{"id":5856,"date":"2023-11-02T13:08:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=5856"},"modified":"2023-11-02T13:08:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:08:40","slug":"bbc-october-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2023-11-02\/bbc-october-7\/","title":{"rendered":"What the BBC fails to tell you about October 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is journalistic malpractice for the media to still be repeating so credulously the Israeli military’s account of that day<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The BBC’s Lucy Williamson was taken once again this week to view the terrible destruction<\/a> at a kibbutz community just outside Gaza attacked on October 7. As we have been shown so many times before, the Israeli homes were riddled with automatic fire, both inside and out. Sections of concrete wall had holes in them, or had collapsed entirely. And parts of the buildings that were still standing were deeply charred. It looked like a small snapshot of the current horrors in Gaza.<\/p>\n

There is a possible reason for those similarities \u2013 one that the BBC is studiously failing to report, despite mounting evidence from a variety of sources<\/a>, including the Israeli media. Instead the BBC is sticking resolutely to a narrative crafted for them, and the rest of the western media, by the Israeli military: that Hamas alone caused all this destruction.<\/p>\n

Simply repeating that narrative without any caveats<\/em> has by now reached the level of journalistic malpractice. And yet that is precisely what the BBC does night after night.<\/p>\n

Just a cursory look at the wreckage in the various kibbutz communities that were attacked that day should raise questions in the mind of any good reporter. Were Palestinian militants in a position to actually inflict physical damage to that degree and extent with the kind of light weapons they carried?<\/p>\n

And if not, who else was in a position to wreak such havoc other than Israel?<\/p>\n

A separate question that good journalists ought to be asking is this: What was the purpose of such damage? What did the Palestinian militants hope to achieve by it?<\/p>\n

The implicit answer the media is supplying is also the answer the Israeli military wants western publics to hear: that Hamas engaged in an orgy of gratuitious killing and savagery because \u2026 well, let\u2019s say the quiet part out loud: because Palestinians are inherently savage.<\/p>\n

With that as the implicit narrative, western politicians have been handed a licence to cheerlead Israel as it murders a Palestinian child in Gaza every few minutes. Savages only understand the language of savagery, after all.<\/p>\n

Brutal tango<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For this reason alone, any journalist who wishes to avoid colluding in the genocide unfolding in Gaza ought to be increasingly wary of simply repeating the Israeli military\u2019s claims about what happened on October 7. Certainly, they should not credulously regurgitate the latest agitprop from the IDF press office, as the BBC is so evidently doing.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

What we know from a growing body of evidence gleaned from the Israeli media and Israeli eyewitnesses \u2013\u00a0carefully laid out, for example, in this report<\/a> from Max Blumenthal \u2013 is that the Israeli military was completely blindsided by that day\u2019s events. Heavy artillery, including tanks and attack helicopters, was called in to deal with Hamas. That appears to have been a straightforward decision in regard to the military bases Hamas had overrun.<\/p>\n

Israel has a long-standing policy of seeking to prevent Israeli soldiers from being taken captive \u2013 chiefly, because of the high price Israeli society insists on paying to ensure soldiers are returned. For decades, the military\u2019s so-called \u201cHannibal procedure<\/a>\u201d has directed Israeli troops to kill fellow soldiers rather than allow them to be taken captive. For the same reason, Hamas expends a great deal of energy in trying to find innovative ways to seize soldiers.<\/p>\n

The two sides are essentially engaged in a brutal tango in which each understands the other\u2019s dance moves.<\/p>\n

Given Hamas\u2019 situation, effectively managing the Israeli-controlled concentration camp of Gaza, it has limited resistance strategies available to it. Capturing Israeli soldiers maximises its leverage. They can be traded for the release of many of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held in jails inside Israel, in breach of international law. In addition, in the negotiations, Hamas usually hopes to win an easing of Israel\u2019s 16-year siege of Gaza.<\/p>\n

To avert this scenario, Israeli commanders reportedly called in the attack helicopters on the military bases overwhelmed by Hamas on October 7. The helicopters appear to have fired indiscriminately, despite the risk posed to the Israeli soldiers in the base who were still alive. Israel\u2019s was a scorched-earth policy to stop Hamas achieving its aims. That may, in part, explain the very large proportion of Israeli soldiers among the 1,300 killed that day.<\/p>\n

Charred bodies<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But what about the situation in the kibbutz communities? By the time the army arrived and was in position, Hamas was well dug in. It had taken the inhabitants as hostages inside their own homes. Israeli eyewitness testimony and media reports suggest Hamas was almost certainly trying to negotiate safe passage back into Gaza, using the Israeli civilians as human shields. The civilians were the Hamas fighters\u2019 only ticket out, and they could be converted later into bargaining chips for the release of Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n