Arab Fibbing Goes Way Back

One of the outrageous phenomena of our ongoing war with the Arabs is not only that they lie often to the press/media, telling some extravagant and outrageous lies sometimes, groundless lies, sometimes merely silly fibs that only influence fools in the West --but that the Western media and fake "human rights" and "peace" and "humanitarian" outfits are quite pleased to accept the Arab lies, that is, they don't mind being lied to if Arabs do it. Among the more notorious Arab lies in the Oslo War that started in September 2000 are the Muhammad al-Dura hoax [2000], the Jenin massacre hoax [2002], the lie that the war began with Ariel Sharon going up onto the Temple Mount in late September 2000 [more on the actual beginning time of the war in later posts], etc.

But the Arab propensity to lie --even about things that are relatively unimportant-- goes way back. Byzantine Greeks noticed this habit of mendacity back in the Middle Ages.

. . . many Byzantine authors complain indignantly of the unreliability of the Saracens. Indeed one searches the Byzantine sources in vain for a favorable judgement about the Arabs.
[Vassilios Christides, "Saracens' Prodosia in Byzantine Sources," Byzantion XL (1970), p 12]
. . . the constant Byzantine suspicions of Arab trustworthiness.
[p 13]

The propensity of the Arabs to lie, Arab mendacity for short, puts Israel at a disadvantage in the contest for world public opinion and the diplomatic support of governments. Even Shimon Peres is said to have mentioned this in a strategy discussion with an American Jewish professor back in the 1970s. "We can't lie like the Arabs can," Peres is supposed to have explained to the professor. At that time, Peres' Labor Party was still in power in Israel.
At any rate, Peres made the mistake, in my view, of failing to see the propensity on the part of the Western press/media, diplomats, governments, politicians, and "humanitarian activists" of various labels to accept these lies, even the silliest and most unlikely, and to spread them [on the part of the press/media] as an even greater threat to Israel than the lies themselves.
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Coming: More on Obama the war candidate, More on the anti-Jewish racism of the "Peace Process," Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron, the Land of Israel, archeological updates, peace follies, propaganda, etc.