News
Pretending The US Can’t Just Drive Aid Into Gaza
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/3f43108cddacbdd7636e9f9463f3340b/href
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The Biden administration is supposedly planning to set up a temporary pier in Gaza to allow for the large-scale shipment of sorely needed goods into the enclave, which reportedly will take weeks to build and will still be subjected to an Israeli checkpoint. This is on top of the widely ridiculed airdrops of pitifully small amounts of aid the US has already been making in this continuing charade where Washington pretends Gaza is surrounded by some kind of unassailable invisible barrier between itself and Israel.
And hell, why not? Why not build a pier. Have they considered digging a giant tunnel to get aid into Gaza as well? Or launching aid into Gaza by building a giant slingshot? Or perhaps they could invent some type of portal gun à la Rick and Morty?
Ooh! Hey! Or what about simply making their fully dependent client state let the aid in, or force them to stop the genocidal onslaught that makes it necessary? As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp rightly notes of the planned pier construction, “The drastic measure is being ordered instead of Biden using the enormous leverage he has over Israel to pressure them to allow in more aid or halt the genocidal campaign.”
Antiwar.com on Twitter: "Biden to Announce 'Emergency' Military Mission to Establish Port in Gaza for AidBiden is taking drastic measures to get aid into the Strip instead of using military aid to pressure Israelby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #Israel #GazaAid #Biden https://t.co/KCMJCnGJ02 pic.twitter.com/x4cj5IYYG4 / Twitter"
Biden to Announce 'Emergency' Military Mission to Establish Port in Gaza for AidBiden is taking drastic measures to get aid into the Strip instead of using military aid to pressure Israelby Dave DeCamp@DecampDave #Gaza #Israel #GazaAid #Biden https://t.co/KCMJCnGJ02 pic.twitter.com/x4cj5IYYG4
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The Grayzone has a new report out featuring leaked slides from a private Israel lobby presentation teaching politicians and prominent figures how to talk about Gaza in ways the public will be receptive to, based on focus group-tested information gathered by Republican political operative Frank Luntz.
Journalist Mark Ames tweeted of the report, “This is an incredible scoop, a direct window into how the genocide-propaganda sausage is made.”
My favorite part of the article is where the author Max Blumenthal writes that Republicans and Democrats were found to be receptive to different words used to describe Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza, saying “Republican voters prefer phrases which imply maximalist violence, like ‘eradicate’ and ‘obliterate,’ while sanitized terms like ‘neutralize’ appeal more to Democrats.”
That’s pretty much the only difference between Republicans and Democrats right there. That’s it in a nutshell.
The Grayzone on Twitter: "The Grayzone has obtained slides from a confidential Israel lobby presentation crafted by Republican pollster Frank LuntzThey contain talking points for politicians and influencers seeking to justify Israel's rampage in Gaza@MaxBlumenthal reportshttps://t.co/HU8zgCNK58 / Twitter"
The Grayzone has obtained slides from a confidential Israel lobby presentation crafted by Republican pollster Frank LuntzThey contain talking points for politicians and influencers seeking to justify Israel's rampage in Gaza@MaxBlumenthal reportshttps://t.co/HU8zgCNK58
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You see western pundits and politicians criticizing settlements in the West Bank more forcefully than the genocide in Gaza, despite genocide plainly being worse. This is because Israel’s approval of West Bank settlements exposes the “two state solution” for the lie that it is and makes it clear that the western power alliance has no meaningful position on Israel’s abusive treatment of Palestinians.
When western officials bitch at Israel over settlements, they’re essentially saying “Stop it you guys, you’re giving the game away! Now how are we supposed to pretend we care?” They need to be able to credibly bleat the phrase “two-state solution” once in a while in order to create the impression that they’re not just permanently taking the side of genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, theft and apartheid — even though that is exactly what they are doing.
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I’ve noticed that on social media I’m getting more and more comments from dopey right wingers yelling at me for what I have to say about Gaza, and what’s weird is that most of them don’t even post about Israel-Palestine normally. They appear to be doing it solely because they see opposition to the Gaza genocide as a left-wing issue, and so they’ve reflexively taken the opposite position because that’s just what political engagement looks like in this insipid, brainwashed dystopia of ours.
