An example of Israeli "hasbara" narrative

Chuck Frelich wrote a column for Haaretz in August:

If Israel's overall war effort against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, as well as its contribution to the rise of a more pragmatic regime in Syria, has been a resounding success, the bottom line is that Israel has lost control over the narrative in Gaza, and already is, or is in the process of becoming, an international pariah. (1)

He cites various figures who warned of famine early in the conflict.

Freilich quotes Cindy McCain, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, from October 23, 2023 saying that Gazans “were literally starving to death.” After citing a few other dire warnings from the early weeks of the war, he writes in a sneering tone:

It seems that if these warnings had a shred of credibility, the entire population of Gaza would have been dead long ago. And yet, it took the better part of two years before these assessments began taking hold in reality. Starvation does not ... take place overnight, but also not over two years.

However dubious Haaretz’ editorial judgment may have been in running Freilich’s piece, they provide links to the contemporary stories. Like to the Financial Times article on McCain’s quote. It turns out FT was aware in 2023 of what Freilich puts in condescending propaganda terms suitable for FOX News in 2025, “Starvation does not play take place overnight, but also not over two years.”

As FT reported then:

Five UN agencies, including Unicef, called for a humanitarian ceasefire late on Saturday: “Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more.”

Water production capacity was at 5 per cent of normal levels, while food stocks were being depleted and bakeries were closing, they said.

Nearly one-third of Gazans, they said, were food insecure before the war, but two weeks of bombardment had put 1.6mn out of about 2.2mn people in urgent need of humanitarian aid. [my emphasis] (2)

Israel, the occupying power whose duty it was and is to provide adequate supplies of food and water, had already been restricting both along with electricity long before October 7 of 2023. After the Hamas attack on that date, they did what the restrictive on supplies had been intended to allow them to do: drastically reduce supplies to a population who was already receiving, at best, inadequate supplies.

As the statement from the five UN agencies said, “Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities.”

The Guardian recently reported:

“Israel has built the most efficient starvation machine you can imagine. So while it’s always shocking to see people being starved, no one should act surprised. All the information has been out in the open since early 2024,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian. …

In July 2024, a group of UN experts including Fakhri declared a famine after the first deaths from starvation were reported in Gaza. Fakhri also published a detailed report for the UN into Israel’s decades-long control over food production and supplies to Palestinians, a stranglehold which meant 80% of people in Gaza were dependent on aid when Gallant announced the current siege in October 2023. (3)

But Freilich argues that the real problem was the inadequacy of Israel’s hasbara (propaganda) efforts, not their severe restrictions on food and water supplies long before Hamas’ “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack. So he scolds Netanyahu’s government for the inadequacy of its propaganda: “Some wars are lost on the field of battle, others in people's hearts, over the airwaves and in the cyber domain. This is self-inflicted damage. It will take decades to repair.”

Those dead from starvation and from Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilians won’t ever be repaired. And many of the men, women, and children currently enduring prolonged, extreme food deprivation will never be repaired, either.

Chuck Freilich is speaking in his own voice in that editorial. But it’s a symptom of how corrupted Israel’s approach to war and its disregard for the lives of Palestinians has become that he presents this with the written equivalent of a straight face.

But there is also a bit of a cultish element in this, as well. Surely he must be aware that most Haaretz readers surely know he is making a deliberately specious argument. It’s a kind of Israeli version of what American MAGAists call “owning the libs.”

Notes:

(1) Freilich, Chuck (2025): How Israel Lost Control – and Became an International Pariah – Over Aid to Gaza. Haaretz 08/02/2025. <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-08-03/ty-article-opinion/.premium/how-israel-lost-control-and-became-an-international-pariah-over-aid-to-gaza/00000198-6f23-d12c-a9b8-7f2b871d0000> (Accessed: 2025-04-08).

(2) Srivastava, et al (2023): Small aid convoy reaches Gaza after Hamas releases two hostages. Financial Times 10/21/2023. (Accessed: 2025-04-08).

(3) Lakhani, Nina (2025): ‘No one should act surprised,’ says UN expert who warned of starvation in Gaza last year. Guardian 08/04/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/04/gaza-starvation-un-expert-michael-fakhri> (Accessed: 2025-04-08).