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Published on Saturday, October 3, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Iran, Israel, and the Muzzled US Press
"Iran must comply with United Nations resolutions," declared President Obama. Iran is "as defiant as ever" says a chorus of corporate employees otherwise known as mainstream journalists. Really! Is Iran defiant for testing missiles for its military? What military in the world fails to test missiles? Is Iran defiant for reporting the construction of a "secret underground" uranium enrichment plant at least a year in advance of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) obligations require it to?
Speaking of "defiance" in the neighborhood where Iran resides and failing to mention Israel requires levels of disingenuousness and obedience to state propaganda that baffle the mind. And all this at a time when arguably the most significant news item to come our way this month was the UN Human Rights Council's damning report (Goldstone Report) on Israeli crimes in the winter assault on Gaza. (Here is the Executive Summary of the report: www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/
* Iran has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) but Israel, Pakistan, and India have not;
* Israel just rejected the call by IAEA to join the NPT and open up its atomic sites to international inspection: the IAEA motion on September 18 expressing concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities" was adopted by 49 votes to 45, with 16 abstentions; the US and the EU initially tried to block the vote, and then voted against it while Israel said it "will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution";
* Israel has had nuclear weapons for three decades, and not only refuses to sign the NPT, rejects international inspections, but also does not even acknowledge the existence of these weapons, and even has gone so far as to jail a nuclear scientist for years for exposing the fact;
* Israel in defiance of international law continues to threaten Iran with military attack;
* Israel stands in violation of international law on several other accounts regarding waging of brutal wars of aggression and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza and continuing its brutal policies of occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the hapless Palestinians.
Is it even imaginable that the corporate media should do the right thing and tell the obvious truth that such actions and threats against any people constitute violation of international laws -- let alone suggest that it is Israel that needs to be sanctioned by the international community?
Meanwhile Washington denounced Goldstone's Gaza Report (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The Goldstone Report recommends that both Israel and Hamas be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution unless they carry out adequate internal investigations within six months. The US and Israel oppose referral of the matter to the General Assembly, the Security Council, or the ICC. In fact, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel engaged in economic blackmail against the Palestinian Authority (PA) by insisting that the PA drops war crimes suit on the basis of the Goldstone Report at the ICC or Israel won't let a 2nd cellular phone provider operate in the West Bank. Some $300 million has been invested in licensing and infrastructure, and, if not approved by October 15, the PA must pay a $300 million penalty. Israel has warned that referral to the ICC would mean a fatal blow to the peace process and to democratic states' ability to fight terror. In fact, as I write these words, Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The corporate media reached a feverish pitch playing up and pontificating on the recent UN appearances by Iran's Ahmadinejad, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, President Obama's speech, and Israel's Netanyahu's spirited defense of the historicity of the holocaust, but failed predictably to even bring up the most significant UN news item, namely the subject of Israel's defiance of the UN and violation of international law as documented and condemned by the UN itself in the Goldstone report -- the failure that, of course, visibly delighted the Israelis.
Meanwhile, the Israeli media, unlike their counterpart in the US, tell of life and facts on the ground. Here is Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
And the indefatigable Amira Hass (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Can we ever look to a day when the US Amira Hasses can write truthfully and daringly about events of such crucial significance in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post?
Speaking of "defiance" in the neighborhood where Iran resides and failing to mention Israel requires levels of disingenuousness and obedience to state propaganda that baffle the mind. And all this at a time when arguably the most significant news item to come our way this month was the UN Human Rights Council's damning report (Goldstone Report) on Israeli crimes in the winter assault on Gaza. (Here is the Executive Summary of the report: www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/
* Iran has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) but Israel, Pakistan, and India have not;
* Israel just rejected the call by IAEA to join the NPT and open up its atomic sites to international inspection: the IAEA motion on September 18 expressing concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities" was adopted by 49 votes to 45, with 16 abstentions; the US and the EU initially tried to block the vote, and then voted against it while Israel said it "will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution";
* Israel has had nuclear weapons for three decades, and not only refuses to sign the NPT, rejects international inspections, but also does not even acknowledge the existence of these weapons, and even has gone so far as to jail a nuclear scientist for years for exposing the fact;
* Israel in defiance of international law continues to threaten Iran with military attack;
* Israel stands in violation of international law on several other accounts regarding waging of brutal wars of aggression and invasions of Lebanon and Gaza and continuing its brutal policies of occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the hapless Palestinians.
