You’ve got to hand it to Israeli spinners like Mark Regev. They are masters of PR.
In fact, as the Independent‘s Patrick Cockburn revealed over the weekend, “the playbook they are using is a professional, well-researched and confidential study on how to influence the media and public opinion in America and Europe”.
In recent days I’ve been debating supporters of Israel’s latest assault on Gaza on radio and on Twitter and I’ve been astonished not just by the sheer number of fact-free claims made by those supporters, but also by their confidence, slickness and sheer message discipline.
According to the pro-Israel, pro-IDF crowd, Hamas is to blame for everything.
This, of course, is utter nonsense. To quote the late US senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”
So, in a Moynihanian spirit, here are fact-filled, evidence-based rebuttals to the 11 main myths, half-truths and self-serving ‘talking points’ that are repeatedly pushed by various Israeli spokespersons, both on the airwaves and on social media:
1) The Gaza Strip isn’t occupied by Israel?
Boston Globe:
“Israeli-imposed buffer zones.. now absorb nearly 14% of Gaza’s total land and at least 48% of total arable land. Similarly, the sea buffer zone covers 85% of the maritime area promised to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, reducing 20 nautical miles to three.”
Human Rights Watch: “Israel also continues to control the population registry for residents of the Gaza Strip, years after it withdrew its ground forces and settlements there.”
B’Tselem, 2013: “Israel continues to maintain exclusive control of Gaza’s airspace and the territorial waters, just as it has since it occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967.”
2) Israel wants a ceasefire but Hamas doesn’t?
Al Jazeera:
“Meshaal said Hamas wants the ‘aggression to stop tomorrow, today, or even this minute. But [Israel must] lift the blockade with guarantees and not as a promise for future negotiations. We will not shut the door in the face of any humanitarian ceasefire backed by a real aid programme.”
Jerusalem Post: “One day after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire accepted by Israel, but rejected by Hamas, fell through, the terrorist organization proposed a 10-year end to hostilities in return for its conditions being met by Israel, Channel 2 reported Wednesday…
Hamas’s conditions were the release of re-arrested Palestinian prisoners who were let go in the Schalit deal, the opening of Gaza-Israel border crossings in order to allow citizens and goods to pass through, and international supervision of the Gazan seaport in place of the current Israeli blockade.”
BBC: “Israel’s security cabinet has rejected a week-long Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by US Secretary of State John Kerry ‘as it stands’.”
3) Israel, unlike Hamas, doesn’t deliberately target civilians?
The Guardian: “It was there that the second [Israeli] shell hit the beach, those firing apparently adjusting their fire to target the fleeing survivors. As it exploded, journalists standing by the terrace wall shouted: ‘They are only children.’”
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay: “A number of incidents, along with the high number of civilian deaths, belies the [Israeli] claim that all necessary precautions are being taken to protect civilian lives.”
United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, 2009: “The tactics used by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza offensive are consistent with previous practices, most recently during the Lebanon war in 2006.
A concept known as the Dahiya doctrine emerged then, involving the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations. The Mission concludes from a review of the facts on the ground that it.. appears to have been precisely what was put into practice.”
4) Only Hamas is guilty of war crimes, not Israel?
Human Rights Watch: “Israeli forces may also have knowingly or recklessly attacked people who were clearly civilians, such as young boys, and civilian structures, including a hospital – laws-of-war violations that are indicative of war crimes.”
Amnesty International: “Deliberately attacking a civilian home is a war crime, and the overwhelming scale of destruction of civilian homes, in some cases with entire families inside them, points to a distressing pattern of repeated violations of the laws of war.”
5) Hamas use the civilians of Gaza as ‘human shields’?
Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor: “I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel’s accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.”
The Guardian: “In the past week, the Guardian has seen large numbers of people fleeing different neighbourhoods.. and no evidence that Hamas had compelled them to stay.”
The Independent: “Some Gazans have admitted that they were afraid of criticizing Hamas, but none have said they had been forced by the organisation to stay in places of danger and become unwilling human-shields.”
Reuters, 2013: “A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.”
6) This current Gaza conflict began with Hamas rocket fire on 30 June 2014?
Times of Israel: “Hamas operatives were behind a large volley of rockets which slammed into Israel Monday morning, the first time in years the Islamist group has directly challenged the Jewish state, according to Israeli defense officials.. The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more..
Hamas hasn’t fired rockets into Israel since Operation Pillar of Defense ended in November 2012.”
The Nation: “During 10 days of Operation Brother’s Keeper in the West Bank [before the start of the Gaza conflict], Israel arrested approximately 800 Palestinians without charge or trial, killed 9 civilians and raided nearly 1,300 residential, commercial and public buildings.
Its military operation targeted Hamas members released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011.”
7) Hamas has never stopped firing rockets into Israel?
Jewish Daily Forward: “Hamas hadn’t fired a single rocket since [2012 Gaza conflict], and had largely suppressed fire by smaller jihadi groups. Rocket firings, averaging 240 per month in 2007, dropped to 5 per month in 2013.”
International Crisis Group: “Fewer rockets were fired from Gaza in 2013 than in any year since 2001, and nearly all those that were fired between the November 2012 ceasefire and the current crisis were launched by groups other than Hamas.
The Israeli security establishment testified to the aggressive anti-rocket efforts made by the new police force Hamas established specifically for that purpose.. As Israel (and Egypt) rolled back the 2012 understandings – some of which were implemented spottily at best – so too did Hamas roll back its anti rocket efforts.”
8) Hamas provoked Israel by kidnapping and killing three Israeli teenagers?
