Tag Archives: Israeli bombing in Gaza

The two lying narratives on Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing

Gazans grieving July 31 2014

There are two media narratives on Israel’s Operation Ethnic Cleansing, both holding considerable sway. They’re not competing narratives–except in idiocy. The first is that of hardline Zionism: Hamas is using Palestinian children as human shields. Reporters on main stream media treat this like a serious matter for investigative journalism & interview dipshits like the Miami-born Israeli ambassador to the US who claims this arrant racism is the gospel truth. It takes about five minutes of searching on the internet to learn Israel has been claiming this rubbish for several years to justify it’s genocidal military policies. It comes straight out of IDF press releases & reports from the official Israeli propaganda office (the Israeli Foreign Ministry).

It has been exposed as war propaganda by too many sources to count, including UN reports, investigations by Human Rights Watch, & international journalists. In fact, UN reports document that it’s Israel that uses Palestinian children as human shields & accuses Israel of torturing & abusing Palestinian children in the Israeli gulag, including with solitary confinement & threats of sexual assault. These are not Hamas accusations. They come from UNICEF & the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in reports issued just last year.

So why aren’t CNN & the rest of media interviewing the UN investigators who issued those reports or the independent journalists? Why are they talking to the blowhard from Miami who claims Biblical roots in Palestine & runs interference for ethnic cleansing? Why are they quoting Netan-psycho-yahu who said the difference between Israel & Hamas is “We use anti-missile systems to protect our civilians. They use their civilians to protect their missiles”?

The second narrative is that of hardline Zionism with a facade of noblesse oblige: liberal Zionists. Liberal Zionists believe in a Jewish-only state even though many of them haven’t been to temple since their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. But contrary to their political views on many other questions, they accept the cynicism & elitism of Zionism.

Jodi Rudoren, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the NY Times, wrote the manifesto for this genre of war apologetics in a July 20th article entitled, “In Gaza, Epithets Are Fired & Euphemisms Give Shelter.” A committed Zionist, she tries to portray Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza & Hamas self-defense as having moral equivalence & equal blame. She wants Israel & Palestinians along with their supporters to cease the exchange of dehumanizing invectives. Apparently many Israelis object to Palestinians calling them monkeys & apes. We think such invective inappropriate too. Those who sit in lawn chairs cheering on ethnic cleansing are much more appropriately called psychos.

But the jig is up when Rudoren ends her article by quoting Michael Oren, the New York-born Israeli ambassador to the US before the Miami bozo took over. Oren demurs from calling hateful, racist invective against Palestinians dehumanizing “Because that’s a very loaded word–it’s benumbing. People are just, they don’t show it, but they’re in a daze.” And he went on: “In classic dehumanization scenarios, whether in Nazi Germany or in Rwanda before the genocide, you refer to the enemy as rats & cockroaches, & that enables you to kill them on a large scale. We’re not calling Palestinians cockroaches.” Still, he added, “It’s very difficult to feel compassion for the other when you have rockets aimed at your family.”

Well how does our man Oren explain those psychos sitting in the hills of Sderot, Israel cheering on ethnic cleansing? Is that what he calls “benumbed”? And what about the hundreds of photos of Palestinians weeping as they search rubble & morgues for the remains or bury their beloved?

When we hear that Palestinians use their children as human shields, we know we’ve entered another time warp–a time warp of time past & time present. Time past because such a repugnant imputation is straight out of 19th century colonialism where colonized peoples were considered less than animals; & time present in neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism where nothing is sacred, human life is expendable, & racist hatred is the ideology that prevails.

It cannot be said strongly or often enough: there is no redemption for Zionism, no part of that ideology is salvageable any more than the ideologies that justified Jim Crow in the US or apartheid in South Africa.

Grief is a private thing but Israeli war propaganda has made it political. We apologize for intruding on the mourning of the Abid Raboh family who lost a child when Israel bombed the UN refugee center near Jabaliyah yesterday. Nineteen others also died when (as the captions says) “what appeared to be four Israeli artillery shells hit the compound.” It could be the evil fairies but then again, if you do a forensic investigation of the massacre site, you’ll see Israel & “Made in the USA” written all over the artillery shells.

Palestine will be free. Long live intifada. Take it international in solidarity by joining one of the hundreds of protests across this globe, by honoring the economic & cultural boycotts of Israel.

