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The Truth Behind the Israeli Propaganda
I have, of course, been outraged at armed men boarding ships in international waters, killing passengers on board who attempt to resist and then forcing their ship to the hijackers' home port. I am, of course, talking about the Somali pirates who are preying on Western ships in the Indian Ocean. How dare those terrorists dare to touch our unarmed vessels on the high seas? And how right we are to have our warships there to prevent such terrorist acts.
But whoops! At least the Israelis have not demanded ransom. They just want to get journalists to win the propaganda war for them. Scarcely had the week begun when Israel's warrior "commandos" stormed a Turkish boat bringing aid to Gaza and shot nine of the passengers dead. Yet by week's end, the protesters had become "armed peace activists", vicious anti-Semites "professing pacifism, seething with hate, pounding away at another human being with a metal pole". I liked the last bit. The fact that the person being beaten was apparently shooting another human being with a rifle didn't quite get into this weird version of reality.
Turkish family protests that their sons wanted to be martyrs - something which most Turkish family members might say if their relatives had been shot by the Israelis - had been transformed into confirmation that they had been jihadis. "On that aid ship," a Sri Lankan texted me this week, "I had my niece, nephew and his wife on board. Unfortunately Ahmed (20-year-old nephew) got shot in the leg and now treated (sic) under military custody. I will keep you posted." He did indeed. Within hours, the press was at his family's home in Australia, demanding to know if Ahmed was a jihadi - or even a potential suicide bomber. Propaganda works, you see. We haven't seen a frame of film from the protesters because the Israelis have stolen the lot. No one has told us - if the Turkish ship was carrying such ruthless men - how their terrible plots to help the "terrorists" of Gaza were not uncovered in the long voyage from Turkey, even when it called at other ports. But Professor Gil Troy of McGill University in Montreal - in the rabid Canadian National Post, of course - was able to spout all that gunk about "armed peace activists" on Thursday.
I wasn't personally at all surprised at the killings on the Turkish ship. In Lebanon, I've seen this indisciplined rabble of an army - as "elite" as the average rabble of Arab armies - shooting at civilians. I saw them watching the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinians on the morning of 18 September (the last day of the slaughter) by their vicious Lebanese militia allies. I was present at the Qana massacre by Israeli gunners in 1996 - "Arabushim" (the equivalent of the abusive term "Ayrab" in English), one of the gunners called the 106 dead civilians, more than half of them children, in the Israeli press. Then the Israeli government of Nobel laureate Shimon Peres said there were terrorists among the dead civilians - totally untrue, but who cares? - and then came the second Qana massacre in 2006 and then the 2008-09 Gaza slaughter of 1,300 Palestinians, most of them children, and then...
Well, then came the Goldstone report, which found that Israeli troops (as well as Hamas) committed war crimes in Gaza, but this was condemned as anti-Semitic - poor old honorable Goldstone, himself a prominent Jewish jurist from South Africa, slandered as "an evil man" by the raving Al Dershowitz of Harvard - and was called "controversial" by the brave Obama administration. "Controversial", by the way, basically means "fuck you".
There's doubts about it, you see. It's dodgy stuff.
But back to our chronology. Then we had the Mossad murder of a Hamas official in Dubai with the Israelis using at least 19 forged passports from Britain and other countries. And the pathetic response of our then foreign secretary, David Miliband? He called it "an incident" - not the murder of the guy in Dubai, mind you, just the forgery of UK passports, a highly "controversial" matter - and then... Well, now we've had the shooting down of nine passengers at sea by more Israeli heroes.
The amazing thing in all this is that so many Western journalists - and I'm including the BBC's pusillanimous coverage of the Gaza aid ships - are writing like Israeli journalists, while many Israeli journalists are writing about the killings with the courage that Western journalists should demonstrate. And about the Israeli army itself. Take Amos Harel's devastating report in Haaretz which analyzes the make-up of the Israeli army's officer corps. In the past, many of them came from the leftist kibbutzim tradition, from greater Tel Aviv or from the coastal plain of Sharon. In 1990, only 2 per cent of army cadets were religious Orthodox Jews. Today the figure is 30 per cent. Six of the seven lieutenant-colonels in the Golani Brigade are religious. More than 50 per cent of local commanders are "national" religious in some infantry brigades.
