The New York Times (10/12/24) says it “verified” supposed Hamas documents provided to the paper by Israel—which turns out to mostly mean that that the Israeli military “concluded the documents were real.”
Earlier this month, the New York Times (10/12/24), Washington Post (10/12/24) and Wall Street Journal (10/12/24) each published front-page articles based on different sets of documents handed to them by the Israeli military.
Israel claims it seized all the documents—in the form of meeting minutes, letters and planning documents—in its ground invasion of Gaza, and that they reveal insights into Hamas’s operations prior to the October 7 attacks. The documents include alleged evidence of Hamas’s pre-10/7 coordination with Iran, plans to blow up Israeli skyscrapers, and even a scheme to use horse-drawn chariots in an attack from Gaza.
Documents received directly from intelligence agencies should always be treated with skepticism, and that’s especially true when their government has a well-documented history of blatant lying. Yet leading newspapers took these Israeli document dumps largely at face value, advancing the agenda of a genocidal rogue state.
A history of lying
Fake “Hamas” documents were being cited in the press as recently as September 2024 (Middle East Eye, 9/9/24).
Israel’s use of fabrications to shape public perception is well known, and was put on display early in the assault on Gaza that began last October. After an explosion at Al Ahli hospital killed and injured hundreds (misreporting of which caused a great deal of confusion), the media naturally pointed the finger at Israel. The Israeli government, concerned about the public backlash, denied responsibility, claiming that the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (See FAIR.org, 11/3/23.)
To back up their claims, Israel released a recording allegedly capturing two Palestinian militants discussing Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s responsibility for the strike. However, an analysis by the firm Earshot found that the audio was the result of two separate channels being edited together (Channel 4, 10/19/23). In other words, Israel engineered a phony audio clip in an attempt to clear itself of war crimes in the public mind.
Investigations based on open sources have since come to various conclusions about the attack (Guardian, 10/18/23; Bellingcat, 10/18/23; Human Rights Watch, 11/26/23; AP, 11/22/23; Michael Kobs, 2023; New Arab, 2/19/24), but Israel’s fraudulent attempt to manipulate evidence certainly suggests that they had something to hide, and demonstrates their lack of reliability as a media source. Recently, the UN released a report accusing Israel of systematically targeting healthcare infrastructure in Gaza, making their denials of this earlier attack far less credible.
In another instance, Israel presented 3D renderings of a supposed Hamas “command center” beneath Al Shifa hospital, claiming it was based on intelligence. However, no such command center was ever found (FAIR.org, 12/1/23). Upon storming the hospital, Israel staged scenes in order to bolster claims that the facility was used by militant groups. The deception was so blatant that mainstream outlets were openly calling it out.
Recently Israel was caught actually providing fabricated documents to the press with the aim of manipulating public opinion. Earlier this year, the Israeli government provided documents to both the Jewish Chronicle (9/5/24) and the German paper Bild (9/6/24) that purportedly showed that Hamas had no interest in a ceasefire, and had a plan to sneak the late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar out of Gaza to Iran, along with some of the remaining hostages. The reports were then uncritically repeated in outlets like the Times of Israel (9/6/24).
Shortly after these documents were published, the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth (9/8/24) reported on an internal IDF investigation that found that they had been leaked to foreign media as part of a campaign to “shape public opinion on Israel.” The documents were determined to be forgeries, after a comprehensive search of all databases containing documents found in the wake of Israel’s operations. The IDF told the paper that an investigation was underway to determine the origin of the leak.
This non-exhaustive list of examples demonstrates a pattern of Israel engineering misleading narratives to shape public opinion, and fabricating the evidence needed to do so.
Questionable authenticity
The Washington Post (10/12/24) reported that “the documents’ authenticity could not be definitively established”—but there’s no trace of that doubt in the story’s headline or subhead.
Whether they are authentic or not, it is clear that the documents leaked to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post serve the same purpose of propagandizing on behalf of Israel. In an attempt to preserve some journalistic integrity, the Post and Times both gave separate justifications for why they believed the respective documents leaked to them were authentic.
