The White House was forced to walk back on president Joe Biden’s claim to have seen “confirmed pictures” of “terrorists beheading children” in Israel.
The Israel Defence Force previously claimed that at least 40 babies were killed in the Kfar Aza kibbutz over the weekend when the Hamas militant group launched an attack on Israel.
The army later clarified to Anadolu news agency that there was “no information confirming” allegations that “Hamas beheaded babies”.
The first casualty of war is Truth. Remember to be scheduled off all information pumped from any side during war time
Like every post in lemmy at the moment.
From what I can tell, lemmy’s on par with other social media sites (reddit, twitter, fb) wrt disinfo rates. That is to say not worse, not better, but still fucking horrible.
Makes me realize that people are just as big a driver of this bs as any state or corpo driven propaganda bot.
Yeah, bots posting disinfo are just there to plant seeds, it’s the people who make it go viral.
The accusation of killing babies must be first in the list when you look up “Casus Belli” in the CIA handbook …
Babies were definitely killed. The psychopathic terrorist supporters latched onto beheadings because that’s tougher to confirm and they don’t consider just murdering children in their beds to be a problem.
I agree with the first sentence. Everyone can become a victim in that kind of war and on the scale that we have seen the probability that no children and babies were killed is close to zero. However - what I was referring to was the tactic of accusing the enemy of systematic baby killing to steer the public opinion towards support of a war, like when the US had decided to invade Iraq and had Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ lie about alleged baby killing by Iraqi soldiers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
Your second sentence is pure framing and off topic but anyway. I honestly don´t care if the countless victims of all ages were killed by shooting, bombing or beheading. What matters is that they were killed and each death is one too much. Both sides have to stop their violence and develop a sustainable solution which both peoples can live with, instead of staying in a never ending war.
Uh ohh Biden got caught laundering Israeli propaganda.
Seems like the media is the one twisting stuff. I’ve been searching for the actual quote from the White House official that said they cannot confirm the pictures. I’ve been looking for nearly an hour, no media website has provided a source at all. However, I found it. The official said that he was referring to Israeli media, but it seems that was because he did not realize the pictures were not public.
However:
The Israeli PM just posted some of those pictures on X(Twitter) due to claims they were lying about it.
I saw a few different sources showing it, as I don’t have an account with x, but it seems the one I linked is the only one that shows multiple images rather than just one. It seems that the actual truth is that there were some beheadings, but the majority were “just” murdered.
I’m not trying to claim that Israel is in the right here, I’m just saying it seems Biden was not lying.
So the babies weren’t beheaded, but shot or burnt. Still horrible, as expected 😔
Unfortunately, there’s other photos out there with the burnt children.
I’ll take your word for it. I’m not looking at those. It doesn’t help my mental health and I’m already upset just reading about the heinous shit done at the music festival.
The source you linked doesn’t say anything about beheadings.
The US is the biggest mouthpiece of Israeli propaganda anyway. The fact that Joe Biden is just parroting their lies should be shocking news to nobody
Is it a lie if there’s proof
This is literally just “theyre pulling babies out of the incubator” 2.0
Even that shit was just “the Huns are bayonetting babies” 2.0.
Yup, and also ‘Saddam Has Uranium’.
Fake news just at the right time for Israel…
Shocking!
I still don’t understand why this became a hot button issue…
I think it’s because there’s a lot of sensitivity about misinformation, which is typical in early war situations. This story is highly emotionally triggering in all the same ways that previously debunked propaganda pieces have been. Specifically, it is reminiscent of the ‘babies getting pulled out of incubators’ story that was instrumental in fomenting popular support the first US war in Iraq. It was later discovered to be complete fiction. That is not to claim that this story is untrue, but considering all the possibilities is very emotionally draining.
Also, the word of head of state holds a certain amount of weight.
When Steve on Twitter claims such a thing, not very credible. But the president of the United States is another level, you’d expect him to have more information thatn Steve on Twitter and to carefully choose his words on critical ongoing issues. That’s why this is a big deal.
And yes, the babies in incubators thing certainly casts another dark shadow on this.
Considering what we know (and can assume, extrapolated from that) about the United States intelligence capabilities (hi NSA analyst!), it’s all the more important for the President to avoid shit like making unverified claims (or at least being upfront about it if they are)
I don’t think any of the last 5 Presidents would have handled this any differently though; which is a fucking shame.
