Nowadays, every war has two battlefields. The first is the actual military battlefield, with hand-to-hand combat, armed forces, and weaponry and ammunition. The other battlefield, which is inherently related to the first one, is public diplomacy, namely, the battle over the hearts and minds, which also constitutes a fierce battle over international legitimacy and control over the narrative. This is a combat over the hearts and minds of the general public and the international community. In this battlefield, the written word, verbal and visual arguments, and evidence, usually spread over the easily accessible social media, are the key elements.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

In terms of moral values, public diplomacy well exposes the vast unbridgeable gap between Israel and Hamas in every respect.

Israel's efforts in this domain are based on fact-checking, accuracy, authenticity and ultimately, revealing the truth. Consequently, Israel often finds itself at a disadvantage, when the price paid is the precious time spent by it on ensuring that the official statement released is based on accurate facts.

The terror organization Hamas, on the other hand, which is highly experienced in manipulation and brainwashing, does not concern itself with truth or facts and is ready to use any means necessary that serve its purpose.

One of the most prominent examples is the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Hamas immediately accused Israel the moment the reports on the hospital explosion surfaced. Israel, on the other hand, took all measures necessary to look into the matter and verify the facts before releasing a statement. Such efforts on Israel's part took time, of course, against the backdrop of the growing international concern. Finally, the forensic analysis has shown that in fact, the hospital's parking rather than the hospital itself was hit by an Islamic Jihad rocket launched against Israel, which misfired, landing in Gaza.

The night-long investigation Israel undertook to ensure providing credible evidence, has proven that it was not at fault and that most of the original claims were false. In the meantime, the night-long time gap was used by Hamas to incite Palestinians to violence and spread false information worldwide, when even world leaders fell for their lies.

Palestinian terrorist organizations have been known for false use and fabrication of evidence long before the current war broke out. Their infamous propaganda machine is called "Pallywood", as it signifies deceptions worthy of a full-fledged Palestinian Hollywood. Pallywood has become an industry dedicated to promoting false use of evidence and misinformation to create a kind of parallel reality. In this virtual reality, the aggressors are introduced as victims and vice versa.

The so-called "Hamas Studios" serves as more evidence, demonstrating how far Hamas can go in perpetrating lies and deception. This terrorist organization fabricates, misrepresents, and blatantly lies, spreading false information, falsely attributing photos, forging Israeli misdeeds, and engaging in other forms of fraud. Hamas has intensified its efforts concurrently with its deadly attack on Israel, manufacturing endless disinformation worthy of Goebbels.

Many people, either naively or willingly, swallow Hamas's bait. Accepting disinformation is not only immoral but also dangerous.

Seeing demonstrators protesting against Israel in favor of Hamas is heartbreaking, after many hundreds of Israeli citizens, including children, women, and men, both young and old were massacred, abducted, burned alive, raped, and murdered. Consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or naively, such demonstrations show support for these atrocities against innocent civilians.

In these demonstrations, some of the participants make no secret of their plain antisemitism, shouting out loud antisemitic slogans and clearly displaying swastikas.

Others may be just misled by highly biased media outlets, being constantly brainwashed by Hamas and Palestinian propaganda. Nonetheless, ignorance is no excuse for their moral failure, and conscious avoidance is no grounds for acquittal.

These false narratives are dangerous, and they should be challenged, and their perpetrators should be held accountable, as history has shown us that the cost of false narratives is – human lives.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Hasbara's Pallywood challenge is a war in and of itself appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

It's Tuesday night and major media outlets around the world are reporting that the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City has been bombed, killing at least 500 Palestinians. Hours of live broadcasts left viewers with few doubts about the identity of the culprit. As is usually the case, Israel was immediately blamed.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Although later on that evening journalists did relay a statement from Israel, many appeared to have trouble hiding their distrust of the IDF's preliminary finding that a rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza had fallen short of its target and was responsible for the tragedy.

As the fog of war began to lift, or rather the heavy layer of Hamas disinformation, it became apparent that much of the original reporting was wrong: that the hospital itself was not struck, its parking lot was; that the death toll, while dreadful, was likely in the dozens not the hundreds; and above all else, that the cause of the disaster was not IDF ordinance but unmistakably a faulty rocket fired by the PIJ.

Even after the IDF spokesperson presented the results of its in-depth investigation the next morning – alongside hard evidence that proved the finding of a misfired Palestinian rocket – it was not uncommon to see news reports that still cast doubt on Israel's conclusions, or at best conveyed them alongside Hamas' unfounded allegations as if they were no more than reasonable competing narratives.

In sharp contrast to the contempt shown to Israel, claims made by Gaza's Ministry of Health were treated with the utmost respect and instantly reported as fact. While in democracies like Israel, Health Ministry bureaucrats are independent medical professionals and impartial civil servants, in Gaza they are all Hamas officials first and foremost. Their loyalty is to the fundamentalist terrorist organization controlling the Gaza Strip and the evidence has revealed that they knew exactly what happened.

No one impartially following events in this part of the Middle East would be shocked to see that Israel was falsely accused of wrongdoing. Lies horrific enough to be considered blood libels are immediately and automatically believed. Even if later disproved by Israel, the damage has already been done and new evidence favorable to Israel receives little attention. So the lie that was used to delegitimize Israel, enflame Arab sentiments and incite violence lives on and on and on.

Blaming Israel for errant Palestinian rockets that cause Palestinian casualties is a frequent occurrence. In recent conflicts, up to 25% of the projectiles targeting Israeli villages, towns, and cities fell short and landed inside Gaza, leading to distressing images of death and destruction. In the 14 days since Hamas began its attack on Israel, approximately 450 rockets that targeted Israeli civilians have hit the residents of the Gaza Strip instead.

When will the press and the international community stop believing terrorists, as if somehow those who live by a moral code that encourages the murder of innocents can be trusted as reliable and fair-minded conveyers of fact?

Compare Israel's inherent honesty with Hamas' perpetual manipulation of the truth and the result might be surprising to some. It shouldn't be, not considering Hamas' hatred of the values most humans with a shred of decency hold dear, including the sanctity of life.

Hamas, a ruthless terrorist organization whose goal is the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a caliphate, is driven by an Islamist ideology so extreme that it is willing to do almost anything to achieve its aspirations.

It is certainly prepared not only to slaughter Jews in the most gruesome ways imaginable but to sacrifice countless Palestinian lives as well.

No better example of this can be found than in Hamas' consistent and ongoing use of human shields. Palestinian civilians, including children, are deliberately placed in harm's way so that when the inevitable tragedy happens, international pressure on Israel to stop defending itself grows.

This appalling tactic and Hamas' long history of duplicity are well documented. But as happened this week, many still prefer to be duped by its propaganda. Some continue to refuse to believe indisputable evidence, such as that provided by Israel on Wednesday.

For the "blame Israel first" crowd, recordings of two Hamas terrorists discussing PIJ's misfired rocket as the incident was actually happening isn't enough. Nor is visual proof of the facts, including videos of the failed launch from a cemetery near the hospital. Not even verification of the evidence by the Pentagon and numerous independent analysts will suffice.

There is a simple message that should be sent to these people: terrorists lie. And if you continue to believe these lies and spread them, you are supporting Hamas' campaign to deny Israel the same right of self-defense afforded to every other nation under terrorist attack.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Do terrorists lie? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.