By PHILIP M. GIRALDI*
The North American and European public is once again being subjected to the usual falsifying con when it comes to anything having to do with Israel
Mainstream media outlets, as well as official government commentary, regarding the violence in Gaza appear to have acquired a certain uniform rhythm, which is intended to ensure that everyone understands that poor Israelis would be the real victims under attack by a group called Hamas, invariably labeled as “terrorist”. It has become absolutely mandatory, in the first paragraph of any article on the evolution of the fighting, to remind readers that on October 7, the so-called “terrorist” group Hamas “invaded” Israel and killed 1.400 peace-loving Israelis, taking another 200 hostage. .
It is assumed that Israel acts only in retaliation and it is often considered relevant to note that this was the most horrific mass murder of Jews since the so-called “holocaust”. To add some recent cultural and historical relevance, “11/XNUMX” and “Pearl Harbor” are also often cited to suggest that it was a surprise attack and a game changer in terms of how Israel now views an external threat, and of how it will have to bear the imperatives of national security.
One could insert a comment from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi or Senator Chuck Schumer that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” And Joe Biden can also eventually be cited, as the one who noted, to measure the enormity of the tragedy, that the attack was the equivalent, for Israel, of 15 times 11/XNUMX, comparing, in relative terms, the size and population of the United States and the Jewish State.
This is all in just the first paragraph. To ensure that the reader understands. The second paragraph may make the truly “relevant contribution to the debate” by raising the issue of “the rise of anti-Semitism” in the United States and Europe, which may often include a quote from the implacable Jonathan Greenblatt, of the fearsome and widely feared Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Jonathan Greenblatt is often quoted as chanting something like “there is a radical and growing movement in many fields university students, in which opposition to Israel and Zionism is a necessary commandment for it to be fully accepted, marginalizing Jewish communities in fields".
The reason for mobilizing the anti-Semitism argument is to distract the reader from any possible perception that the Israel of apartheid was attacked, in fact, because of his exceptionally brutal behavior towards the Palestinians over the last 76 years, and that, instead, he was merely the victim of ruthless terrorists who did what they did, in large part, because they hate Jews.
Thus, the possible Israeli responsibility for what happened disappears, and Benjamin Netanyahu and his fanatical and racist colleagues Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir gain authorization to do whatever they want to get rid of their “Arab problem”. These last two men have already expressed their dream of an Israel without any Palestinians – whom they do not consider acceptable human beings – and have given any police officer or soldier confronted by an Arab protester the authority to shoot to kill. More than 100 Palestinians have already been killed in the West Bank by armed settlers, police and soldiers, who will never be held responsible for murder, in addition to hundreds of arbitrary arrests.
In the United States, Fox News has led the release of interviews and reports that suggest that Jewish students in the country are so terrified by the implicit and explicit threats of anti-Semitic rancor that manifests itself in fields university students and elsewhere, who even stopped eating in the cafeterias kosher of universities so that they do not become targets of some crazy person. And there are also the inevitable calls to completely ban gatherings that express sympathy for the Palestinians, or that simply wave or display the Palestinian flag.
Complaints about the rise of anti-Semitism are, in fact, all over the media, even though there are some things wrong with the narrative about Israel and Palestine and about the events of October 7th and those that followed. In short, the North American and European public is once again being subjected to the usual falsifying con when it comes to anything having to do with Israel. And, in the United States, propaganda certainly gains additional effectiveness when it is repeated by veteran politicians from both parties, as, for example, in its unanimous decision in the Senate (with a score of 97 to zero) and in a vote in the Chamber (412 to 10) in favor of resolutions pledging unconditional support for Israel and whatever that country decides to do. Added to this is the support of two groups of US aircraft carriers and Marine troops on standby in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Universities have been particularly targeted by the many “friends of Israel”, through the withholding of donations from former Jewish students to colleges that do not explicitly denounce Hamas or praise Israeli “containment”, or even allow demonstrations students who support Gaza. Students taking part in protests against the treatment of Palestinians are being identified and placed on blacklists to be disseminated among potential future employers and universities, aiming to make it difficult for them to obtain good jobs or be awarded academic scholarships.
