ISTANBUL

The true face of Israel's war on Gaza is hidden from Western public opinion through the Western media’s ignoring of Israel's attacks and war crimes, according to a US journalist.

Max Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of the independent news website The Grayzone, spoke to Anadolu at a conference in Istanbul, Türkiye about his views on how Western media portrays Israel's attacks on Gaza and the role of the US in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“On Oct. 7, the Western media did not show the losses that the Israeli military took at the hands of Hamas and other factions in Gaza. They focused exclusively on civilians being kidnapped and then began with not just the killings that took place of civilians on Oct. 7, which were real and documented, but fabricating atrocities about beheaded babies and babies burned in ovens, and so on, in order to create leverage and political space for Israel to totally destroy Gaza,” said Blumenthal.

He said that Western media did not give enough coverage to recent events in Gaza, such as the killing of an employee of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and the bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp.

“Now we see very little about Gaza. Israel is bombing the north of Gaza very hard. They just killed the head of UNRWA, the man in charge of distributing food and aid. They've killed hundreds in the past few days in the Jabalia refugee camp, and Western media is not covering this at all. They're focused on Israel's attack on Lebanon. That's the news story.”

‘The US is the major obstacle to peace’

Mentioning the double standards of Western media, Blumenthal criticized the hypocritical media coverage.

“The Western media also isn't showing what Israelis are proud to show. For example, Israeli soldiers are showing themselves blowing up homes for fun, shooting at homes for fun, wearing women's lingerie in homes that they've occupied on their own TikTok accounts. Western media never covered this issue,” he said.

“They also have never covered the Hannibal Directive, which was the order given by Israel on Oct. 7 to kill their own citizens and soldiers who were taken captive. I think the biggest problem with Western media is more in what they don't show than in what they do show. The US is the major obstacle to peace in Israel-Palestine.”

‘Blinken authorized attacks on humanitarian aid convoys’

“We're learning now that (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized attacks on humanitarian aid convoys after lying about Israel blocking aid. This is a figure who's been very close to the Israel lobby,” said Blumenthal.

Drawing attention to the influence of the Israel lobby in Washington and how it affects US policies, he emphasized that the biggest problem in Washington on this issue is “the role of the Israel lobby and billionaires who support Israel in financing elections.”

Blumenthal said there is no limit to how much a person can donate to a candidate in the US.

“We had two very minor politicians in the US who were members of Congress, the lower house, who were outspoken on Palestine, calling for a cease-fire and suspending arms to Israel: Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman. The Israeli lobby, AIPAC, spent $20 million to defeat them. That's more than gets spent in entire elections in many countries around the world. So there's no possibility of change in Washington at this point.”

Noting that change can only happen “on the world stage,” Blumenthal said “the only way we'll see change is if Israel lobby organizations like AIPAC have to be registered as foreign agents and report their activities.”

Palestinian solidarity movement in US has 'exposed one of the biggest contradictions of the West’

Commenting on the growing role of global activism in the wake of Israel's attacks on Gaza, Blumenthal said “the Palestine Solidarity Movement in the US has reignited an anti-war movement that was basically dead before Oct. 7.”

He emphasized the movement's role in exposing contradictions within American institutions, including “efforts to suppress protests at universities” and “attempts by Congress to limit free speech.”

Blumenthal added that “it's important for Americans to see this. They have exposed one of the major contradictions of the West and the United States in particular.”

‘UN unable to intervene to deter Israeli and US violence’

Criticizing the hypocrisy of the West's “rules-based order," Blumenthal expressed doubts about the current global order.

Noting that the failure of international institutions, especially the UN, contributed to the escalation of violence, he said: “The United Nations has been shown to be toothless, completely weak, because it's unable to intervene or do anything to deter Israeli and US violence.”​​​​​​​

Blumenthal warned of the possibility of protracted conflict in the region, saying that “because of the failure of international institutions, which have been created by the West and set up to fail, we're seeing this war expand into what I think could be a 20-year war.”

*Writing by Efe Ozkan