Until recently most of the hostile responses I’ve been getting have been coming from virulent Israel supporters with Israeli flags and “proud Zionist” in their bios who shriek about Hamas 24/7. Now a lot of the pushback I’m getting is just from standard MAGA chuds and other rightists who tweet mostly about partisan politics in their own country. They’re not pushing back against me because they love Israel, they’re pushing back because I’m a leftist and they automatically push back against lefty-looking things because that’s what they’ve been programmed to do.
It just says so much about the state of western civilization that even genocide has been turned into another vapid culture war wedge issue for people to masturbate their tribal identity constructs on. As though “don’t starve children to death or rip them to shreds with military explosives” is some kind of ideological position that only makes sense through a specific political lens, instead of just the normal human default perspective for anyone who isn’t a psychopath.
But that’s the genius of the empire. Propaganda has been used to split the general population into two warring factions of equal strength, and the propagandists get each faction arguing about which imperial military project should be supported and which should be criticized. A lot of the people you see supporting the US-backed butchery in Gaza today have spent two years criticizing the US proxy war in Ukraine (and vice versa), because they took those positions based on what the pundits and politicians in their political faction told them to think. It’s got nothing to do with values or morals, it’s just blind tribalistic herd mentality.
And that’s exactly where the empire wants us. Evenly divided against each other too thoroughly to get anything done, arguing back and forth about WHICH imperial agendas should be advanced instead of IF any of them should be advanced. A bunch of bleating human livestock unknowingly bickering about how best to advance the interests of their owners.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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Barnaby: ”Happy International Women’s Day, I’m Rooting For Ya!”
Peter Dutton’s shadow minister for home affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has issued a press release today wishing the women of Australia a happy international women’s day and reminded them that he is rooting for ’em.
”No one can ever accuse Barnaby Joyce of not having his eyes on the ladies,” said the member for New England. ”I am a big proponent of getting behind women, and am also not averse to them being on top.”
”What can I say, no matter the position I am always there, willing to press the flesh.”
When asked given his history of multiple marriages and other accusations, what he feels is the best way forward for women, the member for New England said: ”The Government needs to start doing some practical stuff to make things better for women.”
”Like removing the bonk ban, for instance.”
”How many women were left unsatisfied by the bonk ban. Think of the the women who went to bed at night alone, when they could have been snuggled up next to a Minister.”
”Anyway, must be off, keen to press the flesh with as many women as possible today.”
Mark Williamson
@MWChatShow
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Convocatoria abierta: 1er Congreso Latinoamericano de Renta Básica Universal Incondicional
Entre los días 17 y 19 de julio, en San José de Costa Rica, se llevará a cabo el primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Renta Básica Universal Incondicional. Se recibirán ponencias hasta el 12 de abril. El formato será híbrido, con modalidad presencial y también online. Este primer encuentro regional es un hito en el avance […]
Convocatoria abierta: 1er Congreso Latinoamericano de Renta Básica Universal Incondicional
Bath UBI Beacon and India Basic Income Network Session, 21st March 4-6pm (Paris)
“For this session, we will be in discussion with Vibhor Mathur. Vibhor is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Bath and is a UK and Research Associate at University of Cardiff, UK. Vibhor studies the transformative potential of basic income through pilots and advocacy in South Asia and Europe. His doctoral research on the the WorkFREE project in […]
Bath UBI Beacon and India Basic Income Network Session, 21st March 4-6pm (Paris)
The Myth Of Palestinian Division, With Miko Peled
Palestinians are divided and do not know what they want; Palestinians have no leadership; Palestinians need a Nelson Mandela; these are some of the statements made by people who are “experts” on Palestine. It is time to refute these claims and place them in the appropriate place – the garbage. Let’s go through these claims one by one.
I have never met a Palestinian who does not want to see all of Palestine free and every refugee return. I do not believe such a Palestinian exists. So there is no division there. When people claim that Palestinians are divided, they are referring to the Hamas-Fateh divide. Fateh wants one thing, and Hamas and the resistance front want another, though neither has set clear goals. Once again, I say I doubt there is a single Palestinian who does not want to see their country and people free. The equation is a false one and does not represent reality.