Ambitious politicians seeking to become the darlings of campaign donors and Jewish voters, such as Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, have gone to extremes, banning pro-Palestinian political groups at state universities and considering the possibility of prosecuting members of such groups for “criminal offenses.” of hate”, since they would automatically be considered as driven by “anti-Semitism”. DeSantis also promised that his state will not accept any Palestinian refugees – even though it is unclear how he could enforce this – basing the decision on his personal judgment that they would be “all anti-Semitic.”
So Florida recently purchased $135 million in Israeli government bonds to help the Jewish state's war effort. Senator Lindsey Graham said there should be “no limit” to Israelis killing Palestinians, while Donald Trump called for the deportation of all Palestinian students in the United States. This is all just another example of how low and even inhumane our politics have become when Israel is in any way involved. And it is equally interesting to note how several European countries, in addition to Israel, are also systematically silencing critics of the massacres in Gaza, in many cases firing them from their jobs.
Part of the problem is that a certain version of what happened on October 7th and thereafter has been so spread by the media and commentators that it remains very unclear what actually happened. The Israelis have persistently claimed that 1.405 Jews and Asian farm workers were killed by Hamas, 386 of whom were apparently soldiers. But the way they died is where the story gets adrift.
Israeli survivors of the attack told journalists that they were treated well when captured by Hamas and that the real killing began when Israeli army units, including tanks, artillery and helicopters, counterattacked Hamas, creating a brutal crossfire, usually described as “friendly fire,” which killed many if not most civilians. At the kibbutz attacked, the houses where civilians were sheltering were mostly destroyed by heavy weapons fire, which Hamas does not have.
What we also know now, from a growing body of evidence obtained from the Israeli media and of eyewitnesses, is that the Israeli military appears to have been overwhelmed by the events of the day. The reaction may have apparently triggered an attitude long known as “Hannibal procedure”, which seeks to prevent Israeli soldiers from being captured, due to the high ransom that the Israeli public insists on paying to ensure they are returned. As a result, military command is authorized to order troops to kill other soldiers rather than allow them to be taken prisoner. For the same reason, Hamas expends a lot of energy trying to find innovative ways to capture Israeli soldiers.
The possibility that Israel's military killed many of its own soldiers and civilians is, of course, being suppressed by the dominant narrative and by politicians eager to help Israel in the Gaza genocide. However, it exists. And there is yet another part of the story that is devastating in its possible implications, which is the immediate response to the crisis, in the offer to Israel of 14,5 billion dollars in defense support, an incomprehensibly large amount, which appears to have been taken from the shout from some lobbyists. This fortune translates, in practice, into genocide in Gaza and the commission of a series of war crimes along the way.
The tribute surrender, as some describe it, was approved on a party-line vote of 226 to 196 in Congress last Thursday. The vote would have come close to unanimous if not for a partisan dispute over the measure's funding. It appears that Joe Biden and Congress are not aware that genocide is a major crime against humanity, as defined by the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions, and that most international lawyers agree with the thesis that arming and financing an organization or state that is exterminating another nation or identifiable ethnic group constitutes complicity or even participation in the crime.
Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken may have no idea how much money Israel receives from American taxpayers at all levels of government in a year, on top of the $3,8 billion it receives in direct “military assistance” – a gift from Barack Obama . Additional cash flows from joint military projects, dubious charities, and state- and even local-level development councils bring that total to about $10 billion. This contributes to making Israel a wealthy country, which can afford to offer its Jewish citizens free healthcare and college education, as well as subsidized housing, without needing additional support from the United States to fight its wars.
By the way, this brings us to the final question: Israel's secret nuclear program, which should certainly be a cause for concern for American political decision makers, who find themselves facing an explosive conflict, with the potential to engulf the entire East. Medium and overflow beyond the region. The fact that Israel is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the region, numbering more than 200, according to some estimates, is significant. In the United States government there is a so-called “legislative rule” according to which no federal official can confirm that Israel has nuclear weapons.