There's nothing wrong with being religious. But - although Harel does not make this point quite so strongly - many of the Orthodox are supporters of the colonization of the West Bank and thus oppose a Palestinian state.
And the Orthodox colonists are the Israelis who most hate the Palestinians, who want to erase the chances of a Palestinian state as surely as some Hamas officials would like to erase Israel. Ironically, it was senior officers of the "old" Israeli army who first encouraged the "terrorist" Hamas to build mosques in Gaza - as a counterbalance to the "terrorist" Yasser Arafat up in Beirut - and I was a witness to one of their meetings. But it will stay the same old story before the world wakes up. "I have never known an army as democratic as Israel's," the hapless French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy said a few hours before the slaughter.
Yes, the Israeli army is second to none, elite, humanitarian, heroic. Just don't tell the Somali pirates.
86 Comments so far
Show AllA US Congressman one rep SHerman (democrat) , has called for all American Citizens who are on board any of these vessels and or are seeking to bring aid to GAZA to be tried under the US anti-terrorism laws.
These laws include the ability to have them arrested without charges, see Citizenship stripped away and face the death penalty. (See Padilla).
The representative indicated that the Citizens of Gaza were under no more "duress" then many Americans in US cities.
This IS Fascism folks. There still a few here who will pretend it not.
This would include of course a Veteran of the USS Liberty who was onboard one of the Vessels and Ann Wright and a smattering of other US Military veterans. You know those people that served to defend "Freedom and liberty"
Now Herman trancends idiocy.....what sort of warped nonsense is this and how many people actually believe her? Gaza today shares much with the Warsaw Ghetto of the 1940s, including disproportionate attacks by those who lay the siege on those who try to allieviate their own suffering. And who pray tell were those who suffered at the hands of the occupiers in Warsaw? Oh but forgive me, any crticism of Israeli empire bulding is anti Jewish including when it comes from the likes of Goldstone et al.
If one adds up all the assaults on our Constitution, especially concerning surveillance and habeus corpus, in which the "neocons" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) have been in the forefront, and then you consider what "hate crimes legislation" really means, and that one prominent "neo-con" Senator wishes to revoke the citizenship of any who are charged with "terrorism", you come to understand that these folks do not scruple trashing our Constitution and nation in order to favor their first citizenship, Israel. They are beginning to resemble a fifth column.
Tony Vodvarka
In which our current president is an enthusiastic member.
After decades of Zionist propaganda glorifying Israel, the self-proclaimed "island of democracy" in the mid-east, it would be hard for the average American to understand that Israel is a racist and fundamentalist nation. I visited an Isreali home in 1992 and my Israeli/American acquaintance shocked me with the information that he needed an insurance policy for burial at sea to live in Israel. He was a Zionist, he owned a coop and lived in Israel but as a reform Jew, he could not be buried in Israel, a right reserved only for the othodox. One need not wonder that such a fundamentalist society places little value on non-Jewish life.
Tony Vodvarka
More enlightened thinking from the racially purified society:
...This shocking documentary ('Sentenced to Marriage') exposes the Kafkaesque process of divorce for women in Israel where secular law does not exist, and divorce is dealt with according to archaic and fundamentalist orthodox Jewish law. Filmmaker Anat Zuria, maker of the award-winning Purity, gained rare access to the rabbinical courts to follow two women caught in the demoralizing legal labyrinth. Though husbands can live with other women and even withhold child support, wives are forbidden contact with other men. In some cases, these very modern, independent and well-educated women are forced to buy a divorce from their husbands for huge sums.
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c660.shtml
The author of Apartheid Israel, which exposes the legal charades used to maintain a supremacist society, Uri Davis had to go to Cyprus to get married in a secular manner.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qxo55svQBNUC&printsec=frontcover
strange though, that knowledge of 'fundamentalist' muslims is common............
thank you for the links................
