News and Politics | February 04, 2009 | 30 comments

Gaza: Another massacre by Israel: The Propaganda From Israel

source: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/othercolumns/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1233394427566...

Image
WorldPeaceTV
As we woke up to the news of the latest Israeli assault on Gaza, we in the Arab-American community immediately thought that this would be another Israeli massacre of innocent civilians spun by Israeli propaganda and accepted by some in the U.S. media. Our thoughts were indeed proven correct as once again Israel's attack was justified as an act of self-defense against a serious "terrorist" threat. The story line presented to the public was that Israel had been attacked by Hamas "terrorists" with rockets, and thus it had no choice but to defend its civilians against these unprovoked, deadly assaults. This of course was a distortion of the truth and a misstatement of the facts, but the public was bombarded with these renditions in an attempt to engrain them in their minds.

The reality is that the Palestinians of Gaza were living under illegal occupation since 1967 and have been living under siege since Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal in 2005. They have no control over just about all aspects of their lives. Israel surrounds the Gaza Strip by sea, air and land, and controls all its border crossings, such that they can completely seal Gaza from the outside world, turning it into an open-air prison. Through this practice, Israel effectively prevented most goods from entering Gaza, creating what U.N. officials termed a "humanitarian crisis" even before this latest assault began. Gaza is one of the most densely populated regions in the world, and is an area where more than 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. As such, the siege Israel has been imposing on the Gaza Strip has created disastrous conditions.

Hamas began responding to Israel's siege, as well as its continuous killing of Palestinians in Gaza, by firing rockets into Israeli towns. However, what is almost never mentioned to the American public is that these are in fact home-made rockets that have very limited destructive capacities.

It is the firing of these rockets that Israel used as a justification to launch its latest assault, which led to widespread death and destruction. The U.S. government immediately jumped to the defense of Israel, and the mainstream media began constructing arguments to help justify Israel's actions. As images began coming in of the carnage and the massive civilian casualties, the information was spun in such a way to make the victim into the aggressor. Accusations began to disseminate that Palestinian civilians were hiding weapons for Hamas in their schools, homes and medical facilities, thereby justifying the targeting of these sites. And that Hamas was using its own people as human shields, thus placing the ultimate responsibility of the civilian dead and wounded on Hamas, rather than on the perpetrators of the attack. This would be enough to excuse the use of white phosphorous on civilian targets, in violation of international law. Of course these media outlets had no way of verifying such information as journalists were absolutely prohibited by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip. And the very idea that Palestinians would allow their children to be used as human shields implies that the "inferior" Palestinians do not value life as the "superior" Israelis do.
continued below
  1. groups:
    News and Politics,   Culture,   Gaza
  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Culture,  Current TV,  Current,  8 more
  3.     
    |

30 comments // Gaza: Another massacre by Israel: The Propaganda From Israel

  • ciregg222
    • 0
      ciregg222  

    • THIS SHIT IS STARTING TO PISS ME OFF !!

      "Hamas began responding to Israel's siege, as well as its continuous killing of Palestinians in Gaza, by firing rockets into Israeli towns"

      FIRING ROCKETS INTO CIVILIAN TOWNS

      FIRING ROCKETS INTO CIVILIAN TOWNS

      FIRING ROCKETS INTO CIVILIAN TOWNS

      FIRING ROCKETS INTO CIVILIAN TOWNS

      FIRING ROCKETS INTO CIVILIAN TOWNS

      -IS THAT ANY WAY TO RESPOND TO AN ECONOMIC SIEGE ???

      -WHAT IF MEXICO WAS FIRING ROCKETS AT THE UNITED STATES ?? WE WOULD PROBABLY NUKE THEM !!!!!!!!!

