Rockets/Militants/Rockets/Militants

"The strong are never absolutely strong, nor are the weak absolutely weak. Those who have Might on loan from fate count on it too much and are destroyed. Might is as pitiless to the man who possesses it (or thinks he does) as it is to its victims. The second it crushes, the first it intoxicates." Simone Weil

The expected Gaza shoah* (aka Operation Cast Lead) aimed at "toppling the Hamas regime" in Gaza (Israel's leading parties vow to wipe out Hamas, Sydney Morning Herald, 23/12/08) has begun in earnest with over 200 Palestinians massacred and over 700 maimed and mangled in waves of Israeli air attacks beginning on Saturday 27 December.

[*A reference to a statement by loose-lipped Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai - see my 4/3/08 post Selling Operation Warm Winter.]

And we all know why, don't we? And not because the Ziocon propaganda sheet The Australian has told us - we've been using that to wrap the prawns in over the festive season. No, we've been reading only the more 'objective' Sydney Morning Herald (what Zionist cyber-warriors laughingly call the Syrian Morning Herald) for coverage of the latest in the Middle East conflict. And the SMH has been telling us that, after unilaterally scrapping their 6-month truce with Israel, Hamas militants have been driving poor, battered Israel beyond bananas with swarms of deadly rocket attacks, forcing its perfumed, lily-white hand:

"The Israelis who live in the towns and farmlands that surround Gaza have been terrorised by the launch of about 3000 homemade Qassam rockets fired at them by Palestinian militants over the past 12 months." (Gaza: abandoned, embattled & divided, Jason Koutsoukis, SMH, 19/12/08)

"The 6-month truce between Hamas and Israel has ended with militant Islamists who rule Gaza declaring the agreement dead - 24 hours before it was due to officially expire." (Militants declare early end to truce agreement, SMH, 19/12/08)

"An Israeli defence official said a military clash in the Gaza Strip was unavoidable as militants again targeted southern Israel with rockets. The Israeli Government... was expected to consider its response to the violence that has spiralled rapidly since Hamas... decided not to renew a 6-month truce that ended on Friday... Palestinian militants fired 8 rockets and mortar rounds at southern Israel yesterday, including one that landed on a house in the town of Sderot... One person was injured. Shortly after, Israeli planes launched an air strike against rockets ready to be fired, an army spokesman said... What we want is to end the Hamas regime in Gaza. The ceasefire has strengthened Hamas'. On Saturday militants fired more than 35 projectiles into southern Israel. The Israeli military killed one person preparing to fire a rocket (Israel ready for fight against militants as rockets resume, SMH, 22/12/08 - accompanied by large colour photo of "masked Palestinian militants" carrying - what else? - rockets).

"Israeli political and military leaders issued dire warnings yesterday to Hamas that it would move against the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip unless renewed rocket and mortar fire against southern Israeli towns stopped... Hamas leaders declared an end to the truce last week, after 6 months of relative calm on Israel's southern flank. In a clear show of firepower, militants launched at least 60 makeshift rockets and mortar shells towards Israel on Wednesday..." (Israel warns of retaliation over attacks from Gaza Strip, Ashraf Khalil, SMH, 27/12/08)

Got that mantra down pat? Rockets. Militants. Rockets. Militants. Rockets. Militants. Right? Wrong:

First, the 6-month truce (what truce?). The SMH didn't tell us that, during the Egyptian-brokered truce, which began in June, "49 Palestinians, including 7 children and 8 resistance fighters were killed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip... In the Gaza Strip, the month of November witnessed the highest number of casualties as 17 Palestinians were killed in Israeli occupation shelling and during incursions." (Report: 49 Palestinians, including 7 children killed during truce, palestine-info.co.uk) To which should be added, "[T]oday's [27/12] horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel's method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the 2-year old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians*, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip..." (Gaza massacres must spur us to action, Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27/12/08)

[*See my 17/12/08 post No Laughing Matter.]