Palestinian leadership can not be limited to these two relatively small groups. By stating that these are the only groups that are legitimate, people are, in effect, saying that the only Palestinians that count exist within a narrow equation and live only in the West Bank or Gaza.
Palestinians are actively resisting the occupation and oppression throughout all of Palestine. From the Naqab in the south to the borders of Lebanon and Syria in the north, there is a broad, almost absolute consensus that the only goal of the resistance – and I am not referring to the armed resistance alone, but to all forms of Palestinian resistance – is to free all of Palestine, from the River to the Sea and to establish a democratic Palestine with equal rights. The only exception to this is, perhaps, the Palestinian Authority, an institution that works primarily for the Zionists.
Among Palestinian activists throughout Palestine exist outstanding leaders, both men and women. One need not look far to listen to interviews with these exceptional people for themselves.
As for the Mandela claim, that holds no water. First of all, Israel has learned from the South African experience and has been assassinating Palestinian leaders for decades.
Furthermore, the model of a revolutionary leader becoming a political leader is not necessarily a good one. In the case of Palestine, one can certainly imagine a multitude of people with great leadership potential who, once Palestine is free, will run in a democratic process for various democratically elected positions. The fact that a person possesses skills as a revolutionary does not necessarily mean they would be good at running state institutions.
When the apartheid state is dismantled, and democratic elections are held in a free Palestine, political parties will be formed, and candidates will run for office. This will allow people to elect the candidates they feel are best suited for the job. There is no need for a single Nelson Mandela in Palestine because so many outstanding leaders are already operating there.
Miko Peled is a MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books are”The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”
The post The Myth Of Palestinian Division, With Miko Peled appeared first on MintPress News.
So They’re Experimenting With Military Robots In Gaza Now
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/213e799323e9570f93bcd9df97b752ee/href
One of the most horrifying facts about this dystopia we live in is that large-scale military operations are routinely used as testing grounds for new war machinery, using human bodies as guinea pigs for experimentation in what amount to giant blood-soaked field laboratories — all to benefit the strategic objectives of empire managers and the profit margins of the military-industrial complex.
Haaretz has a new article out titled “Gaza Becomes Israel’s Testing Ground for Military Robots”, which reports that “In an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs in the Gaza War.”
(Yeah because my gosh, can you imagine how terrible it would be if Israeli soldiers and dogs got harmed while carrying out a genocide?)
The article’s author Sagi Cohen reports that drone-mounted robot dogs and remotely controlled bulldozers are two of the new apocalyptic horrors currently being battle-tested in Gaza, saying “defense establishment officials confirm that there has been a leap in the use and sophistication of robots on the battlefield.” Which is a pretty disconcerting sentence to read.
Haaretz.com on Twitter: "In an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs in the Gaza War https://t.co/jGV1yl7pOd / Twitter"
In an effort to avoid harming soldiers and dogs, the IDF has been experimenting with the use of robots and remote-controlled dogs in the Gaza War https://t.co/jGV1yl7pOd
This news comes out at the same time as a new Public Citizen report warning of the likely imminent arrival of autonomous weapons systems which will kill people with minimal instruction from human pilots, saying “The most serious worry involving autonomous weapons is that they inherently dehumanize the people targeted and make it easier to tolerate widespread killing, including in violation of international human rights law.”
The more normalized robots become within the world’s militaries the closer we come to this point, and steps are already being taken in that direction. As Common Dreams’ Thor Benson notes in an article about the Public Citizen report, “Israel has purchased and at times deployed self-piloting, lethal drones.”
Back in January I wrote that “Gaza is a live laboratory for the military industrial complex,” saying “Data is with absolute certainty being collected on all the newer weapons being field-tested on human bodies in Gaza (just like has been happening in Ukraine) to be used to benefit the war machine and arms industry.”
