Israel Puts the Lie to Its Own Propaganda

Among the incessantly-reiterated Israeli propaganda lines blared at the global public by that nation's political bosses, military figures, official mouthpieces, and foreign political and media lackeys from the president of the United States on down, are 1) that Israel goes to great lengths to avoid civilian Palestinian casualties; 2) Hamas uses civilians as “human shields” [so don't attack them at those times, Israel! But it's a canard anyway]; 3) all civilian casualties are Hamas' fault anyway, because Hamas is making Israel do this [Hamas “made” Israel murder four children playing football on an otherwise deserted beach? Hamas “made” Israel bomb hospitals and a home for the disabled? Hamas “made” Israel bombard seven UN refuge centers after being told literally dozens of times by the UN where they were located? Hamas “made” Israel target ambulances and kill medics, bomb the power plant, bomb the water treatment centers?]; and 4) Hamas WANTS civilian casualties to use as “propaganda,” as Netanyahu himself said on a platform helpfully provided by CNN, with the egregious Wolf Blitzer. Many U.S. propagandists have long promoted this line, such as the vicious reactionary Charles Krauthammer. [1]

Well, all that unfortunately does square with this televised statement by the chief Israeli Army spokesman, Brigadier General Motti “The Murderer” Almoz, the evening of August 22:

“We are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip very powerfully and will continue to do so in the coming hours.” (Hours, days, weeks, perhaps months.) “Every citizen [sic- in fact the prisoners in the Gaza concentration camp are stateless] in the Gaza Strip who has in proximity to him or his home weaponry, we view him to be a legitimate target.” The PERSON is a “legitimate target” just for being near alleged weaponry! Talk about guilt by association! This takes it to a new extreme. [2]

Sounds like deliberate targeting of civilians to me. If there is “weaponry” “in proximity,” we will blow you up. Just how far away constitutes “proximity”? And what should the million and a half Palestinians imprisoned in the Gaza concentration camp do? Search every building and basement “in proximity?” to their homes? Look for hidden tunnels? And what about when they walk to market, or work, or school? Should they search “in proximity” all along their routes of travel, just in case Israel THINKS there are “weapons” hidden somewhere? Almoz The Awful did say “in proximity to him OR his home.” So if you're walking or riding down the street and Israel thinks there are “weapons” nearby, its your own fault if you get blown up. Even if you're a child. (Those 250 factories and business plants Israel blew up- they were all near “weaponry”? I don't think so.)

Almoz went on to threaten continued bombardment “until quiet arrives.” That is, the Palestinians have to submit meekly to their fate and not resist in the slightest. Just as Obama, Holder, Jay Nixon and the rest of the U.S. “authorities” want “calm” in Ferguson, MO, after the latest police execution of an unarmed black male for no reason other than racism and the need to “show who's boss,” meaning to impose repressive authoritarian rule on an oppressed racial minority.

1] Netanyahu in particular has repeated the "we take great efforts to avoid hitting civilians" line every chance he gets. One of his close henchmen, Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. (who was born in Miami Beach, Florida, and thus is an American citizen), has so far set the record for insufferable chutzpah with his demand that Israel be awarded a Nobel Peace Price for how it has conducted the current slaughter in the Gaza concentration camp. Dermer wrote a book which he had the nerve to title "The Case for Democracy." Something he obviously doesn't believe in, since he is totally committed to subjugating Palestinians and depriving them of all rights. Of course, if you believe Palestinians are subhuman there's no contradiction, just as the U.S. "founders" can declare "all men are created equal," and babble about "inalienable rights," while owning slaves. As Africans too were regarded as an inferior species and not human, once again, no contradiction.

2] “Executions in Gaza Are a Warning to Spies,” New York Times, August 23, 2014, page A10, paragraph 12. In fact it was just one paragraph buried deep in the middle of that article, which dealt with Hamas executing suspected Palestinian collaborators with Israel. Such a bloodcurdling threat as Almoz issued merits a story of its own- and had Hamas made a similar threat, you KNOW the Times and other Western media would loudly blare the news, instead of hiding it and making it just a passing mention.

The public executions were apparently in reaction to the day earlier Israeli assassinations of three top Hamas leaders. (Israel for years has been decapitating Palestinian resistance organizations. Israel has spent years going around the world murdering Fatah, Black September, and PLO people, for example. And for years they've been assassinating Hamas people. After decades of assassination as policy, Israel still isn't willing to consider alternatives, such as co-existence with Palestinians, obeying international law and ceasing the illegal colonization of territory it conquered in 1968, or obeying the UN mandate of 1947 that opened the door to the creation of Israel, which also mandated a Palestinian state. (The Times reported that the executed alleged collaborators had been arrested before the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.)

Aside from the Hamas men Israel just killed, they also bumped off another dozen or so Palestinians, including children, and wounded over 40 in a single bombing of a house in Gaza City. A mortar fired by Hamas, presumably, killed a four year old child in Israel, bring the death toll in the past two months to 4 civilians in Israel (one was an imported Thai serf) and 64 Israeli soldiers, all of whom were killed in the ground invasion ordered by Netanyahu. This is the third full-scale Israeli war on the trapped captives of the Gaza concentration camp since 2008, when Israel invaded and bombarded, as they did again in 2012 and now. In this offensive, so far over 2,100 Palestinians have been killed, including about 500 children, thousands more have been wounded, some maimed for life, including a young girl paralyzed from the neck down whose entire immediate family was slaughtered. We won't be hearing her story in the U.S. establishment media, I can guarantee you. Too “anti-Israeli” and “anti-Semitic,” Or maybe too “self-hating Jewishy.”