Journalists as soldiers in the pay of Israel. With this in mind, and with the many embedded, confined in some luxurious soundproof dell'etnocrazia Israeli crimes, fighting a war of images, which distorts the reality. What today has seen yet Gaza once the center of incessant bombing. Fifteen houses destroyed in Gaza City. Five children were killed by the Israeli killed in al-Qarar. Bombing also Jabalya - where last night was hit a mosque - and the refugee camp of al-Nasiriyat.
Meanwhile, Israel's policy of terror continues. With the launch of leaflets in Arabic on the town with the words "take over your responsibilities, or people of Gaza. What happens is caused by the firing of rockets against Israeli civilian population of your territory. To call this telephone number and tell us where are launched. " Invitations to the accusation, certain techniques of psychological warfare. So also calls to thousands of users in the Arab Palestinians, who wish to indicate places of Hamas.
But the atmosphere, even tragic, in the Middle East is changing. Within a few days we are witnessing the sudden mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Arabs against the policy of terror in Isreal. And if you are in Tel Aviv also polls on the war - in terms of political consensus it would leave the Likud and Labor reinforced, while Kadima will lose four seats - the entire Arab world, what Fanon would call the "wretched of the earth," seems is compact.
And tomorrow, just in Israel, in Tel Aviv, will be the focus of a singular "war of flags." The government had move in the first person to organize a counter-demonstration with Israeli flags, pro-Palestinian march to Gaza.
A symbol, Tel Aviv because tomorrow could be the scene of a much larger story: the union of the Arab peoples against Israeli violence. And to see the many manifestations of the "Friday of rage" called by Hamas apparently just is not an impossibility.
A key feature of any conflict is the perception that it has not only the people involved, but also the countries of the world. Israel has managed, through careful propaganda, to bring the world to its side, hiding the reality the statistics and the truth of jobs - supports American professor William A. Cook
"How frightening it can be knowledge of the truth" (Oedipus the King, Scene I)
While the Israeli army launched its "total war" against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while the victims rose to 400, with more than 1450 injured (the article dates from January 2 (NDT)), while tanks and troops massed in the area near the wall that imprisons the people of Gaza, while preparations for a ground attack continued, the Minister for Tzipi Livni Israeli Foreign Saturday, December 27, "ordered the Foreign Ministry to take emergency measures to bring international public relations course in the escalation of Israel in the Gaza Strip "(Haaretz, 28/12/2008). "An aggressive diplomatic campaign of public relations at the international level" should be launched simultaneously at about "60 raid" now pounding Gaza daily raids in human terms that took the lives of five girls in the family Ba'losha, killed a Bait Lahia, north of Gaza, and three children in the family al-Absi in the refugee camp of Rafah when an Israeli missile destroyed the roof of their house.
provide the names and locations of these families to give reality to the statistics stupefy the mind, multiply the suffering of these families, given that so far more than 400 people have died because of this "hunt" unfair against civilians in the trap, which was launched by the "compassionate" Olmert government, which concludes in a criminal its mandate pending the election of another military rule.
Unfortunately, some ministry officials have had to interrupt their holidays to return immediately to their jobs abroad. Their goal, like that of Livni, "explain the rationale behind the extensive operation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza." The ministry also seeks people who speak foreign languages, especially Arabic, Italian, English, and German, to make sure that its message is received by all.
An international broadcast center was opened to the media Sunday, December 28 at Sderot, the hapless Israeli town which has been the target of most of the rockets of Hamas in the past eight years. Visits are planned for the "foreign media and diplomatic personalities." Livni noted that "Israel expects the support and understanding of the international community, as he prepares to fight terror, and to further the interest of all those who wish to have forces peace and coexistence to determine the agenda for this region "(Haaretz).
not cited by Livni, but on the same Israeli newspaper published the same day, was another article by Barak Ravid, "Disinformation, Lies and Secrecy: How the chamber about Gaza offensive." Olmert Ravid reveals that he had "ordered the IDF to prepare for the operation more than six months ago, even though Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas." It 's interesting how the perception precedes the propaganda and denies the reality. In 1958, Aldous Huxley had noted in his book "Brave New World Rivisited" that "truth is great," but "the silence about the truth is even greater." Hitler used this "silence about truth" to imprison the minds of German civilians, silencing the media about his actions and creating, instead, a "new" truth from lies that cloaked the real data produced an acceptable capacity , redefining reality. While Livni
officials fill the television talk shows around the world and write articles about the "tens" or "rain", or "gusts" of "rockets" raining down on Sderot and other towns near Gaza Olmert meets its Board of government to "five hours of discussion about the operation, but in the official statement is given" a single line devoted to the situation in Gaza, after an entire page about the outlawing of 35 organizations in the global jihad. " In short, what is said by the public opinion public relations campaign for Livni is not the real reason why Israel attacked Gaza.
