Fake news!

Patches’ calypso this year, FAKE NEWS, is especially timely, not only because it reflects the state of things politically in the ‘Silly Season’ here, but it describes much of what had been happening over the past two weeks, especially in the Middle East. Social media was full of opinions and narratives of what was happening with the “war” between Israel and Iran and the involvement of the US. It was difficult to find out what was happening on the ground in Israel for there was a ban on foreign correspondents. One would have thought that the traditional media had ways of functioning in that kind of atmosphere. Well, for obvious reasons we were getting more from Al Jazeera than from media outlets like the BBC, the Washington Post, New York Times and even the Guardian.

As I indicated before, Israel launched an attack on Iran because it claimed it had evidence that Iran was a short time away from building nuclear weapons. We have heard that stuff before, but in any event what authority sanctioned Israel’s action?

The usual thing that was surfacing was that they were doing it in self- defence. Then there was that bombing by the US, practically a declaration of war, done unconstitutionally, that is, without going through the US Congress. No one thinks of bombing North Korea!

Isn’t this enough reason for Iran to want to develop nuclear weapons, to make it safe from attacks like those made by Israel and the US?

But let us look at the 12 year war as Trump dubs it- a war between Israel and Iran. I guess that the US bombing sites in Iran was not part of that war. It was done to assist Israel which did not have the technology to destroy so-called nuclear sites that were buried deep underground. So, Trump came to their rescue and the American strong man declared that they had destroyed all of Iran’s nuclear sites, They would not be able to develop nuclear weapons again. Much of this was fiction because Trump’s own security agencies were of the view that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons. But to crown it all we heard after that the Iranians, expecting the attacks that came, had already moved material from the sites that the US claimed it destroyed. Never would Iran be able to make nuclear bombs again, they said, when it was convenient for them to say so.

We got a lot of information about the damage in Iran carried out by Israel and the US, little or nothing about any damage suffered in Israel. The Western media was quiet on this. Sources through social media painted pictures of widespread damage done in Israel. What is the real truth? Were these fake news?

These days it is difficult to rely on anything coming through social media unless one is familiar with the source and could verify its authority. So, in trying to develop an understanding of what is happening, especially in the Middle East one is confronted with Western bias, Jewish control of some media, and the games that are being played. European diplomats and others realise that to get anything from Trump you have to flatter him and a lot of that is going on. Trump said that Iran and Israel had agreed on a ceasefire even before there was such an agreement. One understands that Qatar played an important part in getting Iran to agree to one. Iran agreed to bomb US bases/forces in Qatar but informed the government there before hand, allowing the Americans to put things in place. Obviously,

Iran did not want any American full scale attack on them, but what is the story? What is real and fake in the Middle East? While Israel is bombing Iran, Gaza continues to suffer from their attacks. Why is the ‘world’ standing back and allowing Israel to do what it wants?

One expects that in the long run Israel might be worse off for they have created enemies all over the world because of their recent activities.

How much longer can Trump continue to play his double games with Moscow, Israel and Ukraine? This article was prompted by the difficulty one finds in understanding what is real and what is not.

Many of us get our news from Facebook and other social media but how do we determine what is real and what is not? I have been trying to follow what is happening in Burkina Faso, but it is so difficult doing so for that country has become the focus of a lot of fake news.

So, Patches you have come up with something that is very timely today – Fake News!

Give them the real news!

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian