Tag Archives: US Foreign Policy

US Seeks Plausible Deniability as it Lights Middle East on Fire

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By Brian Berletic

Source: New Eastern Outlook

A surprising change of tone came from the Pentagon in early December. After weeks of devastating Israeli military operations inside Gaza, the US Secretary of Defense implored Israel to demonstrate restraint and concern for the civilian population.

The Hill in its early December 2023 article, тАЬIsrael risks тАШstrategic defeatтАЩ if civilians arenтАЩt protected, Pentagon chief says,тАЭ would report:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Israel risks a тАЬstrategic defeatтАЭ if it does not work to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza amid its war on militant group Hamas in the region. тАЬThe center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeatтАжтАЭ

The article also noted:

The Biden administration has issued caution that a campaign in southern Gaza must be carried out more precisely than Israel did in the first leg of the war.

After a century of American military aggression killing millions (mostly civilians) around the globe, everywhere from Southeast Asia to North Africa, across the Middle East and deep into Central Asia, is Washington finally finding a sense of humanity?

No.

All while US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attempted to convince the world that Washington cares about the Palestinian civilian population, the US continues flooding the Israeli arsenal with US-made weapons, enabling the campaign of indiscriminate brutality.

Bloomberg in its November 2023 article, тАЬUS Is Quietly Sending Israel More Ammunition, Missiles,тАЭ would report:

The Pentagon has quietly ramped up military aid to Israel, delivering on requests that include more laser-guided missiles for its Apache gunship fleet, as well as 155mm shells, night-vision devices, bunker-buster munitions and new army vehicles, according to an internal Defense Department list. 

The weapons pipeline to Israel is extending beyond the well-publicized provision of Iron Dome interceptors and Boeing Co. smart bombs. It continues even as Biden administration officials increasingly caution Israel about trying to avoid civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.

Israel could not continue its military operations and the subsequent destruction of GazaтАЩs civilian population without this US military aid. Israel also continues to enjoy US political protection within the halls of the United Nations.

Washington cannot even say it didnтАЩt know its weapons would be used by Israel to carry out this indiscriminate brutality because Israeli military representatives openly declared they would before their military operations into Gaza even began.

The Guardian in their October 10, 2023, article, тАЬтАШEmphasis is on damage, not accuracyтАЩ: ground offensive into Gaza seems imminent,тАЭ admitted:

IDF spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari made the startling admission that тАЬhundreds of tons of bombsтАЭ had already been dropped on the tiny strip, adding that тАЬthe emphasis is on damage and not on accuracyтАжтАЭ

Why then does Washington want the world to believe it has growing concerns over the nature of IsraelтАЩs military operations in Gaza, and more specifically, concerns regarding the brutality Washington is admitting is being used against the civilian population?

WashingtonтАЩs History of Pleading Peace While Pursuing War 

Washington wants plausible deniability. The US has for years followed a familiar pattern of attempting to covertly provoke nations and regions into conflict while publicly appearing to pursue reconciliation and peace.

For example, the US for years rhetorically supported the Minsk agreements regarding reconciliation within Ukraine, all while deliberately building up UkraineтАЩs military capabilities to empower and encourage the widening violence in eastern Ukraine and the eventual provocation of Russia to become directly involved in the conflict.

Likewise, the US officially maintains a тАЬOne ChinaтАЭ policy in regards to the status of Taiwan, recognizing it as an integral part of Chinese territory, yet unofficially Washington has done everything in its power to undermine the policy and provoke war with China over its efforts to support separatism in Taipei.

Officially, the US supports the two-state solution regarding Israel and Palestine. Unofficially, and sometimes quite openly, the US has supported the most extreme elements within both Israel and among Palestinians to ensure no such peace agreement is ever possible.

Israel as the Eager Provocateur 

The intention by Washington to use Israel as a proxy and provocateur within the Middle East is well documented within US government and corporate-funded policy think tank papers. One such paper, published by the Brookings Institution in 2009 titled, тАЬWhich Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran,тАЭ focuses on containing Iran politically, militarily, and economically. It lays out options for disarming Iran and for overthrowing its government through US-sponsored sedition or US military intervention. Beyond the US and groups the paper sought to use as proxies within Iran, the paper also cited Israel as an eager regional proxy that could attack Iran, triggering a regional war that the US could then appear тАЬreluctantтАЭ to join. The goal, of course, is to appear that the US sought peace, being left with no choice but war, all while a US-led war was the objective to begin with.

The paper notes:

тАжit would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the United States to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it. (One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of Iranian aggression.)

It also says:

тАЬIn a similar vein, any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international contextтАФboth to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offerтАФone so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down. Under those circumstances, the United States (or Israel) could portray its operations as taken in sorrow, not anger, and at least some in the international community would conclude that the Iranians тАЬbrought it on themselvesтАЭ by refusing a very good deal.тАЭ

Here, the paper admits Iran does not seek war, but could be provoked into one anyway, and notes that the US, or Israel, could then carry out military aggression against Iran having convinced the world they did so reluctantly.

Israel factors so heavily in US plans to provoke war with Iran, it was given its own chapter in the paper. Chapter 5 of the paper is titled, тАЬLeave it to Bibib: Allowing or Encouraging an Israeli Military Strike,тАЭ and notes how a war started by Israel could then be cited as a pretext for the US itself to join in afterwards, and most importantly, appear to do so тАЬreluctantly.тАЭ

Thus, as Israel continues destroying Gaza, targeting the civilian population deliberately, knowingly triggering unrest across the region which in turn is placing pressure on Arab governments as well as IranтАЩs to respond, the stage is being set for the possibility of wider conflict.

As Israel attacks, invades, and erases Gaza, it is also targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both the US and Israel have already carried out strikes in Syria. The goal is to trigger a conflict the US and Israel can portray as an act of aggression against either or both to then expand military operations across the whole region.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin posing as concerned for the Palestinian population all while arming Israel to continue indiscriminately brutalizing them, is being done to convince the world the US is pleading peace all while in actuality pursuing wider war.

The US used the proxy war in Ukraine to reorder Europe and reassert hegemony over the continent, rolling back European cooperation with both Russia and China. The US likely seeks to repeat a similar process in the Middle East where relations are improving within the region between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and between Syria and the rest of the Arab World. The region also collectively continues moving closer with Russia and China as well as toward multipolarism.