The reason that underlies this invasion is the desire to annihilate the Palestinian resistance, something that the British had to deal with in the '30s and '40s, when the "gangs" Jewish, to actually organized and trained military forces (known by the names of Irgun, Stern, and Hagan), opposed to British rule established in accordance with the mandate of the League of Nations. But the deception does not end here. Israel continued to "spread misinformation by announcing it would open the crossings of the Gaza Strip" and that Olmert "would decide whether to launch an attack on Sunday - or one day later than the day on which the actual order to launch the operation is been issued. "
The men of Hamas, who had evacuated the headquarters of the movement because of previous ads, they're back just in time to be killed, a deception operation is comparable in its consequences "false flag" (false flag) that in 1946 destroyed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem killing 91 people (the King David Hotel was a military and administrative headquarters of the British during the British mandate in Palestine and in July of 1946 suffered an attack by the Irgun, that killed 91 people of different nationalities, mostly British, Arabs and Jews (NDT)).
the world has been told and told again in recent days that the people of Israel is the victim of Hamas rockets falling "rain" on its villages. Let's consider the reality instead of propaganda. Israel Sderot has suffered from this as the example of terrorist action and organizes guided tours for journalists and diplomats, including Barack Obama. But just take a step inside Gaza and you will see a real devastation, not only finished the remains of rockets in the fields, or have hit a building without taking casualties. In both Gaza and the West Bank the results of military incursions, demolition of houses, farmland and fruit trees flattened by bulldozers, and more subtle icon of human brutality, the Wall of Fear erected by Ariel Sharon, speaking clearly.
Let's consider the reality, not propaganda. In eight years some 6,000 rockets have been fired at Israel. This means that an average than 750 rockets have been launched against Israel every year, or 62.5 per month, which almost 2 per day. In all this time 23 Israelis, or non-Israeli residents of Israel, were killed by rockets. That is 2.8 per year.
Last week, while Israel Gaza submerged under a deluge of precision missiles, which unfortunately do not distinguish in their accuracy, between civilians and resistance fighters (to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe impact of the attack military infrastructure and the people of Gaza until January 4, see "In the current numbers situation in the Gaza Strip," the agency MISNA (Translator's note)), a larger number of rockets launched daily by Hamas and other factions against Israel, and at least four Israelis have died.
Here we can see how the statistics are stunning. Those 23 people should not have been killed for no reason, and even the 4 last week. But for Israel to use these rockets as a basis for the horrible carnage of Palestinians carried out at the weekend is unjustifiable from any standpoint. 414 deaths, while Israeli missiles pound with "accuracy" of neighborhoods inhabited by civilians is nothing but a real massacre and the massacre continues beyond of the 325 sites affected in those early days by land, sea and sky - a true "rain" of death, devastation and psychological trauma.
Let us consider the conditions on the ground - the reality, not propaganda - while Israel attacks the residents of Gaza over the past two years, Israel has kept Gaza under constant siege by closing all crossing points and preventing the entry and exit ; has destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza, including sewerage, electricity and water network, and has blocked international shipment of humanitarian goods and fuel, and has continued to lead, even during the truce agreed, constant raids into Gaza, killing and destroying as desired (see the weekly reports of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza). Little or none of this is shown by U.S. newspapers or television news. The only reference is to the terrorists and rockets that constantly threaten Israel's existence.
Consider also the bitter irony of this situation, not the propaganda offered by apologists for Israel. The population of Gaza is essentially composed of refugees driven from their homes by Jewish forces - from those villages, such as Ashkelon, which are now affected by the random rockets from Gaza. They shoot into their own land, to the houses they lived in before a well-equipped and trained army "unofficial" Jewish Agency, during the years of the British mandate, pushed them out of Gaza by an ethnic cleansing operation. The Israelis, of course, do not mention the fact that they stole Ashkelon to the same people who now fire rockets at it.
Let's consider the reality, not propaganda: the Palestinian people can not go nowhere, the Palestinians can not escape through the border crossings controlled by Israel, can not escape by car or by train or by air or by sea or walk, they are trapped in a fenced area, and locked in the west by warships Israel.
Consider the public relations campaign by the Minister Tzipi Livni - the reality, not propaganda - as it thunders in the face of desperate conditions that the Israelis are facing, given that Hamas is strengthened in imitation of Hezbollah. Estimates of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, reported on Ynet News (the site's English-language Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth) on 04/10/2008, put the "military and security" of Hamas to 20,000 men, compared to estimated 13,000 men from a similar report published by Haaretz in 2007.