(Photo by Sergey Ponomarev/NY Times)

The children of Gaza are bringing Israel down

Gaza- crying boy July 28 2014

The children of Gaza are bringing Israel down. It isn’t that Israel went too far this time in bombing homes & schools & targeting children; that’s always been it’s policy. Zionist military strategists call it “mowing the lawn”–which explains the constant bombing over Gaza punctuated by several-day murderous sieges–all part of Operation Ethnic Cleansing. But this time Israel got caught for all the world to see. They can pay punks & professional psychos to fill the internet with hasbara lies & they have mainstream media covering their asses–since the role of media has always been to peddle propaganda to support war. But they can’t control social media or stop the gruesome images of death & sorrow in Gaza from going round the world.

Last week, Israel bombed a school in Beit Hanoun which the UN was using to shelter Palestinians bombed out of their homes. Israel did not deny the attack but only repeated that Hamas used schools for storing & launching rockets. While leaders of Israel are high on the smell of jet fuel & genocide & blinded by political support from the US & Europe, Zionist media of the most right-wing & even crackpot sort must have understood the tsunami of revulsion that bombing small children would evoke. They understood they would need to counter videos & photos from horrified reporters showing small children with massive shrapnel injuries from DIME weapons & flechette shells used by Israel.

It says everything you need to know about Netan-psycho-yahu & Israeli leaders that crackpot Zionists knew enough to lie & appear the voice of reason by claiming Israel did not bomb the school. Rather, they reported, a misfired Hamas rocket hit the school & maybe an errant Israeli shell from ground fighting in the area. But how does that explain the shrapnel wounds? There’s no need for contention here; any forensic investigation of the school & shrapnel injuries that killed 16 Palestinians & critically injured others would quickly show the source of those weapons. And they would have Israel & “Made in the USA” all over them.

But The Washington Post, indistinguishable now from the public relations department of the Israeli military, reports Israel denies bombing the school & “released a grainy, 26-second aerial video” proving it. Well that’s about as convincing as those evil fairies flying in from outer space that play such a role in media reports of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Media tries to hedge truth in hundreds of photos of utter devastation in Gaza by captioning ‘medics, or police, or witnesses in Gaza’ claimed the carnage was caused by Israeli airstrikes. Who the hell do they think they’re fooling!?

This distraught little boy is waiting in the emergency room at a hospital after being injured when Israel bombed the UN shelter. The death warrant of Zionism is signed by the tears of this small boy & the shrapnel that killed & injured so many others. Zionism can bend over & kiss its hasbara goodbye.

(Photo by Carolyn Cole/LA Times)

Between Israel and Palestine you can’t have it both ways

Gaza political art July 27 2014

Liberal Zionists (those who want to believe a Jewish-only state has some relationship to democracy) & who support the murderous assault on Gaza keep wanting to change the subject to Syria & they chide us: ‘If you’re so concerned about justice, what about Syria? Why no opposition to Assad’s regime? Palestine is small potatoes.” So why does Palestine matter? Why have hundreds of thousands around the world risen up in thunderous defense of Gaza? Because for 66 years they stood alone & undaunted against two of the mightiest military arsenals in the world & never reconciled themselves to apartheid or expropriation. They are not just a symbol of defiance against tyranny. A victory for Palestine would cut the Gordian Knot of colonialism in the Middle East & release the energies of revolution against tyranny of every kind around the world. Long live Palestinian intifada! Take it international! Palestine will be free. (Political art from the Peanut box)

No this is not damage from a Hamas rocket in Israel; this is Gaza City

Gaza City rubble July 26 2014

You wouldn’t think even the inventive minds of hasbara agents could hedge on this one, would you? This is the landscape of the Shuja’iyya residential neighborhood in Gaza City that Israel blasted into smithereens this week ostensibly to take out tunnels & rocket launchers. Of course nobody with half a brain & an ounce of decency buys that. There are dozens & dozens of these kind of scenes all over Gaza but captions still hedge with comments like, the area “was reportedly heavily damaged by shelling & airstrikes.” You think!?

The UN is cooking up another investigation for after the carnage ends to cover Israel’s ass for war crimes while Amnesty International claims the jury is still out on war crimes. God knows where Human Right Watch stands on this. They’re probably vacationing in the Bahamas so they don’t have to bear witness. They all belong to the “see no evil, hear no evil” crowd. Perhaps if they go up to the hills of Sderot they can take a front row seat along with all the other psychos & try to gather data from there.

Support the Palestinians: grab a placard & join a rally, boycott their products, & support the cultural boycott of Israel

(Photo by Oliver Weiken/EPA)

Sometimes the simple things tell the truth

Gaza saving parakeets July 26 2014

Sometimes the simplest things are the most telling. The psycho-state of Israel has ceased fire for a 12-hour period & Israelis watching ethnic cleansing from the hills of Sderot can take a bathroom break now or check to see if dinner’s ready or catch up on the sports page.

