Disinformation and Lies – the Only Way Up?

March 6, 1942

There is a lot of sub rosa talk in the neutral countries about the possibilities of a separate peace with the Soviet Union. In London they are already scared about it. Such fear, however, is unwarranted. The Soviet Union will and must be knocked out, no matter how long that may take. The situation is right for putting an end to Bolshevism in all Europe, and considering our position we can’t give up on that aim.

A frontal attack on black markets was made in the House of Commons. No bones are made about the fact that Jews were chiefly implicated in profiteering in the food market. Heading the procession were the Jewish immigrants who went from Germany to England. Jews always remain the same. You must either stigmatize them with a yellow star, or put them in concentration camps, or shoot them, or else let them saturate all public life with corruption, especially during a war. There is no halfway measure.

The foregoing is an extract from Goebbels’ diary. Joseph Goebbels was Hitler’s chief propagandist.

[The word Bolshevists in the extract refers to Jews.]

Goebbels’ appeal that there be no half measure was mirrored by the 1943 operation, Operation Mincemeat in its rejection of halfway measures.

Ewen Montagu was the chief architect of Operation Mincemeat.

Operation Mincemeat was cobbled together in order to deceive – as it was, successfully – the Germans about the Allies’ invasion of Sicily. Ewen Montagu’s Beyond Top Secret U (1977), has many details of that operation.

Compare the reach of Goebbels’s disinformation with the reach of the IDF’s near silence over the last two years.

Compare the reach of Operation Mincemeat with the reach of that of Operation Iron Swords – Israel’s response, in Gaza, to the October 7th invasion by Hamas.

Compare, now, the names of these two in forming the first-time reader’s first impression.

Operation Iron Swords resulted in the very opposite to one’s expectations: yet more disinformation by Hamas, which resulted in the further distancing by countries such as the UK, France, Norway and Canada; and the alienation of Israel on the world stage.

It would, moreover, be hard to say whether the effects of Iron Swords were worse for the world’s diasporan Jews, including American Jewry, or the Jews in Israel.

Here, the writer can see and hear those who brandish their swords and who claim that the use of a country’s military armoury is better than telling lies – those who say that anything is better than telling lies, including death itself!

Though the likes of Rachel Reeves, the UK Chancellor and Merz of Germany have made conciliatory speeches, dangling behind both are Reeves’s colleague, ex-Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and Merz’s own previous declarations in favour of a Palestinian state. Both need to woo Israel in the coming weeks in order that Israel’s proven military knowhow be forthcoming in any war with Russia.

Military supremacy in Europe may not, however, always prove to be of benefit where hatred of Jews and Israel is concerned. Thanks to the financiers of pro-Hamas supporters antisemitism has just embedded itself anew in Europe – the states of which do not necessarily have to be prompted.

Come Armageddon, those who prefer military might to the might of disinformation and lies will surely be counted with those willing to use non-humanitarian means. For example, the use of military overkill and the disregard of the effects of overkill.

Those who prefer lies and disinformation can, on the other hand, flaunt their wish for humanitarian correctness. They could also claim that whatever Israel does, will not erase centuries of hate against the Jews.

For Jihadists, sowing the seeds of lies and disinformation has been effective on many fronts.

For politicians and other decision makers who chose the military pathway, the damage their silence has wrought may not be visible; and it may not be a matter of life or death now – but what of the future?