These numbers "threaten" the Israeli army despite the fact that Israel can put forward an army of about 2 million men, despite his modern army, which is considered the fourth of the world, and despite the fact that Israel has approximately 200-400 nuclear warheads. All this power, against which weapons are smuggled into Gaza through underground tunnels, there is no other way to bring them to Gaza because Gaza's borders are under the strict control of Israel.
considered the same way the Israeli effort to appear as a victim, because of the terrorism of Hamas against Israeli civilians, let's consider the reality, not propaganda. The following statistics come from B'Tselem The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and are reported by www.ifamericansknew.org: 4897 Palestinians killed by 29/09/2000 to 30/11/2008, 1,062 Israelis killed in the same period.
Of these, 1,050 Palestinians and 123 Israelis were children from 2227 to 3149 Palestinians and 727 Israelis were civilians. From June 28, 2008, the commencement date of the cease-fire in Gaza, a total of 247 Palestinians were killed until October 6, 2008, 155 of whom were civilians and 57 children.
These horrible numbers we add the budget caused by the Israelis on Dec. 27: 251 Palestinians killed, most of them civilians, including 20 children and 9 women, in addition to 584 wounded, including 130 children (data PCHR). The Palestinian death toll has surpassed that of American soldiers killed in Iraq, and continues to grow with each passing day, we see no end to the bloodshed.
So we must ask: why? What drives this relentless military machine represented by the government and armed forces of Israel? It may be true, as evidenced by Livni that "Israel expects the support and understanding of the international community, as he prepares to fight terror, and to further the interest of all those who wish to have the forces of peace and cohabitation to determine the agenda of this region?
What can be defined as terrorism, if not the forced imprisonment of 1 ½ million people locked behind gates and walls of steel, while a modern army that includes air forces, naval and ground pounding people day and night with a merciless fire of destruction and devastation? Which state in this civilized community of nations may believe that Israel is pursuing the interests of all "through such devastation of a near helpless? As a civilized state can support those that Livni, without blushing, calls "the forces of peace and coexistence" that determine the agenda the Middle East? Consider the reality, not propaganda.
Why? In July 2004, the Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh, writing www.infoimagination.org and observed the following things, in a study on Israeli military strategy: "The aggressive Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon, last week lashed out at the influential Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs of the Knesset, accusing some members 'confidential documents reveal the army'. "
The reason for this harsh rebuke? The revelation that the army Israeli occupation "had caused the Palestinians to resort to higher doses of violence in the early months of the second intifada, with the aim of giving the army a pretext to hit hard the Palestinian society and force it to an unconditional surrender." How was this done? A million and 300,000 bullets were fired from the "occupation soldiers on Palestinian population centers and other targets." "This massive firepower, which had no operational justification ... proved that the Israeli army was more concerned with damage and decimate the Palestinians to end violence."
We then a comparison with this new incursion, with its massive firepower against a population that has nowhere to go, but who must live through the agony of a rain of death, a population that has had to endure a merciless siege for two years , which has left her physically weakened and emotionally drained, mentally disturbed, and personally humiliated by unemployment, and unable to change the situation that was imposed.
before being "executed by extra-judicial," Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, a former Hamas leader in Gaza, made this observation: "Israel gives us two choices: die as the direct docile lambs to the slaughter, or as suicide bombers. " Consider the reality, not propaganda.
Let me now return to the citation dall'Edipo King that gave rise to this article: "How dreadful knowledge of the truth may be." The nations of the world are faced with an overwhelming public relations campaign carried out by the Israeli government to explain the disproportionate destruction of Palestinian people and its properties. Silencing the truth, the reality that exists behind a veil of lies, destroys justice as well as destroying the population of Gaza.
Return the memory to the election victory Hamas, with its offer of peace after the elections, is offering Hamas to consider the Saudi peace plan of 2002 and the proposal of Mahmoud Abbas of an international conference for peace in Oslo, and I realize that Israel and the United States has ignored their offers, they have intentionally ignored their offers just as President Bush, earlier this fall, ignored - by refusing to answer - an offer from Hamas for a continuation of the truce that could achieving peace. A different agenda is in place here, an agenda which seeks the total elimination of the Palestinian people as a people, under the authority and control the Israeli government.
As remarked Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab member of Israeli Knesset, about the Israeli strategy in 2004, "Israel has tried, and almost succeeded in convincing the world that his onslaught against the Palestinian society is was a reaction to Palestinian terrorism.
This simplistic and false claim ignores the simple fact that the violent and racist occupation of Palestinian land by Israel is the root cause of all violence. " Once again, the government of Israel decided that it can, hidden by propaganda, have control over how the world look at his military conquest and occupation of the Palestinian people. We hope that reality has the best deception.
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William A. Cook teaches at the University of La Verne in Southern California, is editor of a series of publications on the Internet, and his most recent works include "The Chronicles of Nefaria" and "The Rape of Palestine"; this article appeared in Palestine Chronicle on 02/01/2009
Original title:
Gaza: Propaganda, Perception, and Reality
