Israeli Military Prop Video Speaks of Bloodthirsty, Long-Term Gaza Campaign

By Mark Anderson
STOP THE PRESSES! & U.S. Correspondent for UK Column

[Photo Note: From the Truth Hound archive, this photo of a buried dead child is from a past assault on Gaza by Israeli forces, to the best of this site’s knowledge]

What very well could be the most shocking war propaganda film ever made—produced in Israel, for the stated purpose of restoring faith in Israel’s security apparatus in the wake of the reported Oct. 7 Hamas attack that inexplicably breached that “impenetrable” security system—turned out to be so bloodthirsty that even You Tube promptly took it down.

What does the video contain that would spark such a response from a normally pro-Israel video platform? It shows several Israeli children patriotically singing about carrying out what clearly can be described as an all-encompassing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Yet the video, reaching into the outer limits of sheer irony, is entitled “The Friendship Song 2023.”

Produced in Hebrew with English subtitles, this video, while the translation may result in slightly different interpretations, was created by 36-year-old Israeli “public relations guru” Ofer Rosenbaum. He’s a co-founder of the organization The Civil Front. The video, nevertheless, contains several shocking lyrics and jarring imagery. It’s sung against a musical background that glorifies the Israeli military and its unmistakably brutal, widespread and relentless use of tank rounds and precision bombs from fighter jets to obliterate large swaths of Gaza and often bury those men, women and children, who didn’t manage to flee, under tons of rubble.

There is no visible indication whatsoever in this video, which is about 2:30 in length, of Israeli forces encountering any armed resistance, meaning the military is freely firing on non-combatants and the area’s infrastructure in the most merciless manner imaginable, as if it’s little more than sport. Entire buildings are blown to smithereens or flattened. The video was shown on television to the Israeli public, though evidently with a mixed reaction.

“The lyrics have been slammed by the international community as [being] genocidal, just as UN experts have warned that serious violations allegedly committed by Israel against Palestinians ‘point to a genocide in the making,’” the international media outlet Euro News noted on Nov. 27. A Euro News fact check determined: “Turns out this video is real and was posted by the Israeli group The Civil Front.”

Here are key samples of the lyrics:

• “Within a year, we will annihilate everyone, and then we will return to plow our fields.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: Alex Thomson, a European reporter and skilled translator for www.UKColumn.org, said that line, more precisely translated, is “Within a year, we shall eradicate all of them . . .,” which has a somewhat different connotation, as it can be taken to mean Israel will eradicate all of Hamas, not necessarily all Gazans in general. The question that remains, however, is: Given Israel’s unhinged, broad-based destruction of the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and widespread killing of non-combatants, is this a distinction without a difference? Time will tell]
• “Look the IDF is crossing the line, to annihilate the swastika-bearers . . .”
• “In another year, there will be nothing there and we will return safely to our homes . . .”
• “And we will remember everyone, the pretty and the pure . . . we will never let our hearts forget a friendship like that [an apparent reference to supporters] . . .
• “One people . . . the people of forever evermore; we won’t stop protecting our homes . . . . We won’t be silent . . . . We will show the world how, today, we destroy our enemy.”

Much could be said about these lyrics. For instance, it’s monumentally ironic, not to mention utterly inaccurate, for the Israelis to call the Palestinians, including Israel’s supposed arch-enemy Hamas that is said to control Palestine, “swastika-bearers,” when only the Israelis have displayed stereotypical, super-nationalistic “Nazi-like” behavior. Indeed, the only thing missing in the video is for the children or the soldiers shown in various imagery to perform the “Nazi salute.”

In another example of unfathomable irony, the video’s words “the pretty and pure” invoke what the Jews have always attributed, with a sense of horror, to Germany, referring to  the Third Reich’s quest for Aryan racial “purity.” Moreover, the blunt words “in another year, there will be nothing there” suggest that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is designed for the long haul.

Texas resident and writer Alan Knutson, who’s well versed about “organized Jewish interests” and engages in frequent online dialogue about such matters, feels that Israel is carefully weighing its strategic options. The idea of a two-state solution may be dead forever; furthermore, while he said it’s “a coin toss,” it’s entirely possible Israel may finally be pursuing its ancient border claims and expand its national territory from the Nile River to the Euphrates.

CIVIL FRONT CAMPAIGN

Notably, The Civil Front recently launched a broad billboard campaign throughout Tel Aviv in order to  support IDF soldiers and Israeli police. The Jerusalem Post on Oct. 30 added: “The giant billboards . . . were created using AI, [and] feature images of the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. Above the fighters is the inscription in English, ‘NEVER AGAIN.’ ”

Rosenbaum was quoted by The Post as saying: “We are proud and trust the security forces. We received a heavy blow, but from here we are all united against our enemies.”

However, independent journalist Owen Jones, who managed to post the above-noted Israeli youth video as part of a longer newscast and evade its cancellation, also showed footage of Rosenbaum taking part in an Israeli news show, where he indicated that anyone who attacks Israel probably ought to be seen as less than human. Rosenbaum, according to the Jewish newspaper Haaretz, “is behind some of the most inflammable media campaigns in Israel.” [See the same video link at the top and bottom of this story, which includes a clip of that news show].

“I’m the gun on the table,” he told Haaretz.

Meanwhile, “the Israeli army pledged to take disciplinary action, in what it says are a handful of isolated cases,” the Associated Press noted, in response to Israeli soldiers “rummaging through private homes in Gaza” while destroying toy store merchandise, and trying to destroy food and water supplies, even while Israeli troops danced in a circle with their arms slung around each other, “chanting racist slogans.” Much of this was caught on video as Israel continues to face a mounting international outcry over its military tactics. Some 16,000-plus Palestinians have been killed via Israel’s onslaught.

Editor’s note: The Israeli video is part of a longer report online by independent journalist Owen Jones. To go right to it, start at the two-minute mark when you go to this link https://youtu.be/RV0pEUXMz6M?si=3xBftS_p6twjBIoH