the digital war of lies and propaganda

Dan Brown once stated that history is written by the eventual winners. Be it a war, a debate, a slight friction or a psychological battle, the victorious side writes their account of events with what they perceive as the absolute truth.

The truth is nothing is absolute truth, since it is impossible for men not to write something without flaws, errors and mistakes. We just tend to read the story from one side of the curtain.

Imagine this utopian scene, if the Axis power consisting of Germany, Italy and Japan had won the World War II. Yes, there would be a need to re-label and re-classify and re-write history books. The Allies of Soviet Union, United States and the British Empire are terrorists in their version of history. Hitler would have become the national hero back in Germany, revered by millions. Stalin would be reclassified as the enemy. So on and so forth.

While back then the only media existed were printing publications, there was relatively scarce supply of reliable sources. People in Germany at that moment probably believed anything mentioned by the mouth of Hitler, as he had this tenacity, this audacious aura of him condemning the Jews as a part of his propaganda. While there maybe truth in his assertions of the Jews, branding a whole group based on the actions of a part of the populus is not justified. But there was nobody else to listen to, and soon when the propaganda hit the accelerator pedal, posters and publications spread sporadically and later it became a national agenda of the Germans to go to war.

Then it was the television. The idiot box as some might call it. Quite frankly, television is controlled by the government. The Israeli media also has their own tv channels, broadcasting their version of truth of the recent attacks on Gaza. While Al-Jazeera broadcasts their version of what was happening in Gaza.

I was given a link of the writings by Uri Avnery, an Israeli left wing politician vying for peace and found a fresh perspective of events that has been going on in Israel. He revealed the lies told in the Israeli media, for example they televised that the UN school attack by the Israelie army was due to shots from Hamas terrorists from inside the school.

They were none. Zero terrorists. The only people inside were people taking refuge. Those merciless beings showing how heartless they are.

But in this digital era, the new propaganda is through the internet. There are multiple websites, blogs and pages on the web showing videos, displaying facts and articles of the mass killings of Palestinians.

In the mid 1990s, there were people who believed that all Jews are evil, a Hitler-ish idea but through the internet, we managed to find pictures of Rabbis protesting the existence of their so called "Promised Land".

And Israelis themselves are not left behind. Through YouTube, they posted a video, supposedly of a precise attack of Palestinians on their base camp. In actuality, BBC did an interview of the victim of the attack, who happens to be a Palestinian! It was the other way around, something we might call as twisted truth. Yet, why are lies constantly being told, if they are on the right path?

According to IslamOnline.net, social networking websites have started their very own version of the war. On facebook, a group called "I Wonder How Quickly I Can Find 1,000,000 People Who Support Israel..," collected 150,000 members.

While another group, "Let's Collect 500,000 signatures to support Palestinians in Gaza" had 650,000 members on their back, far more than what they asked for!

For the record, i don't have a facebook account.

People power as some might refer it to. Not quite the hippie era of the 70s when they also protested the Vietnam war. While the hippie era involved a sect of people in the world, the Internet Propaganda is reaching every room around the world in an instant. Not necessarily to find the truth, but to get the whole idea of what is going on, on both sides of the fence. Just a few clicks and you're on.

Now it is time for the world to know that the only holocaust is not only the one in Germany during the World War II period, but also the holocaust done by the Israeli Defence Forces in Palestine which is still going on and on.

As i mentioned before. Re-label. Re-classify. Re-write.

PS : This is a commentary of articles written by Uri Avnery and the one on IslamOnline.net. This is a precursor of my upcoming article , "Download : History of the Internet".