Bubby Lifshitz blows hole in Hamas terror narrative

Within minutes of the first Hamas operatives breaching the Gaza fence on 7 October, Israel’s global PR machine went into overdrive. Beasts! Monsters ! Babies beheaded! Women raped and burned alive! Jewish innocents tortured to death! And things unspeakably worse than all of the above! For three weeks every Israeli official who appeared on our news feeds stressed over and over that Hamas were animals, bloody monsters, savages, etc. Then 85 year-old Israeli grandmother Yocheved Lifshitz, one of the Hamas hostages, was released by the bloody savages, and unfortunately gave a media interview before she had been debriefed by the proper authorities. The kidnapping itself was hell, she said, but once Hamas had her in their underground terrorist lair, she was treated well. The terrorists fed her, provided medical care, and made sure she got the medications she normally took before becoming a hostage. What are we to make of that? Here’s what I make of it. The hostages are a bargaining chip. Hamas, long funded and nurtured by Israel itself (a fact surprisingly reported by even CBC and the Globe and Mail) are sophisticated and media savvy. They understand the value of PR. That’s why all the horror stories need to be independently investigated and confirmed. There’s no logical reason to take Netanyahu’s word for anything. He has built a political career on ratcheting up violence and then swooping in to save the day. The unprecedented security lapse of 7 October is on him. He knows it, but he hopes the Israeli people will be sufficiently blinded by hatred to forget.