The rule is ridiculous, as the existence of the Israeli nuclear arsenal has already been well attested, including by Colin Powell, who once confirmed that “Israel had more than 200 nuclear weapons aimed at Iran”. Powell made the statement when he was already out of office, but even prominent Senator Chuck Schumer, a staunch supporter of Israel, confirmed the existence of this arsenal.
The reason for the acute sensitivity of the LOBBY Israel and the politicians it entices with regard to its nuclear weapons from Israel is that the Symington Amendment, in Section 101 of the United States Arms Export Control Act of 1976, prohibits foreign aid to any country that has nuclear weapons and that he did not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Which means that the $3,8 billion in annual aid to Israel would be in jeopardy if Washington enforced its own laws, even if it is unimaginable that President Joe Biden or Attorney General Merrick Garland, both ardent Zionists, would take action. necessary measures to do so.
Another complicated law consists of the so-called Leahy Amendments, which prohibit the United States Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights “with impunity.” Israel's numerous brutal attacks on Gaza, including the current one targeting hospitals and churches, bombing and killing defenseless civilians, half of whom are children, is a classic example of when the Leahy Amendments should be applied. But, of course, they never will be. This reality illustrates once again the true political power of LOBBY Jewish in the United States, supported by Christian Zionists like the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
Finally, one must look at the Israeli nuclear arsenal itself, along with the country's reckless and aggressive leadership, and what this represents; a subject that currently no one even considers as a risk factor in a possible expansion of the war. Twenty years ago, when US President George W. Bush began his disastrous “war on terror” conceived by neoconservatives, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw it as an opportunity for Israel to become a major beneficiary, prepared as he was to draw the United States into a much-desired strike against Iran. Add to this the renewed drive to terrorize the remaining Palestinians into fleeing to neighboring Arab states.
Israel explicitly intended that, if necessary, its nuclear capabilities be used against its neighbors, as described in veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh's 1991 book entitled The Samson Option (Random House). The title refers to the Israeli government's nuclear strategy, according to which Israel would launch a massive retaliatory nuclear attack if the state itself was under threat from external forces and was at risk of being invaded, just as the biblical figure Samson destroyed the pillars of the temple of a Philistine government, tearing down its roof and killing himself, along with thousands of Philistines who had gathered to see him humiliated. One of Seymour Hersh's sources in Israel's intelligence service reportedly told him: “We can still remember the smell of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Next time, we will take you all with us.”
When Ariel Sharon was questioned on how the rest of the world might respond to Israel using its nuclear weapons to effectively eliminate its Arab neighbors, he replied: “That depends on who does it and how quickly it happens. We have several hundred atomic warheads and rockets, and we can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even in Rome. Most European capitals are within reach of our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: 'Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to be bothered.' I consider everything desperate at a time like this. We will have to try to prevent things from getting to that point, if possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the ability to bring the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel sinks.”
So here we are, on the brink of what could plausibly be the second threat of preventable and mishandled nuclear war by Joe Biden and the idiots he chose to “advise” him. O Colonel Douglas Macgregor correctly refers to the explosive crisis entailing a nuclear threat as a “War of Armageddon”. Few Americans know that Israel only has nuclear weapons because it stole enriched uranium and triggers from the United States, with the cooperation of Jewish industrialist Zalman Shapiro, owner of the NUMEC factory in Pennsylvania, and Jewish-Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, neither of whom was ever seriously held accountable by the U.S. government.
So we have an Israel with a secret nuclear arsenal, which no US official can even mention, which is currently at “war” and, in theory, prepared to use that arsenal – most likely against an arch-enemy like Iran – , if threatened, simply aiming to “bring down the world”. What about the silent majority of Americans, who would like to see a government that actually tries to do good for the people who live in their country and pay their taxes, living in a world of peace where Washington leaves everyone alone, and in return he is also left alone by others... this may be an aspiration whose time, it seems, has already expired.
Philip M. Giraldi, A former US Army intelligence officer and former CIA analyst, he holds a doctorate in modern history from the University of London.
Translation: Ricardo Cavalcanti-Schiel.
Originally published on Unz Review.
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