Palestinians are returning to mountains of cement rubble to retrieve what they can from demolished homes.These young men in Beit Hanoun (the town where Israel bombed the hospital & refugee center yesterday) are trying to save the family birds who they found still alive. Not exactly the image of terrorists are they? But then who knew this stage of Operation Ethnic Cleansing would bring the truth all home for all the world to see?

Those who have eyes & see not & who have ears & hear not can stuff their cognitive dissonance. Playing stupid doesn’t cut it any more.

Support the economic boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729); support the cultural boycott, & join the hundreds of thousands around the world demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!”

(Photo by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

The historic moment of the beginning of the end for Zionism

Gaza flight July 23 2014

Israel has not ceased bombing or strafing Palestinians with illegal munitions like flechette shells & DIME weapons (which charcoal skin & sever limbs). But when this frantic binge of ethnic cleansing is halted by massive international opposition & revulsion at the savagery, Israel will stand more shamed & isolated than it has in its 66 years of ignominious existence. This is a historic moment signalling a historic reversal in the fate of Israel & Palestinians. Israel, reflecting political desperation & the dry rot of Zionism, went too far. And they did it after Palestinians organized an international economic & cultural boycott of Israel which exposed the truth of Israel & the justice of Palestinians behind the rancid Exodus myth created in film, song, & hasbara.

World politicians came late to the revolution but their actions are a sign worth noting: Sweden refused landing to the plane of Shimon Peres, the former paramilitary death squad leader now president of Israel; Chile has stopped trade with Israel; Ecuador recalled its ambassador to Israel; South Africa is attempting to expel the Israeli ambassador; the Brazilian ambassador to the UN & the “king” of Sweden & his wife appeared in public wearing the keffiyeh, the Palestinian scarf. To be frank, these gestures may be telling but they are wimpy & not the scale of solidarity these regimes are capable of mobilizing. What about public denunciations & explanations? What about embargoes on Israel? What about cutting off aid & military deals with Israel? What about telling the damn truth after decades of going along with the lies?

It is the tens of thousands of people around the world who almost spontaneously erupted in a massive expression of solidarity with Gaza who are creating this historic shift. Again it must be said, social transformation & Palestinian justice are a collective commitment, not a grandstanding operation. It isn’t some ambassador draping the keffiyeh around his neck that turned the tide, but the tens of thousands of men & women of good will who responded to the call of justice & in a thunderous international chorus demand “Stop the massacre of Gaza!”

We have not witnessed a phenomenon like this outpouring of international solidarity since opposition to the war in Vietnam. The media always gave itself too much credit for turning public opinion against the Vietnam War & misrepresented & failed to accurately report antiwar activity for the duration of the war & certainly never gave the Vietnamese their due. But the hundreds of photos flooding out of Gaza of unspeakable barbarisms do play a central role in undoing the Exodus narrative & affirming the historic claims of Palestinians. It is clear this is ethnic cleansing & not self-defense. No one can ever undo the damage of claiming Israelis are huddled terrified in bomb shelters when photojournalism shows them whooping it up over genocide on the hills of Sderot.

These women & children in Gaza City are fleeing from what they thought were safe buildings now being bombed by Israel. How do you undo this image? Even when media tries to temper the impact in their captions, they come out looking like jackasses covering for genocide.

Palestinian intifada has become international. Long liver intifada! Join a rally, join the economic boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729), support the cultural boycott of Israel.

And one last thing: to those who stand on the side in this struggle–shaking the naughty finger at both sides or chiding Palestinians for alleged terrorism–shame on you. Because in ethnic cleansing, there is only one side, the side of justice. And if you aren’t on it actively, you are in silent collusion. And that’s not too harsh a condemnation to make.

(Photo by Carolyn Cole/LA Times)

The sociopathology of Zionism

Sderot July 19 2014

And while Gazans grieve & have no place to run for cover, these Israelis continue to gather on hilltops to suck down sodas, chat with neighbors, & cheer as they watch their military carry out genocide.

This is the sociopathology of Zionism: a racist hatred so profound it can witness ethnic cleansing not just with equilibrium but elation. Those Israelis who stand against genocide are not on hilltops cheering; they are protesting & demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” Our deepest respect for those protesters.

Long live Palestinian intifada!

(Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

Israel targets children in Gaza

Gaza beach murders July 18 2014

The Israeli bombing of four small Palestinian boys playing ball on a beach & the forced evacuation of a hospital in Gaza certainly distinguish this monstrous siege of Israeli ethnic cleansing; we can only hope they don’t continue to scale new heights of barbarism. And the only thing that can stop that inevitability is massive public opposition.