Only time will tell if the region continues successfully moving out from under generations of Western hegemony тАУ first under the British Empire and now under the US тАУ or if the US will successfully trigger regional conflict that can divide, destroy, and disrupt this process, just as it has in Europe.

The U.S. Is Complicit With Israel in the Genocide in Gaza

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By Steven Sahiounie

Source: Strategic Culture Foundation

A UN Security Council vote on December 8, demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war, failed because the U.S. used their veto power in the sole dissenting vote. The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, did not cast the damning vote, she sent her assistant instead, shielding herself from the disgust of the international community. Thomas-Greenfield is the direct descendant of African slaves held in America without citizenship or human rights, similar to the Palestinian people today.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani ahead of the December 8 meeting with the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee, including Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, JordanтАЩs Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Al-Safadi, EgyptтАЩs Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Maliki, and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan.

Some had envisioned the meeting between Blinken and the Arab ministers would take place prior to the UN vote, and the ministers could present their case as to why a ceasefire to save childrenтАЩs lives should be supported by the U.S., as initiated by Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres.

But, instead Blinken waited until after the U.S. voted no, and the ceasefire was an impossibility, to sit around the table with the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee, who all looked dejected, and hopeless. They all told Blinken they reject the U.S.-Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and called on the U.S. to assume its responsibilities and take the necessary measures to push Israel towards an immediate ceasefire. They also called for a lifting of the siege which prevents adequate amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

They voiced their rejection against attempts to displace Palestinians from Gaza, emphasizing on тАЬcreating a real political climate that leads to a two-state solution,тАЭ after over 75 years of brutal occupation of the Palestinian people.

However, their concerns have fallen on deaf ears. The Biden administration is stuck in the past, thinking itself immune to criticism from the international community, and the Middle Eastern countries which are key allies of the U.S., energy providers, and housing some of the largest American military bases in the world.

тАЬOur message is consistent and clear that we believe that it is absolutely necessary to end the fighting immediately,тАЭ Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said.

тАЬI certainly would hope that our partners in the U.S. will do moreтАж we certainly believe they can do more,тАЭ the Saudi minister added.

Before the vote

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said prior to the UN vote that if the resolution fails, it would be giving a license to Israel тАЬto continue with its massacre.тАЭ

тАЬOur priority for now is to stop the war, stop the killing, stop the destruction of GazaтАЩs infrastructure,тАЭ Safadi said adding, тАЬThe message thatтАЩs being sent is that Israel is acting above international lawтАж and the world is simply not doing much. We disagree with the United States on its position vis-a-vis on the cease-fire.тАЭ

тАЬThe solution is a cease-fire,тАЭ said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry,

What can the Arab world do?

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt are all staunch American allies. They host some of the largest U.S. military bases on earth. Most of them buy their weapons from the U.S., and all of them are consumers of very large amounts of products made in the USA. Saudi King Faisal shut-off the oil in support of the Palestinians in the past, but they would never do that now as they are locked into OPEC pumping schedules. But, the Arabs have other leverage they could use to move the U.S. position from blind acquiescence to Israeli orders.

Israeli plan to wipe-out Gaza

Mustafa Barghouti is a Palestinian physician, activist, and politician who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.

тАЬI am 100% sure that their main goal right from the beginning was the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, trying to push people to Egypt, a terrible war crime. And if they managed to do so, I think their next goal will be to try to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and force people to join them,тАЭ said Barghouti.

Barghouti added, тАЬIf they fail to ethnically cleanse all Gazans, I am sure that NetanyahuтАЩs plan B is to annex Gaza City and the north of Gaza completely to Israel and claim it as a security area.тАЭ

Concerning the prospect of Israeli troops remaining in Gaza, he said тАЬIsrael did that before and it didnтАЩt work. And there will be resistance to their occupation, which they cannot tolerate. And thatтАЩs why NetanyahuтАЩs goal really is to ethnically cleanse people. He wants to have military control of Gaza without people. He knows very well that Gaza with people is something that is unmanageable.тАЭ

Boycott Israel and the U.S.

The Arab world comprises about 300 million people. The populations are consumers of American products in huge amounts.

During World War II, a movement by American Jews called for a boycott of Nazi Germany. That was followed by a boycott of the Apartheid regime in South Africa that began in the late 1950s and is largely credited for raising awareness of the injustice in the following decades.

Purchasing Nazi products in Germany, or the Apartheid regime in South Africa, supported their crimes and gave their existence and activities a legitimacy that enabled them to continue.

In the past two months, ever since StarbucksтАЩ corporate office announced it would sue its union for posting a pro-Palestine statement, a strong boycott has left the company with a loss of nearly $12 billion.

The companyтАЩs support for Israel has caused a drop in sales while the company was hosting its Red Cup Day, an annual event where baristias hand out reusable holiday themed cups. Over 5,000 workers at 200 stores went on strike in solidarity with Palestine and worker rights.

Coffee drinkers are looking to switch to a local caf├й which does not support the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Across the Arab world, and around the globe, consumers are finding their power to confront the Israeli war which is supported by the U.S. Posters with the slogans of various products with drops of blood from victims of war and aggression, compared the act of drinking тАЬCoca-ColaтАЭ or тАЬPepsiтАЭ to drinking the blood of dead children.

American public is isolated, insulated, and far-removed from the war in Gaza, and often they have no idea what Europeans, South Americans, Canadians, Africans and Asians are thinking about the U.S. policy to support the genocide in Gaza and prevent a cease-fire.

Since 2005, the official BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) Movement has run a coordinated boycott effort to help Palestine, which called for тАЬa broad boycott of Israel and the implementation of divestment from it, in steps similar to those applied against South Africa during the apartheid era.тАЭ

In the U.S., many college campuses have passed resolutions to divest from these companies, bringing boycotts to a new, younger, more energetic generation. President Joe Biden is far out-of-step with these younger people, who in a recent poll showed 70% disapprove of BidenтАЩs handling of the war in Gaza.

Recent campaigns urging people to boycott companies such as McDonaldтАЩs, Disney, Starbucks, Coca Cola and others have gone viral around the world. In some countries, restaurants have removed Coca Cola and Pepsi products.