The democratic party is dominated by zionist thugs that would sell America down the river to protect Israel and who use disgusting tactics against anyone who dares to differ from them.
Bring America Back !!!!...........!!!!...They already have ! Obama, Clinton and Rahmbo are all worshippers at the financial altars of AIPAC !!!! AIPAC calls all the shots in the MidEast and in Wash. DC !!!
Dead right, TK!
Beating and killing unarmed people has never been more fun or profitable than it is today in America, Isreal or other democracies in the world. In the words of Bro' Mel: " Prayer has killed more people in the history of the world than any other known disease. " Fisk is good but, please, Robert don't let the takeover of military and private armies by religious lunatics off the hook. They are the problem.
Robert Fisk knows the mid-east like no one else in the western world. You can bet that when he condemns Israel, he does not do so from a lack of up close experience. This is the kind of truth that the middle class seeks to avoid at all cost. Comfort, safety, and conformity are the refuge of the "well-to-do". To awaken to their complicity in the horrors being committed in their name would just be to disturbing and inconvenient.
Bring America Back !!!! ....Contemplate This:
***It is 4 AM, pitch darkness; you are onboard a peace
boat flotilla floating to a blockaded GAZA fully expecting to be peacefully blocked from entering. Middle of night, well out in international waters, most onboard passengers probably sleeping. End of mission.!
Start of good world publicity on the shameful plight of Gaza.
***Suddenly, from shipside and from overhanging Helicopters Fully equipped commandos are storming your boat==again in pitch darkess, without warning, and in utter surprise.!
Are you supposed to immediately cower, lay down, and make
an instant assumption that there is an ongoing paintball game in progress. Is this by any stretch, how any human would behave in the face of startling, overwhelming shock and awe ????
****NO, the truth is as still hanging in mid-air on the big print of Commondreams headliner: Flotilla Dead Victims Were Shot in their Heads at Close Range !!!! Proof of Autopsy. The Dead speak to us from their graves. The Truth !
****This was even more than the 2008 Zion Genocide at Gaza, this was overt Assassination on the high seas==forget about the Piracy aspects of it, it was killings on the Flotilla !
I have asked this before and no response. You needn't, of course.
What in the world does "Bring America Back!!!!" mean? To what? Ronald Reagan's vision? "I am a Contra" and all that?
More trains and no cars (i am down with that!) I hate cars and trucks and driving. Avoid it at all costs. It is insanity.
The indigenous population that was genocided? That would make some sense.
Robber baron railroad tycoons? Jim Crowe? Slavery?
Vietnam war? Civil war? The Alamo? Union busting?
The good old days of Norman Rockwell where everyone looked really happy and caucasian and went to church on sunday and their sons were in the boy scouts and the GI bill got everyone a split level house and 2.5 children?
The cold war and fighting the Godless communists?
I honestly don't get it.
Or, you can feel free to ignore this post.
Ozzie and Harriet.
I think the "bring America back" folks would be angry no matter what happens. They're just angry. And it has everything to do with their lives. So they dream of an America that never was, one which they can never regain. Blaming "liberals" for not having it.
Nostalgia can be a poison among Conservatives.
**I attempted a small explanation just above you there Quinty.
**and thanks for the potion lotion needed to make bad on neocons.
**Usually the case is not having time to go back to see if commentary
has popped up on my post--not intentional ignoring of your opinion at all.
**Actually, one of the Repubby candidates or war cheerleaders has adopted that
slogan, so I really need to drop it or change it. I forget if its Huckaby;
Gingrich; Beck; or Morris !!!!
**If I were King, I would bring back Camelot--JFK, because after him we have
endured LBJ; Reagan; Nixon; Carter; "W", and now our Liar Savior Ombama !
Clinton may have been an exception when we enjoyed a great economy, no wars,
global popularity, and an eloquent speaker. (Notwithstanding his personal quirks)
**Hope this helps-- readytotransform thanks for the question, no slight intended,
and I am late for church. May the force be with ya !
Thank you for responding, TruthKnoller!
