Before, as an effectively monolingual English speaker, I got my information from the standard English-language sources: the US was bringing peace, freedom, democracy, and prosperity to the Axis, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and the Ukraine, and are now working to help Israel prevent genocide of all the Jews in Israel, and maybe the entire world.
Hamas, we have been told, are determined to exterminate every last Jews, they are Antisemitic monsters, worse than Hitler, and they must be stopped. All of Gaza strongly support Hamas, all want to exterminate every last Jew, and if they do not agree to stop when politely asked, what choice do Israel have? If Israel (with Western support, of course) don't stop them they will continue until every last Jew is dead.
As Steve Malzberg says, in 2005, Israel left Gaza with massive infrastructure. Had they used it, Gaza would now be a very prosperous portion of Israel, but instead, because of their hatred for every thing Jewish, Hamas destroyed the farms, greenhouses, wells, and everything the Jews left them that had made Gaza a rich, prosperous Jewish settlement.
But today there are alternative narratives. So which narrative is the most plausible? One can see that Israel built a wall around Gaza, and allows in just enough food to keep most of those inside alive, although half are malnourished. Is that all the fault of Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza, or is that because, for many years, Israel limited what could go into Gaza (to prevent terrorist attacks: apparently, food can be used for terrorist attacks)?
Israel kept three battalions of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) guarding those walls, three battalions that were absent on 7 October (Why???). Israel limited fishing and farming. Israel say that was because Hamas used everything they could lay their hands on to build terrorist weapons to attack Israel. So all those in Gaza were confined with inadequate food, housing, water, medicine, etc., etc. Whose fault is that? Again, Israel say it's all the fault of Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza, but that other narrative is that Gaza was a concentration camp, and given the documented deprivations, saying 'concentration camp' must only be used for Nazi concentration camps seems a bit disingenuous.
So, given that Israel were keeping more than 2 million Gazans in a concentration camp, given that Israel has thousands of Palestinian prisoners who have never been charged with any crime, did Hamas try to kidnap thousands of Israelis as a way to protest the appalling living conditions Israel forced on them? Or did they just murder 1,200 and kidnap another 240 because they are Antisemites who hate every Jew?
Israel and all he Western media report that Hamas brutally murdered those 1,200, beheading babies, killing about 80% of the Israelis they saw, including many babies, and kidnapping about 20%.
The Grayzone report that the IOF were responsible for most of those 1,200 Israelis killed during the raid, which was just a kidnapping raid. That the reports of babies brutally murdered by beheading and being burned to death are just lies by an Israeli disinformation agent. That Israel show absolutely no desire to rescue any hostages but want to kill them all so Hamas cannot hold them hostage, then hold Hamas entirely responsible for their deaths, since, had Hamas not kidnapped them, Israel would never have killed them so they could not be used to pressure Israel.
The two narratives then continue with the Israeli raid into Gaza. The Western/Israeli narrative is that they have found massive Hamas armaments that were about to be used to kill Israelis, but Hamas were stopped just in the nick of time. Hamas have lost more than 5,000 terrorists, including many top leaders, while the IOF have lost fewer than a dozen troops and few, if any, innocent civilians have been killed by the IOF.
The other narrative is that Hamas have lost few, if any, troops, the Israelis are only murdering civilians while Hamas are deep in bunkers, popping up to shoot anti-tank weapons and popping back down and disappearing from the range of Israeli weapons, so Hamas have lost very few of their members while the IOF have lost hundreds of troops and many tanks.
So what to believe?
Most Americans (that I've read posting on Social Media) agree that Hamas are anti-Semitic terrorists who would murder every last Jew in the world if they could, while Israel is doing all they can to minimise civilian casualties. They read that Israel are sending food, medicine, and everything the Palestinians in Gaza need to stay alive.
But if one reads the alternative narrative, or what people in the Global South post on Social Media, Israel is allowing less food, per capita, than the Nazis gave their concentration camp prisoners. Yes, the Israelis filmed some soldiers carrying an incubator into a hospital, but the hospital has been cut off from all electricity, so it's not clear how the hospital can possibly use the incubator, or how a single incubator is enough for dozens of premature babies.
So you pays your money and you takes your choice of narratives.
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