Many people globally have cancelled their Disney+ subscriptions, and young children have been heard saying they wonтАЩt eat McDonaldтАЩs because it kills children in Gaza.

There are lists of large companies around the world, owning hundreds of famous brands, that operate in Israel or support them in one way or another, such as LтАЩOr├йal, Nescafe coffee or Heinz products.

The boycott results in dwindling sales and revenues of American and Israeli products. With the academic and cultural boycott, the American Anthropological Association decided to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

Social media

Information, videos, photos and comments are being delivered to our phones and laptops constantly. The global audience canтАЩt turn away from the genocide in Gaza. In the 2014 war on Gaza, which lasted six weeks, Israel killed about 2,300 Palestinians. But now, the Palestinian death toll exceeded 12,000 during the first six weeks, and is edging upward of 17,000.

The Biden administration has supported the genocide in Gaza, and has done nothing to stop the Israeli war machine. State Department employees and White House staffers have also voiced condemnation of the un-checked and un-restrained Israeli war machine marching through Gaza, which has left no place safe, and has caused the survivors to face actual starvation according to the UN. America is the chief supporter of Israel, and holds immense leverage over Israel, but refuses to demand that they stop the genocide and bring home the hostages. Biden and Blinken are oblivious to American public opinion, and the international community.

Are American Evangelists Ready to Follow the Zionists to Armageddon?

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By Phil Butler

Source: New Eastern Outlook

For all the people who want the end of days to come sooner rather than later, just find a church where author Dr. Mike Evans speaks. HeтАЩll be the first to tell congregations of 500 or more that bombing Iran is the only way to save Israel. The former 700 Club superstar warmonger claims America can only avert Armageddon by starting it. No, really. The congregations out there seem fully ready for the тАЬbig rideтАЭ to begin.

EvansтАЩ latest report in the Jerusalem Post, entitled тАЬAmerica needs to bomb Iran,тАЭ wreaks of Zionist hatred for Sunni and Shia Muslims. Evans and his benefactors make sure every good Christian is a card-carrying Arab hater, Russia hater, China hater, and bigot against everyone and everything that is not in the interest of Israel. Good Christians are expected to applaud the Zionists blasting babies and their moms into the sky or burying them beneath a hundred tons of rubble in Gaza.

He appears frequently on Fox News (Rupert Murdoch), CNN World News (David Zaslav), NBC (Brian L. Roberts), ABC (Disney-Vanguard Group), CBS (Shari Redstone), the Wall Street Journal (Rupert Murdoch), USA Today (JapanтАЩs Softbank), the Washington Times (Unification Church тАУ Sun Myung Moon), and the Jerusalem Post (Eli Azur).

IsnтАЩt it interesting the number of Jewish owners that control these media conglomerates? And the two owners, not of a Zionist persuasion, certainly have no love lost on the American people or Greeks for that matter. The recently departed Pat Robertson of 700 Club harped on bombing Iran for decades and often broadcast from Israel during the height of the Christian Broadcasting NetworkтАЩs success. The show is a bastion of so-called Judeo-Christian belief. The underpinnings of unrealistic Christian support for Israel, no matter what, is a much deeper topic. However, readers might want to look into the Hudson InstituteтАж

To continue, Mike Evans and 99 percent of the American media are not alone in calling for Armageddon to start tomorrow. Mark Wallace, CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran, recently said, тАЬRight now, the only appropriate response to the Iranians is a military response.тАЭ Wallace, who wreaks of CIA spookishness, Wallace is also head of the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), Turkish Democracy Project. He was also a senior advisor to deceased Senator and warmongering lunatic John McCain. As for the Turkish Project, this is a regime change seedling beneath the unified dream of unseating Turkish President Recip Erdo─Яan (See Gatestone and John Bolton). While searching Gatestone, look into Sears & Roebuck heiress Nina Rosenwald and her Central Fund of Israel Efforts. This rabbit hole of Zionists, Neocons, and controlling elites is endless, so letтАЩs move on.

Armageddon, I mentioned it at the onset. So, what we have on the blue team are Americans propagandised by their preachers to love Zion and hate Arabs. And particularly the Iranian Muslims (See Shah of Iran exile for background). We also have the stuffy British Lords and Ladies, Luxembourg and Frankfurt bankers, the same old European royal elites, Japan, and scattered friendly states in the trenches. On the red team, thereтАЩs Iran and pretty much the entire Muslim world, probably Russia and most likely China, taking up for the Iranians and other players whoтАЩd as soon see the plains of Tel Megiddo irradiated. ItтАЩs crucial that we look at the Ukraine situation and how that has elevated Moscow-Tehran relations. The closer Russia and Iran are, the greater the chances of an unthinkable confrontation.

Finally, itтАЩs no stretch to assume that churches in America have long been infiltrated and coerced into an absolute pro-Zionist stance. The media and financial sectors are overwhelmingly anti-Muslim and pro-Zionist. Compounding the problem is the fact that these institutions of the West are anti-Russian, anti-Chinese, and against anything that stands in the way of total world domination and dominion over us all.

ItтАЩs not a conspiracy theory any longer. We are finally seeing the authentic conspiracy from the world elites (Zionists and others) to rule everything once and for all. And where will this end?

тАЬAnd they gathered them together to the place, which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.тАЭ тАУ Revelation 16:16

Hannibal Directive: Evidence Mounting Where Zionists Killed their Own

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By David Miller

Source: Covert Geopolitics

Evidence is emerging that establishes the fact that Zionist forces killed their own people on October 7. Zionist propaganda (also known as Hasbara) has suggested that Palestinian resistance forces were responsible for their deaths, but the narrative doesnтАЩt add up.

Since the launch of the Al-Aqsa Storm (Al-Aqsa Flood) operation five weeks ago, the Zionist entity and its global agents, assets and supporters have maintained that the Palestinian resistance factions  тАУ which they condense inaccurately into the name тАШHamasтАЩ тАУ  have engaged in direct targeting of civilians, including children and babies.

Very early on, there was a widely reported claim that up to 40 babies had been beheaded by тАЬHamasтАЭ. Even US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders fell for the hoax.

