For $6 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and bonus content at www.usefulidiotspodcast.com Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: US Politicians Ban TikTok to Save Free Speech https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/us-politicians-ban-tiktok-to-save?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web “This propaganda is a weapon to kill Palestinians.” The New York Times, the US government’s most prestigious arm of state media, has continued to churn out headlines accusing Hamas of a systematic and deliberate campaign of sexual violence as a weapon of war. An independent UN investigation, as well as countless journalists and primary sources, has shown these claims to be completely evidence-free. Even factions within the Times have refused to go along with the story. This has not stopped the paper of record. Throughout history, rape accusations have been a tool of dehumanization. Claims of sexual violence have been used to justify colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, and the West’s violent regime change in Libya. “The bottom line,” explains guest Ali Abunimah, editor of the Electronic Intifada, “is we are now well into the sixth month of this genocide which is partly justified on the basis of these allegations and other claims of atrocities that have turned out to be false. To this day, not a single specific victim, living or dead, has been identified. We keep hearing the refrain ‘believe Israeli women;’ to this date there is not a single Israeli woman who has come forward to say that she was a victim of this kind of assault.” So where are these rumors coming from? After the lies were debunked by journalists, a UN report was published though as it admits it was not “investigative in nature.” Ali explains, “What the UN report did was simply to compile allegations from the Israeli military.” Even this biased non-investigation debunks specific claims of violence and proves that sexual violence was not systemic, and yet you’d never know that from the way legacy media is covering the report. But while journalists like Ali Abunimah are kept busy debunking these dehumanizing lies, Israel’s assault on Gaza continues. And the independent journalists who are busy covering that are putting themselves in serious danger to shed light on the genocide. Ali reports that four journalists from the Electronic Intifada have been killed and many more are in daily danger. “People do not know from hour to hour if they will live or die.” Hear and share the important voice of Ali Abunimah and the reporting of the brave journalists at the Electronic Intifada. Your support of independent media makes a difference. 00:00 Intro 02:59 The Four Food Groups of News 16:20 Ali Abunimah interview 16:51 Claims of sexual violence on Oct 7 21:29 New York Times LIES 26:42 Source revealed: the Israeli government 35:52 Israel can't keep its story straight 45:35 Hillary Clinton and the history of spreading these lies 50:19 Israeli officials in US media 55:41 Digging into the dodgy NYT story 1:06:13 How the justify the genocide 1:17:41 Dems pivot on Netanyahu