Fake news, real victims: The tragedy of the Middle East bombings  

We’re into a new chapter in fake news. The blast at the hospital in Gaza does not mean there are two sides to the story; it means there are two entirely different stories, and neither side is going to back away for a moment and say, you have got a point, let’s look into the matter more carefully. 

First, there’s the question of facts. Any deaths are tragic, but we cannot be sure of the numbers. Did 500 people really die in and around the hospital? Who’s counting? Could the number have been more like 100 or 200? Maybe not, but is there any remote chance Hamas will welcome an independent team of observers to come up with the real numbers, the extent of the damage, the exact location where the missile or missiles landed? 

Of course not. Hamas is not likely to consider inviting or admitting impartial observers to take a look, much less conduct a thorough investigation. Or, if observers are eventually invited, they will surely be selected to be “neutral” on the side of Hamas. Or, if both Israelis and Palestinians are persuaded by some miracle to form a single team, we may be sure they would come out with their own extremely different reports of what happened and who was responsible. 

That is how it’s always been in the quest for incontrovertible facts on which bitter enemies might agree. A joint investigation, if it ever happens, will blow up in rhetoric and false conclusions before it begins.  

Before getting too deep into the topic, let’s assume the Israelis are correct when they say a rocket misfired by Hamas fell short, or off course, landing on or near the hospital. Israeli intelligence, monitoring all that’s going on near its borders, is simply too advanced, too sophisticated to doubt the ability of veteran Israeli analysts to come up with a realistic idea of what happened, even if they failed to warn in advance of the Hamas attacks that have killed more than 1,400 people inside southern Israel. 

That’s not to say that Israel would share all the details of its intelligence or would not be tempted to skew the truth for the sake of convincing the world that the blast at the hospital had to have been perpetrated by a rocket or rockets and not a bomb. Whatever Israel says, however verifiable and irrefutable, there’s not a chance it will resolve the question of who was responsible to the satisfaction of the rest of the world. 

That said, those who are on Israel’s side as an independent Jewish state surrounded by Islamic foes will support the Israeli version regardless of any investigation or corroboration. And we may be equally sure that anti-Israeli states, groups and individuals will go on blaming Israel not only for blowing up the hospital but also for ongoing bombing and shelling intended finally to destroy Hamas. In the end, Israel will have killed many more Palestinians than Hamas killed in its initial attack on southern Israel. 

It’s that reality that provides a certain truth to the anti-Israel campaign waged by Israel’s worst enemies, notably Iran but also Arab nations with which Israel has been trying to form decent relations. Can Israel’s diplomatic ties with its close Arab neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, survive the slaughter? And does Israel, amid all the charges and counter-charges, still have a chance of forming diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, the richest, most powerful Arab nation, with which it was negotiating before the war? 

Not just Israel’s arch foe, Iran, but sympathizers with Palestine throughout the region and the world will go on saying forever that an Israeli plane bombed the hospital. No way will Palestinians, defending their right to recover the land from which they were driven after the founding of Israel as the Jewish homeland in 1948, accept any report or study or satellite or electronic imagery revealing contrary evidence. 

The danger inherent in fake news has still worse consequences. Iran, Islamic but not Arab, may cast off all constraints about finally developing nuclear warheads with Israel as the target. China and Russia will be as reluctant to blame Hamas for its wanton cruelty or to come down on Iran for going nuclear as they are to vote for resolutions in the U.N. Security Council denouncing North Korea for testing missiles carrying nuclear warheads. Those harboring antisemitic sentiments are sure to turn the blast at the hospital into an excuse for denouncing Israel’s very right to exist. 

In the rush to attack Israel, it will be easy to forget the welfare and survival of the 2.3 million Palestinians crowded into Gaza. Israel, looking for revenge, is obviously not worried about them, Nor are Israel’s enemies. They could not have found a more terrific peg for venting their pent-up fury. For them, the survival of desperate people, hungry, thirsty and dirty, cowering in terror, counts for less than the excitement of advancing their anti-Israel agenda 

Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea, and is the author of several books about Asian affairs.