Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
If you have to kill 274 people to free four others being held hostage, is that a “successful” military operation? According to the Israeli and U.S. governments, it is.
Israel, apparently with some U.S. help, attacked the Nuseirat Camp in Gaza and freed four hostages seized by Hamas. In doing so, however, Israeli forces killed and wounded hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children.
It’s a brutal calculus that sees Palestinians as being “in the way” and essentially worthless and therefore expendable. Put differently, Israel sees all Palestinians in Gaza as “guilty,” as “terrorists,” therefore there are no innocent Palestinians and Israel can kill as many as they need to, without guilt or remorse, to achieve a desired end.
Coverage by the mainstream media in the West generally has been glowing, praising Israel for rescuing four hostages while downplaying the Palestinian dead as collateral damage that’s hardly worth noticing.
Here’s an example from the BBC:
You see a happy young woman freed by Israeli forces, but you don’t see any images of the more than 200 Palestinians killed by Israel in this “special military operation.” And note how the Palestinian dead are consigned to a sub-heading and a smaller font, using the passive voice (“were killed”), as if it’s unclear who killed them and why.
Yes, it’s good to see four hostages freed. But if hundreds of other innocent people must die or suffer grievous wounds in the process, that’s not a “successful” operation. It’s a massacre.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
”Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me!… With every step. I take, a Peace for eternity! With God as our Father, blessed all are we! Let us walk the father, with Peace eternally! Let us walk with the Mothers (Mary and Mary Magdeline). With God as the father, blessed all are we! Christ as his son!!!”
It is never too late Holy Israel! So get Holy Now, with Peace, from the Father, Mother and son! All will be forgiven forever!…”
How long you gonna wait blessed Israel?! Till hell freezes over?!
;-). Lol, lol, lol!!!
Humor is a gift dear daughter and some of us have it but… Well….Hmmm….Ahem!
Jesus Christ! Super Star! Who in the world do you think you are?!-classic, truly!
I’d like to point out, that I, personally, am waiting for the final moment of peace with Christ and father, mother too!
How about you, oh blessed, beautiful Israel!
“Jesus Christ Super Star!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“………………………..
Here is an image for ya: Scheerpost.com: https://scheerpost.com/2024/06/09/baby-ahmad-was-beheaded-by-israel-with-a-us-bomb/ Seventh paragraph down (click on the highlighted "shows" at your own sensual peril). The four hostages were said to be in good health. The rescued girl certainly does appear to be. The child? Other children?
Thanks for posting this. I knew about the Liberty, but not in this detail.
The dirtbags presently in charge here would in all likelihood resort to this same demonstration of abject fealty to the monsters in Tel Aviv – given another opportunity ….
Oh, wait.
As the California Supreme Court held inn People v. Gilbert (1965) 63 Cal.2d 690 [47 Cal. Rptr. 909, 408 P.2d 365] (Gilbert). “When the defendant or his accomplice, with a conscious disregard for life, intentionally commits an act that is likely to cause death, and his victim or a [*613] police officer kills in reasonable response to such act, the defendant is guilty of murder.” (Id. at p. 704.) “ Kidnapping someone to be held hostage under a threat of death if a rescue is attempted, which Hamas has repeatedly done, is an act which is likely to result in death. Therefore the persons responsible for all 274 deaths are the persons who kidnapped and held the Israelis.
reasonable response
I guess your idea of reasonable and mine differ. Similar to all of Israel's "reasonable" responses in the past.
Protective Edge. Cast Lead. 2300 Palestinian children killed by the IDF before 7Oct.
One of the hostages rescued, an older man. was interviewed in Israel. Many listening may have missed it, but the man said the point of the hostages being taken was for negotiating the release of the "detainees" in Israeli jails, detained without charges. Your idea of a reasonable response is genocide, while dropping bomb tonnage on Gaza not seen since WWII. There are more than 40,000 dead. Mostly women and children. Also, I suppose you missed that during the "reasonable response", the IDF killed three hostages. The young girl who was rescued said that the biggest fear for all of the hostages was Israeli bombing. Not Hamas.
In an alternative world where the situation were reversed and killing 274 Israeli Jews in order to free 4 Palestinians that could have and should have been freed by a cease fire, about 40.000 dead, and 2 million dispelled Jews subject to captivity, continuous bombing, hunger and disease ago their possibility to survive methodically stripped from them and their history of their existence wiped out, I hope the Palestinians would be spared such advocates. These are the sort of people who deserve – and mostly likely have received – the contempt of all.
On media it as all great news of the "heroic" rescue of 4 hostages. Miller called it "heroic". Tom Cotton called it "heroic". Very little mention of the deaths, the injuries of the Palestinians. What hospital remains reported that dozens and dozens of dead and dying children were brought to the hospital. One such child did not make it, as did many others. Scheerpost.com story: https://scheerpost.com/2024…
This is just the latest example and the BBC is by no means an exception to the general rule that the Western mainstream press have never wasted any opportunity, however small or insignificant to leave any room for doubt that they operate from a sacred axiom, held for absolute self-evidently true, woven right into the fabric of reality, that Palestinian lives don't matter. Make the mistake to ever give cause to empathy and you no longer shall have employment within that system. That is not what it is for.
According to Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli General, Israeli children are taught in schools that Palestinians are of no value. Miko was in the IDF, special forces, saw action, reached the point of realizing that the "operations" of the IDF were wrong. He wrote a book about his epiphany, "The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine". There is a reason why 90% of Israelis were all in on the "war", while 60% believed that the IDF was not doing enough killing.
As far as I am aware there are no such programs in schools in Western Europe and I have never heard, might be wrong but never heard of such programs in schools in the US. Again, I might be wrong, but I am not aware that Western journalist are being instructed in their respective schools that Palestinians are to be regarded as sub- or even nonhuman or at best not really or fully human and still if you survey the resulting media it seems impossible to arrive at the conclusion that this is exactly what with few precious exceptions all have internalized.
They are not Israeli, but they all seem to identify with Israel, and then specifically with Israeli of European ancestry, Ashkenazi Israeli mainly. If there is any other way to explain that than through inherent racism, Western exceptionalism, or internalized supremacism it is bound to be an extremely convoluted story.
You will never get this from the CIA global media.
May 16, 2014 90% of All Deaths In War Are Civilians
http://www.globalresearch.ca/90-of-all-deaths-in-war-are-civilians/5382520
Feb 19, 2023 No to War, No to NATO: North American perspectives on Ukraine, Russia, and NATO
For the last year, the war in Ukraine has been reflected daily in mainstream news, but remains an issue clouded by confusion. While events of the last year are front page news, there is little talk about the many years of NATO provocations, aggression and military buildup against Russia. More and more each day, NATO countries including Canada, the US, and England are fueling the war, funneling even more weapons into Ukraine. The Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network hosted a webinar featuring speakers from Canada, the US, and Ukraine.
https://youtu.be/p6BL8O8-5RI