I am surprised one who is customarily aware
seems unaware that the clintons are reagan
'democrats'...which makes them basically
scum as far as I am concerned...if that the
characteristics of their time in office were
as you say; it was an anomaly.
I never worshipped the kennedys, they were
exceptional only in their conspicuous naivete...
thinking they could cross the rockefellerians
and Live...Ha Ha that is why the bushes were
invented , to extinquish the outliers, those
unfortunate enough to believe their own myth.
the whole fifty year period was preparation
for the "reality" that they now 'construct' for us,
and we, sheep that we are, we analyze it and
the masses go about their not so merry way,
ignorant and oblivious.
The phrase "Bring America back!" intones the attitudes of the U.S. Constitution and the Enlightenment: "Freedom, Equality, Solidarity" - "Unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" - "All men are created equal" - "Peace, Love and Fairness", "Be to others as you'd have them be to you" and other such phrases of the Humanist tradition.
It's never been fully realized, but neither has it been pushed all away. The Humanist tradition in the USA has been a fluctuating phenomenon of spiritual attitudes and mental perceptions, creating a host of practical realities. Now it appears weaker than ever before. Maybe that brings the humanist values back into sharper focus.
To "Bring America back!" would thus be to manifest better an enduring ideal that's never before been completely produced - or strengthening the practical conditions reflecting that ideal.
bring america back - you may get a refund.
We do not seek to bring back a world that once existed, we want to bring into existence the world we were taught existed.
Very well put.
I too hate nostalgia ctrl-z. I hate dwelling on the heroics and myths of the past. It usually favors the winners and the powerful. I agree with you and with Langston Hughes. "Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be."
The same thing applies to Israel. It was a false dream in which the story of one type of injustice had to be ignored, and the story of another had to be curried and cultivated for decades. It was a "land without people for people without a land", except that it wasn't ever a land without people.
Joe
Just as an aside, it occurred to me that this has also become a battle between Peace Prize Nobel Laureates, Maguire on one side, Obama on the other. Wonder what the Nobel committee thinks about that? Or will it award the next prize to the one who brings peace between the two?
"There's nothing wrong with being religious."
Hmmm. I'm not so sure about that. Religiosity, not to be confused with a simple belief shared by many in the existence of a supreme being, seems to underlie a very significant portion of the problem.
Priestly, rabbinical and other "interpreters" of the supreme being's supposed will on earth bring an awful lot of diverse and highly questionable baggage to the party. So much so that one wonders whose "divine" agenda they actually serve -- not to mention books written by, for and about the "chosen people" and their godly real estate agent.
Fisk wrote a very large tome about the Middle East that I highly suggest. And for those wanting to know more about the Zionist State's genesis, I suggest this site as a starting point, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story448.html
Indeed, the more you dig, the worse the story gets. There can be no doubt that the Zionist state is a creation of the US Empire as the partition of Palestine would never have passed the UN without US bullying and its usual "dirty tricks." Those looking at history holistically will see how the creation of Israel meshes with the founding of the US National Security State. And of course, none of this is taught in US schools, not even at the university level. One must want to know in order to know actual post-WW2 history; it contians the roots of why we are where we are today.
Of course it suited u.s. interests and british interests. And the u.s. didn't want the jews after the war, as you probably know already.
And they saw the u.s. as the liberator, savior, who delivered them from the nazis. So they felt a deep debt to the u.s. Would do their bidding.
The relationship is absolutely symbiotic. Joe Biden. What a guy!
Re: Joe Biden and other Administration ideologues: it's pitiful when you realize that you, a mere peon in this oligarchical society, actually know more than the so-called leaders about the Middle East.
Some of the fiercest opponents to accepting concentration camp refugees into the U.S. were American Zionists, who wanted to force them to go to Israel.
Yes, the whole story is very complex, interwoven, somewhat like the founding of the USSR.
The Zionists can never live in Palestine; it must be named Israel. Whereas Jews don't mind if they live in Palestine or New Caledonia because the Judaism that defines them transcends space. Zionists can only exist in Israel; otherwise, they have no identity. They are trapped within their fortress, vilified by civilized humanity. The Afrikaners were no different.