Is it even imaginable that the corporate media should do the right thing and tell the obvious truth that such actions and threats against any people constitute violation of international laws -- let alone suggest that it is Israel that needs to be sanctioned by the international community?
Meanwhile Washington denounced Goldstone's Gaza Report (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The Goldstone Report recommends that both Israel and Hamas be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution unless they carry out adequate internal investigations within six months. The US and Israel oppose referral of the matter to the General Assembly, the Security Council, or the ICC. In fact, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel engaged in economic blackmail against the Palestinian Authority (PA) by insisting that the PA drops war crimes suit on the basis of the Goldstone Report at the ICC or Israel won't let a 2nd cellular phone provider operate in the West Bank. Some $300 million has been invested in licensing and infrastructure, and, if not approved by October 15, the PA must pay a $300 million penalty. Israel has warned that referral to the ICC would mean a fatal blow to the peace process and to democratic states' ability to fight terror. In fact, as I write these words, Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The corporate media reached a feverish pitch playing up and pontificating on the recent UN appearances by Iran's Ahmadinejad, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, President Obama's speech, and Israel's Netanyahu's spirited defense of the historicity of the holocaust, but failed predictably to even bring up the most significant UN news item, namely the subject of Israel's defiance of the UN and violation of international law as documented and condemned by the UN itself in the Goldstone report -- the failure that, of course, visibly delighted the Israelis.
Meanwhile, the Israeli media, unlike their counterpart in the US, tell of life and facts on the ground. Here is Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Issa Hamdan, 58, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in March. Since then, surgery to remove the growth has been scheduled for seven different occasions, from April 27 to today, at an East Jerusalem hospital.
The April 27 surgery date was canceled due to a one-month suspension of trips by Gazans for medical care due to tension between the Ramallah and Gaza City Palestinian governments. The operation was postponed until June 28, but the Israeli authorities did not respond to Hamdan's request. Hamdan was given an August 1 surgery date, but was called in for a Shin Bet interview only on August 2. Hamdan's wife, Fadya, who is 50, says she brought him for the interview from their home in Rafah to Erez, where she had to push his wheelchair with difficulty before submitting their identity cards for inspection.
Then, apparently when the Israeli officials realized that Hamdan was too sick to be interviewed, they were told to leave.
The operation has been rescheduled three more times since then -- for August 3, September 13 and today -- but each time no permit has been forthcoming.
And the indefatigable Amira Hass (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israel struck a civilian population that remains under its control; it didn't fulfill its obligation to distinguish between civilians and militants and used military force disproportionate with the tangible threat to its own civilians. Air Force drones and helicopters fired deadly missiles at civilians, many of them children; the Tank Corps and Navy shelled civilian neighborhoods with weapons not designed for precision strikes; soldiers received orders to fire on rescue crews; others fired on civilians carrying white flags; and others killed people in or near their homes. Troops used Gazans as human shields, soldiers detained civilians in abusive conditions, the army used white phosphorus shells in dense civilian areas and, on the eve of withdrawing, destroyed wide residential, industrial and agricultural areas.
There is only one thing worse than denial -- the admission that the IDF indeed acted as has been described [by the Goldstone report], but that these actions are both normal and appropriate.
Can we ever look to a day when the US Amira Hasses can write truthfully and daringly about events of such crucial significance in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post?
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Show AllAnother excellent article on the subject. I thank CD for publishing ones like this and the ones from Juan Cole, to give a much-needed different perspective to the vitriol and propaganda emanating from the US government and its lap-dogs in the media. Now, if we could only get some of these articles into the mainstream . . .
My thoughts exactly.
I do have some hope though. I make make small contributions to different organizations including CD, The Real News Network, FreeGaza.org, International Solidarity Movement, JewishVoiceforPeace.org, and my local Pacifica Radio Station. I believe the combined effect of organizations like these have started to form a counterweight against the current political and media powers. We still need to build this counterweight but we have a few tidbits of success. Obama is being forced to defend himself (not very well) about his inactions in Honduras. Israel is starting to be more defensive for its actions not just in Gaza, but its continuing oppression of the Palestinians.
