Israel’s New Website On Hamas Atrocities Has 43 Million Viewers in the First Week

By: Hugh Fitzgerald, JIHAD WATCH January 18, 2024:

For decades, the Israelis have worried about the quality, and reach, of their hasbara — the “explaining” to the world why Israel does what it does. And nothing has cried out for more ”explaining” to the world than the campaign in Gaza to uproot the Hamas terrorists. It’s been little more than three months after the Hamas atrocities on October 7, and already, the shock has worn off for most of the world.

There are pro-Palestinian marches in major cities in the Western world with protesters in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, denouncing Israel, as if it, and not Hamas, had inflicted atrocities. These protesters demand an immediate end to the Gaza war, which would leave Hamas still standing, chant about a Palestine “from the river to the sea,” which means the obliteration of Israel and its replacement by a twenty-third Arab state, and inveigh against Israel as a “settler colonial apartheid state.” Most recently, these marchers have described Israel as guilty of “genocide’ and called for the Jewish state to be declared guilty of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

IDF spokesmen, such as Colonel Jonathan Conricus, have done outstanding jobs when they appear on television to explain in sober fashion how the IDF views the progress of the war, and describe the many ways that the Israeli military minimizes civilian casualties. As a spokesman for the Israeli government, Mark Regev has been unflappable and lucid in the face of often hostile interviewers. But these Israeli spokesmen are few in number, and often have to content with unfriendly interlocutors.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians and their supporters have been all over the airwaves and on social media, depicting the Israelis as irredeemably wicked, wanton killers of “women and children.” Hamas pulls figures out of the air for wounded and killed Gazan civilians; these figures are never questioned, but immediately become part of the narrative of the Gaza War that “everyone” accepts. For now we have the figure of at least “25,000 dead Gazans,” as counted by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, but what most of the media does not tell us is that there is no way to verify those figures from Hamas, and furthermore, that least 9,000 of those killed were, according to the IDF, Hamas fighters. That means that in the Gaza War, the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths of Palestinians is 16:9, which is an historic low, one that no modern army has ever managed to achieve.

According to the UN, in all the wars since World War II, the civilian to combatant ratio has been 9:1. American and British forces have done better. In Iraq, the civilian-to-combatant ratio was 3:1. In Afghanistan, it has been calculated as between 3:1 and 5:1.

Yet here is Israel, fighting in a high-density urban environment, where the combatants hide among the civilian population, and managing to attain a civilian-to-combat ratio of 16:9. This is a testament to the extraordinary efforts the Israelis take to minimize civilian casualties. But how many people know these numbers? It’s not something that is reported in the mainstream media. Most of those who defend Israel on social media are unaware of this telling ratio. This is where Israel’s defenders need to step in, and disseminate this information widely, as a way to undermine the incessant claims from Hamas about “25,000 dead Gazans,” or worse still, the version that has been widely repeated, claiming “25,000 dead, mostly women and children.”

Now Israel has made a major effort at hasbara — setting forth exactly what happened on October 7 that made the Jewish state decide it had no choice but to destroy Hamas as a military force, which is exactly what it is now doing. And judging by the number of visitors to the Israeli website — 43 million in the first week — it has been a complete success.

More on this hasbara site can be found here: “Israel’s New Website Documenting Hamas Atrocities, Reminding World How Gaza War Began Reaches Millions in First Week,” by Troy O. Fritzhand, Algemeiner, January 17, 2024:

The Israeli government’s website showing the horrors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel has received significant online traffic in the week since its launch, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The website — https://saturday-october-seven.com/ — has already garnered more than 43 million views, including around half a million that led to people exploring the site’s content about the Oct. 7 atrocities.

IDF spokesmen, such as Colonel Jonathan Conricus, have done outstanding jobs when they appear on television to explain in sober fashion how the IDF views the progress of the war, and describe the many ways that the Israeli military minimizes civilian casualties. As a spokesman for the Israeli government, Mark Regev has been unflappable and lucid in the face of often hostile interviewers. But these Israeli spokesmen are few in number, and often have to content with unfriendly interlocutors.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians and their supporters have been all over the airwaves and on social media, depicting the Israelis as irredeemably wicked, wanton killers of “women and children.” Hamas pulls figures out of the air for wounded and killed Gazan civilians; these figures are never questioned, but immediately become part of the narrative of the Gaza War that “everyone” accepts. For now we have the figure of at least “25,000 dead Gazans,” as counted by the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, but what most of the media does not tell us is that there is no way to verify those figures from Hamas, and furthermore, that least 9,000 of those killed were, according to the IDF, Hamas fighters.

That means that in the Gaza War, the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths of Palestinians is 16:9, which is an historic low, one that no modern army has ever managed to achieve. According to the UN, in all the wars since World War II, the civilian to combatant ratio has been 9:1. American and British forces have done better. In Iraq, the civilian-to-combatant ratio was 3:1. In Afghanistan, it has been calculated as between 3:1 and 5:1. Yet here is Israel, fighting in a high-density urban environment, where the combatants hide among the civilian population, and managing to attain a civilian-to-combat ratio of 16:9. This is a testament to the extraordinary efforts the Israelis take to minimize civilian casualties. But how many people know these numbers? It’s not something that is reported in the mainstream media. Most of those who defend Israel on social media are unaware of this telling ratio. This is where Israel’s defenders need to step in, and disseminate this information widely, as a way to undermine the incessant claims from Hamas about “25,000 dead Gazans,” or worse still, the version that has been widely repeated, claiming “25,000 dead, mostly women and children.”

Now Israel has made a major effort at hasbara — setting forth exactly what happened on October 7 that made the Jewish state decide it had no choice but to destroy Hamas as a military force, which is exactly what it is now doing. And judging by the number of visitors to the Israeli website — 43 million in the first week — it has been a complete success. More on this hasbara site can be found here: “Israel’s New Website Documenting Hamas Atrocities, Reminding World How Gaza War Began Reaches Millions in First Week,” by Troy O. Fritzhand, Algemeiner, January 17, 2024:

The Israeli government’s website showing the horrors of the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel has received significant online traffic in the week since its launch, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The website — https://saturday-october-seven.com/ — has already garnered more than 43 million views, including around half a million that led to people exploring the site’s content about the Oct. 7 atrocities.