Israeli envoy: False reports feed hostility
‘It is true we are witnessing today a campaign that is led by what we call the red-green axis. Red representing the Marxist far left and green marking the Islamist.’
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‘It is true we are witnessing today a campaign that is led by what we call the red-green axis. Red representing the Marxist far left and green marking the Islamist.’
JERUSALEM — Israel has been the subject of widespread misinformation amid the heightened geopolitical tensions, according to George Deek, the country’s special envoy to the Christian world.
In an interview with a Philippine media delegation, Deek said the misinformation campaign stems from what he described as converging ideologies from the far left and Islamist movements.
“It is true we are witnessing today a campaign that is led by what we call the red-green axis. Red representing the Marxist far left and green marking the Islamist,” he said.
“And that conjunction of Islamism and Marxism brings together two strands that have absolutely nothing in common except for one thing — hostility toward Jews as a people, toward Israel as a country, and toward the Zionist idea behind it,” he said.
Israel has been involved in several major conflicts centered largely on competing political and religious claims. It remains embroiled in a decades-long dispute over Palestinian statehood while facing security threats from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group operating along its northern border with Lebanon.
Painted in distorted light
Deek said online discourse has increasingly portrayed Israel in an unfair and distorted light through what he described as deliberate misinformation spread by these groups.
“The only way we can fight back against that campaign is with a very simple but very powerful tool — and that is the truth,” he said.
“What many of you from the Philippines are doing is exactly that: coming here to see it with your own eyes and experience what Israel truly represents, what Israel is about, and the values that the people of Israel hold dear.”
Israel’s broader conflict with Iran has also had global repercussions, contributing to an energy crisis that has weighed on the Philippine economy through slower growth, higher inflation and rising unemployment, prompting some economists to warn of stagflation risks.
Deek was appointed special envoy four months ago as Israel sought to strengthen its engagement with Christian communities worldwide. He said Christians currently number about 189,000 in Israel and his role is centered on reinforcing the biblical values shared by Jews and Christians.
“Israel is the first country in the world to appoint an envoy to the Christian world. That is because we believe in the special connection between Israel and Christians worldwide,” he said.
“That is why we have a special relationship with the Christian world. We are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the holiest sites for Christians around the world remain open, safe and welcoming to every Christian, wherever they are and whoever they are,” he stressed.