Then again, the state department and up needs to be ultra-Zionist or else, they dug themselves into that hole a long time ago, to the point where they can’t call out obvious genocide just because it’s being done by a close ally.
Just sucks for the civilians who were at this point mostly born into this conflict, indoctrinated by their side, and will be killed for it who probably just wanted to live their lives.
One example I got to know from one of my professors during my Bachelor’s where an author who published a story book about honor crimes in Jordan. Despite the setting, one proposed goal of this book published in 2003 was to make the war on Iraq more palatable for the US public.
It turned out that the entire book was a hoax. Its main goal was to make the middle east look like a terrible place for women thus justifying any invasions to “free” them. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/26/books.booksnews
Its main goal was to make the middle east look like a terrible place for women
And they thought they needed to lie to convince people of this?
Like honor killings don’t already happen and women aren’t already second class citizens, at best, in more than a few countries?
Yes, honor crimes happen in the Middle East. I grew up in Jordan so I would know.
However when the lives of these women only matters to fuel war, then we have a problem. I hope you understand that the problem was that the book was plagiarized to serve a political purpose. Instead it overshadowed the real suffering of real Jordanien women and victims of honor crimes.
Totally get that, yes. Well put.
So was it plagiarized or was it a hoax?
The correct term would be it was a hoax. People who read it immediately discovered the factually incorrect parts.
I think it’s normal. It’s a big claim to make, and the white house had to walk away from it. I’m still waiting for an official report to understand what happened (and I don’t expect it to be “good”)
I don’t even get why the white house brought up the beheading the whole time I just thought it was 40 babies killed or whatever which they would mention not focus in on the beheading bit…
To shift the focus away from the two million people (nearly half of those are children) with no water and under constant bombing.
Edit: and also to give Hamas an ISIS feel.
Oh, that’s already happening. I saw a video on Instagram cutting back and forth between warzone clips, half labeled ISIS and half Hamas. No idea how true it actually was. I did notice that they conveniently left out any videos of Israeli forces killing Palestinians though.
Because making comments by the president can have results that are unexpected.
Bush talked about Muslims and thousands got attacked or killed across the country and still do today. On top of that sheik and Indian folks got mistaken for Muslim and attacked as well.
The last thing this administration wants is mass racial or religious protests.
People want to believe it was real, it fits the narrative and justifies their extreme emotions.
I saw some of the first claims, didn’t see any confirmation, so I brushed it aside as possibly untrue. However I then saw some videos with reporters going through a kibbutz, they confirmed babies had been killed but not that they were beheaded, but alongside that post was a French journalist that said some other journalists had seen it first hand. That somehow stuck and convinced me, only later did I realise it wasn’t enough - I can only imagine that would be worse for people who saw the President say it.
I saw the same report from what you described, and noticed the second time I watched it that no bodies were shown and the journalists specifically said “we heard them say that there were children among the casualties”.
In the meantime we have pictures of real dead and confirmed children in Gaza. It’s chilling for me to see how the “potential” unproven news of a Israeli children being beheaded is apparently worth (two) million times more than all the Palestinian children shot point blank in the head by Israeli soldiers which has become far too common an occurrence.
Here’s some confirmed and documented numbers of what Israel does to Palestinian children:
- https://www.savethechildren.net/news/stripped-beaten-and-blindfolded-new-research-reveals-ongoing-violence-and-abuse-palestinian
- https://www.dci-palestine.org/child_fatalities_by_age_group
- https://www.dci-palestine.org/human_shields
In the past 23 years, 2293 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces.
And yet despite everything done by these NGOs and human rights groups, Israel did not budge and did not try to improve the conditions for these children in an open air prison
In the end I do sincerely hope that no child was injured during those attacks (but like I pointed out earlier, this is unlikely… any attack on any civilian area will leave children at huge risk given how vulnerable they are).
I feel like people wanting to believe the beheaded story has little to do with Israel’s attacks on children. Rather, it just fits the narrative of a barbaric raider killing indiscriminately.
However the effectiveness of the lie (assuming it is one) also has nothing to do with the reasons for making it, which is clearly in service to Israel’s image.