What sparked this comment at the time was reports and first-hand witness accounts we’d seen coming out about the prolific use of IDF “sniper drones” in Gaza since October, with Israeli forces frequently shooting Palestinians with quad drones armed with rifles. Copious records are most assuredly being compiled on the effectiveness of these newer weapons and tactics in ending human lives, which will then be used to help market those weapons to other states and to improve their efficiency in killing.
https://medium.com/media/e8e20d3dd58f29477a6007a48ebff164/href
When I say this is most assuredly happening, I am not being hyperbolic for effect. Author and journalist Antony Loewenstein gave a lengthy interview on The Chris Hedges Report back in December about Israel’s long and extensively documented history of using Gaza as a testing ground for new weapons, spyware, surveillance and security systems, AI, drones, and tactics, which has profited scores of corporations and enabled Israel to become a player of outsized success in the global weapons industry.
“Israel’s drones, surveillance technology including spyware, facial recognition software, and biometric gathering infrastructure, along with smart fences, experimental bombs, and AI-controlled machine guns are all tried out on the captive population in Gaza, often with lethal results,” says Hedges in introduction. “These weapons and technologies are then certified as ‘battle-tested’ and sold around the world.”
This doesn’t only happen in Gaza. This past September The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “The War in Ukraine Is Also a Giant Arms Fair,” subtitled “Arms makers are getting orders for weapons being put to the test on the battlefield.” In January of last year CNN published a report titled “How Ukraine became a testbed for Western weapons and battlefield innovation,” with one source saying that Ukraine is “absolutely a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations.”
And of course we are also seeing this same phenomenon in Africa. In 2021 Mintpress News published a report by Scott Timcke titled “West Africa is the Latest Testing Ground for US Military Artificial Intelligence” about this very same trend. In 2020 Libya saw what is believed to have been the first time a human being has ever been killed by a fully automated drone attack — that is, killed without the machine having been told to do so by a human.
The other day we discussed how the empire’s great weakness is that it depends on normal human beings to carry out its orders and turn the gears of the machine. If you look at the facts and think about them for a moment, it’s not hard to see how the empire managers are hoping to overcome this weakness in the future.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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The Debate Over the Definition of Basic Income – Online Forum
Karl Widerquist will present his new article “the Debate Over the Definition of Basic Income,” via zoom in an online open forum of BIEN’s Working Group on the Clarification of the Definition of Basic Income on March 13 in some time zones and March 14 in others:Central Time (US): 13 March, 8-9:30pmEastern Time (US): 13 […]
The Debate Over the Definition of Basic Income – Online Forum
Aaron Bushnell’s Death Can’t Rightly Be Called An Act Of Suicide
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/916028c9985cb67aef09cd28b80c568e/href
There’s a deeply moving interview on Democracy Now with a friend of Aaron Bushnell, the US airman who fatally self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy while screaming “Free Palestine” in protest of his government’s facilitation of the genocide in Gaza.
Bushnell’s friend, a conscientious objector named Levi Pierpont, met Bushnell in 2020 during basic training at an air force base in Texas. When you watch the interview you can immediately see why the two clicked; Pierpont has the same tender, gentle air to him that Bushnell displayed in his final video, very much unlike what you picture when you think of members of the world’s most murderous and destructive military. Neither of them belonged there, and they each took their exit in their own way.
Toward the end of the interview, longtime Democracy Now host Amy Goodman asked Pierpont a question which drew an answer that’s worth highlighting and reflecting upon.
“Would Aaron have described this as suicide?” Goodman asked Pierpont.
“No, absolutely not,” Pierpont replied, adding, “He didn’t have thoughts of suicide. He had thoughts of justice. That’s what this was about. It wasn’t about his life. It was about using his life to send a message.”
Democracy Now! on Twitter: "Would Aaron Bushnell have described his self-immolation as suicide?"No, absolutely not," says his friend Levi Pierpont. "He didn't have thoughts of suicide. He had thoughts of justice." pic.twitter.com/2EJW8lQIOf / Twitter"
Would Aaron Bushnell have described his self-immolation as suicide?"No, absolutely not," says his friend Levi Pierpont. "He didn't have thoughts of suicide. He had thoughts of justice." pic.twitter.com/2EJW8lQIOf
This point is worthy of our consideration at this time because as soon as it became clear what Aaron Bushnell had done and the impact it was having on our collective consciousness, there was a mad rush to pathologize his act of protest and frame it as something other than what it was. The phrase “glorifying suicide” came up over and over again from Israel apologists desperate to mitigate the damage Bushnell’s act had done to US and Israeli information interests, and we constantly saw Bushnell described as mentally ill and suicidal by spinmeisters acting in bad faith.
