Hoaxes

 

 

In case you haven’t heard the recent headline-making story about the Israeli bombing of a hospital in Gaza in response to the Hamas terrorist attack has turned out to be a hoax. Yes, a hoax devised by Hamas itself after one of their own rockets went astray and failed to reach Israel. Instead, it hit the hospital parking lot. The hospital is still standing, and we don’t know how many might have been killed. The initial report of 500 deaths that made headlines that prompted demonstrations all over the world was also made up by the terrorists. The death toll is now put as low as 50.

 

Incredibly, my wife and I had an argument the other night with our favorite waitress at our favorite restaurant about the Hamas attack. Over the years this young woman has become almost another daughter to us, and we often chat with her while dining. On this occasion, while waiting to take our order, she overheard us talking about the October 7 massacre of over 1400 civilians. For some reason she interjected and told us to consider that there are two sides to the question and that we should not be quick to render judgment. She pointed out that in America, we really know very little about what is going on over there, and that the Palestinian side is rarely presented in our media. When I replied that over 1400 people were brutally murdered, she told us that we have to put that in the context of years of history in that area. When I asked her if she believed that the Israeli Air Force had bombed the hospital in Gaza, and killed 500 patients, she unequivocally said yes. She could not believe the hospital story was a hoax.

 

We like this young woman so much that we just stopped there and ordered our dinner. The exchange was disturbing but we would never be angry with her or complain. She waited on us with her usual friendliness and vivacity, and we left our usual tip. I might mention that the waitress had no obvious stake in the game. She is neither Jewish nor Palestinian, and I don’t think she ever attended college. She was just deeply committed.

 

Later that night we watched on TV scenes of college students protesting against Israeli oppression and tearing down posters of hostages taken by Hamas terrorists from campus walls. To my surprise these protestors were using almost the exact same words used by our waitress. In just two weeks they, and she, and editors of major media outlets had also been led to downplay the brutal massacre, and fall for the hoax of the Israeli hospital bombing.

 

What is it about left-wingers that makes them so susceptible to hoaxes. Why, for example, did 51 former Federal government officials jointly sign an open letter during the 2020 Presidential campaign claiming that the New York Post article on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer was a product of Russian disinformation? Why do many so-called Progressives still believe that the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russia to steal the 2016 election even though the exhaustive Mueller Report found no evidence, and the Durham Report proved that the “Steele dossier” was not only a hoax, but also that it’s source could be found in the inner circles of Trump’s Democratic political opponents?

 

I suspect that when the evidence of our own two eyes does not comport with our own worldview, our political immune system goes into action to ignore it, or suppress it, or “put it into context.”  On the other hand, when stories fit our worldview, we will blindly accept them without real proof or verification, whether we be members of Congress, newspaper editors, celebrities, college students, or waitresses.  

 

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