the us policy is simple - crush democratic and flourishing societies every where they pop up
iran's destruction is crucial to the psyop as they are the last free society in the middle east - to crush them and dump on them another karzai would facilitate the unfettered rape of the entire area
we support the fascist dictators in saudi arabia, kuwait, uae and we have puppet government's in palestine, iraq and aghanistan
we will kill every last one of those motherfuckers to get the oil and gas and they absolutely know it
use the corporate media to propagate, as they always do, the us bullshit about security, terror, threats - existential and otherwise blah blah blah
the zion state is so fucked up that they are now reduced to denying civil rights as a right
huh
and there we are - shoulder to shoulder with the nazis in israel - where we are most at home - killing the peasants and blaming it on them
in this faked hysteria about iran we see the real united states - killer of freedom, peasants, hopes and dreams
thief bully and murderer
no wonder we get along with the israelis - we are the israelis
i mean in an existential sort of way....
Israel has reportedly received an assurance by US President Barack Obama that it would not be pressured into accounting for its alleged nuclear arsenal or signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In a meeting with, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obtained President Obama's guarantee that the White House would continue a 4-decade-old secret deal to allow Israel keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, The Washington Times reported on Friday quoting officials familiar with the matter.
We must end all military funding to the state of Israel.
While we're at it, we need to end all military finding to the state of America.
Iran well knows the gambit here, and is willing to bet the house even so. And as the war drums beat louder and louder the US Murdock Media Band plays the flutes in step. We are coming to the finale, folks. Those in power around the world are so brazen in their contempt for anyone who would challenge them that, like the Israeli government, they will destroy them in the name of peace and democracy. These two words were co-opted by Hitler, Stalin and others long before them. It is nonetheless sad that, in the 21st century, they are still used to rape, torture and kill people, the earth, and rational thought.
The US mother will scold her daughter Israel, but she will also annihilate anyone who would even think of harming her little princess. The question is: What will uncle Russia and Auntie China do to protect little Iran? He's a boy and so they might let him get bullied a bit. But will they let the bullies know when 'enough is enough"? Five years ago this would have been a moot question. But now the once almighty US dollar- which has been the true strong arm element of US power- is fractured and beginning to crumble. Will China use its economic advantage (~$9 trillion's worth) to strong arm the US? China knows that she could bring dearest mommy to her knees in a second if she wanted to. But even if Auntie China were to call in those bonds and cause absolute chaos to the US economy, would mommy weigh the pain of the masses in the US against any harm that might occur to her favorite daughter? Personally, I think not. Mommy, in her old age, has become absolutely delusional; living in her past memories of grandeur. And her spoiled little brat of a daughter is every bit, if not more delusional than she is. So be it then. This ole' fat lady won't be singing as she falls. She will be cursing and lashing out to take everyone she can down with her- including her little precious (a la Golum/Shmeagol in Lord of the Rings). And here we sit- all of us- little hobbits in the Shire- denying any knowledge of our impending doom. We are in the midst of a perfect storm- where 1984, Lord of the Rings, and Mad Max all come together.
One justification given for invading Iraq was the link to terrorism.
Iran is also linked to terrorism, in an effort to justify another aggression by the US military.
Any linkage to terrorism gives the call to war immense strength, because of the DAFT law* that Congress passed on 9/18. You know, right after 9/11.
This law allows the President to name people as terrorists, and the US military is honor-bound to fight them.
So far the announced enemies are:
al-Qaeda and its affiliates
Taliban
Perhaps it's only a matter of time before someone finds/manufactures/invents terrorists in Iran 'real' enough to convince the American sheeple and set off the alarm for another war.
If the law was repealed, then starting another war against terrorists to be named later would be much more difficult.
*DAFT law, aka:
1. 2001 AUMF
2. Public Law 107-40
3. S. J. res 23
Interesting, albeit not surprising: it was the US who created Saddam, Bin laden and the Taliban. One might suggest that the US government learn to pick better friends. But then they were, after all, only friends of convenience. The problem is: before we picked them they had no real power. We gave them power to do our bidding, thinking they were fools. There's an old saying: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and.... um, shame, shame? i dunno. All i know is it's hard work and so ya gotta work hard. And anyone who disagrees? Well, bring 'em on!!! (GW Bush). With leader like this, is Obama a surprise? No, he's not GW. But he's nonetheless a puppet.
Bring America Back !!!!
***Let's hope Mr Farbod keeps on speaking the Truth, and,
as loud and as often as he can !!!!