The claim has now been debunked. It was backed by no evidence and was sourced from settler and occupation military reservist David Ben Zion, who has previously incited violent riots against Palestinians and called for the occupied West Bank town of Huwara to be wiped out.

Emerging details from Oct. 7

In the ensuing weeks, a flurry of details emerged bringing other elements of the official Zionist narrative into question.

These details came from a combination of body camera and mobile phone footage of participants, eyewitnesses, captives released by the resistance, and media reporting and video material. The details include:

  • First, in the compilation of deaths published and continually updated by Haaretz, a тАЬliberalтАЭ Zionist paper, only one child under the age of 4 was listed as having died. The data also discloses that 16 children between 4 and 17 were among the casualties. This clearly demonstrates that the story about the beheading of 40 babies was false. The data does not reveal anything about babies or children being killed.
  • Second, the data compiled by Haaretz up until 7 November showed that 374 out of 1145, or 33 percent, were Israeli military personnel, including a small number of Kibbutz security personnel, but not including fire and rescue services.
  • Third, footage emerged of occupation forces engaging resistance fighters from within crowds of festivalgoers. It suggested that many died in the crossfire.
  • Indeed, fourth, one British citizen, who was at the festival, and also a member of the occupation forces, reportedly died after throwing grenades (reportedly back) at resistance fighters. He, like many other young British Jews, had evidently been radicalised by the Zionist movement to the extent that he was willing to become a member of the occupation forces.
  • Fifth, it was reported from inside Gaza that some 50 detainees had died from Zionist indiscriminate bombing while being held by the resistance forces.

The most shocking details, however, were reports of Zionist responsibility for the deaths of significant numbers of civilian detainees and festival attendees.

Music festival mystery

First, it emerged that the scene of burnt-out and shot-up cars outside the music festival was the result not of the actions of тАЬHamasтАЭ but of gunfire from occupation forces on the ground or from Apache attack helicopters in the air.

Footage of festival goers running from the venue on foot appears to corroborate evidence that it was impossible to evacuate by car since Zionist police had blocked the only road out and, in some cases at least, fired on those approaching.  

Danielle Rachiel described nearly being killed after escaping from the Nova music festival: тАЬAs we reached the roundabout [at a kibbutz], we saw Israeli security forces!тАЭ he recalled.

тАЬWe held our heads down [because] we automatically knew theyтАЩd be suspicious of us, in a small beat-up carтАж from the same direction the terrorists were coming from. Our forces began shooting at us! тАж our windows shatteredтАЭ.

It was only when they shouted in Hebrew, тАЬWeтАЩre Israelis!тАЭ that the shooting stopped.

As one helicopter pilot confessed: тАЬThere was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilianтАЭ.

In total, there were reportedly тАЬ28 combat helicoptersтАЭ firing тАЬover the course ofтАЭ the day. They reportedly emptied тАЬall the ammunition in their belliesтАЭ, then repeatedly re-armed firing in the end тАЬhundreds of 30 mm cannon shells тАж as well as the Hellfire missiles.тАЭ

According to reports in the Hebrew language press тАЬThe rate of fire тАж was tremendous at first, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.тАЭ

However, at one point, тАЬApache pilots [decided] to skip all the restrictions. It was only around 9:00 a.m. that some of them began to spray the terrorists with the cannons on their own, without authorization from superiors.тАЭ

Zionist behind the carnage

There are images of incinerated corpses and also footage of many cars incinerated and destroyed in situ, as well as footage produced by the occupation forces once they gathered together all the vehicles in one place.

Most (perhaps all or nearly all?) happened as a result of occupation forcesтАЩ actions. It is not known if this accounts for a few, most or nearly all of the reported 260 civilian casualties from the festival.

Second was the account of Yasmin Porat who had attended the music festival but fled to Kibbutz BeтАЩeri. She declared in an interview on Israeli radio that the Israeli military had not distinguished between detainees and resistance fighters.

тАЬThey eliminated everyone, including the hostages,тАЭ she said. This would appear to involve the death of at least 12 captives, including her partner, apparently by gunfire.

Even more damning was the report from a settler who was away from Kibbutz BeтАЩeri during the events.

The witness stated that the occupation fired tank shells at houses with all their occupants:

тАЬHis voice trembles when his partner, who was besieged in her home shelter at the time, comes to mind. According to him, only on Monday night and only after the commanders in the field made difficult decisions тАФ including shelling houses with all their occupants inside to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages тАФ did the IDF (Israeli military) complete the takeover of the kibbutz,тАЭ he said.

тАЬThe price was terrible: at least 112 BeтАЩeri people were killed. Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.тАЭ

Rubble of buildings and photographs

Given the fact that resistance fighters were lightly armed, the evidence of buildings reduced to rubble and burnt corpses and houses would appear to suggest Zionist forces were directly responsible for it.

The same is relevant with three photographs, two purporting to show the burnt corpse of a baby and one a bloodied but unburnt dead baby, and with the allegation of Hamas тАЬroastingтАЭ a baby in an oven. 

In the former case, we are already aware that one baby (not three) was listed among the dead. The photographs were spread all over social media including by the @IsraeliPM X (formerly Twitter) account (which garnered more than 6 million views) and one of them by pro-Israel extremist Ben Shapiro.

This latter image allegedly turned out to be an Artificial intelligence-generated image using a source image of a small dog, though this was later disputed. 

The latter case тАУ of the baby in the oven тАУ would also appear to lack confirmation.

However, if either were genuine, the most obvious explanation for all of the accounts of burnt babies is that the infants were killed by incineration after occupation force strikes on the residential houses where they lived.

Hannibal Directive

Killing captives would appear to be in line with the little-known Zionist military doctrine known as the Hannibal Directive. Though disputed by some, it appears plausible the doctrine was named after the Carthaginian general, who chose to poison himself rather than fall captive to the Romans.

Created in 1986, and originally called the Hannibal Protocol, it posits as an overriding objective the need to avoid the capture of Zionist forces, if necessary, at the expense of eliminating their own forces. It remained a military secret until 2003.

During IsraelтАЩs ground attack on Gaza, in 2011, one Golani commander was caught on tape telling his unit: тАЬNo soldier in the 51st Battalion will be kidnapped, at any price or under any condition. тАж Even if it means that his unit will now have to fire at the getaway car.тАЭ

Later the occupation forces Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, modified the directive. Introducing what is described as an тАЬethicalтАЭ principle known as the тАЬdouble-effect doctrineтАЭ.