Yup. A major aspect of the British to U.S. imperial transition that focussed very largely and for obvious reasons on the Middle East.
It should probably be added that, in many respects, it was a transition more nominal than real, although the U.S. liked to portray itself as an anti-imperial hero of the downtrodden at the time.
Yup, what we had on those ships were "terrorist peace activists." Not that the irony of such a characterization seems to have made any of Israel's unconditional apologists to even pause.
So if these terrorist peace activists came looking for trouble, then why didn't they carry conventional weapons with them? After all, if they wanted trouble then wouldn't they have prepared? Bringing at least a few guns and other military weapons with which to deal with soldiers?
But the unconditional apologists for the raid see nothing unusual about the "terrorist peace activists" grabbing pipes, knives (from the ship's galley?) and other improvised weapons to protect themselves - er, they would say "attack" - from the soldiers. Somehow the contradiction to them seems logical.
Why is it then, as Fisk points out, it is always civilians, great numbers of civilians, who die in these Israeli operations? Not Israeli soldiers or other soldiers, but civilians? It's the same old story. And as for the Orthodox settlers and their allies they see Arabs as nothing more than "lice." That attitude emerges in their words and actions. If the soldiers attacking the ship - was it necessary to shoot that American nineteen year old boy four times in the head to kill him? - see Palestinians and their allies in that way it easy to understand their actions. Shoot first, cover up later.
But the story keeps repeating itself. Some day, even in the United States, there may be real headway rebutting the Israel First propaganda machine. For the story line is growing thin.
Actually. I believe the Orthodox see all Gentiles and non-religious Jews as lice. Greetings all you fellow lice in the mange of the goyim dog. Normally, those people amuse me, but from what Fisk writes, they frighten me. Do they effectively have at least some control over the launching of those nukes that Israel posesses?
Poor little Israel, constantly on the defensive against a world filled with rabid anti Semites. It's okay, they tell us, to criticize Israel. Any fair minded person can do that. Just don't say anything bad about Israel, or ever speak up for Palestinian rights. Cross the line and you become an anti Semite or self hating Jew.
Alan Dershowitz laid a legal groundwork for the Israeli attack on the convoy, likening the Israeli blockade to the US blockade during the Cuban missile crisis when the Soviets attempted to bring more nuclear missiles into Cuba.
Only in a highly trained legal mind can a precedent be found by linking humanitarian aid to nuclear warheads. Listening to Dershowitz you would think the convoy had been another D Day landing.
Poor little Israel, so defenseless against a cruel world. With how many nuclear warheads of their own? 200? That, as any fifth grader should be able to tell you, is plenty of deterrent from attack. Just a few missiles from that arsenal should sway any Arab country from ever thinking of invading Israel.
So the Israelis cry that Hamas won't recognize them. So? Who cares. Would the US disappear into the dust if Canada decided we don't have a right to exist? We would simply merrily continue along. Just as Israel, with is enormous military, will whether Hamas recognizes them or not. But any excuse will do not to engage in genuine peace talks and the land grab continues.
What insightful things you have to say, Richsmith 2. It's good to know that the orthodox jews "amuse" you. Jews are people, too, which it seems to me many of you people here have forgotton, or have chosen to forget. While the actions of the Israeli government are deplorable, we need to remember that it's the government that is ultimately responsible for the actions of the state. How hopeless it seems we really are when people start in on the generalizations, such as the one penned by you richsmith2: "they," meaning orthodox jews, "frighten" you.
These threads seem to me pitiful anti-semetic trash peddled in the name of progressiveness and humanity.
The situation for Palestine is disgusting. It's been clear for a long time. Of course, your jew-bashing does nothing for the people of Palestine. It just makes you look like an asshole. Like an ignorant and pedantic prick.
Perhaps this type of resentment of the jews- i.e., people who many folks here believe look on non-jews as "lice" and "goyim dog[s]"- plays a role in the brutish tactics espoused by the State of Israel? Perhaps the situation's too complex for your latent and at times blatant anti-semitism to resolve?
