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April 10, 2024

Three short videos reveal how Gaza’s Islamic jihad works, and the West’s complicity with its lies

By Andrea Widburg

For decades, but with special force since October 7, Israel and her friends have always made the same point about Israel’s conflicts with the jihadists who attack her: Everything the jihadists say to the world’s media is propaganda; the world’s media know this but report it anyway; and hospitals are Hamas’s military headquarters and ambulances their military transport, making both legitimate military targets. Two videos (one from Bill Clinton and one from an Islamic Jihad spokesman) prove these facts to be true, and one video (from a Joe Rogan interview with Coleman Hughes) shows how Israel is completely shackled by Hamas’s tactics and the world’s complicity.

First, here’s a one-minute video of Bill Clinton in 2016 admitting what Israel has always said, which is that the Muslim Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank embed themselves amongst civilian populations as a core military strategy. As an aside, Clinton also complains that he offered the Arabs everything they claimed to have wanted—i.e., their own state—only to have them turn it down. We know, of course, that’s because the state they want is Israel.)

Second, here’s an eight-minute video of an interrogation that the Israeli military conducted with Tariq Salami Ortha Abu Shoulf, the spokesman for Islamic Jihad. Because it’s difficult to read the subtitles, I’ve transcribed them verbatim (hence, the funny grammar), and appended the transcript at the end of this post. The takeaways are:

  • Islamic Jihad works with Hamas and other Islamic organizations to shape the narrative coming out of Gaza, a narrative that has nothing to do with the truth and everything to do with maligning Israel to damage it in the world’s eyes.
  • International media outlets know that they are promulgating propaganda unrelated to the truth but don’t care, and happily work with Hamas to shape the reports to accommodate Hamas’s needs.
  • Hamas and other militant organizations use hospitals as military headquarters and ambulances as military transports.

This propaganda, incidentally, has been very effective. Just look at how Biden has used it to withdraw American support from Israel, including slow-walking or denying Israel the ammunition she needs to buy. (Ukraine gets weapons and ammo for free, of course.)

Third, Joe Rogan accepted all this propaganda as true and asked Coleman Hughes why anyone should support Israel given that it’s slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians. Although Hughes accepts those numbers as true (even though they’re not), he explains that they still reveal how exceptionally careful Israel has been to avoid civilian casualties.

More importantly, Hughes explains to Rogan that Hamas has completely integrated itself into Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. This means that Israel has only two choices: Surrender to a genocidal, existential enemy (the choice Biden wants to force on it) or fight on the terms the enemy created, which means civilian casualties. Hughes says that we cannot allow this to become an acceptable military strategy, and he’s right:

Takeaways from all this? Israel and her supporters have been factually accurate from the beginning about Hamas’s propaganda and its use of civilians as the ultimate shields. Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) know this but they don’t care. To my mind, they are complicit with a very profound evil and, therefore, are themselves evil.

TRANSCRIPT

INTERROGATOR: What is your name?

ABU SHOULF: Tariq Salami Otha Abu Shoulf

INTERROGATOR: What is your position in the Islamic Jihad?

ABU SHOULF: The spokesman of the organization.

INTERROGATOR: When did you begin this post on?

ABU SHOULF: In 2021.

INTERROGATOR: Since 2021?

ABU SHOULF: Yes.

INTERROGATOR: That is a lot of time. It sounds like you have a lot of experience.

ABU SHOULF: Minimal experience.

INTERROGATOR: I just want to understand how it happens that a stance is taken. I can show you pictures that they take children and make them look dirty and say they have undergone surgery, or that they take elderly people as if they had died. And then you see them playing on their phone. I want to know how this happens.

ABU SHOULF: Because it’s according to the department or the movement’s decisions. It’s seen that there is a certain interest, to leverage a certain narrative. They decide on it and it is carried out.

INTERROGATOR: I am not saying that it is your decision.

ABU SHOULF: It happens in the following way: Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhla decides, and then, the decision comes from the communication department, which is Ali Shaheen, heah? And Dawood Shaheb in Gaza. All them of them communicate fully via WahtsApp for example, and that’s how they discuss the message. It’s true that this story is false, but we want to promote it.

INTERROGATOR: For example.

ABU SHOULF: That’s how they decide.

INTERROGATOR: And after the decision, how is it carried out?

ABU SHOULF: In practice, it goes to the publicity contacts, publicity contacts send it to all organizations, and from there, to whom do the organizations turn? To the spokesperson. And he responds, it takes him a minute, half a minute as needed.

INTERROGATOR: Give me an example of this happening.

ABU SHOULF: Something that was implemented… For instance, at the start of the war, you remember that a rocket fell on the Al-Ahli Al Ma’mdani Hospital? It was a local rocket, we said it was Israeli.

