The preposterous accusation that Israel’s defense forces used dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners—published on May 11 by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff—only dramatizes mainstream media’s campaign to slander and dismantle the Jewish state. In fact, such lies, innuendo and misinformation occur daily these days in reporting on Israel.
No wonder that, although for decades a wide majority of Americans supported Israel, that trend has recently reversed. According to a February 2026 Gallup poll, 41% of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians, versus 36% who sympathize more with Israel.
Like American mainstream media, supporters of Palestinians are mostly “progressives”—leftist Democrats and independents, and young people, ages 20 to 35. Indeed, the Gallup poll reveals that 65% of Democrats, 41% of Independents, and 53% of Americans aged 18 to 34 side with the Palestinians over Israel.
Specifically, according to polls, the top five reasons most Americans support Palestinians over Israel include 1) humanitarian empathy for victims of the Gaza conflict; 2) perceptions of Israeli occupation and a power imbalance; 3) the cause’s alignment with progressive values; 4) opposition to U.S. foreign policy and aid; and 5) support for a two-state solution.
However well-meaning supporters of the Palestinians may be—and however noble their reasons sound on the surface—the truth is, these justifications are hoaxes: misinformation, fantasies and outright slanders. In short, progressives who support Palestinians are either at best victims of massive media propaganda or, at worst, themselves authors of anti-Israel slanders, such as The New York Times.
Hoax #1: The humanitarian crisis and civilian suffering in Gaza. Media would have Americans believe that Israel killed more than 70,000 innocents (mostly women and children) in Gaza and caused the starvation of tens of thousands more—adding up to a cruel, disproportionate and unnecessary response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Disgracefully, such media reports seldom mention that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza ensued only because the Palestinians started it, as they have started every war with Israel, as part of their 78-year campaign to destroy the Jewish state.
The media also fail to note that the Gaza death toll includes some 35,000 Hamas fighters and represents what experts call the lowest ratio of civilians to fighters—about 1:1—in military history. Finally, while the media hammer unsubstantiated reports of “imminent starvation” in Gaza, they ignore the fact that hunger never reached starvation levels, largely because Israel delivered some two million tons of humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians. They also forget to mention that huge amounts of aid were stolen by Hamas and sold for a profit on the black market to their own people at exorbitant prices.
Hoax #2: Palestinians live under Israeli occupation. The media rarely ever tells Americans historical facts about the land of Israel, especially that the Romans renamed it “Palestine” in 135 C.E., hundreds of years before Arabs arrived there. Nor do they clarify that before Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, no Israeli—civilian or military—had set foot in Gaza since 2005. For 18 years, Gazans were self-governing. While Israelis live in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) with Palestinians, none of this territory “belongs” to the Palestinians; it is legally disputed land. In fact, there has never been a country called “Palestine,” nor have the Palestinians ever held sovereignty anywhere. Israel governs part of this territory according to the Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestinian Authority, but the Palestinians rule themselves on all civil and security issues day to day in most of this territory. In short, it’s a lie that Palestinians live under Israeli “occupation.”
Hoax #3: U.S. foreign policy and military aid are biased against the Palestinians. American media virtually never mention that the United States has, on numerous occasions, negotiated with the Palestinians and Israel to establish a Palestinian state. In the years 2000, 2001 and 2008, the United States presented generous offers to the Palestinians, granting them independent territory in almost all of Judea and Samaria, and a capital in Jerusalem. More recently, Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump offered to help the Palestinians form a state, but the Palestinians refused all offers. Instead, they renewed their terrorist campaigns and rocket attacks on Israel and were later joined by the Iranian terrorist proxy group, Hezbollah from Lebanon. U.S. military aid to Israel has been motivated by efforts of jihadists over the decades to attack American military and to destroy Israel. Such aid to Israel is used exclusively for defensive actions.
Hoax #4: The Palestinian cause aligns with progressive identity-based values. Ultra-leftists divide the world into “oppressed” people and “oppressors.” Not only do progressives consider people of color (like Palestinians) oppressed, but they also consider LGBTQ+ people and women generally to be oppressed. Mainstream media never point out the irony—that Palestinians are some of the least progressive people on earth, since they oppose all non-Muslims (no matter their color) and all LGBTQ people. Palestinian culture also staunchly denies personal and civil liberties to women, treating them as property of men. Studies have also ranked Palestinians as the most antisemitic people in the world.
Hoax #5: The Palestinian goal is to form an independent state alongside Israel. Legacy media never reveal the true political goals of the Palestinian Arabs because they contradict the progressive narrative. Ask yourself: Have you ever heard of a Palestinian leader who speaks in favor of two states for two peoples and who demands a “two-state solution”? You haven’t, because the Palestinians—whether radical Hamas or the “moderate” P.A.—have one goal only: to end the State of Israel. The spoken and published words of Palestinian leaders, both secular and religious, consider Israel an occupier of Muslim land. Indeed, polls confirm the majority of Palestinians reject the two-state solution. Progressives who insist Israel is preventing a two-state solution are perpetuating a hoax.
American support for the Palestinians is a hoax—a product of both traditional and social media. They parrot the narrative of Israel’s enemies—the lie depicting the Palestinians as an innocent people fighting to free their indigenous land from colonialist Jews. Although this fictional narrative appeals to many uninformed progressives, it has no factual basis.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
