Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
As fighting is likely to begin again in the south, Israel should, before that beginning, turn off both cellular and internet communications in Gaza and deprive the Hamas terrorists and their willing western media partners with the news and images they use as weapons in their war to destroy Israel.
In closing down Gaza communications, let Israel follow the lead of the Americans in World War II who understood how deceptive images are and how easily they can be used to manipulate the public.
From the start of the US war in December 1941 and continuing until September 1943, the US banned the publication of pictures showing dead US soldiers, sailors or airmen.
Clearly, US officials were fearful of how such pictures could be manipulated by their enemies to turn American public opinion against the war.
Regarding phones in Gaza, we also recall how, in the months leading up to the June 6, 1944 invasion of France, the US and British air forces struck thousands of targets, particularly telephone switching centers in France.
Come D-Day, the Germans were unable to communicate any information about the allied invasion to their headquarters, unable to communicate orders, and unable to ask for military supplies to be delivered to the Normandy battlefields.
Critically, if Israel cuts off Gaza’s cellular phones and internet, the Hamas propaganda machine will largely close down. No pictures will be transmitted from Gaza, no news stories will be sent, no terrorist leaders will be interviewed.
For goodness sakes, let us open our eyes. We have seen how manipulated pictures and false news stories have turned much of the west against Israel during the ongoing war. When fake news is fed to the largely ignorant and always uneducated west, Hamas propaganda has clearly been effective.
If the western media covering our war had been presenting facts, not inserting their leftist narratives into stories and not deleting inconvenient facts, Israel might have maintained western support during the war with Hamas.
So for the sake of ending the flood of pro-Hamas pictures and stories, let us turn off all communications in Gaza.
At the same time, let us end Hamas’ ability to manipulate Israelis by preventing their transmitting pictures and videos of Israeli hostages.
When the fighting begins again, we know the script that Hamas and their western media partners will follow.
Pictures will be exploited to prove to the world that Israel is the aggressor, not the victim of October 7.
Western news stories will again portray Israelis as baby killers, while refusing to report the killings of Jewish babies by Gaza savages on October 7.
The Jews will be blamed for the starving of innocent Gazans, without providing the name of even one Arab who gone hungry, let alone one who has died from starvation.
And just as the population of Gaza continues to grow, the Jews will have the blood-libel of genocide seared onto them.
However, much of this could be prevented if Israel acts decisively to, at last, turn off all cellular phones and internet in Gaza.
Of course, those in the west wishing us dead will accuse Israel of opposing their holy free press if we turn off Gaza cellular and internet.
In response, those who accuse Israel might be asked when they last complained about there being no free press in the surrounding 22 Arab countries? We know from the recent past that, in truth, for the world news media it is permissible for the Arabs not to have a free press, but never for the Jews.
And in all honesty, we might ask, as one of the few countries in the world with a free press, and the only country in the Middle East, what does Israel have to show for it? What has Israel received, in exchange for providing a free press for the international news media to operate in?
Poll after poll in Europe and America reports populations increasingly less sympathetic to Israel, with the main reason because we offer foreign media the rights of a free press. And the decline in support for Israel is mainly because of the fake news the western populations have received, none more so than what has been labeled as news coming from Gaza.
From a historical perspective, the Jews lived through 3,500 years without a free press (and also without failed western values).
In truth, our history tells us that we will survive just fine if we provide a few less freedoms to our enemies, and instead act solely based upon what is in the interest of Israel and the Jews.
Which is why Israel should act to quickly close down all cellular and internet communications when the fighting begins again in Gaza.
Let the leaders of Israel act wisely and decisively to protect all of us by closing down all communications that provide aid and assistance to those savages we meet on the battlefields, along with their brother Jew-haters at the United Nations, in western universities, the foreign news media and Hollywood.
For as we all know, Israel has no choice but to prevail on the battlefield. And so we must also be victorious in the ongoing media war.