How the media got the October 7th story wrong and smeared those who got it right

With the new revelation that Israel used the "Hannibal directive" on October 7th, a retrospective is needed on how the media ignored this story and smeared those who got it right.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed, what many had already suspected, that Israel issued an order to use the “Hannibal directive” on October 7th. For context, the Hannibal directive is a military doctrine used by the IDF that encourages them to kill their own civilians to stop them from becoming hostages or prisoners. Middle East Monitor describes the doctrine as one

…which gives its members the right to kill Israeli citizens, particularly serving IDF members, if feared that they might fall as prisoners.

The piece in Haaretz reports that the Israeli military issued this doctrine on October 7th saying no vehicles can return to Gaza. As the piece says:

the message conveyed at 11:22 A.M. across the Gaza Division network was understood by everyone. "Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza" was the order.

While the piece could not confirm how many people in total were killed by the IDF they state that “many of the kidnapped people” were “at risk” and “exposed to Israeli gunfire”.

While the story of Israel killing their own people on October 7th was entirely ignored by mainstream media, it was reported months earlier by independent journalists and outlets such as Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone, Ali Abuimah, and David Sheen of Electronic Intifada, Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept , Mondoweiss and the twitter account “zei_squirrel”.

Not only did the mainstream media ignore the reporting of the aforementioned journalists but they actively smeared them as conspiracy theorists and holocaust deniers for reporting what has now been proven to be true.

Haaretz smears

On November 27th of 2023, Haaretz writer Michal Perach painted journalist Max Blumenthal as a conspiracy theorist and a manipulator for reporting what her own paper has just confirmed to be true. At one point in the article, Perach tries to discredit Blumenthal by saying

One of Blumenthal's most egregious attempts to deny Hamas' actions, has to do with the claims of sexual violence

This is ironic because she tries to discredit him by citing another thing he was correct about, as now the even mainstream Times of London paper has noted that there is no evidence of mass rape on October 7th.

Another piece published in Haaretz by Sagi Cohen on November 7th of 2023 accused those who said Israel used the Hannibal Directive on October 7th of being “conspiracy theorists” and claimed the doctrine ended in 2016 saying

Many conspiracy theorists say the army simply followed instructions under the famous Hannibal Directive, which the army under then-Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot canceled in 2016. In certain situations, the directive allowed the endangerment of a soldier’s life in order to prevent an abduction.

This is again ironic because his own paper has just confirmed that Israel did indeed use the Hannibal directive on October 7th proving it was not canceled in 2016.

Washington Post smears

The Washington Post has also published a smear piece on those who accurately reported that Israel issued the Hannibal directive on October 7th. The author Elizabeth Dwoskin attacks activist Christina Gutierrez for saying “Israel killed their own people on October 7th” something that is now proven to be an objectively true statement. The article also blatantly lies about the claims made by Grayzone and Electronic Intifada by saying

…But articles on Electronic Intifada and Grayzone exaggerated these claims to suggest that most Israeli deaths were caused by friendly fire, not Hamas.

This is a blatant misrepresentation as neither publication has ever claimed that most of the deaths on October 7th were caused by friendly fire only that some were, a claim that is now proven to be true. The article also tried to paint those who reported there was friendly fire on October 7th as Holocaust deniers saying

Influencers who question the Holocaust are also among those sowing doubt about Oct. 7.

This is especially gross because many of the journalists who reported on the friendly fire incidents on October 7th such as Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate are Jewish.

The Washington Post also failed to disclose that the author of the report, Elizabeth Dwoskin is a zionist who once called Palestinians “desert Bedouins without a sense of national identity as we know it today.” Another Washington Post article went even further by claiming that Iran funds the Grayzone because one of their editors Wyatt Reed publicly worked for the Iranian outlet “Press TV” years before working for the Grayzone.

Manipulative propaganda from Israel

The group Cyber Well put out an extremely manipulative video that shows an Israeli family watching a video of the podcast “Propaganda and Co.” and claims that questions around October 7th are akin to Holocaust denial. The clip shown in the video shows the podcast host saying “Palestinians didn’t behead babies.” This claim is objectively true as the claim of “40 beheaded babies” was debunked early on in the conflict.

Misinformation

This story is an important example of why the mainstream media's concern over censoring misinformation is dangerous. In this instance just like during the Iraq war and Russiagate the mainstream media was the one spreading misinformation while those in the alternative media who were accused of being conspiracy theorists were proven correct. Currently, while the mainstream media is trying to manufacture consent for the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza it is more important than ever to be skeptical of mainstream claims about Israel and Gaza.