***Team Obama is a cave-in Team, putting up sham battles over minor details, then just plain failing to support its
specific campaign promises, and allowing the Right Wing Neocon Press and politicos have their way==as in Healthcare
and as in the Wars.
**Back in January 2009, CD published an article entitled:
'The First Mistake"====relating the failure of the Brand new Obama Adninistration to speak out in protest of the Genocide at Gaza !!! Including 300 to 400 innocent children as collateral damage to the invasion ! So, we here are not muzzled, yet we must agree Mainstream Media is not pushing Obama nor Israel in the right directions.
**If Team Obama and the MM cannot speak out in sympathy for 1500 dead of Gaza, how then can they find a necessary moral fabric to decide human life questions of Iraq, Afghan, Iran, or of the future fates of our own Troops now deployed ???
*****Plainly, there is no moral fabric, Team Obama does NOT deserve a second term in Office, and we need to surface a strong Progressive leader to step forward NOW, so we may push him/her into office in 2012!!!!
The Republicans are going to win the Presidency in 2012. We could run Mother Teresa and we would still lose. Once you lose the Seniors you lose them. They have long memories. Once you lose Independents you (almost) never get them back.
I would never vote for Obama again and I'm not alone. The worst of the intolerance and arrogance seems to be surfacing more and more. Its not bright to insult and denigrate people you need.
Bring America Back !!!!
***You make me shiver to think Dems would flow over to Repubs in view of
the past 8 years of King "W' and tyranny ! Obama has only screwed up 9 months!
***But, history had Jimmy Carter so bad that he handed back the Nation
to Ronnie Reagan, only 4 years after Watergate & Nixon--then our worst scandal.
***Dem Party Director, Gov Howard Dean has indicated a receptive ear for a
challenge in 2012 to Team Obama from within the Party, esp in view of the Obama
cave-in and failures of Healthcare Reforms as promised !
***Im hoping we can soon find our Demmy Mom Theresa, maybe Father Kucinich, or
even Uncle Nader or Gov Dean himself===to step up, declare, Now, while we can
still get behind and Push !!
Because I do agree this Obama Team just plain stinks ! And if we wait too long, the Repubbies have already recognized the beauty of Obama, and will vote him back in as their best Neocon candidate.
The US is not run by the president, its congress, nor its Senate. It is run by two different entities: the MIC internally, and Israel externally. What else could explain the crap that goes on in this country. What did Sharon say before he was placed into a vegetable state? Oh yes.." don't worry about the US, we have them in our pockets" (or something to that effect....
Welcome to the US of I....
We don't who is deciding the US policy. We don't really even know what it is we don't know because our government lies all the time. We can't even hope for a time of truth telling since we have yet to ever have one. Obama promised transparency and gave us dung instead.
Didn't expect anything different, than the norm of the past 40 years.
At the U.N. all it takes is for a prestigious country to vote out a human rights charge when Israel attacks a poor country.
Here's the list:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
jsource/UN/usvetoes.html
I agree with what a travesty the media creates every day on its coverage of Isreal. In Canada our press is owned almost entirely in every city by the Isreal Asper family who are self proclaimed Zionists. In Vancouver with their heavy wieght lawyers, they are currently taking a small group of activists to court for publishing a fake paper with a more balanced view of the Isreal Palestine issue. But in Vancouver we also have a group called Jews for a Just Peace who seek justice for Palestinians. Unfortunately they are not nearly as well funded as the Canadian Jewish Congress which managed to keep George Galloway from speaking in Canada on Isreali atrocities. Sigh. Thanks Mr Farbod and Common Ground for providing such articulate and well researched articles from the other perspective.
The writer has hit the nail on the head exactly when he points out that many of the news media in Israel are quite critical of their governments actions, but we never hear any of that because of a very effective sen-sor-ship in the US and Europe. Two articles from Haaretz (June 17) show how the Israeli lobbyists and their enablers in Congress willfully lie to try to convince the US people that we need to attack Iran. "Mossad: Iran Will Have Nuclear Bomb by 2014" and "Israel Can't Make up it's Mind About Iranian Nuclear Timetable". These articles should have made at least page 2 in all the US newspapers, but the first story was only published in a US Army officers newsletter.
Does anyone know when and how Israel and the Zionist movement took control of US foreign policy?
