The official Kremlin readout of President Putin’s call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that he “expressed his sincere condolences to the families and friends of the Israeli victims”. Although just a few short words, they carry disproportionate significance since they discredit a top disinformation narrative. The partially US government-funded Center for European Policy Analysis’ Julia Davis had earlier spun some Russian influencers’ “delight” at Hamas’ attack as supposedly representing their country’s policy.
This analysis here debunked her deceptive innuendo and exposed the means through which she sought to mislead her target audience into thinking that the Kremlin supports Hamas’ attacks against Israel. In particular, Davis took for granted that they were unaware of President Putin recently reaffirming Israel’s rights to exist and defend itself. This is largely true since most reporting focuses on his condemnation of the self-professed Jewish State’s disproportionate response to this month’s attacks.
It’s not just the Mainstream Media (MSM) that can be criticized for their selective reporting in this respect, but also the Alt-Media Community (AMC). This analysis here about how “Russia’s Support Of Palestinian Independence Shouldn’t Be Spun As An Anti-Israeli Policy” explains why many among them ignore these “politically inconvenient” facts. A cursory glance at top AMC influencers’ social media accounts, including those that present themselves as “Russian-friendly”, proves this beyond any doubt.
The end result of these rival media camps’ uncoordinated but nevertheless complementary perception management campaigns is that folks are misled about the Russian leader’s true stance towards the latest Israeli-Hamas war. They have ideologically driven narrative interests in making their target audience think that he supports Hamas’ attacks against Israel, which the MSM presents as supposed proof that he’s evil while the AMC spins this as supposed proof that he’s virtuous.
What neither of them dare to draw attention to are Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s and Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov’s descriptions of these same attacks as terrorism, which publicly financed TASS correspondingly reported on here and here. These two “politically inconvenient” facts discredit the MSM’s and AMC’s spin on Russia’s policy towards the latest conflict. Far from supporting Hamas’ attacks against Israel like both claim for their own reasons, Russia condemns them as terrorism.
This explains why the official readout of President Putin’s call with Netanyahu notes that the Russian leader “expressed his sincere condolences to the families and friends of the Israeli victims”, which also include at least 16 dual Russian citizens as earlier reported by TASS citing the Russian Embassy in Israel. That’s yet another “politically inconvenient” fact that the MSM and AMC have largely withheld from their respective audiences in order to manipulate their perceptions about Russia’s policy in this regard.
There’s no hope that the MSM will set the record straight by belatedly informing folks of the previously mentioned facts that discredit their narrative up until this point, but those among the AMC who present themselves as “Russian-friendly” have a moral obligation to do so after being made aware of them. Failing to do so is dishonest and exposes such top influencers as having a self-interested agenda in continuing to deceive their audience for whatever their personal reasons may be.
Whether they realize it or not, they’re actually working against Russia’s objective national interests by discrediting that country’s efforts to present itself as a neutral mediator in this conflict. President Putin himself said last week during a Q&A session that “no one would suspect us of wanting to take sides” between Israel and Palestine because of Russia’s good relations with both. That’s why he then said that his country could mediate, but only if requested to do so, which has yet to happen but is still possible.
This noble goal that was just explicitly declared by Russia’s chief policymaker also adds context to its ceasefire proposal, which was aimed at preventing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis but was ultimately vetoed by the UNSC’s three permanent Western members for obvious political reasons. Those among the AMC who continue counterfactually presenting Russia as favoring Hamas inadvertently extend false credence to the justification relied upon by the West to doom its relevant resolution.
That’s not to imply that they have to personally endorse Russia’s balanced approach towards this conflict since they have the right to support Hamas if that’s what they want to do, but just that they shouldn’t keep spinning that country’s policy the way that they’ve been. By doing so, they play into Davis’ and other US propagandists’ hands by serving as examples allegedly proving that Russia is anti-Israel and pro-Hamas, which discredits its objective national interests and thus makes them the US’ “useful idiots”.
