Very Public Genocide
Uri Avnery at Counterpunch gives a good analogy of the human shield lie:
"Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war.
Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured."
* * *
Gaza is one of the most densely populated few square miles on the face of the earth, although Israel seems determined to change that. Not only is it impossible to target Hamas apart from families, neighbors and innocent bystanders, it seems anyone objecting to an invasion by an occupying army is considered fair game to be obliterated.
Avnery explains the carnage, justified by the "human shield" myth, as a matter of public relations:
"A top priority for the [war] planners was the need to minimize casualties among the soldiers, knowing that the mood of a large part of the pro-war public would change if reports of such casualties came in. That is what happened in Lebanon Wars I and II.This consideration played an especially important role because the entire war is a part of the election campaign. Ehud Barak, who gained in the polls in the first days of the war, knew that his ratings would collapse if pictures of dead soldiers filled the TV screens.
Therefore, a new doctrine was applied: to avoid losses among our soldiers by the total destruction of everything in their path. The planners were not only ready to kill 80 Palestinians to save one Israeli soldier, as has happened, but also 800. The avoidance of casualties on our side is the overriding commandment, which is causing record numbers of civilian casualties on the other side...."
But I don't think that's an adequate explanation for this blood orgy, so blatant, so balls to the wall with murderous frenzy that claiming Ehud Barak, in his moral insanity, can't see how the world would be repulsed at the destruction. On the contrary, I believe that along with keeping Israeli casualties to a minimum the sheer horror is meant to stir world outrage, especially among muslim nations. It's designed to goad them into some action which will then be used as justification to expand the conflict into a much wider war.
Other reasons for butchering the palestinians are out there, like Israelis saving face after being punished in Lebanon in 2006. But the signs are all there that the little terror entity has far bigger plans than just ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Calling in their chips and having their congressional stooges vote overwhelmingly for their war, for one. Far from being a sudden hissy fit, the Gaza campaign was planned for a long time and was initiated by deliberately breaking the cease fire. the timing, just before Obama is to become president and may not be as supportive as the current criminals in office. Getting caught trying to pull false flag attacks to drag Lebanon into fighting. The curiously very public announcement that the US was going to move massive amounts of armaments to Israel. Provocative flyovers. And a sudden uptick in media emphasis on Iran, the golden prize the ziofascists have been drooling over for years.
If this is all means anything, it's that Israel is about to initiate anything and everything including world war in the next days and weeks, dragging this country into the abattoir with the full consent of the war pigs in government.
added - Flashback - Israel uses palestinian children as human shields in the West Bank. Looks like the tired fascist "projection" doesn't just belong to anti gay xtians who love cock in their spare time.
"Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war.
Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured."
* * *
Gaza is one of the most densely populated few square miles on the face of the earth, although Israel seems determined to change that. Not only is it impossible to target Hamas apart from families, neighbors and innocent bystanders, it seems anyone objecting to an invasion by an occupying army is considered fair game to be obliterated.
Avnery explains the carnage, justified by the "human shield" myth, as a matter of public relations:
"A top priority for the [war] planners was the need to minimize casualties among the soldiers, knowing that the mood of a large part of the pro-war public would change if reports of such casualties came in. That is what happened in Lebanon Wars I and II.This consideration played an especially important role because the entire war is a part of the election campaign. Ehud Barak, who gained in the polls in the first days of the war, knew that his ratings would collapse if pictures of dead soldiers filled the TV screens.
Therefore, a new doctrine was applied: to avoid losses among our soldiers by the total destruction of everything in their path. The planners were not only ready to kill 80 Palestinians to save one Israeli soldier, as has happened, but also 800. The avoidance of casualties on our side is the overriding commandment, which is causing record numbers of civilian casualties on the other side...."
But I don't think that's an adequate explanation for this blood orgy, so blatant, so balls to the wall with murderous frenzy that claiming Ehud Barak, in his moral insanity, can't see how the world would be repulsed at the destruction. On the contrary, I believe that along with keeping Israeli casualties to a minimum the sheer horror is meant to stir world outrage, especially among muslim nations. It's designed to goad them into some action which will then be used as justification to expand the conflict into a much wider war.
Other reasons for butchering the palestinians are out there, like Israelis saving face after being punished in Lebanon in 2006. But the signs are all there that the little terror entity has far bigger plans than just ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Calling in their chips and having their congressional stooges vote overwhelmingly for their war, for one. Far from being a sudden hissy fit, the Gaza campaign was planned for a long time and was initiated by deliberately breaking the cease fire. the timing, just before Obama is to become president and may not be as supportive as the current criminals in office. Getting caught trying to pull false flag attacks to drag Lebanon into fighting. The curiously very public announcement that the US was going to move massive amounts of armaments to Israel. Provocative flyovers. And a sudden uptick in media emphasis on Iran, the golden prize the ziofascists have been drooling over for years.
If this is all means anything, it's that Israel is about to initiate anything and everything including world war in the next days and weeks, dragging this country into the abattoir with the full consent of the war pigs in government.
added - Flashback - Israel uses palestinian children as human shields in the West Bank. Looks like the tired fascist "projection" doesn't just belong to anti gay xtians who love cock in their spare time.
posted by nolocontendere at 12:05 AM
4 Comments:
And I just loooovvvvveee the extreme impotence of the so-called UN Secretary General in calling for a stop to the carnage.
What a joke our "peacekeepers" have turned into.
greencrow
Actually, the US set the precedent and rules of the game (just as Isreal hoped it would), when it bombed Afghanistan for harboring Al Qaeda "terrorists" and went on to follow the same logic for bombing many a town and village in Iraq (and Pakistan).
While Palestinians and Lebanons may think of Hamas and Hezbollah forces as their best defenses against the IDF, Isreal and the US government still think of those orgs as 'terrorists'. Following the logic set by the US and the 'war on terror', they probly rationalize what they are doing to Gaza in much the same way; ie, Palestinians in Gaza harboring Hamas 'terrorists'.
After all, masses of innocent emn, women, and children didn't stop the US military, so why should it stop the IDF? But of course, the situation for the people in Gaza is much worse, as they have no where to run to.
It seems all institutions are set up now to be apologists for empire, and whine a tad to put on a show, greencrow.
Good to hear from you nick, I couldn't agree more.
Good to see yer still bloggin, nolo. I got in from the cold in October but i didn't get back online until 1/09. Got a nice new apt but it put me back deep in debt, so everythings a might tight, if ya get my drift.
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