Another Israeli bloodletting in Gaza. Another lame Guardian editorial:
"The soldiers use of live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators is an affront; but it is in line with the brutal attitudes towards Palestinians that have been normalised by Israeli politicians." (The Guardian view on the Gaza protests: a new challenge to Israel's blockade, 23/4/18)
It's not an "affront," it's a fucking war crime!
That aside, if the Guardian's editor, Jonathan Freedland, is so bloody ignorant that he seriously thinks that Israeli brutality towards Palestinians is something new, then he doesn't deserve editorial space on a news website, let alone the job of boss cocky.
I mean, how far back do we have to go to understand that anti-Palestinian brutality is in the Zionist DNA?
1967?
"[Israeli Prime Minister Levi] Eshkol had already had reason to be worried about the Gaza refugees roughly two years before the Six-Day War [of 1967]. The refugees were multiplying, and when their numbers reached half a million, he feared the situation would become explosive. Once, he asked the chief of staff what would happen if the Egyptians [who then controlled the Gaza Strip] simply marched the refugees - women and children in the vanguard - towards the border with Israel. [Yitzhak] Rabin said they would not do that, and if they did, as soon as the IDF had killed the first 100, the rest would go back to Gaza." (1967: Israel, the War & the Year that Transformed the Middle East, Tom Segev, 2007, p 524)
1949?
"Altogether between 2,700 and 5,000 infiltrators were killed in the period 1949-1956, the great majority of whom were unarmed." (Avi Shlaim, reviewing Benny Morris' Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation & the Countdown to the Suez War, 1993)
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8 comments:
Hi Merc and thank you for keeping this very useful blog going!
Your article promotes the odious Freedland above his current rank at the Grauniad. He is merely on a long-term sinecure to churn out Israel-friendly, Judeophilic rants on a regular basis.
The editor these days, funnily enough, is Katherine Viner who once authored a stage play about Rachel Corrie - see https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/18/alan-rickman-rachel-corrie-play-actor
She doesn't seem to say much.. I wonder sometimes if the Zionists haven't had her stuffed, so she can be wheeled out at Guardian board meetings as a warning to others.
Hi Syd, I like to get things right, as you know. Isn't Freedland the editor of the UK Guardian and Viner editor of Guardian Australia?
Merc - I'm just going on WP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Viner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Freedland
I read in Freedland's WP entry that Corbyn, allegedly, was recorded muttering into his mobile phone about JF's "utterly disgusting subliminal nastiness", which just about nails it IMO :-)
Katherine Viner is editor-in-chief as I understand it. Freedland was editor for the opinion part of the Guardian from march 2014 to early 2016 according to his Wikipedia entry. Now he is a columnist. Here is a total piece of sh*t by him from last weekend:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/20/trump-us-syria-truth-tribal-robert-mueller-white-helmets-factse
The echoes in the bubble must be hard on the eardrums.
An interesting article on this topic posted by Craig Murray, apologies, it's fairly lengthy as it is an interview so will post it in parts.. Translation by Dena Shunra.
Condemned By Their Own Words 196
23 Apr, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig | Part 1
This transcript of an Israeli General on an Israeli radio station (begins 6.52 in) defending the latest killing by Israeli army snipers of a 14 year old boy who posed no threat of any kind, is much more powerful if you just read it than any analysis I can give. Translated by Dena Shunra.
Brigadier-General (Res.) Zvika Fogel interviewed on the Yoman Hashevua program of Israel’s Kan radio, 21 April 2018.
Ron Nesiel: Greetings Brigadier General (Res.) Zvika Fogel. Should the IDF [Israeli army] rethink its use of snipers? There’s the impression that maybe someone lowered the bar for using live fire, and this may be the result?
Zvika Fogel: Ron, let’s maybe look at this matter on three levels. At the tactical level that we all love dealing with, the local one, also at the level of values, and with your permission, we will also rise up to the strategic level. At the tactical level, any person who gets close to the fence, anyone who could be a future threat to the border of the State of Israel and its residents, should bear a price for that violation. If this child or anyone else gets close to the fence in order to hide an explosive device or check if there are any dead zones there or to cut the fence so someone could infiltrate the territory of the State of Israel to kill us …
Nesiel: Then, then his punishment is death?