We must not forget that the relationship between Israel and Palestine is nothing more and nothing less than a Master/Slave relationship. With such a relationship, peace negotiations are meaningless as the Master dictates to the Slave. Imagine a victim is threatened with retaliation for daring to accept a report by a third party.(Goldstone Report).
The Israeli government sees the Palestinian Authority as nothing more and nothing less than a fig leaf and a smoke screen to allow them to continue a creeping genocide of the indigenous people of Palestine.
Let's hope that the better side of Obama takes over and he starts applying the same standards and same rules to friend before foe. The Force of Right must prevail over the Right of Force.
The Oslo accords and the resulting Palestinian Authority did a lot of damage to a future just and stable peace, as well as a viable and independent Palestinian state.
The farce that was the "interim agreement" allowed Israel to continue building colonies while delaying "final status" talks, citing excuses tantamount to "the dog ate my homework".
At this point, the Palestinians are better off disbanding the PA and demanding to be equal citizens in one state with equal rights.
Obama's duplicity, and therefore by association the US government's duplicity going on several decades now, is painfully obvious.
Obama holds nuclear non-proliferation talks at the UN Security Council, hammers Iran and calls for more sanctions, then turns around and gives Israel assurances to cover up its nuclear arsenal.
Obama holds a few meetings and later a summit concerning the peace process, asks Israel to halt colonial expansion, then turns around and caves in to Nyahoo's and the lobby's pressure. The icing on the cake doesn't come until later when Obama states that a settlement freeze was NEVER a precondition for peace talks, and commences to do Israel's bidding by condemning the Goldstone report while claiming it to be a hindrance in the path of the peace process. All the while, the real obstacle is Nyahoo's policies, ideology and government.
I don’t even want to get into Obama’s stance and actions regarding climate change. Evidently, Olympic games are more important.
Do as we say, not as we do. The US would like it if all nations except the US abolished their armed forces. Then they could really "Police" the world.
Sadly, Farbod is fortunate that few people will read his comment. Otherwise he would be removed from his job, disappeared, or renditioned.
"Can we ever look to a day when the US Amira Hasses can write truthfully and daringly about events of such crucial significance in the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post?"
Farbod's question here is really key... Were the reportage freely allowed & encouraged on actual realities of what's happening in Gaza or in Iran, just like the fleshed out realities of the coup story in Honduras, the insurance lobbyist control of the Health Care debate or any number of stories that might expose the revisionist-historian hypocricies of and tremendous harm done the people and planet by the powerful, that 'change we can believe in' that Obama was always conjuring up would be demanded so strongly that significant change couldn't help but occur on a massive, uncontrollable scale. Which is what the MIC so fears... the loss of its control. Power over the media is huge and recognized as huge, which is why there's been such consolidation and gradual edging out of all 'inconvenient truths'. Such truths are perceived as threatening to the status quo, which, by definition, abhors nothing so much as change. Trouble is, both the intended and unintended consequences of the uncontrollable changes that occur ANYway (since the omnipotence dreamed of in power's hubris cannot exert every control over vast fields of reality ignored, denied or repressed) can occur unpredictably and exponentially in detrimental ways for the powerful and powerless alike. Which is what makes the role of journalism so crucial, worrisome and exciting for humanity in this era of media babel.
Fortunately there are truthtellers that rise up even as their mentors and colleagues are silenced, no matter how sealed tight a barrier to inconvenient truths money can buy. That's the power of truth over the power of expert PR. And if there are reporters at the NYT and WP who can't manage to summon up the gumption to break through the barriers there, those with the passion for truthtelling who have sufficient initiative and creativity will, or break out of their suffocating environment to do so elsewhere. I can't imagine truth-seeking/telling disappearing off the face of the planet and being replaced utterly by pablum in service to corporate interests, even though at times that does indeed seem to be the trend. We are an evolving species in many spheres and the respect for reality and hunger for transparent news of it seems unlikely to be trumped with finality by such stupidity.
Kudos to Faramarz Farbod and to CD for keeping some of that transparency alive.
We'll sit on our fat American asses and do nothing to change all this bullshit! Americans have been hypnotized by gadgetry. Rather than scheming and organizing in cafes and public spaces, we sit staring at the baloney the internet offers, while the media lies, the government plunders the world, etc.
But, Oh! I have so many Facebook friends, and I think I need to Tweet, and Wow, all the new tEEVEE shows coming out this fall is soooooo cool....
Say adios to freedom, sheeples...