INTERROGATOR: The Islamic Jihad launched the rocket, and it exploded, I remember it from the beginning [of the war].

ABU SHOULF: Yes.

INTERROGATOR: Okay.

ABU SHOULF: Yes, in order to erase this story, the organization made several movies, it fabricated a story that the rocket belonged to “the occupation,” and that the target was the building [the hospital]. They relied on some of the stories from the international stories, from the international press.

INTERROGATOR: Okay, and after that, they published it to the whole world?

ABU SHOULF: Yes.

INTERROGATOR: Okay. Between you and the Hamas spokesperson, or other organizations, do you have contact with them?

ABU SHOULF: Yes, of course.

INTERROGATOR: Like who? Who are you in contact with?

ABU SHOULF: Hazem Qassam from Hamas, not just contact but also visits, he comes to my office or I go to him. With the goal of discussing some of the media issues related to the resistance or the people. For example, today we have the cost of living in Gaza, we don’t want to focus on it, it’s very hard for people, and we’re not focusing on it. So, we meet together with the department heads, for example, Dawood Shaheb is there, Ali Al-Amoudi, with the head of Hamas’ communication department, and other spokespeople from other parties. And then we discuss, for example, we want to divert attention from the cost of living, you know the situation in Gaza is very hard and it’s very disturbing to people.

INTERROGATOR: We know that you say one thing to the internal media organizations and the Gaza people, and something else to the international organizations, right?

ABU SHOULF: Correct.

INTERROGATOR: Like what? I want to hear an example.

ABU SHOULF: The international media differs from the Arab ones, they focus on humanitarian issues, we don’t speak to them in the language of violence, destruction, and revenge. They come and say, “Let’s talk for a minute or two, but only talk to me about the humanitarian side,” meaning, for instance, you’d say, “It’s our right to live,” “We want the situation to return to normal, and our children to live like other children in the world.” “We have the right to receive capabilities and institutions.” This is the humanitarian side. And the other side, some of the international media organizations automatically address events like Al-Ahli, when an event happens, they turn to us.

INTERROGATOR: But all this is known, I want you to tell me about what happens under the table.

ABU SHOULF: Under the table comes an interview-

INTERROGATOR: You know they say “give the bread to the baker.” Yes, of course. My meaning in this matter is that you are the baker.

ABU SHOULF: Yes, the international media arrives, interviews with a spokesperson are not done, and if they are, it is very rare. They like to do interviews with figures from the political bureau, senior figures, like Khaled Albatsh. There were a few international media outlets that conducted interviews with him. He sits with someone, then the journalist starts asking him questions, because it’s under the table, the humanitarian situation doesn’t interest the journalist. Only three things interest him, was the fallen rocket yours? Khaled Albatsh, of course, answers him “No, it’s from the occupation.” Of course, the journalist knows that the rocket is indeed ours and not yours.

INTERROGATOR: Even though the journalist knows, does he still echo what is said by the organization [Islamic Jihad]?

ABU SHOULF: Yes, because they ask him to review the article before publication, telling him to send it to us before he can publish it so we can review it.

INTERROGATOR: And if it’s not to your liking, it doesn’t get published?

ABU SHOULF: No, of course not, because he [the journalist] needs us for more interviews.

INTERROGATOR: Okay, talk to me for a second about hospitals, you say… First of all, which hospiotals do Islamic Jihad and Hamas use?

ABU SHOULF: All the hospitals.

INTERROGATOR: In all the hospitals, why?

ABU SHOULF: Because there is 24-hour internet, there is 24-hour electricity, there are places within them that they choose, like a room such as this one. For example, the X-ray department, they take two rooms from it, not closing the entire department. They take two rooms, for example, they take a room from the emergency room. From the internal department, they take a room. From the specialist department, a room. Like that. They don’t completely close them [the departments].

INTERROGATOR: The hospital is operational, but they take a part from each department. And those offices, are they closed?

ABU SHOULF: Decisions are made in these rooms. For example, if you’re in Al-Qassam and I’m in Al-Qassam, then we meet in this room. Today, for example, we want to attack Israel.

INTERROGATOR: Now, regarding ambulances. How are ambulances used.

ABU SHOULF: Every area and every hospital has an address. For instance, Shifa has its ambulance unit and emergency room. There’s a guy, for example, named Said Al-Arian. He has connections with someone from the ambulance managers, so he uses him.

INTERROGATOR: Like what?

ABU SHOULF: Transferring the wounded, transferring wanted individuals. Traveling with them.

INTERROGATOR: Like who?

ABU SHOULF: Like, for example, Khaled Albatsh. Ahmad Bahar.  

Image: X screen grab.

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