      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      WAKE UP YOU CURRENT IDIOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • 3 years ago
  • derek901
    • 0
      derek901  
    • Image

    • Latest Offerings from the Religion of Peace
      "He who fights that Islam should be superior fights in Allah's cause"
      Muhammad, Prophet of Islam

      2009.02.04 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - A brutal Taliban roadside bombing leaves six Afghanis dead.
      2009.02.04 (Mogadishu, Somalia) - The head of a radio station is gunned down by suspected Islamists.
      2009.02.03 (Ait Chaafa, Algeria) - Fundamentalists kill a security officer with a bombing attack.
      2009.02.03 (Swat, Pakistan) - Islamic militants assault a police post, killing three local officers.
      2009.02.03 (Orakzai, Pakistan) - Fundamentalists behead a local civilian.
      2009.02.03 (Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan) - One person is killed when an Islamic radical tosses a grenade into a rival mosque.

    • 3 years ago
  • derek901
    • 0
      derek901  
    • Image

    • Hamas - our bloodlust never stops....

      Gazans Describe Being Used as Human Shields by Hamas

      Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. The official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, reported Tuesday: "The hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks the Israeli town Sderot, a fact that turned it into an ideal military position for the Palestinian fighters, from which they have launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the last few years. Several of the Abd Rabbo family members described how the fighters dug tunnels under their houses, stored arms in the fields and launched rockets from the yard of their farm during the nights....One family member, Hadi (age 22), said: 'You can't say anything to the resistance [fighters], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs.'" (Palestinian Media Watch)

    • 3 years ago
  • derek901
  • UrbanGypsy
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  

    • While it is important for us to condemn any misuse of force by the Israeli military, we can not forget to realize that Palestinians have also exaggerated the "massacres" and oppression of the Israeli military.

      Check out this video and discuss. It was actually posted by derek901 the other day.

    • 3 years ago
  • Bren589
    • 0
      Bren589  

    • I want to see Israel and the American government face charges of war crimes. Israel committed these Murders and America made it very easy for them to do just that. commit murder of innocent men women and children. I can just bet if it were America that was in war, Israel would sit back and laugh at our dumb ass.. Peace

    • 3 years ago
  • CalgarC
  • Lola444
    • 0
      Lola444  

    • What they have done and continue to do is a crime against humanity. If only more people cared and stood up for the people who can't stand up for themselves.

    • 3 years ago
  • DouginLA
  • WorldPeaceTV
  • TheMasterPlan13
  • WorldPeaceTV
    • 0
      WorldPeaceTV  
    • Image

    • ah yes, waiting for the influx of propagandist sock puppets to call us racist, antisemitic, lier, etc etc. They just cannot stand the truth of what is happening to their beloved bent and criminal country.

      If they would come forward and spread a little intellectual conversation/debate like this site is all about, we may have a better chance to figure out how to "Fix" the WHOLE situation. They'd rather do the kindergarten thing and call names and inciting hate and discontent.

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • Gaza Invasion: Powered By The U.S.
      By Robert Bryce
      It's well known that the U.S. supplies the Israelis with much of their military hardware. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has provided about $53 billion in military aid to Israel. What's not well known is that since 2004, U.S. taxpayers have paid to supply over 500 million gallons of refined oil products -- worth about $1.1 billion -- to the Israeli military.
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21868.

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • Gaza Invasion: Powered By The U.S.
      By Robert Bryce
      It's well known that the U.S. supplies the Israelis with much of their military hardware. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has provided about $53 billion in military aid to Israel. What's not well known is that since 2004, U.S. taxpayers have paid to supply over 500 million gallons of refined oil products -- worth about $1.1 billion -- to the Israeli military.