Well, I guess Richsmith's comments touched home.
Religious extremists can, yes, arouse some amusement with their carrying on, until you think, of course, of all the pain they bring to the world. The Christian right has been known to arouse amusement too: look at Elmer Gantry and the movie made from the novel if you don't believe me. There many examples. Including Islamic fanatics as well as Jews. All religious extremists can appear amusing in their irrationality.
But when it comes to the settlements it is mostly Orthodox Jews who believe they have a god given right to steal that land from Arabs. And who supports them? The government. The Israeli government. You can't separate the two.
Yes, they may be amusing, like all religious fanatics, until you think of all the pain they cause. Like the Christian fanatics here in the US who go out of their way to make others miserable, abortion doctors, gays, illegal immigrants, etc.
Well, you cant have one without the other I think.....but I prefer a more realistic goal than you do.
By the by, there have been Jews in that region as long as there have been Arabs. The oldest synagogue in the world still standing is in Baghdad.....as is the oldest Catholic Church...
Are you really as silly as all that? My words are true, use a search engine and verify if you care to. Has no one ever told you that supercilious responses mark you and not the target of such childishness?
From the Babylonian period to the rise of the Islamic caliphate, the Jewish community of Babylon thrived as the center of Jewish learning. The Mongol invasion and Islamic discrimination in the Middle Ages led to its decline. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Iraq fared better. The community established modern schools in the second-half of the 19th century.
In the 20th century, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of the Iraq's independence, but the Iraqi Jewish community, numbered at around 120,000 in 1948, almost entirely left the country due to persecution following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Most of them fled to the newly founded state of Israel, and today, fewer than 100 Jews remain.
Now, if you can, explain WTF all this has to do with my original statement? The oldest Synagogue in the world is and remains in Baghdad, as does the oldest Catholic Church.
De-capitalize our biosphere!
Indeed!!!!!
Questions:
If someone is afraid of Jews, is he or she anti-semitic? Or is a person who is not afraid of Jews anti-semitic?
Also:
Is The Jewish State of Israel a reflection of the character of the Jewish people?
fwheel, are you afraid of Jews?
I'm afraid of rabid paronia run amok. Does this describe the state if israel? If it looks like a duck...
It surely does, wanked.....
It also describes the u.s. We just have more people on larger land mass. And drones on the border to the south.
I am also worried about living in ground zero -- the evil empire of the U.S.of BP.
After 911, we lost our civil rights and made torture legal. There is enough to go around, as far as dark sci fi is concerned.
"There's nothing wrong with being religious."
There is something wrong with being religious when the "god" worshipped is or is portyrayed as a genocidal sociopath who promotes theft and murder.
Most religious extremists believe that their "god" authorizes and condones, even demands violence to achieve whatever goal they seek. Fortunately for this world there are only a few nations in which these extremists run the govt. Israel is, sadly, one of those few.
It seems that, as Obama displays the same obeisance to the actions of Israel as has every President before him, that nation gets bolder and bolder. Unless we elect a President who actually has both the balls and the needs of the people of this nation foremost in his mind Israel's increasing violent bent may very well result in a nuclear response by that nation to Iran's apparent intent on nuclear weaponry to protect itself from Israel...What a paradox!
The USA must stand for peace and justice, we must rein in Israel and every other nation that acts with such disregard for bloodshed. It is long past time for this nation to end all trade and aid to Israel until such time as it proves itself willing to act within the umbrella of international law and common sense.
"a President who actually has both the balls and the needs of the people of this nation foremost in his mind"
I'll worry about my own balls and needs thankyouverymuch.
Hee...OK, you know what I meant.
mr. butterfield, i agree with you wholeheartedly.
and there, is the crux of the matter: religion.
have you ever heard of a war started by athiests?
there is no 'god' who can be worshipped or portrayed as a genocidal sociopath.
only brainwashed, dim-witted, egogtistical, self-serving individuals will tell you they are behaving according to their 'god's' will..................