It states that a bad result (the killing of a captive soldier) is morally permissible only as a side effect of promoting a good action (stopping his captors).тАЭ

This bears a striking similarity to what happened on October 7th. Zionist lies are collapsing before our eyes.

IsraelтАЩs Savagery Is So Shocking ItтАЩs Sometimes Hard To Take In

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By Caitlin Johnstone

Source: CaitlinJohnstone.com.au

Sometimes IsraelтАЩs crimes are so horrific that at first you donтАЩt even understand what youтАЩre looking at. You just stare at it trying to make sense of what youтАЩre seeing for a bit, like you would if you suddenly saw a space alien or a leprechaun or something.

It happened to me yesterday when I was watching┬аa Sky News report┬аabout a teenage boy who was shot by Israeli forces in Jerusalem for celebrating the release of Palestinian prisoners in the hostage negotiations with Hamas. I was watching it thinking to myself, I must be misunderstanding what IтАЩm looking at. I know that Israel does gross things, but surely the story here isnтАЩt that they shot a kid for being happy about something.

Then, as has happened so many times over the last two months, I kept watching and learned that yes, that is indeed what happened. The deputy mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is seen defending the shooting by saying тАЬpart of the deal is that there would be no celebrations for the release of attempted murderersтАЭ (this was actually not a part of the deal, it was just a decree issued by IsraelтАЩs national security minister) and claiming dishonestly that тАЬweтАЩre talking about the release of attempted murderersтАЭ (the vast majority have not been convicted of any crime and have been denied any due process for the accusations against them).

The band Eve6 nicely summed up what it felt like watching the clip of the deputy mayorтАЩs comments,┬аtweeting, тАЬThe remarkable thing about this clip is her self assurance. Like sheтАЩs supremely confident that тАШwe shot the teenager because he was celebratingтАЩ is a thing that people will find reasonable.тАЭ

I had the same experience reading about the five premature babies who were left to die after the IDF raided al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza earlier this month, their decomposing bodies only discovered when the temporary ceasefire allowed access to the hospital. ItтАЩs just too insane to believe тАФ they attacked a pediatric hospital? And then they left the babies there to die? What??

The only reason weтАЩre learning about this now is because the pause in fighting allowed journalists to get cameras into the building and show the dead infants to the world. This calls to mind the Politico report immediately prior to the ceasefire which said that the White House was worried тАЬan unintended consequence of the pauseтАЭ would be тАЬthat it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.тАЭ

Indeed, since the pause in fighting began the world has been┬аreceiving drone footage┬аfrom┬аmainstream platforms like Reuters and The Washington Post┬аrevealing vast expanses of urban terrain completely destroyed by a blanket of Israeli military explosives spanning from city block to city block. Looking at the blatantly indiscriminate devastation thatтАЩs been caused by IsraelтАЩs assault on Gaza since October 7 makes it clear that the IDF are not targeting Hamas but Gaza itself.

IтАЩve been amazed at how much IтАЩve been sleeping since the ceasefire started; thatтАЩs why I havenтАЩt been writing as much. I guess spending weeks staring at unbelievable horrors unfolding on your screen can be pretty hard on your system if youтАЩre sensitive to that sort of thing, so my bodyтАЩs been resting up as much as it can while thereтАЩs an opportunity. 

And IтАЩm just here watching this all unfold safely from my home in Melbourne. I cannot imagine what itтАЩs like to be living in the midst of this horror for the last two months, trying to figure out the best way to survive while also grieving the family, friends and neighbors youтАЩre losing along the way. These people have all been deeply traumatized in ways that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, if they survive the violence, disease and deprivation thatтАЩs to come.

This thing is so astonishingly ugly, and it could get a whole lot uglier after the ceasefire ends. If thereтАЩs anything positive to be found in this living nightmare, itтАЩs that itтАЩs so earth-shakingly ugly that it just might shake the world awake.

What lies behind Benjamin NetanyahuтАЩs lies and HamasтАЩs evasions

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On September 22, 2023, 16 days before the attack by the Palestinian Resistance, Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations in New York. He brandished a map of the “New Middle East” on which Israel had absorbed the Palestinian Territories.

By Thierry Meyssan

Source: Voltairenet.org

We are reacting to the attack on Israel on October 7 and the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza on the basis of the information available to us. However, we feel that the official version of the Israeli government and Hamas is a lie.

Seven major questions remain unanswered:

1. How did Hamas manage to dig and build 500 kilometers of tunnels at a depth of 30 meters without arousing suspicion?

 Tunnel-drilling equipment is considered to have both civilian and military uses. It is not manufactured in Gaza and cannot be brought in under any circumstances, unless there is complicity within the Israeli administration.

 The excavated earth (1 million m3) was not detected by aerial surveillance. Even supposing it had been scattered in many different places and mixed in with the soil from other construction sites, it is impossible for the Israeli intelligence services not to have detected anything for twenty years.

 Tunnel ventilation equipment is not considered to be for military use. It is possible to bring it into Gaza, but the quantity required should have attracted attention.

 The reinforced concrete needed to solidify the walls is not manufactured in Gaza. It too is not considered military equipment, but the quantity required should have attracted attention.

2. How could Hamas stockpile such an arsenal?

 Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has large quantities of rockets and handguns at its disposal. Hamas may have manufactured parts of the rockets itself, but it has managed to import thousands of handguns into Gaza, mainly from the Ukraine, despite high-performance scanners. This seems impossible without complicity within the Israeli administration.

3. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed all those who warned him?

 EgyptтАЩs Minister of Intelligence, Kamel Abbas, personally phoned him to warn of a major Hamas attack.

 His friend, Colonel Yigal Carmon, Director of Memri, personally warned him of a major Hamas attack.

 The CIA sent Israel two intelligence reports warning of a major Hamas attack.

 Defense Minister Yoav Galland was fired in July because he warned the government of the “perfect storm” prepared by Hamas.

4. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu demobilize the security forces on the evening of October 6?

 The Prime Minister had authorized the Security Forces to stand down for the holidays of SimтАЩhat Torah and Shemini Atzeret. At the time of the attack, therefore, there were no personnel available to monitor the security fence around Gaza.

