by John Glaser
Israel has again attacked Gaza. In its aerial and ground assault that began on Saturday, November 10th, at least 7 Palestinians have been killed, 5 of them civilians, 3 of whom were children. Up to 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.
As in every vicious military offensive Israel carries out in Gaza, the dominant narrative is that it is a response to rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. This is how it’s being reported in the US, and this is how virtually every American understands it.
And it’s a lie.
It’s true that on Saturday, prior to the expanded Israeli bombardment, the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine shot an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle near the Gaza border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. But what prompted the firing of the anti-tank missile?
First, on Monday, November 5th, Israeli forces shot and killed 23 year old Ahmad Nabhani when he “approached the border fence with Israel.” According to at least one account, Nabhani was mentally challenged.
Then, on Thursday, November 8th, the Israeli Occupation Forces – eight tanks and four bulldozers, to be exact – invaded southern Gaza, shooting and killing a 13-year old boy. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (via):
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the ‘Abassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family’s house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.
So, even if honest observers brush to the side the cruel and inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza and refuse to let it influence the equation of exactly which side started this flare up of violence, it is clear Israel started this latest clash. And in response to the response, Israel has waged a harsh, disproportionate military assault.
This would be a simple thing to understand if, for example, Western media bothered to ask the other side what happened. Palestinian news media immediately reported that the anti-tank missile Israel was supposedly responding to was admitted to by the Popular Resistance Committees, who described it as “revenge” for preceding Israeli violence on Gaza. But that basic task of honest journalism is apparently out of the question.
Every single Israeli incursion or attack on Gaza is accompanied by the same narrative: Israel fairly responded to unprovoked Palestinian rocket fire. The last major war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in December ’08-January ’09, also carried this narrative. Israel committed war crimes in that one-sided conflict, targeting and killing hundreds of civilians, using indiscriminate weapons, and intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure. It has become an accepted fact – even among critics of Israel – that the offensive was a response to Hamas rocket fire. The rocket fire did indeed occur immediately before the assault, but it was in response to Israel’s breaking of the six-month cease-fire, which even Israeli officials in WikiLeaks cables admitted Hamas had kept to.
Greg on said:
Obama bombed six different countries in his first four years in office, yet everyone seems to think he is a great choice, and he is widely supported. I hear a Hamas leader was killed in a targeted attack.
John on said:
Tell me where on this website any contributor has used the words ‘great choice’ to describe Obama’s election?
Chris on said:
Surely this isn’t what the Zionists wanted, all those years ago? Israel’s not what it was supposed to be – right now it’s a failed state in the truest sense.
Marko on said:
“Surely this isn’t what the Zionists wanted, all those years ago”
Yes, I think they would have wanted the total annihilation of the Palestinians to have proceeded much quicker but they will be content with the general situation I think.
David Hillman on said:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/operation-pillar-of-cloud
David Hillman on said:
Protest at Israel’s attack on Gaza – tomorrow (Thurs) 5.30-7pm opposite Israeli embassy, London (nearest tube High St Kensington). Please join us!
Greg on said:
@ John – Sorry my mistake, it says Obama’s election should be welcomed by the left. Even though he is the most militarily violent US leader for decades.
It appears Israel and Palestine are bombing each other. Obama has bombed people in six different countries so far.
Noah on said:
You are a zionist Hasbara troll and I claim my £5.
John on said:
Well, I’d say the fact that China, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and Russia were in favour of an Obama election victory than a Romney one is fairly significant. These of course are countries that have to deal with US hegemony on a practical level, and in the recognition that there was and is no counter-hegemonic power in the US capable of taking power in Washington.
So, yes, Obama is a war criminal. I think I state that in the article whose title you cite.
But what’s your point? Are you saying that Israel’s continued occupation, siege, ethnic cleansing, and bombing of the Palestinians should be ignored because the US is an imperialist and hegemonic state?
Noah on said:
Yes, that is his point. It’s a familiar tactic of pro-Israel internet operatives.
redhand on said:
Bad day for Palestinians all round it seems. 14 more martyrs in Yarmouk refugee camp today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0P7f7B9HyI
Plus trouble brewing in Jordan as well by the looks of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wBCzFcCJTTo
anon on said:
Election time in Israel again…
amnon on said:
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/3392
johng on said:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-killed-its-subcontractor-in-gaza.premium-1.477886
John Grimshaw on said:
#12 US election over as well.
CJB on said:
Nazism, ohh the irony…
Imran Khan on said:
It might be well worth the time of all of those commenting here to put words like ” Hamas rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza” into Google and read the Wikipedia entry in full. All of you do that and then we can have a constructive discussion.
CJB on said:
Ok, but only if you google, Israel’s illegal and ruthless occupation of gaza, then we can have a real discussion…
dem O'Cracy on said:
17 – have read through. So are you going to start the constructive discussion then?
jock mctrousers on said:
Just heard on the BBC : ” 3 Israeli civilians and 11 Palestinians have been killed”. Spot what’s wrong with that.
lone nut on said:
If you were listening to the same BBC headlines as me, the “11 Palestinians have been killed” was followed by “most of them militants”. How this estimate was arrived at wasn’t explained.
Vanya on said:
#21 By the normal method of impartial research by the BBC on matters relating to Israel/Palestine I assume.
Omar on said:
From today’s Independent,lest the IDF come out with their usual “we’re only killing militants” crap.
“Israeli officials maintain that far fewer civilians have been killed in its targeted hits than, for example, through US drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, figures produced by the Israeli Defence Forces have been disputed. An investigation by the Israeli Human Rights organisation B’Tselem into fatalities found that targeted killings claimed 425 Palestinian lives between September 2000 and August 2011. Of these, 251 (59.1 per cent) were the targeted militants and 174 (40.9 per cent) civilian bystanders.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/from-air-strikes-to-hit-squads-how-israel-disposes-of-its-enemies-8317304.html
Marko on said:
We really should carefully document the utter bias of the corporate media in favour of Israel. To us this is so obvious you may ask why, but I have seen Zionists saying the media is biased against them!!! This utter Orwellian doublespeak needs to be challenged, it will also highlight the utter bankrupt nature of the Zionist lobby.
Start documenting now!
Chris on said:
The British government has to stop Israel going to war in Gaza. It won’t do it, but it has a moral obligation nonetheless.
Sam64 on said:
Well I’ve never known such media coverage in a Israeli – Palestinian (or other Arab) conflict before. That’s true of the BBC anyway. There’s always a distinctly pro-Israel bias of course, but never quite so overt – not in my recollection anyway.
On Monday morning I heard The Sun’s John Cavanagh talking on R4 about the institutionalised left wing bias of the BBC. Just now on R6 news I heard prolonged sirens then the words ‘This is the sound of the Israeli capital Tel Aviv as more Hamas rockets rain down on its population’. Not one mention was made of the far more frequent and deadly Israeli air attacks on Gaza.
BombasticSpastic on said:
Condemning the escalating violence between Israel and Gaza, William Hague insists Hamas bears ‘principal responsibility’ for the current fighting.
No mention by Hague of the Palestinian deaths that preceded the rocket attacks.
Mind you every time I see the cunt (Hague) I’m waiting for Bugs Bunny to turn up and take the piss out of him.
Mark Victorystooge on said:
The BBC “left-wing”? Wow. I don’t know what such people do when they meet an actual left-winger. Have a heart attack, take some smelling salts, call the police?