THUS Magazine

We certainly won the war on terror - everyone's terrified now

Having reached all ‘the goals of the war, and beyond’ Israeli President Olmert trumpeted a unilateral truce to commence at 00.00 am today, having been told to stop killing so many civilians by the US on Friday, ahead of Obama’s inauguration and with enough dead and wounded Palestinians to ensure election victory. The calculation is that Hamas, who were reluctant to accept the truce, will cause sufficient trouble to make it OK for Israel to resume the killing after Barack has had time to settle down, and that Israel will look magnanimous for stopping the murdering. Given that Israeli Defence Force troops will continue to occupy Gaza and the strip will remain blockaded, the two preconditions of Hamas ‘disengagement’, the ceasefire may not hold very long.  If, on the other hand, the objective was to win an election for the neocons, it has been an enormous success- opinion polls in Israel are overwhelmingly pro-war, and those in the US aren’t that far behind. Israel won the propaganda war, with Australian smoothie Mark Regev (please indict him) trilling out lie after lie with no regard for the intelligence of his audiences. Fox News made sure that the US didn’t see too much, while the prospects of losing dwindling advertising dollars kept CNN and co. in check. So this was a success too.

Israel’s propaganda machine is well-funded – virtually all the US media has been either indifferent or silent about the Gaza massacres – or comprehensively biased towards Israel, a tendency well-satirised by Jon Stuart on January 9. A far less entertaining but deeply educational exegesis of the US media bias can be seen on Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land. It’s worth watching, especially for the statement of the obvious: Gaza and the West Bank are Israeli occupied territories, yet the US media in particular, rarely mentions this somewhat relevant fact. If you’re feeling up to it, you can watch Biased Media Reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The relevant fact amongst many in this piece is that Palestinian deaths (before the latest Gaza bloodfest) outnumber Israelis by 8:1. 200,000 ‘settlers’ colonise Palestinian territory, in contravention of Article 4 of the Geneva Convention. This is ethnic cleansing, but the media has been annexed long ago. 

Indiscriminately shelling schools, hospitals and shooting civilians, especially children (human shields) has met with wild approval in Israel, so it’s Mission Accomplished all round. And just in case there are any hitches in the carefully planned Israeli democratic elections, Israel has banned Arab political parties from participating, (January 15)  adding accusations of apartheid to the UN calls for war crimes investigations – but the world scarcely noticed this act of blatant totalitarianism. Ironically, the three (3) Israeli civilians killed in this conflict were Bedouin construction workers – ‘Israeli’ Arabs. Israel lost ten soldiers – seven killed by their own forces – which means that Hamas didn’t claim a single victim in the ‘fierce’ street fighting which allegedly took place – itself a worrying contradiction, given that they were and are allegedly well-armed and trained by Iran. Since neither Egypt not Israel would allow observers in, the truth will remain under the rubble, but it’s also worth conjecturing as to why the highly ineffective Hamas rockets are of such poor, often home made quality if they again are supplied by Iran through immense tunnels.  

Informed sources aver that ‘phase 3′ of the ‘plan’ to ensure Israel’s security will take the form of an assault on the West Bank later this year in retaliation for  yet-unspecified acts of terrorism by Arab groups, ‘funded and armed by Iran’. This might explain the huge US weapons shipment reported last week, or, looking on the bright side, they may be destined for an assault on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities (despite the departing Head of US Intelligence’s report that it would be at least two years before Iran got anywhere near military grade nuclear weapons fuel, Israel claims they will be ready by the end of the year). 

Despite the heavy Zionist lobby in bomb-em Hilary Clinton’s department, Barack Obama might have the courage, good sense and statesmanship to put warmongering state terrorists on notice, as part of the urgent  process of rehabilitating America’s reputation. This turkey shoot marks the time when the civilised world ran out of sympathy for Israel. Nobody except ineffectual extremists  believe its existence is threatened, and nobody will allow it to use this tired excuse to enact acts of wanton murder and mayhem in Lebanon and Gaza with virtually no effective international sanctions.

Nobody believes the neocons either (except true believers and paid apparatchiks). For some reason we’ve sat back and allowed pinheads, state psychopaths, media monkeys and ‘intellectuals’ to tell us black is white. This happened in Germany and elsewhere and led to the last world war with all its attendant horrors. Israelis, of all people, should be mindful.

We are not all Hamas now. We never were. Neither were the ordinary people of Gaza, but probably the majority are now. Does this give Israel the right to wipe them out? Yes, according to the twisted logic of the Zionist extremists, even if they are defenceless women and children. If Hamas, PFLP, Hizbollah, Al Quaeda and all their various grisly provisional offshoots and splinter groups had any sense (which they generally haven’t) they would work hard to ensure that Israel was hung out to dry in the wind of international (dis) opprobrium – and preferably in the courts – rather than take more vicious potshots which will lead to more civilian massacres. But they won’t. They’ll do Israel’s bidding and we can look forward to a bloody summer, unless Obama show he is a man, not a politician. 

John J Kelly