In his book “Homage to Catalonia” George Orwell describes his experience as a fighter in the Spanish Civil War. On his return to England he found that in reading newspaper accounts of the battles in which he fought were unrecognisable compared to the reality. The same can be said of the reporting in the current Israeli-Palestinian war. Much of the West’s media makes it appear that Israel is the aggressor, when it is only defending itself. The immediate causes of the war began when Arab Palestinians started attacking Jews and posting film clips on TikTok. The Arabs then portrayed a commercial rent dispute in Sheikh Jarrah as a political rally call. When the Jews fought back police set up barricades at the Damascus Gate where much of the violence occurred. Then Arabs on the Temple Mount started rioting and throwing rocks at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall below. Police on the Temple Mount intervened. Arab rioting then spread and Hamas started sending incendiary balloons from Gaza, burning crops in Israel, and then started firing hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians. About a third of the rockets fell short in Gaza, killing civilians including their own children. The media left much of the context out, blaming the Israelis for defending themselves. The wider context of the battle is that Hamas, which rules Gaza, feels emboldened by the new US administration, which is distancing itself from Israel and is restoring funding which is used for terrorism, wanting to win the support of West Bank and Israeli Arabs following the cancellation of elections by the Palestinian Authority. Of course, this is orchestrated by Iran, which is the puppet-master of its proxy Hamas. [Image; Saving Torah scrolls from the ruins of a synagogue in Lod which was burned down by rioting Arabs.]