For seventy-five years, international media coverage of Israel has been, for the most part, asymmetrical, unfair, and hypocritical. For decades, the media has depicted Israel as the strong, Goliath-like conqueror and oppressor, and the Palestinians as the weak oppressed nation, in a comparison that is designed to automatically evoke sympathy for the Palestinian cause. Fake news and a lack of professionalism run rampant in today’s media climate and prevent the truth from coming to light.
It is for these reasons that I firmly believe that Israel must obtain international legitimacy and approval for its just war against the Hamas terrorist regime, and the only impactful way of doing so is by presenting all of the evidence in its possession about the unbelievable atrocities committed by Hamas– clearly, officially, and openly – through its highest offices – the prime minister, the president, and the IDF chief of General Staff. The battlefield of the 21st century extends far beyond the terror tunnels of Gaza. I am speaking about the battle of public perception in the global media.
I have stated the following on numerous occasions, and I reiterate: Israel has committed a serious error in judgment by not holding an official open-door media event for the foreign press aimed at publicly displaying and exposing the vile acts perpetrated by Hamas. Since the onset of the war, over 1,000 foreign correspondents have arrived in Israel to cover the aftermath of the October 7th attack and the events that followed. The fact that these journalists traveled far and wide should have been utilized by Israel’s government to garner widespread support for its operation. This support is critical. The foreign journalists should have been invited to a massive public press event hosted by an official Israeli agency that their networks would surely broadcast live. They should have heard and seen firsthand, by Israeli officials and survivors, what happened here on Oct. 7th. They should have been provided with all the evidence in Israel’s possession – the official, undeniable, horrifying documentation of the brutalities that occurred – and they should have published this evidence as part of their coverage of the war.
If we want to have a chance of reaching our two major war objectives – the complete elimination of Hamas and the return of all of our hostages- Israel must gain widespread international support from our allies and the moderate Arab world to see the operation through to the end.
Israel must publicly formalize the evil of Hamas, once and for all. It must shake the public sphere with a special press conference that would turn into a massive worldwide media event, live-streamed by all the major international networks, hosted by one of Israel’s leaders, under the official capacity of their state office, presenting the official data, forensic pathology reports, the graphic videos, photo evidence, and live testimonies of survivors and released hostages. And I believe it is still not too late.
We have official autopsy reports from world-renowned forensic pathologists who assisted Israeli colleagues in identifying desecrated bodies and human remains- many of the victims were burned, decapitated, and mutilated, essentially unrecognizable. These reports paint a clear picture of what Hamas did, and the evidence is all there, in writing by the experts, ready for public review. We have video footage from security cameras taken from the streets and homes of the kibbutzim, and ambulance footage from the first responders, who are seen running around treating countless civilians and soldiers while under fire. We have security cam footage from the IDF bases that were infiltrated.
We know precisely what Hamas did because we have go-pro and body cam footage from the terrorists captured and killed in Israel, and we have Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) reports from the interrogations conducted with the terrorists who survived. We have video from the body cams of IDF soldiers and the official forensics reports of the Israeli Police and law enforcement agencies. In short, we have ample sources of official, reliable, and undeniable information that cannot be contested by any government, agency, or human who views them. All this information must be displayed on the world stage.
The perfect example of how an official display of the evidence steers the public discourse in Israel’s favor is the recent special session held at the United Nations this past Monday, aimed at publicly condemning and raising awareness for Hamas’ sexual violence during the Oct. 7 massacre. The initiative, spearheaded by Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, included graphic testimonies and records obtained during the Israeli Police investigations of what transpired in southern Israel- a compilation of over 700 testimonies from survivors and tens of thousands of videos that chronicle monstrous and shocking acts. Hamas terrorists raped and tortured many women and children in the southern Israeli communities. Some were raped to death, others gang-raped. Some women were murdered and then raped. Bodies were dismembered, and some victims were beheaded.
All of this information was displayed at the UN conference via Israel’s official channels, and it proved effective and highly successful. Israeli Police Chief Superintendent Yael Reichert described the violent acts that were committed. When a policewoman in full uniform, representing Israel’s official security body, stands up on stage at an official global event and speaks of the harsh truth, presenting the evidence on record, the world listens.
