Commentary
Systemic lies and the death of criticism in the West
The definitive suicide of the West is looming closer. It takes the form of laws strictly prohibiting criticism of the Israeli government.
Our very sense of the absurd is being trampled. And it would be merely grotesque if a tragedy of unprecedented proportions were not involved. The facts are supposedly simple. An explosion in Rafah causes the deaths of two Israeli soldiers. The outrage is immediate.
Hamas broke the truce, they say, so it’s time for hell on earth once more. No more aid is allowed into Gaza, and the incessant bombings resume. Until word comes from Washington: the truth is different, and everyone knows it. An Israeli bulldozer hit an unexploded bomb. Netanyahu reverses course. He reopens the crossing for aid. He stops the bombings. The truth – it’s what wins out in the end.
But let’s not be naive. We know full well that in other circumstances, with different American interests at stake, the truth would not have been brought out so raw and unvarnished.
After all, this has been the story of the slaughter that has gone on for two years, always covered up by the endless refrain: “it’s Hamas’s fault,” “they were Hamas members,” “they were human shields used by Hamas.” It is an obscene story for us Westerners who have endorsed it – and who refuse to stop even now, when the so-called truce should have halted the horror.
Indeed, the pattern was made clear just after the agreement leading to the so-called peace of Sharm el-Sheikh, when the Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi was assassinated by the Doghmush Clan and Yasser Abu-Shabab-led militias, supported by Israel. He was 28 years old, beloved far beyond his homeland, with four million followers – yet another journalist killed since the start of the truce. And his murder seemed to exemplify the strategy of propaganda and lies that would follow.
Though Meta immediately closed his Instagram account, Al-Jafarawi's infectious smile continued to shine as the agreements were implemented and the treaty’s signing led its architect, Trump, to make a triumphal speech at the Knesset. But immediately afterwards, the same old story continued. This week alone, the truce has been broken by Israel over 30 times in Gaza and southern Lebanon, resulting in dozens of deaths, while public opinion was conveniently diverted to the internal score-settling between Hamas and rival militias. All this culminated with Monday's ridiculous accusation about the Rafah explosion, followed by the grotesque about-face.
Lies versus truth. Systematic lies. This is the drama leading to the collapse of the presumption of critical civilization that has always fueled the Western spirit. We will soon face the consequences of what we are enabling on the backs of others. In the meantime, we must note with dismay the acquiescence and subservience to the power of Israeli propaganda – the famous Hasbara – which is capable of casting doubt on any evidence, using weapons as sophisticated in the information war as those used to level battlefields.
Even during these last few months of outrage finally becoming widespread, many of our news channels have continued to give credence, as if they were decisive sources, to the statements of the IDF, Israel’s so-called “defense” force. And in Italy, as elsewhere in Europe, people are gathering to stage veritable farces, like the one at the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL) a few days ago where, amid vile phrases like “funerals with dolls” [translator’s note: alleging that Palestinian victims were not real], we witnessed another kind of burial: the burial of truth.
It didn’t make any difference to desperately count the number of journalists killed – a shocking figure exceeding that of any other war (while remembering this is not even a war), in a land where access has been forbidden to any outside journalists. It didn’t make any difference to watch the daily videos documenting atrocities of every kind in what has been called the “first genocide broadcast live.” The testimonies, the numbers, the social media posts by Israeli soldiers themselves – sinking to the depths of boasting about unspeakable crimes – none of it mattered.
And the endpoint, the definitive suicide of the West, is looming closer. It takes the form of laws strictly prohibiting criticism of the Israeli government. Anyone who uses “extreme” comparisons, even if corroborated by facts or images, could soon find themselves in the same situation we are seeing in Germany. Just days ago, news broke about the German intellectual and politician Jürgen Todenhöfer, whose home was searched and phone confiscated because of his comments comparing Israeli atrocities in Gaza to those of the Nazis. This is the “offense” some would like to criminalize in Italy as well.
It is interesting to note how Germany and Italy so easily find themselves on the side of lies, and always on the side of genocide.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/il-dramma-che-prepara-il-governo-della-menzogna on 2025-10-21