Second, as the US-based Angry Arab reminds us: "You have to [condemn the rockets]... in order to get access to the editorial page of any US newspaper. [The rockets] set the terms of reference and you have to accept them if you wish to [even] get a foot in the dog's door of the kitchen door. Rockets are morally wrong when Israel is killing Palestinian civilians on a daily basis? When the strangulation of the entire civilian population of Gaza intensifies? This becomes the issue? A few silly rockets? As if Israel's brutal [41 year] occupation would not have existed without the rockets. The rockets become the issue, and not Zionist terrorism. By mentioning the rockets, you accept, wittingly or unwittingly, the false chronology that Israel imposes on the Palestinians." (Eyad Sarraj's morality, angryarab.blogspot.com, 14/12/08)

Of course, the rockets/militants/rockets/militants mantra, composed back in March for Operation Warm Winter (see my 4/3/08 post Selling Operation Warm Winter), has already been re-sent to all Israeli spokesmen overseas. How do I know, you ask? "The White House said only Hamas could end the cycle of violence by stopping the rocket fire on Israel. 'These people are nothing but thugs, and so Israel is going to defend its people againsts terrorists like Hamas', spokesman Gordon Johndroe said at George W Bush's Texas ranch, where the president is preparing to spend the new year. 'If Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel, then Israel would not have a need for strikes in Gaza', Johndroe said. 'What we've got to see is Hamas stop firing rockets into Israel'." (At least 225 dead as Israel hammers Gaza, SMH, 28/12/08)

Rockets. Militants. Rockets. Militants. Get used to it. You'll be hearing nothing but in the mainstream media over the days ahead.

Selling Operation Warm Winter

Israel's formidable propaganda mill has been working overtime to sell 'Operation Warm Winter', the Israeli Occupation Forces' moniker for that outfit's bloodiest rampage ever in the Gaza Ghetto. Despite its exquisite designation, penned no doubt by the same PR poet who gave us 'Operation Summer Rains' (June 2006), the sheer savagery of Israel's latest 'incursion' into the Gaza Strip necessitated a redoubled PR effort.

According to Israel's Ynet news.com, "Foreign Minister Livni and the executive director of the foreign minister's office have sent an official manual of PR messages...to all 97 Israeli consulates and embassies abroad...In accordance with the newly published PR manual, Israel's official representatives and spokespersons must now stress to the foreign press that 'since Wednesday of last week more than 150 rockets and missiles were fired at Israel, leaving more than 250,000 of its citizens at the mercy of incessant rocket salvos. In its efforts to protect its citizens and prevent these attacks, Israel has launched a military offensive, during the course of which Palestinian civilians are also injured. This, in spite of the great efforts and care with which IDF soldiers conduct their operations'... Foreign Ministry Spokesman Aryeh Mekel spoke to Ynet regarding this new PR campaign, and highlighted its chief talking points. 'The Palestinians fire Qassam rockets at civilian population centers, hospitals, schools and other civilian targets. The IDF, conversely, operates in Gaza with the strict aim of targeting terror groups and their infrastructure. IDF soldiers do not target Palestinian civilians, but they are sometimes inadvertently injured or killed during IDF operations, which is unfortunate." (Al-Jazeera in Israel's crosshairs, Neta Sela, 3/2/08)

The PR manual and its talking points didn't take long to reach Israel's local lobbyists and media hounds, and their message could be read on the March 4 letters page of Murdoch's flagship, The Australian. As it happens, the report cards from Hasbara Quarters (HQ) on the efforts of the following two, found their way into my hands:-

"David Knoll, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies: "...rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel...that are bringing suffering to Israeli civilians...the rocket fire escalated...Israel has responded in an effort to destroy the rocket launchers...the daily attacks on Israeli civilians...Israel's use of force...to prevent further attacks on its civilians..."