She stated that what she reported was just “a portion of the shocking testimonies that prove the horrendous crimes against humanity. My life and our lives as women, as a mother and a police officer, will never be the same as before October 7.” Another speaker said the bodies of many women raped and killed on Oct. 7 were almost unrecognizable.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were among the women who addressed the special session and called out the global failure to support Israeli women. Sandberg said that “silence is complicity, and in the face of terror, we cannot be quiet.”
The vast array of gruesome evidence of the depravity of Hamas was shown to an influential audience of diplomats, ambassadors, and members of women’s organizations, and was broadcast to the world. The extensive coverage engendered by the UN Conference was also bolstered by the chilling testimonies from former hostages freed from captivity and returned to Israel, who have reported that they were starved, abused, drugged, and even branded with the exhaust pipes of a motorcycle to mark them as captives. These testimonies are so shocking that the international media simply cannot stay silent.
The UN session accomplished its mission, and the world’s awareness of Hamas’ atrocities has dramatically increased since Monday. The session and its contents made headlines in all major global news outlets, including a cover story in The Sunday Times, the United Kingdom’s newspaper of record, which featured the testimonies of the survivors of the Oct 7th in advance of the UN conference. John Spencer, the head of the Modern War Institute’s Urban Warfare Studies Department, posted a thread on X this week about the Hamas atrocities that received over 15 million views. When official agencies work on a high level and invest in a major public display to get an important message through to the world, these are the results.
Information about sexual abuse by Hamas has been underplayed and underreported by international women’s organizations. As a woman who worked closely with world leaders on global issues, and in my role as chief strategic advisor to Israel’s ninth President Shimon Peres, I met influential and well-respected female leaders, from the late Queen Elizabeth to the former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel. I witnessed, firsthand, the strength that women possess, and how they can move mountains and change the world. I am ashamed of the silence of international women’s rights organizations. They know the facts, and they still choose silence, failing to condemn Hamas. The silence of women is no less severe than the silence of men – perhaps, it is even worse, and they should know when a red line has been crossed and speak up in the harshest tone.
Today is the first day of Hanukkah, and from my perspective, the UN event, led by Ambassador Erdan, that officially publicized what happened in Gaza is the “first light” of Hanukkah, enlightening the world with the truth about what Israeli women endured. It has managed to change the discourse around the world. We need more events of this type that will formally and officially release the details of the massacre.
While it is true that Israel has presented the evidence to world leaders such as President Biden, US Secretary of State Blinken, UK Prime Minister Sunak, and French President Macron, it is not enough. Showing evidence behind closed doors is ineffective, and releasing small snippets on social media is counterproductive, as some might think that the footage was staged or fake.
Some will say that we should be considerate of the sensitivities of readers around the world and spare them the chilling and gory details. We cannot do that. If we do not tell the world exactly what happened, these horrors will likely visit their children, because the terror of Hamas-ISIS is spreading across the globe.
After the success of the UN event, I believe that the US Congress should be the next big stage to showcase the horrors of the Hamas attack to the world. As Israel’s closest ally, and as the world’s greatest superpower and force for good, the United States has a special role to play in exposing the truth and facilitating Israel in garnering international legitimacy. The most effective way to do this is for the US to hold a special joint session of Congress in the Chamber of the House, or a special open-door congressional committee hearing, centered on displaying official evidence of the October 7th massacre to US leadership, US lawmakers from both chambers and to the entire world, who will surely be watching and reading about the contents of this historic session and the reactions of the congressmembers who were there to witness it in person.
Israel has the hard evidence, and it can easily provide groundbreaking materials to US Congress- evidence that would leave the world astounded and horrified. Israeli officials dealing with hostages and survivors can facilitate bringing brave individuals to give live testimonies of survival, abuse, rape, and torture on center stage. Israel must bring its top officials and leadership to present this documentation of horror to its allies in Congress. There will not be a dry eye in the room when this happens. America, as the world’s leading superpower and a beacon of values, morality, and justice, must do this for the sake of the entire world.
The world must realize that the atrocities that Hamas committed were not perpetrated because of a land dispute, or because Israel conquered Gaza. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Hamas wants the world to think that their actions took place as a response to Israel’s rule over Gaza, which is simply untrue. They attacked because of their fanaticism. If we do not expose the truth about Hamas in a big way, if Israel doesn’t complete its operation in Gaza, the threat of Hamas terrorism will not be eradicated from the world.