What Bushnell did isn’t what people think of when they hear the word “suicide”. It’s not the sort of thing suicide prevention hotlines are set up to deter. It’s not what mental health clinics are built to prevent. It’s not what the designation “suicidal” is intended to point to.
When you say someone is suicidal, you are saying they don’t want to be alive anymore and are in the process of making plans to bring about that result. They want to kill themselves because, in whatever way and for whatever reason, it hurts to live.
That isn’t what happened with Aaron Bushnell. There is no indication that he was mentally unwell, or under any psychological stress beyond that which was inflicted upon him by the moral quandary of being a member of a war machine that is backing an active genocide. From what we can tell about his internal state given the information available to us, Bushnell would have been perfectly happy to go on living. He just prioritized peace and justice over his own life. He was no more suicidal than a rescue worker who died trying to save the lives of others.
In the case of suicide as we conventionally understand it, death is the goal. It is the both the means and the end, in and of itself. Bushnell’s self-immolation was a means to a very different end: a free Palestine and the cessation of an ongoing genocide.
Such an act can’t rightly be lumped in with those who kill themselves because they can’t bear to go on living. It is different in every meaningful way. It is different in how it is experienced. It is different in how we should regard it as a society. It is different in its goals. It is different in its effects. The only thing it has in common with the conventional understanding of suicide is that it was brought about by one’s own hand.
I don’t enjoy quibbling about definitions or playing pedantic word games. Those who wish to frame what Aaron Bushnell did will object that it was a suicide per the technical dictionary definition, and they can feel as correct in doing so as they want to feel. My point here is that their continued use of that word in this context is done in bad faith, and in a way that is not conducive to truth and understanding. Far more conducive to truth and understanding would be to call what Bushnell did exactly what he himself called it: an extreme act of protest.
I will leave you with a quote that’s been rattling around in my head these last few days by Ita Ford, an American Catholic nun who in 1980 was raped and murdered by a US-backed death squad in El Salvador:
“I hope that you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for — maybe even worth dying for. Something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead. I can’t tell you what it might be — that’s for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking and support you in the search.”
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Featured image via Elvert Barnes (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Taiwan delegation learns from Boston UBI initiatives
The Youth Leadership Council of UBI Taiwan concluded a visit to Boston, Massachusetts, showcasing their projects promoting basic income. The delegation, composed of high school students from Taiwan, engaged in a series of meetings with local leaders and organizations to gain insights about Boston’s UBI initiatives. The Taiwanese delegation met with former Cambridge Mayor Sumbul […]
When The Imperial Media Report On An Israeli Massacre
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/89dbd4430ddd9ae8bba235a33f4b3c62/href
In what many are now calling the Flour Massacre, at least 112 Gazans were killed and hundreds more injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians who were waiting for food from much-needed aid trucks near Gaza City on Thursday.
Initial investigations by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor found that the crowd was fired upon by both IDF automatic rifles and by Israeli tanks, and that dozens of gunshot victims were hospitalized after the incident.
Israel’s version of events has of course changed over the course of the day as narrative managers figure out how best to frame publicly available information in a way that doesn’t harm Israel’s PR interests. Currently we’re at Israel admitting that IDF troops did indeed fire upon the crowd after previously denying this, but claiming that this isn’t what caused most of the the casualties, saying it was actually the Palestinians trampling each other in a human “stampede” which caused them harm. Essentially the current argument is “Yes we shot them, but that’s not why they died.”
The IDF claims Israeli troops only began firing on the Palestinians because the soldiers “felt threatened” by them, which goes to show that there is no atrocity Israel could possibly commit where it wouldn’t frame itself as the victim. Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir took the opportunity to praise the IDF for heroically fighting off the dangerous Palestinians and to argue that the incident proves it’s too dangerous to keep allowing aid trucks into Gaza.
