead babies, the observer explained.

The US government and media have “been very successful in controlling that conversation and ignoring Israel’s actions whatsoever,” Jardula noted. “They can say what they want to say because there’s never ever been a price for them to pay or any accountability when they do get the story wrong.”
“It reminds me a of about the babies and incubators [story] in Iraq,” Jardula added, referring to the 1990 televised testimony by the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States to Congress which served as one of the pretexts for the 1991 Gulf War. “Once the story got out there, it was out. By the time it was retracted, it was all said and done. So, you know, they’re controlling the conversation. That’s the important part,” he stressed.
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Commenting on the tendency in the US media and among officials to focus on only Israeli suffering, Jardula said this was something that’s “par for the course,” with most Americans unaware that the people of Gaza have been living under a blockade for so many years.

“You know, when you look at Russia’s statement, I thought it was one of the best statements out there, talking about going to the 1967 borders and honoring international law. And people have to understand that the blockade by the Israeli government of the Palestinians is illegal, according to international law,” he stressed.

Even online and on social media, the podcaster said, there are forces “controlling the algorithms” and possessing “the keys to the kingdom, that could suppress our voices and uplift other voices to get their narrative out there.”

“But we’ve got to just continue to push back. We have to push back against major suppression,” Jardula emphasized. “I think we just have to continue to come with the facts, use the mechanisms that are present to us as best we can, build our followings and just get our boots on the ground to show people and tell the stories about the real truth. Because you know that old saying ‘the truth will set you free’? I believe when it comes to Israel and Palestine, the truth will set us free. So we’ve got to keep pushing forward with the truth and let people see the facts for what they are,” the observer said.

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Click here for more of Craig 'Pasta' Jardula's interview with Radio Sputnik discussing the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
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