Political DARVO

It’s a privilege to not know this acronym: D.A.R.V.O.
It stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

I hope most of you never have to understand it. I have — for my own personal growth and healing. DARVO is a psychological tactic perpetrators use to deflect responsibility onto their victims. They deny the harm they’ve done, attack the credibility of those they’ve harmed, and reverse the roles of victim and offender to confuse and manipulate.

Now, imagine scaling that up. What happens when this same abusive tactic is used, not in a relationship, but on the world stage? When nations deploy DARVO to distort moral clarity and weaponize public opinion?

That’s what I call Political DARVO (learn more in my forthcoming book).

And it’s happening right now.

Since October 7th, when Hamas launched its genocidal attack on Israeli civilians, the world has watched this inversion of truth unfold in real time. The perpetrators of the massacre have worked tirelessly to deny their actions, attack Israel for defending itself, and reverse the roles of victim and offender — turning global compassion into confusion. Their vehicle? Social media, mainstream media, and our emotions.

Immediately after October 7th, Hamas and its supporters denied the atrocities despite overwhelming video evidence, eyewitness accounts, and even their own livestreams:

• Denial of mass rape, mutilation, and torture of Israeli civilians.

• Denial of hostage-taking of babies and Holocaust survivors.

• Denial that the invasion was premeditated — reframed as a “resistance operation.”

This denial was amplified by influencers, student groups, celebrities and sympathetic journalists on mainstream networks.

When denial could no longer hold, the focus shifted to attacking the victim — Israel:

• Israel was accused of “genocide” for defending itself.

• Protests erupted worldwide not to condemn Hamas, but to vilify the nation trying to rescue its people.

• Jewish students and institutions became targets of harassment.

• Jewish authors, creatives, artists, designers and Israeli publishers faced boycotts.

DARVO turns accountability into aggression — Israel’s act of self-defense is reframed as the original crime and Jews globally paid the price.

Perhaps the most insidious move: Hamas and Gazan’s repositioned themselves as victims:

• Terrorists who filmed murders became celebrated heroes in Gaza.

• Innocent hostages became “prisoners.”

• The massacre of October 7th was eclipsed by emotional visual manipulation — images of Gaza stripped of context to evoke guilt, not truth.

• Palestinians intentionally starved hostages while no nation has delivered more aid to its enemy during wartime than Israel — over 109,000 trucks carrying 2.1 million tons of aid have entered Gaza.

This reversal works because Western institutions — from academia to media — allow it.

Tonight, I will speak before Nashville’s Metro Council, where Resolution RS2025-1547, sponsored by Council member Ginny Welsch, is a textbook example of performative theater disguised as policy. Since October 7th, the lie of “genocide” has been resurrected purely for political propaganda. Thousands of miles from Israel, this resolution mirrors the predictable pattern: it denies the massacre Israel endured and Hamas’s goal to destroy the Jewish state, attacks Israel for defending its citizens, and reverses victim and offender, portraying Hamas and Gaza as the victims while Israel is cast as the aggressor.

Victims do not start wars. Victims do not hold hostages. Victims do not rape.

The resolution cites that over 248 journalists have been killed, yet it omits that some were complicit in the October 7th attacks — members of Hamas who held or filmed hostages. Freelance journalist Muthana al-Najjar filmed the abduction of Shiri Bibas and her two babies. Al Jazeera’s Abdallah al-Jamal was found holding three Israeli hostages in his home. These were not neutral observers. They were collaborators.

The claim of ‘genocide’ collapses under law and fact. Genocide requires intent and action to destroy a people — something Israel does not meet. Its intent is clear: to return the hostages and defeat Hamas. War is hell, but it is judged by intent and adherence to the laws of war, not by statistics supplied by Hamas, which controls Gaza’s Health Ministry and provides the numbers cited in this resolution.

This resolution mirrors one pulled last year in Nashville and was sourced from the largest BDS arm in North America — a campaign designed to isolate and ultimately eliminate Israel. Hamas wages physical war; BDS wages political war through local councils and communities.

When abusers rewrite the story, silence is not neutral. DARVO thrives in confusion, hesitation, and doubt, but truth cannot be intimidated.

I have learned that truth demands clarity, and leadership demands courage. Tonight, in Nashville, I will stand for both. I will speak plainly, and I will urge the council to withdraw Resolution RS2025-1547.

The world’s oldest hatred has been rebranded through hashtags, but the antidote to lies — lies that travel faster than truth — is not hoping they disappear. It is using your voice in a room filled with silence: loudly, locally, with action, and without fear. - AR

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