The Post was quick to note that “the documents’ authenticity could not be definitively established,” but gave readers the impression there was reason to believe they were real. First, it claimed that the contents of the documents it received were
“broadly consistent” with US and allies’ post–October 7 intelligence assessments about Hamas’s long-range planning and complex relationship with Iran.
Then it wrote that unnamed US and Israeli officials they shared the documents with did not express concerns about their authenticity. (Iranian and Hamas officials they consulted didn’t comment on the documents but accused Israel of having a history of “fabricating documents.”)
The New York Times consulted former Hamas member Salah al-Din al-Awawdeh, whom the paper frequently quotes on matters related to Hamas, and an unnamed Palestinian analyst with “knowledge of Hamas’s inner workings.” It also said an internal Israeli military report concluded the documents were authentic, and the paper “researched details mentioned in the meeting records to check that they corresponded with actual events.” It said “Hamas and Hezbollah did not respond to requests to comment” and that Iran “denied the claims made in the minutes.”
The Wall Street Journal story did not describe any attempt to verify the authenticity, and only reported that the paper “hasn’t independently verified the documents.”
But given Israel’s track record, there is no epistemologically sound way of verifying the validity of documents provided by the Israeli government without confirmation from Hamas itself. Citing sources who say that the documents resemble Hamas documents, without noting Israel’s history of creating credible forgeries, creates a patina of credibility without actually substantiating anything.
Advancing Israel’s agenda
Haaretz (10/14/24): The documents bolster Netanyahu’s claim that Israel is “fighting a terrifying ‘axis of evil’ led by Iran that threatens to destroy Western culture as a whole.”
The Israeli paper Haaretz (10/14/24), which took the documents as authentic, argued that their release by Israel was “Aimed at Aiding Netanyahu.” While both the Times and the Post have largely advanced Israel’s agenda over the past year of bombing (FAIR.org, 10/13/23, 2/1/24, 10/7/24), both papers are considered to be on the critical end of the press spectrum in the US, particularly towards Netanyahu. As Haaretz explained, this perception enhances the propaganda value of the document leak: “The Times and the Post enjoy greater credibility when they fall in line with Israel’s narrative.”
While Haaretz made no note of the leaked documents provided to the Wall Street Journal, the article ironically acknowledged that
having them published by Fox News or even the Wall Street Journal would have looked like an Israeli public diplomacy operation rather than a legitimate journalistic investigative report.
Haaretz noted that the documents promote narratives that “Israel would be happy to burn into the world’s consciousness,” namely the well-known propaganda effort to equate Hamas with organizations that are universally reviled by Americans. The Post documents purportedly outlined a Hamas plan to blow up a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, evoking the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center:
The Hamas documents are supposed to bolster Netanyahu’s claim that Israel isn’t fighting against a liberation movement seeking to free the occupied Palestinian people, or even against a paramilitary organization that is poorly funded and trained and lacks planes, the Iron Dome anti-missile system, tanks and artillery….
Rather, it is fighting a terrifying “axis of evil” led by Iran that threatens to destroy Western culture as a whole.
Haaretz also argued that this kind of propaganda campaign was designed to ensure that the violence continues to escalate:
In this spirit, the documents are supposed to justify Israel’s counterattack, which has so far caused enormous death and destruction in Gaza and, to an increasing degree, also in Lebanon.
Obvious PR value
Unlike the New York Times or Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal (10/12/24) acknowledged in its headline that the revelations in the documents are what “Israel says” they show.
While Haaretz overlooked the story from the Wall Street Journal, the same logic can be applied to the documents given to that paper as well. The Journal was apparently curious about the political purpose of the documents, noting that “the officials who provided the documents declined to say why they were releasing them now.”
The Journal wrote that the documents “suggest that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was negotiating with Iran over funding for a planned large-scale assault on Israel as far back as 2021,” and gave specific dollar amounts that Iran provided to Hamas’s armed wing. The obvious public relations value of these documents was that they boosted the negative image of Iran prior to Israel’s recent attack on that country.
Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza and greater war in the Middle East has been successful in part because the Israeli government can count on Western press to present and contextualize facts in a way that advances their narrative. Despite Israel’s long history of fabrications, the corporate media will dutifully republish documents, statements and explanations with complete credulity.