5. Why did security officials remain locked up at Shin Bet headquarters that morning?

 The Director of Counterintelligence (Shin Bet), Ronen Bar, had called a meeting of the heads of all the security services for 8 a.m. on October 7, to examine the second CIA report warning of a major Hamas operation in preparation.

However, the attack began at 6.30 a.m. on the same day. Security officials didnтАЩt react until 11am. What did they do during this interminable meeting?

6. Who triggered the “Hannibal directive” in this way, and why?

 When the Security Forces began to react, the IDF was ordered to apply the “Hannibal directive”. This stipulates that enemies must not be allowed to take Israeli soldiers hostage, even if it means killing them. An Israeli police investigation confirms that the Israeli air force bombed the crowd fleeing the Supernova Rave Party. A significant proportion of those killed on October 7 were therefore not victims of Hamas, but of Israeli strategy.

 In theory, the “Hannibal directive” only applies to soldiers. Who decided to bomb a crowd of Israeli civilians, and why?
It is not possible today to determine with any certainty which Israelis were killed by the attackers and which were killed by their own army.

7. Why are Western forces threatening Israel?

 The Pentagon has deployed two naval groups, around the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Eisenhower, and a cruise missile submarine, the USS Florida. Haaretz even mentioned a third aircraft carrier. AmericaтАЩs allies (Saudi Arabia, Canada, Spain, France, Italy) have installed fighter-bombers in the region.

These forces are not installed to threaten Turkey, Qatar or Iran, which the Western press accuses of being involved in the Hamas attack, but off the coast of Israel, in Beirut and Hamat. They are encircling Israel. And Israel alone.

WHAT LIES BEHIND THESE MYSTERIES?

Obviously the version defended by both Hamas and Israel is false. We must consider other possible explanations so as not to be manipulated by either one or the other.

LetтАЩs formulate a hypothesis. There is nothing to say whether it is the correct one, but it is compatible with the factual elements, which is not the case with the version shared today by everyone. So itтАЩs better than that one. It is obviously extremely shocking, but only those who are able to answer the previous 7 questions can dismiss it.

This interpretation is based on an analysis of the complex structure of Hamas, whose rank-and-file fighters are unaware of what their leaders are up to. There it is :

The entire operation of Hamas and Israel is led by Americans, perhaps under the direction of the Straussian Eliott Abrams [1] and his Vandenberg Coalition (Think Tank which succeeded the Project for a New American Century). The Muslim Brotherhood and the Revisionist Zionists, who apparently are waging a cruel war, are in reality accomplices at the expense of the rank-and-file Hamas fighters, the Palestinian people and Israeli soldiers. Here is their plan: Hamas is presented as the only effective resistance force to the oppression of the Palestinians, but it lets Israel liquidate the hope of a Palestinian state, while the Muslim Brotherhood, crowned with the sacrifice of the Palestinians, takes power in the Arab world.

The heads of HamasтАЩs military and political branches are both subordinate to the Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, the successor to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, yet nobody talks about him. From his point of view, the Brotherhood will be the big winner of the “Flood of Al-Aqsa”, even if Gaza is razed to the ground and the Palestinians driven from their land.

Hamas is now divided into two factions. The first, under the leadership of Isma├лl Haniyeh, follows the BrotherhoodтАЩs line. It seeks neither to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation, nor to found a Palestinian state, but is dedicated to building a Caliphate over all the countries of the Middle East. The second, under the leadership of Khalil Hayya, has abandoned the BrotherhoodтАЩs ideology, and is fighting to put an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israelis.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a political secret society, organized by British intelligence services on the model of the United Grand Lodge of England┬а[2]. It was gradually taken over by the CIA to the point of being represented on the US National Security Council. After the collapse of the Islamist regimes of the Arab Spring, the Brotherhood fractured into two trends. The London Front, led by Guide Ibrahim Munir (who died a year ago), proposed a way out of the crisis by leaving the political arena and securing the release of prisoners in Egypt. The Istanbul Front, led by interim leader Mahmoud Hussein, advocates, on the contrary, changing nothing and continuing the struggle to establish a Caliphate. A third group is attempting to establish an intermediate position, putting forward the idea of abandoning politics until the prisoners have been released, only to return to it at a later date.

The Muslim Brotherhood is fighting to seize power in all Arab states, as it did in Egypt in 2012-13.
It should be remembered that, contrary to widespread opinion in the West, Mohamed Morsi was never democratically elected President of Egypt; that was General Ahmed Chafik. However, after the Brotherhood threatened to kill members of the Electoral Commission and their families, the latter, after 13 days of resistance, declared Morsi elected, despite the results of the ballot box. Subsequently, in 2013, 40 million Egyptians marched against him, calling on the army to deliver them from the Muslim Brotherhood. General Abdel Fatah Al-Sissi did just that.

Today, the Muslim Brotherhood is only in power in Tripolitania (western Libya), where it was brought to power by NATO. They are only welcome in Qatar and Turkey (which is not an Arab state). They are banned in the majority of Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia (whose monarch they tried to overthrow in 2013) and the United Arab Emirates (involving the crisis between Qatar and the other Gulf states). And above all in Syria (whose government they tried to overthrow in 1982 and to which they waged war, from 2011 to 2016, alongside Nato and Israel). They are about to do the same in Tunisia (which they ruled for a decade).

If the real objective of this massacre is not the status of Palestine, but the governance of Arab states, we can expect a wave of regime changes in the Middle East, each time to the benefit of the Brotherhood – in short, a kind of second “Arab Spring” [3].

As during the Arab Spring, the British services are responsible for the BrotherhoodтАЩs communications. We remember the way they promoted Brother Abdelhakim Belhaj in Libya [4] or the magnificent logos they designed for the host of jihadist groups in Syria. Leaks to the Foreign Office confirmed all this. This time, they created a new character, Abu Obeida, the spokesman for the fighting organization in Gaza. This man, unknown until recently, has suddenly become a star in the Muslim world, where posters of him are being snapped up. Well-trained in public speaking, he handles symbols with an ease unprecedented among Sunni leaders.