Caitlin Johnstone on Twitter: "Some phrases the mass media is using right now to describe civilians being massacred by the IDF while waiting for food:- "food aid deaths"- "food aid-related deaths"- "chaotic incident"- "reported killed in crowd near Gaza aid convoy, Hamas-run health ministry says" pic.twitter.com/ROUkpoeA9s / Twitter"
Some phrases the mass media is using right now to describe civilians being massacred by the IDF while waiting for food:- "food aid deaths"- "food aid-related deaths"- "chaotic incident"- "reported killed in crowd near Gaza aid convoy, Hamas-run health ministry says" pic.twitter.com/ROUkpoeA9s
As terrible as the Israeli spin machine has been on this atrocity, the western imperial media have been even worse. The verbal gymnastics they’ve been performing in their headlines to avoid saying Israel massacred starving people who were waiting for food would be genuinely impressive if it wasn’t so ghoulish.
“As Hungry Gazans Crowd a Convoy, a Crush of Bodies, Israeli Gunshots and a Deadly Toll” reads one New York Times header, like the summary of an episode of a Netflix murder mystery show.
“Chaotic aid delivery turns deadly as Israeli, Gazan officials trade blame,” says an indecipherably cryptic headline from The Washington Post.
“Biden says Gaza food aid-related deaths complicate ceasefire talks,” says The Guardian. “Food aid-related deaths”? Seriously?
“More than 100 killed as crowd waits for aid, Hamas-run health ministry says,” reads a BBC headline. The UK’s state broadcaster is here using a tried and true tactic for casting doubt on death counts by deliberately associating them with Hamas, despite the fact that the Gaza health ministry’s death counts are considered so reliable that Israeli intelligence services use them in their own internal records.
Sana Saeed on Twitter: ""Chaotic incident"? The word you're looking for here, CNN, is massacre. https://t.co/CyUtyuWYZa / Twitter"
"Chaotic incident"? The word you're looking for here, CNN, is massacre. https://t.co/CyUtyuWYZa
“At least 100 killed and 700 injured in chaotic incident” says CNN, like it’s describing a frat party that got out of control.
“Carnage at Gaza food aid site amid Israeli gunfire” reads another CNN headline, as though the carnage and the Israeli gunfire are two unrelated phenomena which just unluckily occurred at around the same time.
CNN also repeatedly refers to the killings as “food aid deaths”, as though it’s the food aid that killed them and not the military of a very specific and very nameable state power.
(It’s probably worth noting at this point that CNN staff have been anonymously reporting through other outlets that there’s been a uniquely aggressive top-down push within the network to slant reporting heavily in favor of Israeli information interests, driven largely by the new CEO Mark Thompson.)
So that’s what happens when the imperial media report on an Israeli massacre, in case you were curious and haven’t been paying attention since October 7 or the decades which preceded it. The propaganda services of the western press operate in a way that is typically indistinguishable from the spinmeistering of officials in western governments, framing the western empire and its allies in a positive light and their enemies in a negative one.
https://medium.com/media/03da42bfc7ea53a1b71f11610b7c8436/href
This happens because the western mass media do not exist to report the news and give you information about what’s been going on in the world, but to manufacture consent for the political status quo and the globe-dominating power structure it supports. The only difference between our propaganda and the propaganda of a ruthless dictatorship is that the people who live under a dictatorship know they are being fed propaganda, whereas westerners are trained to believe they are ingesting impartial factual reporting.
The demolition of Gaza is alerting more and more westerners to the fact that this is happening, though, because the more blatant the atrocities the more ham-fisted the propaganda machine needs to be about running cover for them. It’s even opening eyes within the propaganda machine itself, which is why we’re seeing things like CNN staff blowing the whistle on their own CEO and New York Times staff telling The Intercept that their bosses committed extremely egregious journalistic malpractice in producing atrocity propaganda alleging mass rapes by Hamas on October 7.
The only good thing about what’s happening in Gaza is that it’s waking westerners up to the fact that everything they’ve been told about their society, their media and their world is a lie. Cracks are appearing in the illusion, and those of us who care about truth, peace and justice need to help draw attention to them. From there, real change becomes a genuine possibility.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Featured image via Adobe Stock.