Hasbara does it again! Squandering the propaganda value of Sinwar's killing
His final act on this earth was to give Israel the perfect transition from the sadness of 7 October to the joy of Simchat Torah, cancelling out his own life. Israel can capitalise on this fortuitous timing: assert the superiority of Judaism over Islam with another Biblical feat on Simchat Torah.
My latest op-ed in Arutz 7 Israel National News
The IDF has video footage from the middle of the night on 6-7 October 2023 of Yahya Sinwar scurrying underground with his family, carrying provisions and some creature comforts, settling in for a long stay, while above ground, his people are about to die in their thousands in a war he would start in just a few hours. When does the IDF release this video? After Sinwar is dead.
Thousands of Palestinians dying in a war against Israel started by Sinwar was never going to turn "innocent Palestinians"—if there is such a thing—against him; on the contrary, it massively enhanced his stature precisely because he started a war against Israel. However, a leader not fighting the enemy until death, but rather hiding underground, or "sitting at home", if you prefer theological imagery, is shameful and humiliating to Arab Muslims. They can take death, easily, but they cannot take humiliation.
The time to have released this footage was when the Hamas Ministry of Health went hyperbolic with their "genocide" figures, especially when the UN was forced to "correct" their parroted Hamas figures down by thousands. That was the time to reveal that there was no chance that Sinwar would "slay and be slain in the cause of Allah", like the thousands of "martyrs" Hamas was claiming. Every time Hamas released figures claiming that Israel has killed some ridiculous number of "women and children", instead of going hoarse explaining over and over again how the IDF fights urban warfare with the lowest civilian to combatant casualty ratios in history—which means absolutely nothing in propaganda warfare—Israel should have reported these Hamas figures not as lies, but as ammunition to be countered. Imagine this Israeli report:
The Hamas Ministry of Health that falsely reported IDF shelling of a Gaza hospital that they knew was shelled by Palestinians, today reported that the IDF killed 40,000 what they called "women and children". Yahya Sinwar and his family were not amongst the dead. They are hiding underground in the tunnels. (video runs).
Let them prove that they did not know at the time that the hospital was shelled by Palestinians. By that proof alone they will admit that they lied. They will leave your claim as it stands. It is a question of trapping your enemy in their own lies by lying yourself, thereby making your enemy's lies work against them. But if you are fixated on correcting their lies with truth, then you're not even in the game. You lost the hearts and minds of the West because while you insisted on hasbara, you left the field wide open to the Arab Muslims, especially the Palestinians. We see the results all too painfully today.
Instead, every time Hamas made another announcement of "genocide of women and children", you should have reported it verbatim, adding, without pause, "These Palestinian heroes faced the enemy and embraced death, while Yahya Sinwar flees from death and hides in the tunnels, too afraid to face the IDF." And the Sinwar family scurrying in the tunnels rolls again. This immediately creates a propaganda dilemma for Hamas.
That the Israelis still do not get it was demonstrated once again in an IDF video depicting a severely injured Yahya Sinwar, covered in dust, slumped forward in an armchair amid the detritus of a shelled building. Through the drone camera, Sinwar is seen raising a piece of wood in his remaining hand and flinging it towards the drone, even highlighting the wood as the drone evaded it. The IDF actually broadcast this scene. What could possibly have been going through their heads?
Read the rest here.
Picture credits:
Khaled al-Ahmad, Watan, 17 December 2023, https://www.watanserb.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-leader-of-Hamas-in-Gaza-Yahya-Sinwar-768x432.jpg
Screenshots from Stanley Kubric, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
Screenshots from IDF
Comments:
On 23 October 2024 at 12:03, Ben Dor A. wrote:
Hello Anjuli Pandavar
Thank you for posting this advice.
I have asked a close friend to transfer the article to the IDF Spokesperson.
Let's hope they will understand your professional point of view.
Best Regards
Ben Dor A.
On 24 October 2024 at 18:51, Jalal Tagreeb wrote:
Hi Anjuli,
I have read your excellent piece and its extended version on Arutz 7 Israel National News. The video that the IDF has released showing Sinwar in tunnels just before 7 Oct 2023 apparently when he was preparing to hide before the massacre indeed eliminates all the interpretations of the bravery of Sinwar that the Arab media is claiming and broadcasting. Whether they liked it or not, Sinwar was returned to Israel in black plastic bag.
The final humiliation is probably too subtle for those who praise Sinwar to appreciate. Last year, when his men attacked Israel, 7 October and Simchat Torah coincided. Simchat Torah is a joyous occasion and the Jews would not have wanted their joyous day ruined forever after. This year, these two days fall seventeen days apart, and Yahya Sinwar, as qadr would have it, died exactly midway between these two dates.
Indeed you are right. This is also a nice new year gift for Israel. I think the piece should be translated to Arabic to objectively counter what the Arab media is saying. This has a great impact. If they do not like it – BTW I have seen some "strange unpleasant" comments, probably from Arabs – enough to let them know that a former Imam will translate it to Arabic!
Surrendered Hamas Nukhbah fighters were dressed in white nylon suits ... Their leader was dressed in black! Mullas wear white imama (turban) and their leaders wear black ones.
Kind regards,
Jalal.