Israel sells Gaza war to Americans at Super Bowl while bombing Rafah

By Press TV Website Staff

To whitewash its war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli regime ran a series of 30-second advertisements during the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday, sparking a massive outcry.

The ads depicted an NFL player playing with his son, followed by the footage of Israeli captives held in Gaza since the events of October 7 when Hamas launched its surprise operation against the occupation.

“To all the dads, the funny ones, the silly ones, the strong ones, the adventurous ones. To all the dads held in captivity by Hamas for over 120 days. We vow to bring you home,” said a voice in one ad.

 “In a roaring stadium, their silence is deafening. 136 people are still being held hostage by Hamas,” read one of the ads, followed by another that said, “136 seats are still available for Sunday’s game.”

It was part of the campaign by the embattled Benjamin Netanyahu regime to deflect attention from the carnage unfolding in different parts of the coastal territory, including the southern city of Rafah.

While the Super Bowl ads were being broadcast, Israeli snipers were shooting dead Palestinians – doctors, patients and evacuees – outside the Nasser Hospital in over-crowded Rafah.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the regime paid $7 million for a 30-second space purchased through Paramount’s stream of the widely followed annual league championship.

Jewish Voice for Peace, a group advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza, denounced the advertisement.

“The Israeli military is bombing Rafah, the most densely populated area in the world, while Americans watch the Super Bowl. This is intentional. This is genocide,” it said in a statement on X.

“We’re demanding the world watching the Superbowl turn their eyes to Rafah.”

Super Bowl –driver of war

Dave Zarin, sports editor at The Nation, in an article, said the Super Bowl has been used as a “driver of war” in the past as well, when Whitney Houston sang the national anthem in the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm or when U2 and Bono championed the US disastrous wars in the aftermath of 9/11.

“Now we have “the Super Bowl massacre,” which was designed to make us not notice the war crimes that American taxpayers are funding,” Zarin wrote, slamming the ads.

He said Robert Kraft, a billionaire and New England Patriots owner, splurged $7 million on an ad from his organization, Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism.

Previously, Kraft had donated $1 million to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a warmongering Zionist organization, and another $1 million in 2016 for Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Writing in the Byline Times, Alexandra Hall said while he and millions of other American football fans “indulged in the annual, bloated, orgy of consumption and excess which is the Super Bowl” Israel was “busy killing hundreds more civilians in Gaza.”

“I simply do not believe it is a coincidence that Israel chose the exact moment of the Super Bowl to launch its latest bombing spree on Palestinians since it knew most of America would be too distracted to care or react,” wrote Hall.

Zing Tsjeng, in an article published in Vice, wrote that waking up to the timeline full of Super Bowl pictures while children were being bombed in Gaza “was a hard thing to reconcile” and made her wonder “if any of those celebrities had used their platform to comment on the situation in Palestine.”

A counter ad to Super Bowl

In response to the Israeli regime’s Super Bowl ads, a pro-Palestine advocacy group called the Know Collective came up with alternative ads showing the devastation caused by the war on Gaza.

“To all the dads that have been killed by the [Israeli military] for over 120 days, we vow to bring you justice,” the ad is captioned, drawing attention to the carnage unfolding in the Gaza Strip.

Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the Israeli ad undermines the integrity of broadcasting standards and misleads the public.

He said that nearly 10,000 people filed a complaint directly with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the ads paid for by the Israeli regime.

“The American public has a right to know and be informed about the influence of foreign governments in our media, and this includes Israel,” Ayoub asserted.

Social media reacts

“If you know who won the Super Bowl, but are unaware of ISRAEL’s attacks on Rafah — you are part of the problem,” wrote Jackson Hickle, a social media influencer in a post on X.

Shabbir Rizvi, a Press TV website contributor, in a post on X said the Israeli regime paid for the Super Bowl advertisement while conducting a genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.

A social media user said Israel has “deliberately timed” its bombing of Rafah to the Super Bowl “while most Americans are in a trance-like tunnel-vision of distraction away from anything beyond that football field.”

Fiorella Isabel, a journalist with RT, in a tweet, said Israel sent 50+ bombs to Rafah while the Super Bowl was underway.

“On the US-famous Super Bowl Sunday, Israel sent 50+ bombs to Rafah, the last place 1 million+ Palestinians were told was safe, killing dozens- as if the 35,176+ dead weren’t enough,” she wrote.

“They promoted a fictional narrative to the world via ads, but here’s a must-watch dose of reality.”

More than 28,500 Palestinians have been killed and at least 68,000 have been wounded in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli aggression since the events of October 7 last year.

In the last few days, the regime has escalated its attacks on Rafah in southern Gaza as it gears up for a planned ground offensive on the southernmost Palestinian city.

Hamas condemned the latest Israeli aggression on Rafah, saying it represents an “expansion of the scope of the massacres it is committing against our people.”