Arab governments are therefore acting cautiously, supporting the creation of a Palestinian state while keeping their distance from Hamas. While Hamas is doing everything to make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible.

Translation
Roger Lagass├й

Neocons Blame Endless Wars On Those Who Oppose Endless Wars

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In yet another Orwellian inversion of reality, Raytheon stooge turned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently posited that the real problem with American foreign policy isn’t decades of imperialist aggression waged by the military industrial complex, but rather non interventionalists who promote peace.

By Ron Paul

Source: The Free Thought Project

Over the weekend Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin explained to the American people whatтАЩs really wrong with US foreign policy. Some might find his conclusions surprising.

The US standing in the world is damaged not because we spent 20 years fighting an Afghan government that had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. The problem has nothing to do with neocon lies about IraqтАЩs WMDs that led untold civilian deaths in another failed тАЬdemocratizationтАЭ mission. ItтАЩs not because over the past nearly two years Washington has taken more than $150 billion from the American people to fight a proxy war with Russia through Ukraine.

ItтАЩs not the military-industrial complex or its massive lobbying power that extends throughout Congress, the think tanks, and the media.

Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in CaliforniaтАЩs Simi Valley, Austin finally explained the real danger to the US global military empire.

ItтАЩs us.

According to Secretary Austin, non-interventionists who advocate тАЬan American retreat from responsibilityтАЭ are the ones destabilizing the world, not endless neocon wars.

Austin said the US must continue to play the role of global military hegemon тАУ policeman of the world тАУ because тАЬthe world will only become more dangerous if tyrants and terrorists believe that they can get away with wholesale aggression and mass slaughter.тАЭ

HowтАЩs that for reason and logic? Austin and the interventionist elites have fact-checked 30 years of foreign policy failures and concluded, тАЬwell it would have been far worse if the non-interventionists were in charge.тАЭ

This is one of the biggest problems with the neocons. They are incapable of self-reflection. Each time the US government follows their advice into another catastrophe, itтАЩs always someone elseтАЩs fault. In this case, as Austin tells us, those at fault for US foreign policy misadventures are the people who say, тАЬdonтАЩt do it.тАЭ

What would have happened if the people who said тАЬdonтАЩt do itтАЭ were in charge of President ObamaтАЩs decision to prop-up al-Qaeda to overthrow SyriaтАЩs secular leader Assad? How about if the тАЬdonтАЩt do itтАЭ people were in charge when the neocons manufactured a тАЬhuman rightsтАЭ justification to destroy Libya? What if the тАЬdonтАЩt do itтАЭ people were in charge when ObamaтАЩs neocons thought it would be a great idea to overthrow UkraineтАЩs democratically-elected government?

Would tyrants and terrorists have gained power if Washington did NOT get involved? No. Tyrants and terrorists got the upper hand BECAUSE Washington intervened in these crises.

As Austin further explained, part of the problem with the US is democracy itself. тАЬOur competitors donтАЩt have to operate under continuing resolutions,тАЭ he complained. What a burden it is for him that the people, through their representatives, are in charge of war spending.

In Congress, тАЬAmerica firstтАЭ foreign policy sentiment is on the rise among conservatives and that infuriates Austin and his ilk. He wants more billions for wars in Ukraine and Israel and he wants it now!

And our economic problems? That is our fault too. Those who тАЬtry to pull up the drawbridge,тАЭ Austin said, undermine the security that has led to decades of prosperity. Prosperity? Has he looked at the national debt? Inflation? Destruction of the dollar?

There is a silver lining here. The fact that Austin and the neocons are attacking us non-interventionists means that we are gaining ground. They are worried about us. This is our chance to really raise our voices!

IsraelтАЩs War on Hospitals

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Israel is carrying out a campaign to make Gaza uninhabitable. This campaign includes destroying all of GazaтАЩs hospitals. The message Israel is sending is clear – Nowhere is safe. If you stay you die.

By Chris Hedges

Source: Scheer Post

Israel is not attacking hospitals in Gaza because they are тАЬHamas command centers.тАЭ Israel is systematically and deliberately destroying GazaтАЩs medical infrastructure as part of a scorched earth campaign to make Gaza uninhabitable and escalate a humanitarian crisis. It intends to force 2.3 million Palestinians over the border into Egypt where they will never return. 

Israel has destroyed and nearly emptied the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia is next. Israel is deploying tanks and armored personnel carriers around the hospital and has fired rounds into the building, killing twelve people. 

The playbook is familiar. Flyers are dropped by Israel over a hospital telling people to leave because the hospital is a base for тАЬHamas terrorist activities.тАЭ Tanks and artillery shells rip away parts of the hospital walls. Ambulances are blown up by Israeli missiles. Power and water is cut. Medical supplies are blocked. There are no painkillers, antibiotics and oxygen. The most vulnerable, premature babies in incubators and the gravely ill, die. Israeli soldiers raid the hospital and force everyone out at gunpoint. 

This is what happened at Al Shifa hospital. This is what happened at Al Rantisi ChildrenтАЩs Hospital. This is what happened at GazaтАЩs main psychiatric hospital. This is what happened at Nasser Hospital. This is what happened at the other hospitals that Israel has destroyed. And this is what will happen at the few hospitals that remain.┬а

Israel has shut down 21 of GazaтАЩs 35 hospitals, including GazaтАЩs only cancer hospital. The hospitals still operating have severe shortages of basic medicine and supplies. One by one the hospitals are being picked off. Soon there will be no health facilities left. This is by design.

Tens of thousands of terrified Palestinians, forced to evacuate by Israel, their homes blasted into rubble, seek refuge from the relentless bombing by camping out in and around GazaтАЩs hospitals. They hope the medical centers will not be targeted by Israel. If Israel abided by the Geneva Conventions they would be correct. But Israel is not carrying out a war. It is carrying out a genocide. And in a genocide, a population, and all that sustains a population, is obliterated. 

In an ominous sign that Israel will turn on the Palestinians in the West Bank once it is done flattening Gaza, armored vehicles have surrounded at least four West Bank hospitals. The Ibn Sina Hospital has been raided by Israeli soldiers along with the East Jerusalem Hospital.

