Breaking the truth: The mission to demonize Israel

[shira]

Maj. Amit Deri (res.), manager at a pre-military program, served as a company commander in Hebron. There he came across the activities of Breaking the Silence, an organization made up of ex-IDF soldiers. Deri started to look into exactly what they were doing. The result was an incendiary tape. Deri recorded shocking stories that Avner Gvaryahu, from the organization's leadership, told journalists, diplomats and foreign visitors. Gvaryahu created the impression that the IDF fired machine guns over a "massive radius" as a matter of routine, killing innocent civilians....

....In every comparison between the behavior of the IDF and the behavior of other armies in similar clashes, it is revealed that the IDF is responsible for far fewer innocent casualties than all other armies. They're not perfect, but they're much more careful and far more moral. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff has stated that the US army takes lessons from the IDF on how to avoid innocent casualties. He knows what he's talking about. But members of the anti-Israel campaign, such as Breaking the Silence, draw the inverse picture with only kernels of truth.....

....The massacre that wasn't is just one example, from which we understand the overall process. There are exceptions. The IDF isn't perfect. Breaking the Silence looks for the exceptions, inflates them, fogs up the background and creates a portrait of an army that commits crimes non-stop. In every comparison between the behavior of the IDF and the behavior of other armies in similar clashes, it is revealed that the IDF is responsible for far fewer innocent casualties than all other armies. They're not perfect, but they're much more careful and far more moral.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff has stated that the US army takes lessons from the IDF on how to avoid innocent casualties. He knows what he's talking about. But members of the anti-Israel campaign, such as Breaking the Silence, draw the inverse picture with only kernels of truth.....

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4731614,00.html

[shira]

1. Collection of Lies", a company commander in combat against 'Breaking the Silence'

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/739/153.html?hp=1&cat=402&loc=8

Co, a company commander in Hebron, said that the organization's representatives presented unfounded evidence to tourists from Europe. One of the video's statements has won tens of thousands of hits - and now he is going to ask for an investigation against the organization

[shira]

2. IDF Reservist Breaks Silence About ‘Breaking the Silence’ in New Viral Video Clip

http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/11/24/idf-reservist-breaks-silence-about-breaking-the-silence-in-new-viral-video-clip/

A reservist IDF officer has launched a new kind of battle, this one on the Internet, Israeli news site nrg reported on Monday.

Major (ret.) Amit Deri has spearheaded a video campaign against “Breaking the Silence,” a group of Israeli veterans whose call to “end the Occupation” is often criticized for its exaggerated criticism of the Jewish state.

The video-gone-viral that was released last week, called “The Collection of Lies,” depicts a tour of Breaking the Silence activists in Hebron.

It shows one of the organization’s leaders, Avner Gvaryahu, telling a small group of British tourists about Israeli “soldiers using machine guns and hitting civilian centers in Hebron.”

Gvaryahu also describes IDF soldiers — annoyed at having to miss an important soccer match — breaking into a Palestinian-owned apartment with a satellite dish, blindfolding its occupants and watching the game on their TV. “This happens whenever there is an important game on television,” claims Gvaryahu.

[shira]

4. BtS founder caught intentionally lying about Jews poisoning water wells...

DU thread...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134130332

[Little Tich]

5. From what I understand, not a single official account from BTS has been debunked.

The author is introducing a red herring by trying to define the IDF's general conduct as resulting in less civilian casualties, when Avner Gvaryahu from BTS seems to be talking about specific incidents. In no way does he imply that a massacre took place, but that doesn't stop Amit Deri from making that accusation anyway.

I understand that this kind of "evidence" about BTS is great for convincing the weak-willed, but for me, the very fact that evidence must be fudged in order to make BTS look like liars means that they can indeed be trusted.

[shira]

6. So you're saying that their unofficial & very deliberate, ugly lies are just fine...

....so long as their official reports are accurate? What makes you think their official reports are accurate since the leaders are known liars? Well wait....first you'd have to acknowledge they deliberately lied. Malicious lies. "Unofficially". Can you do that? Or do you just pretend these nasty lies that incite hatred are no big deal?