Yes, because Hamas is such a fountain of honesty and integrity. While it is just to call out the IDF’s dishonesty, you should also call out Hamas’ . The fact there WERE tunnels under the Al-Shifa hospital apparently did not register with any of you.
… and your source for that claim is…? The NYT, Jerusalem Post, Israeli ‘intelligence’…?
It is really shameful how you genocide supporters keep on lying to justify the daily massacres of women and children.
Why are they there howie? Do you know the history? Its a FRIGGIN OPEN AIR PRISON and has been since 48!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a prison under constant terrorism 24/7
Do some basic RESEARCH!
Given that a very large number of Jewish people have long despised the apartheid, Zionist State of Israel and its genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people, your accusation of anti-semitism has no grounds.
It’s only one side that is killing journalists and trying to control all info coming out of Gaza. How many IDF claims have been debunked?
All of them!!!
It actually doesn’t matter these documents Hamas themselves have issued videos of their training and plenty of comments regarding their extensive attack, whether the intent to crash a tower in Tel Aviv is true or not it does t matter when 6000 rockets were launched the morning of 7th of Oct to Israel. One can only conclude that they aimed to destroy as many buildings as possible. So the article s point is moot.
Bingo
Oh please. 6000 rockets? The rockets they are sending couldn’t knock down a building if they tried. Besides most of those rockets are destroyed in the so called iron dome. The problem is Israel has Apache and armored tanks – Hamas doesn’t. It’s only Israel that can destroy buildings and obliterate people in a heat-beat.
There were no beheaded babies; no piles of children burned, and Sec of State Antony Blinken told a story about a family of four that was completely a flat faced
lie. Even Biden said he saw the photos of the beheaded babies — that was a blatant lie. Now we find out that Israel has admitted to killing 50 of their own people during the battle with Hamas, by using tanks to blow apart house they knew had Jewish people inside. And on and on it goes.
And, of curse people talk about the invasion of Oct 7th, but they never go back to the slaughter by the Zionist death squads of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and the thousands of others that were driven off their land and left in the desert. The land then given to the Jewish people and the world cheered with joy. And think of all the crap the Palestinian people had to put up with since the end of the second world war.
All this brings us to one question why is the US and the world such lap-dogs to the state of Israel? You’ll have to follow the money for the answer — start with AIPEC.
Shame on you genocide supporters!!!
Good article above by the author. In the article, ‘Report: Hamas Planned to Attack Israel in 2022, Delayed to Gain Iran, Hezbollah Support’, Haaretz, October 12, 2024, we find the following words,
‘The report states that the minutes were discovered on a computer found in late January by Israeli soldiers at a recently abandoned underground Hamas command center in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. The New York Times confirmed their authenticity after sharing some of their content with experts close to Hamas.’,
The Hamas minutes of their meetings were found by the IDF in January. But weren’t made public by the IDF until October. After sending the documents to the NY Times, for authentication. By NY Times experts close to Hamas. Duh? Not believable!
Why weren’t the documents sent to the CIA for authentication? Maybe because they weren’t totally authentic. The IDF found this pristine Hamas computer containing the Hamas meeting minutes, underground where the IDF usually floods tunnels, and caves them in using explosives. Haaretz article shows photo of Hamas bulldozer destroying the border fence on October 7. With no IDF military response. Unbelievable! Both the NY Times and Haaretz mentions a report, which seems to be generated by the IDF. Separate from the minutes found on the computer by the IDF.
“According to the report, in the early hours of October 7, Israeli intelligence officers noticed that Hamas fighters were carrying out an “unusual maneuver” but dismissed it as a training exercise or a defensive maneuver. It cites a top-secret memorandum circulated by Israeli intelligence officers at 3:17 a.m. – around three hours before the start of the attack – stating that they believed Hamas was “not interested in escalation and entering into a confrontation at the present time.”
It is that ‘leaked’ report, probably by the IDF, which is supposed to serve as a substitute for the High Commission promised by Netanyahu in 2023, to determine how October 7 occurred. The IDF didn’t know about the attack until 3 hours before it occurred, according to the ‘leaked’ report. If you believe the IDF, Mossad, and Netanyahu.
The April 2024 resignation letter of IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva , called for national commission into how October 7 occurred.
“it will be the right thing to do to form a national commission of inquiry that will be able to investigate and thoroughly and comprehensively determine all the reasons and circumstances that led to these terrible events”, in the article, ‘Israeli military intelligence chief resigns, citing Oct. 7 failures’, by Barak Ravid, Axios website, April 22, 2024
This ‘leaked’ report on IDF’s 3:17 am top secret memorandum, that ‘Hamas is coming’, purpose is to subvert any High Commission inquiry into how October 7 occurred. The IDF and Mossad just didn’t know, on October 7. Unbelievable! Unbelievable! Unbelievable! On the other hand, the IDF knew from its own soldiers in September 2023,
“Some Israeli soldiers stationed along the border now say they feared a Hamas incursion was imminent and tried to sound the alarm. ‘It was clear that something would happen. It was only a matter of time,’ Maya Dasiatnik, an observation officer in the Nahal Oz base, said an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday. She said that she and dozens of fellow soldiers had repeatedly reported suspicious activity: people approaching the fence with maps, appearing to study it for its weak spots, getting closer every week. There also were tractors and large groups of armed men, carrying out exercises that looked like military drills.”, in the article, ‘How Hamas broke through Israel’s border defenses during Oct. 7 attack’, by Shira Rubin and Loveday Morris, Washington Post, October 27, 2023
If only the IDF had listened to their own soldiers complaining about the Hamas military drills near the border, weeks before the attack. The IDF and Mossad were complicit in the October 7 attack, They knew more than 3 hours before the attack, that is was going to happen. A promise to Hamas that concessions would be made by Israel, for Hamas taking good care of hostages. To make the about to be indicted Netanyahu (over the submarine matter) look like a war hero. Things got out of hand October 7. Netanyahu collaboration with Hamas. The IDF removed at least one battalion from the very place in the wall where the breach was made, two days before the attack. While riots in Gaza were going on against Israel. On Thursday, October 5, 2023, the following jpost website article,
“Riots along the border of the Gaza Strip have been planned for Friday afternoon in response to increased visits by Jewish pilgrims to the Temple Mount over the Sukkot holiday, the group that organizes the riots announced on Thursday. After weeks of violence along the border, the riots were halted last week, reportedly after understandings were reached between Israel, Gaza, and Qatar to reopen the Erez crossing to Palestinian workers and to consider an increase in entry permits for workers. The reported agreement included a commitment to consider an increase in the Qatari grant provided to Gaza as well.”, in the article, ‘Gaza riots to renew in response to increased Jewish Temple Mount visits’, by Tzvi Joffre, October 5, 2023
Its like the Mossad and IDF didn’t know about the Gaza riots planned for Friday, October 6, 2023, because of the closed Erez crossing and increased Jewish visits to the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israel is perpetuating a state of war with Gaza since 1948, creating pretext after pretext for invasion however minor, to physically take Gaza for themselves, instead of creating the mandated Gaza state. In 2021, Operation Guardian of the Walls, the IDF destroyed miles of Hamas underground tunnel network, in the book, ‘Bibi My Story’, by Benjamin Netanyahu, p. 522 . On July 17, 2014 the IDF, Operation Protective Edge, went into Gaza with tanks and armored personnel carriers and neutralized tunnels with water, cement and explosives. — ‘Bibi’, pages 515-517.
Seriously, if you and your family were cruising(Yes, in a spaceship) around on a site seeing sunday drive in our part of the milky way, and your flew by our little paradise in the black sky, and you started to observe and listen to the ‘image of the god’ species ‘doing its thing’ what would you do?
a) land and stop in with a chat with members of this most cool and amazing being?
b) Land into the middle of one of their many many conflicts to discuss the conflict? Maybe offer a little advice and kindness?
c) Lock the doors, tell the kids and wife to duck, and get the hell out of there as fast as possible leaving no trail or sign that you were ever there
d) Bomb the f out the them