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When the World Chooses the Lie, Over the Truth
A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn during a protest at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect.
If I walked into a room tonight wearing a glittering crown and greeting people in Spanish, would anyone truly believe I was the Queen of Spain?
If I strolled down the street in a police uniform, flashing a badge I bought online, should I be trusted to enforce the law? If I wore a designer jacket from a market stall in Istanbul, could I claim to be wealthy?
Unfortunately, when it comes to Israel, the global conversation works on exactly that kind of shallow logic: appearances are enough, as long as they match the story people want to tell.
Truth becomes irrelevant. Verification is optional.
Every few weeks, new images emerge online: children with sunken cheeks, presented as evidence of mass starvation in Gaza. Some are genuine, hunger exists in every conflict zone. But many of these photos are recycled from Syria, Yemen, or decades-old African crises. And yet they spread unchallenged, often accompanied by videos featuring “witnesses” surrounded by well-fed adults.
The world doesn’t stop to ask obvious questions. If Gaza were truly experiencing the scale of famine some claim, how are so many people visibly healthy? Why are there Instagram accounts for Gaza restaurants, showing upscale food? Why are Hamas leaders, living comfortably in Qatar, not using their millions to feed their people?
Because outrage, not accuracy, is the goal. The narrative is set: Israel must be blamed, no matter the evidence.
The Hamas Commander in a Press Vest
Consider the story of Anas Al-Sharif, eulogized by Al Jazeera as a “fearless journalist” killed near al-Shifa Hospital. Within hours, international outlets repeated the claim. Social media turned him into a martyr of press freedom.
But the Israel Defense Forces produced detailed evidence — rosters, training logs, internal communications — proving that Al-Sharif had been a Hamas operative since 2013, responsible for advancing rocket attacks. His press vest was not a shield of neutrality; it was camouflage.
The response? Al Jazeera called the evidence “fabricated.” The Committee to Protect Journalists refused to acknowledge the documentation at all. Not because the proof was lacking, but because accepting it would dismantle their preferred storyline.
This is Israel’s perpetual reality: the sentence is decided before the trial begins. Facts are filtered through bias. Documentation is dismissed as “propaganda.” Meanwhile, Hamas has perfected the art of Western emotional manipulation.
The aim is always the same — inflame emotions before facts can catch up. And too often, it works.
Rewarding the Playbook
The tragedy is not just in the lies, but in how the world rewards them. France and the UK recently agreed to recognize a Palestinian state, even as Hamas openly declares its intention to repeat the October 7 atrocities “again and again.”
It’s an absurd moral inversion: terrorists commit the massacre, and Israel is punished in the court of global opinion.
If no amount of evidence will change the world’s mind, then Israel must stop fighting on an uneven playing field. Defend without apology. End the war decisively. The accusations will be the same no matter what Israel does.
This issue isn’t just about Israel’s reputation; it’s about the survival of truth in a world that increasingly prefers the crown over the queen, the costume over the character, and the lie over the evidence.
The real tragedy is not that Israel is hated. The real tragedy is that the truth has become optional.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.