Jewish Daily Forward: “The [Israeli] government had known almost from the beginning that the boys were dead. It maintained the fiction that it hoped to find them alive as a pretext to dismantle Hamas’ West Bank operations.. Nor was that the only fib. It was clear from the beginning that the kidnappers weren’t acting on orders from Hamas leadership in Gaza or Damascus. Hamas’ Hebron branch — more a crime family than a clandestine organization — had a history of acting without the leaders’ knowledge, sometimes against their interests.”
(It was later revealed that A Jewish adolescent did the kidnapping and killing of the three, and the Shin Beth knew all about this murder from the start)
BBC correspondent Jon Donnison: “Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership.. Seems to contradict the line from Netanyahu government.”
9) Hamas rule, not Israel’s blockade, is to blame for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip?
US State Department cable: “Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.. Israeli officials have confirmed.. on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge.”
The Guardian: “The Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza’s daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010, according to files the defence ministry released on Wednesday under a court order..
The Israeli advocacy group Gisha.. waged a long court battle to release the document. Its members say Israel calculated the calorie needs for Gaza’s population so as to restrict the quantity of food it allowed in.”
10) The Israeli government, unlike Hamas, wants a two-state solution?
Times of Israel: “[Netanyahu] made explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank.. Amid the current conflict, he elaborated, ‘I think the Israeli people understand now what I always say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security control of the territory west of the River Jordan.’”
11) All serious analysts agree it was Hamas, and not Israel, that started this current conflict?
Nathan Thrall, senior Mid East analyst at the International Crisis Group, writing in the New York Times:
“The current escalation in Gaza is a direct result of the choice by Israel and the West to obstruct the implementation of the April 2014 Palestinian reconciliation agreement.”
Henry Siegman, former national director, American Jewish Congress, writing for Politico: “Israel’s assault on Gaza.. was not triggered by Hamas’ rockets directed at Israel but by Israel’s determination to bring down the Palestinian unity government that was formed in early June, even though that government was committed to honoring all of the conditions imposed by the international community for recognition of its legitimacy.”
Tidbits #96
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 9, 2021
Tidbits #96
If you agree with the notion that input will eventually equal output, then when you do more than you are paid for, eventually you’ll be paid for more than you do. The universal law: we reap what we sow and we get what we give.
The Agro food industries add around 30 kinds of additives. most of them are poisonous in high doses. A few of them contains nanoparticles, which means they can cross the intestines and flow with the blood and degrade many organs ( cancers). Eventually, these nano-ingredients will be banned and the multinational will be unable to contest the electronic microscopes (the power of technology). For example, the dioxyde of Titanium or additive E71, just to “whiten” the product. Several ingredients are mainly used to retain water, thus adding half of the weight in the sold products
Most of these chemical additives in food are pure poisons and supposedly are just used to satisfy the idiosyncrasies of clients in the look, the color and consistency of the food. I doubt the multinational food industries experiment on the specific idiosyncrasies of clients around the globe, just imposing the “palate”/taste and smell of the colonial powers idiosyncrasies. Obesity, diabetes and cancer causing ingredients… are Not labeled “Can kill you” as in cigarette boxes.
Lately, pressured by “Green Food” campaigns and alternative food preparations, many agro-businesses substitute a few ingredients with “Auxiliary technology” ingredient/products, which are Not required to be listed as ingredients, because these ingredients disappear after the food is cooked. Many of these Auxiliary technology ingredients are enzymes types and proteins, even those extracted from cow bloods.
Lately, the best way that I “know” that I did fall asleep is that I could recall “I had a dream”. Most of the dreams I cannot stand: I am being humiliated and cannot react accordingly. I respond with a half-waking sleep to cope with my lethargy to react, and then I force myself to wake up. And I spend a few hours watching lousy movies, feeling in a wretched diminished state.
In a lengthy documentary on Agro industries. the business could eliminate 20 out of the 30 ingredients for a healthy product and substitute many with “natural” ingredients.
Don’t dwell on this irrational harang: “Resist to your famine in the name of Nationalism“. At least 3 billion people are degraded to accept the misery of their “destiny” in order to satisfy imperialistic economy.
Mammalian scientists claim that it is the females that start the process of mating season. I cannot buy these one-way cause and effects. I conjecture that the males vastly contribute to this process with their cry of “distress” to mate. And the female respond by increasing the level of their pheromone , a catalyst to entice the mating.
I think many would like to die in their sleep, preferable while dreaming of a hot Sexy story in order to go straight to heaven and compare with the Houris
After 53 years, the verdict from The Hague Friday: The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. How many Israelis are feeling the heat?
The U.S is the only advanced nation that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation time to workers, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The US has the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes of illnesses and the highest rate of avoidable deaths relative to other wealthy nations, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
It is Not worth it to give your opinions on social medias if you are Not ready to open up your deep emotions and personal experiences. Better make sure you are at least paid for your faked opinions
If paying attention to your breathing for a couple of minutes is so hard, how getting curious of the level of addiction to smoking and consuming alcohol is a simple task? How the tastes and feels of addictive substances is tagged as a simpler task?
Many people climbed the highest mountains in their profession, only to discover they were climbing the wrong mountain that didn’t deliver on the proper emotions and desires.
If the schooling system denies you to learn patience, focus and comprehension, you’ll have to learn on your own these hardest attitudes.
Any which way you think of it, Life has no meaning in the end. The best way to sustain this foolish reality is to learn to be confident in the passion of the talent you are endowed with.
Most financial bubbles are often engineered by governments, especially powerful Nations that has the right to print money at wish. With plenty of cash money in the market, the government increase the interest rate for stocks that are issued, until the economic reality blow the faked wealth.
Share this:
Like this: