this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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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".

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[–] NightLily@lemmy.basedcount.com 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I still don't understand why this became a hot button issue...

[–] xenomor@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Chariotwheel@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] snek@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

[–] snek@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Totally get that, yes. Well put.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So was it plagiarized or was it a hoax?

[–] snek@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The correct term would be it was a hoax. People who read it immediately discovered the factually incorrect parts.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] snek@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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")

[–] NightLily@lemmy.basedcount.com 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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...

[–] snek@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] snek@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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:

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).

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah... There are plenty of reports about dead children already.