    • 3 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • A Jewish state would not have come into being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that population. It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border areas and cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from which our convoys and our settlements were fired on. In other words, when Jews target and kill innocent civilians to advance their national struggle, they are patriots. When their adversaries do so, they are terrorists. It is too easy to describe Hamas simply as a 'terror organisation'. It is a religious nationalist movement that resorts to terrorism, as the Zionist movement did during its struggle for statehood

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
  • CalgarC
  • UrbanGypsy
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • US Aid: The Facts
      Israel and the US have a long-established special relationship. The US was the first country to recognise the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
      Israel is considered America’s closest non-NATO ally in the Middle East, a region that is geopolitically crucial to the US.
      The close relationship between the two states is reflected in the volume of aid Israel receives from the US. Since World War II Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US aid: from 1949-2006 Israel received more than $156 billion of direct US aid.
      Until 2003, Israel received approximately one-third of the annual US foreign aid budget. In 2005, the US gave Israel more than $2.6 billion in aid, a budget exceeded only by US aid to Iraq. By comparison, Jordan received $683.6 million, Rwanda received $77 million, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories received $348.2 million.
      In the past, a majority of the direct US aid to Israel was via US Economic Support Funds (ESF). The US publicly states that ESF are given in order to support stability in areas strategic to the US. However, the recipient government completely controls how it spends these funds.
      The US also lends money to Israel, but these loans are frequently waived before any repayments are made. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has estimated that from 1974-2003 Israel benefited from more than $45 billion in waived loans from the US.
      Direct US aid to Israel has significantly diminished since 1996 in order to reduce Israeli financial dependence on the US. Speaking to the US Congress in July 1996, Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared, “We will begin the long-term process of gradually reducing the level of your generous economic assistance to Israel.”

      Political support
      The US has a history of giving Israel direct political support. In 1972, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/10784 paragraph 74, which condemned Israeli attacks against southern Lebanon and Syria. In order to do this, the US used its

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • US aid to Israel violates US laws
      US aid to Israel, and the way in which this aid is used, frequently violates US law, policy and interests.
      Under US policy, financial aid to Israel should not be spent by Israel in the Occupied Territories. But Israel spends US aid with impunity.
      The US has a number of laws regulating foreign military aid and weapons' exports. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) states that "No assistance [ought to be given] to countries that violate human rights". But Israel systematically violates human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
      The 1976 US Arms Export Control Act (AECA) states that "Weapons purchased from the US should only be used for legitimate self-defense". But since September 2000 the Israeli military has killed more than 3,354 Palestinian civilians (as of 8 August 2007).

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • The history of Israel has been an experiment in whether the Jewish state can turn Palestine--which it covets as a possession it calls "the Promised Land"—and its people into "a defeated people," with their abnegation "sear[ed] deeply into the[ir] consciousness"(as General Moshe Ya'alon said) by unrelenting punishment.--

    • 3 years ago
  • Nephwrack
  • Hammerchop
  • WorldPeaceTV
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • WorldPeaceTV:

      This is not the founding document of the Jewish nation. This is Harry Truman's letter recognizing the State of Israel shortly after its inception.

      They say Truman recognized Israel so quickly because he was behind in the polls to Dewey. Most importantly he was behind in New York, where 85% of Jews were against him.

      After he recognized Israel, his popularity among Jewish voters skyrocketed, and helped him win New York's 45 electoral votes, helping him win the election...

    • 3 years ago
  • WorldPeaceTV
  • WorldPeaceTV
    • 0
      WorldPeaceTV  

    • At the end of it all, more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,500 wounded. The level of destruction in Gaza has shocked and appalled even those who were well aware of the intensity of Israel's bombardment. The horror stories coming out of Gaza are sure to move even the coldest of hearts. And yet, no one will be held accountable for this massacre. The Israeli perpetrators of serious war crimes will once again go unpunished as they will continue to be protected by our own government. Their military machine will be even further armed and strengthened with our own tax money. And soon Palestinians and their daily oppression will be forgotten until the next massacre, which will once again involve Israeli violations of U.N. resolutions and international humanitarian law. Is this the fate that we truly want for the Palestinians? It is a question that all Americans should ask themselves, as we come to grips with the fact that without a tough U.S. position pressuring Israel to end its occupation and racist policies, we are not likely to see an end to this conflict anytime soon.

      Chammas is executive director of the Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Ohio.

    • 3 years ago
more from News and Politics:
from the community

top videos