Yeah… There are plenty of reports about dead children already.
This is not a tit for tat situation, please don’t try to make it one.
First of all, I don’t think you’ll find a photo of the bodies, at least I hope not. You didn’t see the holocaust documentary until it was seen in Nuremberg, but then the general public didn’t see them until much later.
I see three things here. First, this article is not on reliable feed. Anyone can supply content tp Yahoo. It’s the garbage can of news. Second, it is very thinly sourcesd and I havent seen anything similar.
Last, Israel brought journalists into the Kibbutz. Those journalists reported. I didn’t note any Anadolucty news agency per the article. Don’t know who they are. This article does not disprove the original story. In fact it goes out of its way not to
This is not a tit for tat situation, please don’t try to make it one.
How am I making it one? I’m talking about how the international community approaches dead children and the documented truth is that Palestinian children are being tortured, raped, killed, you name it with very little reaction and no sanctions on Israel.
First of all, I don’t think you’ll find a photo of the bodies, at least I hope not
No, but I expect at least journalists would be allowed to.
I see three things here. First, this article is not on a reliable feed. Anyone can supply content tp Yahoo.
Actually, if you look at the top of the link, this is a news article mirrored from The Independent. You can go and read it there.
It’s the garbage can of news.
Again, it’s a mirrored post from an actual news agency.
Second, it is very thinly sourcesd and I havent seen anything similar.
Actually it’s all over the news that the White House backed from these statements.
Those journalists reported.
No, they said they heard about this but none of them were able to confirm it themselves.
EDIT: I wanted to add this picture
Yes, it’s all over the news now.
I didn’t note any Anadolucty news agency per the article.
Here you go: https://www.aa.com.tr/
How am I making it one? I’m talking about how the international community approaches dead children and the documented truth is that Palestinian children are being tortured, raped, killed, you name it with very little reaction and no sanctions on Israel
You answered your own question
No, but I expect at least journalists would be allowed to.
I would think not. How would you like seeing a loved one slaughtered? Photos should only be taken for forensic purposes in this case.
Actually, if you look at the top of the link, this is a news article mirrored from The Independent.
The news is a denial that the President saw pictures, not that event didn’t happen.
No, they said they heard about this but none of them were able to confirm it themselves.
No. I first saw a journalist walking through the kibbutz. Lots of blood. Shocked troops cleaning up. The next day Israel invited journalists there, and my eyes saw blood drenched children’s beds.
You answered your own question
This is a none answer.
Photos should only be taken for forensic purposes in this case.
As per the article, nothing like that exists, confirmed by the army themselves.
The news is a denial that the President saw pictures, not that event didn’t happen.
That’s one part of the news. The article clearly cites that the army denied it and that no US official has seen or been able to confirm this information.
No. I first saw a journalist walking through the kibbutz. Lots of blood. Shocked troops cleaning up. The next day Israel invited journalists there, and my eyes saw blood drenched children’s beds.
So no one saw any bodies or forensic reports or photos, just bloody beds. Gotcha.
Imagine someone breaks into… Well I hope you don’t have children, so let’s say a neighbor’s house.
They break into your neighbors house and murder their children in their bed. How much you gonna nickel and dime that?
This is a none answer.
Read what you wrote
As per the article, nothing like that exists, confirmed by the army themselves. ’ As per the article. If I was “The Army” and you asked me for photos of dead kids, I’d tell you to take a hike too.
The article clearly cites that the army denied it and that no US official has seen or been able to confirm this information.
So you can’t file a FOIA request and see dead kids. So sad for you.
So no one saw any bodies or forensic reports or photos, just bloody beds. Gotcha.
It’s not enough. We need the bodies themselves So we can perform independent autopsies!
Israel has bent over backwards for the people in Gaza, including offering multiple peace deals and land that was literally never “Palestinian” as their own country.
When terrorists hide in civilian areas, the civilian deaths are the fault of the terrorists, full stop.
When terrorists hide in civilian areas, the civilian deaths are the fault of the terrorists, full stop.
“Look at what you made me do!” - abusers, the world over.
This is a moron’s interpretation of what is said above.
Given your habit of posting incredibly stupid takes, I’d avoid throwing out words like “moron” here.
Man if I respected you or cared about your opinions, I might react to this.