"6/10 David. It's good as far as it goes: you've framed it well, with the Palestinians eternally attacking us innocent bystanders, forcing us, ever so reluctantly, to defend ourselves, although I must say there's no special merit in getting the framing right, it's so instinctive by now that we've practically got the whole of the mainstream media acting as an echo chamber for our spin. I also liked your excellent mantra-like repetition of 'rocket attacks'/'Israeli civilians', designed to drown out completely any dim awareness of our own infinitely superior and vastly more destructive barrages, rocketings, bombings, shootings (and God knows what else state-of-the-art ordinance we're unleashing), but you didn't say anything about how terrible Israel feels about the odd, Palestinian civilian klutz who happens to get in the way of our carefully targeted, terrorist only-seeking projectiles. Look, I know it's all bullshit and it sticks in your craw, but the kudos we get for at least sounding human is worth its weight in (American) gold. So stick to the script next time, OK? Plus, and I shouldn't have to pick you up on this, you told a porkie, to whit, "Israel is using force only when all else has failed." As you and I both know, but few who read The Australian would, Hamas has a history of proposing and unilaterally observing ceasefires, which we're constantly knocking back. You can never be too careful about these things. Fingers crossed, David.

"Paul Rozental, Melbourne, Vic: "...Hamas...spoiling for a fight...Hamas has set a course to launch attacks on Israel, day by day picking off and terrorising Israeli civilians and soldiers over the border...many rockets are launched against Israel from urban Palestinian centres...civilian populations into the firing line - Israeli civilians, because the rockets are indiscriminately launched towards Israeli towns, and Palestinian civilians because to expect any country not to respond to a source of fire is unrealistic."

"7/10, Paul. Framing's fine, you've got the 'rockets' and the 'Israeli civilians' front stage, and you've included a reference to Palestinian civilians, albeit rather oblique and half-hearted, but, sorry to say, you do have a terrible tendency to overwrite, to whit, "Hamas set a course to launch attacks on Israel, day by day picking off and terrorising Israeli civilians and soldiers over the border, with the goal of grinding Israel down. [You should have stopped there, Paul, but no, you just had to go on, didn't you?] Worse, Hamas has knowingly sacrificed Palestinian lives and economy on the altar of world sympathy. The Palestinians are drunk with the success of their publicity game and blind to the abyss into which it has plunged." I'm still trying to get my head around that last bit: a "publicity game" plunging into an "abyss?!" And like David you just had to throw in a porkie, didn't you? That bit where you write that "Israel's September 2005 withdrawal from Gaza raised hopes for the dawning of two states side-by-side. But not as far as Hamas was concerned, it was spoiling for a fight. Hamas set a course to launch attacks..." Fine by me, but what if some hostile smartarse out there seizes on it and fires back a letter explaining that, no, actually Hamas had been abiding by a unilateral ceasefire for over a year and only began taking pot shots at us when provoked to do so by those Palestinian klutzes picknicking on the Gaza beach who insisted on getting in the way of some of our smart shells. We can't afford to lead with our chin in this way. Leave that to that dear old klutz, Sheridan."

Unfortunately for Australia's hasbara hacks and their kind the world over, elements in the Olmert Government are getting caught out - straying from the script and causing cracks in Israel's propaganda firewall.

It began with Interior Minister, Meir Sheetrit, reported in The Jerusalem Post on 11/2/08 as calling on the IDF to "'take off its the gloves', head into Gaza with armored tractors and raze an entire neighborhood..." (IDF should wipe out parts of Gaza) So much for keeping Warsaw Ghetto analogising at bay. I bet Sheetrit's in deepshit.

Now we've got the Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai, saying that the Palestinians were "bringing upon themselves a greater shoah [Holocaust] because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in air strikes or on the ground." The propaganda mill is in damage control: "As one Israeli blog commentator put it: 'This is a disastrous case of the foot-in-mouth disease, all too common among the contemporary breed of Israeli politicians. Terrible timing, too. Mr Vilnai's camp released a statement saying the former army officer had only meant to imply a disaster. Tom Gross, a media affairs columnist for the National Review Online, said there was a major difference between a shoah and the Shoah. 'It is like confusing a 'white house' with 'the White House' he wrote." ('Shoah' an admission, Arabs say, Sydney Morning Herald, 3/3/08)

Seems like the semantic games used to explain away every slip of the Israeli mask cannot any longer hold back the rush to mind and print of World War II analogies, whether Holocaust, Warsaw Ghetto, Lidice, or concentration camp - not even in the minds and words of Israeli perpetrators themselves.