The photo of the little boys lying mangled in the sand is irrefutable indictment of Israeli war crimes & still the UN & Human Rights Watch (HRW) don’t see the problem & continue to shake the naughty finger at both sides, refusing to distinguish between ethnic cleansing & self-defense.

When asked about the bombing of the little boys, Mark Regev, the spokesman for Netan-psycho-yahu, said “War is a terrible thing.” Banalities are his stock in trade & hopefully don’t indict the entire education system of Australia, from whence he came–unlike the Palestinians they’re trying to destroy who go back generations in the region. He claimed Israel doesn’t target civilians, which is really hard to maintain with a straight face since Gaza has no military of any kind. He claimed Israel doesn’t target children, but who does he think lives in those homes they’re bombing & what about the little kids on the beach who weren’t even four feet tall or more than 60 pounds? In response to interrogation, this smug racist punk said Palestinians are using their kids as human shields. This kind of tripe & toilet-bowl mentality is where racism & Zionist ideology take you.

In his interview, Regev pointed to the endorsement of the Arab League for the cease fire scam Israel used to justify a more murderous escalation of the siege–as if that endorsement rendered it legitimate. Regev is of course not directing that to anyone who knows a damn thing about the Arab League but to those who know nothing. For heaven’s sake, Saudi Arabia has a seat in the League & they’re playing an active role in undermining all the Arab uprisings, most notably in Bahrain. Egypt is also a key member & it should not be forgotten is presently persecuting thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members, with which Hamas has political affinity. That political affinity may be regrettable but one can understand why Hamas would be extremely reluctant to accept their political initiatives with trust. Such trust would be arrant stupidity.

Many look to world governments & ask “Why aren’t they doing more to stop this massacre?” The answer is simple: the neoliberal predators are up to their eyeballs supporting it with loans, military weaponry, arms deals, & political proclamations denouncing Hamas terrorism. They’re not just invested financially in Israel but politically. They are enemies of justice, not allies.

So there is no one to turn to except men & women of good will who want to know the truth. Thousands of solidarity activists around the world are hitting the streets to demand “Stop the massacre in Gaza!” Massive public opposition telling the truth is Gaza’s best defense right now. People often think protests are ineffectual, that governments will do whatever the hell they want unrestrained by our actions. Tell that to the Vietnamese who recognized the power of public protest & held the international antiwar movement in highest regard.

{This is a photo of two of the young victims of Israeli bombing on the beach. Usually I think atrocity images demoralize more than inspire political activism. However, I make an exception with this photo because it indicts Israeli war crimes more powerfully than a mountain of condemnations. It’s another picture worth a thousand lies. The photo should be sent to the UN & HRW, not to goad their consciences–because they have none–but to indict them as collusive with genocide.}

May our little brothers Mohammed, Ahed, Zakaria, & Mohammed Bakr RIP. Our deepest condolences to their family for their loss & our heartfelt regret we are not yet strong enough to stay the hand of genocide.

Long live intifada!

(Photo by Tyler Hicks, a reporter from the NY Times who witnessed the murderous assault on July 16th & when interviewed acknowledged it would have been impossible for Israeli aircraft not to see it was just four small boys playing ball.)

The grief of Palestinian children and the strength of intifada

Gazan boy July 16 2014

The tarpaulin behind this little guy is hiding the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli bombers. Part of the Israeli embargo of Gaza includes building materials of all kinds, including cement. So rebuilding hundreds, probably thousands, of homes, buildings, & infrastructure bombed by Israel is a monumental project.

But where do they go when Israel has taken out their homes? Media keeps reporting about an abandoned school house without a stick of furniture that the UN is using to house the displaced. All 15,000 plus of them? Let’s get real!

The most horrifying damage of course are those killed & injured–injuries that mangle small children & adults alike–& the psychic scars in survivors, especially children who have no where to cower from tonnage of explosives & see loved ones & neighbors die.

Elie Weisel, the holocaust survivor & Zionist ideologue, has made a career for himself describing the psychological horrors endured & he wrote “I swore never to be silent whenever & wherever human beings endure suffering & humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Oh so true! So why is Weisel mute on the genocide in Gaza? Was that just self-serving melodrama? Is he so corrupted by Zionist racism that he does not recognize the slaughter of Palestinians as genocide?

It’s hard to read the face of this little guy; his emotions must include horror, grief, terror–& resistance. It’s too much to ask the children of Gaza to stand alone when they should be playing soccer, flying kites, & singing silly songs. They make our protests all the more important. Weisel may be blowing smoke but he’s absolutely right: this is the time to take sides & join the international chorus demanding “Stop the massacre in Gaza!”

(Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)