IsraelтАЩs settler colonial state was founded on lies. It is sustained by lies. And now, when it is grimly determined to carry out the worst slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba, or тАЬcatastrophe,тАЭ that saw 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed and some 50 massacres by Jewish militias, it spits out one grotesque absurdity after another. It speaks of Palestinians as a dehumanized mass. There are no mothers, fathers, children, teachers, doctors, lawyers, cooks, poets, taxi drivers or shopkeepers. Palestinians, in the Israeli lexicon, are a single contagion that must be eradicated. 

Watch this video of Israeli school children singing, тАЬWe Will Annihilate EveryoneтАЭ in Gaza. 

Hitler Youth used to sing songs like this about Jews.

Those who embark upon projects of mass killing lie to avoid demoralizing their own populations, lull the victims into believing they will not all be exterminated and stop outside forces from intervening. The Nazis claimed that Jews packed on trains and sent to extermination camps were on work details and had good medical care and adequate food. As for the infirm and elderly, they were cared for in rest centers. The Nazis even created a mock camp for the тАЬresettlementтАЭ of Jews тАЬto the East,тАЭ тАУ Theresienstadt тАУ where international bodies such as the Red Cross could see how humanely the Jews were treated, even as millions were being exterminated. 

At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million Armenians were massacred or died of exposure, disease and starvation during the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire from the spring of 1915 to the autumn of 1916. The Armenian genocide was as public as the genocide in Gaza. European and U.S. consular missions provided detailed accounts of the campaign to cleanse modern day T├╝rkiye of Armenians. 

The Ottoman government, in an attempt to hide the genocide, banned foreigners from taking photographs of Armenian refugees or the corpses that lined the roads. Israel too has blocked the foreign press from Gaza, carrying out only a handful of brief and carefully staged visits arranged by the Israeli military. Israel periodically cuts off internet and phone services. At least 43 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since the Hamas incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, many undoubtedly targeted by Israeli forces. 

Armenians, like Palestinians, were forced from their homes, gunned down and denied food and water. Armenian deportees were sent on death marches to the Syrian Desert where tens of thousands were shot or died from starvation, cholera, malaria, dysentery and influenza. Israel is forcing 1.1 million Palestinians into the southern tip of Gaza and bombing them as they flee. These refugees, like the Armenians, lack food, water, fuel and sanitation. They too will soon succumb to epidemics of infectious diseases. 

Talat Pasha, the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire, told the United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau Sr., in words that replicate IsraelтАЩs stance, on Aug. 2, 1915, тАЬthat our Armenian policy is absolutely fixed and that nothing can change it. We will not have the Armenians anywhere in Anatolia. They can live in the desert but nowhere else.тАЭ 

The longer the genocide continues the more absurd the lies become. 

There are big Israeli lies. The obliteration of Gaza and wanton killing of thousands of Palestinians, Israel insists, is a targeted effort to get rid of Hamas rather than a campaign to reduce Gaza to a pile of rubble, carry out mass murder and ethnically cleanse Palestinians. 

There are small Israeli lies. Forty beheaded babies. Al Shifa Hospital is a тАЬHamas command center.тАЭ A calendar in Arabic on the wall of a hospital, according to IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, is тАЬa guardian [guard] list, where every terrorist writes his name and every terrorist has his own shift guarding the people that were here.тАЭ An Israeli actor dressed up as a nurse and speaking heavily accented Arabic claims to be Palestinian doctor and to have seen Hamas use civilians as human shields. She says members of Hamas тАЬattacked Al Shifa HospitalтАЭ and stole тАЬthe fuel and medicine.тАЭ Palestinian militants, rather than Israeli tanks, Israel says, are responsible for shelling Al Shifa Hospital. Israel struck a car full of тАЬterroristsтАЭ in southern Lebanon, тАЬterroristsтАЭ who turned out to be three girls, their mother and grandmother. The explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital was the result of an errant rocket fired by the Palestinians, a claim questioned by The New York Times when it discredited the video based on analysis of its time stamp. Israel said it тАЬresponded to the request of the director of Shifa Hospital to allow Gazan citizens who were sheltering in the hospital and who wish to evacuate from Shifa Hospital towards the humanitarian crossing in the Gaza Strip via a secure axis,тАЭ a statement Mohammed Zaqout, director general of hospitals in Gaza, said was тАЬfalse,тАЭ adding тАЬwe were forced to leave by gunpoint.тАЭ Israeli Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, in a video pilloried by the BBC, shows viewers a meager stash of automatic weapons in a promotional video that magically increases once foreign reporters arrive for a guided tour. The IDF later deleted it.

The lies will be written into the Israeli school books. The lies will be repeated by Israeli politicians, historians and journalists. The lies will be told on Israeli television and in Israeli films and books. Israelis are eternal victims. Palestinians are absolute evil. There was no genocide. T├╝rkiye, a century later, still denies what happened to the Armenians.

In wartime people believe what they want to believe. The lies fill a hunger within the Israeli public that sees the conflict as a binary struggle between тАЬthe children of light and the children of darkness.тАЭ The lies are a defense against accountability, for if Israel refuses to acknowledge reality, it is not forced to respond to reality. The lies create cognitive dissonance, where fact becomes fiction and fiction becomes truth. The lies make any discussion of genocide, or reconciliation, impossible.  

Israel, with the backing of the Biden administration, will continue to snuff out all systems that sustain life in Gaza. Hospitals. Schools. Power plants. Water treatment facilities. Factories. Farms. Apartment blocks. Houses. Then Israel will pretend, like the killers in past genocides, it never happened. 

The lies used by Israel to absolve itself of responsibility will eat away at Israeli society. They will corrode its moral, religious, civic, intellectual and political life. The lies will elevate war criminals to heroic status and demonize those with a conscience. IsraelтАЩs genocide, as with the 1965 mass killings in Indonesia, will be mythologized, an epic battle against the forces of evil and barbarity, just as we mythologized the genocide of Native Americans and turned our settlers and murderous cavalry units into heroes. The killers in the Indonesian war against communism are cheered at rallies as saviors. They are interviewed about the тАЬheroicтАЭ battles they fought nearly six decades ago. Israel will do the same. It will deform itself. It will celebrate its crimes. It will turn evil into good. It will exist within a self-constructed myth. The truth, as in all despotisms, will be banished. Israel, a monster to the Palestinians, will be a monster to itself.