Fogel: His punishment is death. As far as I’m concerned then yes, if you can only shoot him to stop him, in the leg or arm – great. But if it’s more than that then, yes, you want to check with me whose blood is thicker, ours or theirs. It is clear to you that if one such person will manage to cross the fence or hide an explosive device there …
Nesiel: But we were taught that live fire is only used when the soldiers face immediate danger.
Fogel: Come, let’s move over to the level of values. Assuming that we understood the tactical level, as we cannot tolerate a crossing of our border or a violation of our border, let’s proceed to the level of values. I am not Ahmad Tibi, I am Zvika Fogel. I know how these orders are given. I know how a sniper does the shooting. I know how many authorizations he needs before he receives an authorization to open fire. It is not the whim of one or the other sniper who identifies the small body of a child now and decides he’ll shoot. Someone marks the target for him very well and tells him exactly why one has to shoot and what the threat is from that individual. And to my great sorrow, sometimes when you shoot at a small body and you intended to hit his arm or shoulder it goes even higher. The picture is not a pretty picture. But if that’s the price that we have to pay to preserve the safety and quality of life of the residents of the State of Israel, then that’s the price. But now, with your permission, let us go up one level and look at the overview. It is clear to you that Hamas is fighting for consciousness at the moment. It is clear to you and to me …
Nesiel: Is it hard for them to do? Aren’t we providing them with sufficient ammunition in this battle?
Fogel: We’re providing them but …
Nesiel: Because it does not do all that well for us, those pictures that are distributed around the world.
Fogel: Look, Ron, we’re even terrible at it. There’s nothing to be done, David always looks better against Goliath. And in this case, we are the Goliath. Not the David. That is entirely clear to me. But let’s look at it at the strategic level: you and I and a large part of the listeners are clear that this will not end up in demonstrations. It is clear to us that Hamas can’t continue to tolerate the fact that its rockets are not managing to hurt us, its tunnels are eroding …
Nesiel: Yes.
Part 2
Nesiel: Yes.
Fogel: And it doesn’t have too many suicide bombers who continue to believe the fairytale about the virgins waiting up there. It will drag us into a war. I do not want to be on the side that gets dragged. I want to be on the side that initiates things. I do not want to wait for the moment where it finds a weak spot and attacks me there. If tomorrow morning it gets into a military base or a kibbutz and kills people there and takes prisoners of war or hostages, call it as you like, we’re in a whole new script. I want the leaders of Hamas to wake up tomorrow morning and for the last time in their life see the smiling faces of the IDF. That’s what I want to have happen. But we are dragged along. So we’re putting snipers up because we want to preserve the values we were educated by. We can’t always take a single picture and put it before the whole world. We have soldiers there, our children, who were sent out and receive very accurate instructions about whom to shoot to protect us. Let’s back them up.
Nesiel: Brigadier-General (Res.) Zvika Fogel, formerly Head of the Southern Command Staff, thank you for your words.
Fogel: May you only hear good news. Thank you.
There is no room to doubt the evil nature of the expansionist apartheid state that Israel has now become. Nor the moral vacuity of its apologists in the western media.
Thanks for drawing our attention to the psychotic words of this particular cog in Goliath's military machine.
I'm afraid that "the evil nature of the expansionist apartheid state" has been apparent since Goliath's inception, obscured only by a smokescreen of propaganda on an historically unprecedented scale. Still, with today's images of Goliath casually picking off kids caged in a ghetto, no amount of pro-Goliath propaganda can possibly work. "We want to preserve the values we were educated by" says it all.
As fate has it, Katherine Viner tweeted earlier today: @KathViner
Guardian on track to break even as company halves its losses"
I thought she might need encouragement, without overdoing it. I hope this strikes the right balance:
@SydWalker
Replying to @KathViner
Well done Katherine. The Guardian's environmental reporting is first class.
Unfortunately, The Guardian continues to be laden with deceitful, pro-Zionist & pro-war material, which many of your readers find repulsive. We won't pay to promote more insane wars
#NoMoreWarsForIsrael
_________________
The hashtag is a little controversial, I know. It's thought-provoking, in my opinion - and a lot more relevant than "No More Wars for Oil", the old, failed 2003 slogan.
I haven't seen Jeremy Corbyn use it yet. That would be interesting :-)
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