Here's another lie from a BtS leader:

Eran Efrati, who was a senior member of Breaking the Silence, tells Americans an amazing story about how every police officer in the US has undertaken a continuing education program in Israel. And what are they taught there? Well, just as Palestinians are "the enemy," so every innocent American civilian becomes an "enemy" following the program. "The next one to die as a result of police brutality will be one of your sons or daughters," Efrati says, to frighten them. This time they're frightened of Jews. The police spokesperson, by the way, clarified that there is no such course for American police officers in Israel.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4731614,00.html

Why the lies?

And what on earth makes you believe that despite these ugly lies, BtS "official reports" are probably true?

Seriously - is it just blind faith?

As to official BtS anonymous testimonies being debunked, there's an entire Facebook page dedicated to debunking the lies...
https://www.facebook.com/Israel.MyTruth/posts/1642467212659199:0

They've been debunked many times.

[Little Tich]

7. I hope you understand the difference between the official BTS accounts and those of individual

Last edited Thu Jun 30, 2016, 04:18 AM - Edit history (1)

members - by refuting one, you don't refute the other. Not that either can be considered refuted by the people at My Truth or anyone else. The My Truth FB page is full of interesting keywords that betray their ideological motivation: "fakelestinian", "people that want to wipe you off the map", "terrorists", "delegitimization", "traitor", "no army in the world more moral than the IDF", "foreign funding" etc. There are also links to people and organization from all over the right-wing pro-Israel spectrum: Shurat Hadin, Dershowitz, isreallycool.com, Calgary United with Israel - CUWI, Asa Kasher, Algemeiner. Apart from the ideological content, the FB page has almost no substance, and any refutals of BTS accounts are weak.

Meanwhile, innocent Palestinians are injured by IDF activity on a daily basis, and sometimes killed (not on a daily basis):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_violent_incidents_in_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict,_2016

When a respectable human rights NGO like B'tselem has given up on the IDF's ability to investigate itself, why should BTS trust the IDF to do so? The moral credibility of the IDF is very important, as it's supposed to protect a country against those wish it harm, not to hurt civilians. If the soul of the IDF can't be found in the top brass, then organizations like BTS have to pick up that torch.

The IDF needs BTS...

[shira]

8. They're not just a few individual members. They are the founder, other leaders...

You don't have a problem with their malicious incitement & lies anymore than you do Mondoweiss for defending Mahmoud Abbas' hateful incitement. You cannot be taken seriously as an anti-racist while supporting organizations that deliberately incite malicious, racist hatred.

I'd just like you to acknowledge there's a nasty problem with hate incitement @ Mondoweiss & BtS.

Can you do that?

[Little Tich]

9. I have no problem admitting that the one-sided bias of Mondoweiss damages their credibility,

if only to able to point out that an organization like My Truth which displays even more bias would then be even less credible. BTS is different, as they are more into producing fact-based accounts, not to promote a certain POW. If their methodology was flawed, it's really doubtful that they could receive EU funding.

I try to be evenhanded when it comes to sifting through what you call malicious incitement & lies, and I hope that I use the same standard whether it's critical of the Palestinians or the Israelis. Sometimes it helps to change the word Palestinian to Israeli and vice versa.

My conclusion is that BTS is pro-Israel, pro-IDF and not doing any incitement & lies whatsoever, while My Truth is racist and deceitful, but not doing any incitement per se. Mondoweiss is, ummh, biased, but not anti-Semitic.

[shira]

10. Um, what? You seem to be in denial of BtS leaders' incitement....

I showed you 3 examples by 3 different leaders within the organization where they have been caught spreading false malicious lies. But you say they don't do any incitement and lies whatsoever, so WTF? Are you living in reality?

As to Mondoweiss, it's not just bias - they defend Abbas' hate incitement. I agree that MyTruth is biased, but how do you get that they are hateful and Mondoweiss is not? It's Mondoweiss that is defending incitement. MyTruth does nothing like that and you have zero evidence they're racist and deceitful.

Your POV is not reality based. You have a narrative and you just ignore or explain away anything that contradicts it. There is no amount of evidence that could ever persuade you that you're wrong. You'll reject anything that doesn't comport to your worldview. Did you know that religious fanatics do that?