There have been decades of photos of dead Palestinian women and children, and kids being beaten, humilated and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1.
None of this ever caused more than a raised eyebrow and a mild tut-tut from the western “liberal” Establishment. I can’t recall camera crews ever pursuing any zionist politicians down the street demanding that they use the word “condemn” of the latest Israeli atrocity.
The paroxysm of hatred in the political and media class, unleashed by a single day of the boot being on the other foot is instructive. It is particularly instructive in their near complete unanimity – what percentage of the discussion on broadcast TV or radio have you heard this last 48 hours given over to Palestinian or pro-Palestinian voices?
Yet it is very plain from social media that the public is by no means as unanimous in their support of Israel as are the political and media class.
But then the public are not bought and paid for.
Asymmetric warfare tends to be vile. Oppressed and colonised peoples don’t have the luxury of lining up soldiers in neatly pressed uniforms and polished boots, to face off against the opposing army in an equality of arms.
A colonised and oppressed people tends, given the chance, to mirror the atrocities perpetrated on them by their oppressor.
This of course feeds in, always, to the propaganda of the Imperialist. A paroxysm of resistance by the oppressed always ends up portrayed by the Imperialist as evidence of the bestiality of the colonised people and in itself justifying the “civilising mission” of the coloniser.
Thus the “Indian Mutiny” became a Victorian tale of rape and murder of British women and of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Thus the Mau Mau were evil butchers, and the IRA were terrorists, which is the modern term of art for those resisting evil and foreign rule.
The Israeli Ambassador to the UN yesterday described the Hamas fighters as “animal like”. This of course is not true. They are people, but people who have been crazed by unbearable levels of injustice and oppression.
I am extremely sorry for all those who die, as in all wars. I am sorry even for the deaths of individual Israeli soldiers, and more so for all the innocents who died and are now dying.
But I will not condemn Hamas.
For this I do not even need to delve into the backstory of Hamas’ initial sponsoring by Israel to split Fatah. They have grown well past that. I do not condemn Hamas because the resistance of the Palestinian people is a reflex response to their slow genocide.
Yes it is an inchoate and violent response. Of course I wish it did not have innocent victims.
The people I do condemn are the political class internationally who, with one voice, put out statements supporting “Israel’s right to self-defence”. A right they grant to the oppressor but deny to the oppressed.
Those are the people who need to be condemned.
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The Duran have this afternoon provided a valuable discussion of the current geopolitical dynamics and the possible forthcoming intervention and peace proposals from the BRICS community:
“BRICS prepare peace plan as Gaza evacuation looms” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDYB1mTWiSY
Reports tonight have the Israeli military estimating there’ll be 100,000 dead Gazans as a result of their upcoming armoured assault.
Our news mention UNICEF message about 447 Palestinian kids and 248 women killed by Israel in Gaza
https://x.com/UNICEFmena/status/1712699693543592194
Calm before the storm though.
They say they intend to “effect permanent change” in Gaza. Talk of killing every fighting age man in Gaza they find; whether armed or not, surrendering or not. Sick stuff , worse than anything Libya’s Gaddafi had planned, and the west (NATO) used his speech as a pretext for intervention of course.
Tonight, tonight, 🎶🎼🎶
What reports can you report
Please define “armoured assault” and check spelling
In the last few hours, two perfect examples of the twisted values and double standards of the corporate media:
Firstly, Marina Hyde in the Guardian, who on the one hand correctly describes Hamas’s attack on Israel as an “unspeakable monstrosity”, but at the same time dismisses the mayhem in Gaza as merely a “humanitarian crisis” without any reference to the Israeli F16s raining down bombs on children in densely populated urban areas.
Then there’s Tom Swarbrick on LBC explaining how Israel F16 pilots can’t be described as terrorists because their intention is not to kill civilians, thus absolving them from any responsibility for the collateral deaths which inevitably follow trom bombing civilian areas – a policy which is as morally degenerate as the actions of Hamas last Saturday.
A lie is half way around the world before the truth even gets its boots on.
Too late – the damage has been done and she knows it.
“The CNN journalist Sara Sinder who announced on air that “babies and toddlers were found with their heads decapitated” has now apologised for spreading false information.
“I needed to be more careful with my words and I am sorry….We were misled.””
https://nitter.net/Lowkey0nline/status/1712865001776591022#m
If the threatened clearance of Palestinians from Gaza comes to be, it will mean that grand and great grandchildren of those who were victims of Nakba1, will be cleared from the Gaza that became their refugee ancestors home in 1948.
And there are some who say that ethnic cleansing is a dying art…_
I read but do not post comments on the M o A ” Bar”
Some of you do some of ex posters do and some are like me reading!
I am giving a drink to fantastic comments in this Scottish Pub!!! Lagavulin is not included 🙂 apart to some which I want mention by name.
MOD’ s are having a dinner!
Hamza Yusuf has not been congratulated for his honourable condemnation of Israeli targeting of civilians in Gaza.
Yes, he has an interest because of his in-laws, but he hasn’t been mentioned by any of the ScotNats here, let alone praised.
Shame on you ScotNats, one and all…_
Humza Yousaf is to the Scottish indy movement, what Mahmoud Abbas is to the Palestinian people: a treacherous b*stard.
Saudi is halting its normalisation of relations with Israel, following discussions with Iran. Even Saudi has some sort of standards when it comes to human rights …
I used to be against Israel but after “Arab asylum seekers” have moved in rent free next to me – I have changed my tune. It’s not a race issue, it’s a cultural issue. They are loud, screaming at night, banging doors, working illegally cash in hand and have no desire to integrate into western society. So now I support and trust Israel more.
I’m sure there are many uncivilised Israelis – but not from the people I have met so far in comparison to those coming from an Arab culture. Look at all the drug dealers in BMWs driving around London.
Can I ask how you know they’re drug dealers, John? Are you one of their customers?
It was interesting to note that the Israelis counted 1,500 dead Palestinian fighters on Israeli soil.
Not one wounded. Not one taken prisoner. All dead.
Hmmm. It must be the first battle in History in which there were no wounded, only dead, though not the first in which no prisoners were taken.
Manchester England, arrested for draping himself with a Palestinian flag 3 days ago.
https://twitter.com/j0keon/status/1712150029987692996
“The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1.”
Anyone have a source for this? OCHA database is closer to 20 to 1 since 2008
This comment will no doubt disappear into shuffling crowded comments space, but as a prominent campaigner for ScottishPSC I have put together a series of in-depth articles on Israel/Palestine. This one’s about HAMAS: https://shadowlightblog.substack.com/p/hamas-gaza-and-the-new-world-order