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The BB (Big Bully) Israel Wants Us To Believe Its BS
By Raff Ellis
Al-Jazeerah, July 26, 2006
To those people lamenting that Israel’s actions in Lebanon are converting moderate Arabs into enemies of the U.S.—stop worrying. Israel not only doesn’t care, this is actually its desired result.
Think about it. How can the reputedly fourth strongest armed force in the world play the victim without overwhelming numbers of, albeit impotent, enemies? In its schizophrenic drive to be both victim and victimizer, Israel needs to continue creating foes wherever it goes, replenishing the reservoir of those it kills. Its well-oiled propaganda machine highlights the miniscule, by comparison, suffering of its population centers while brushing off the wholesale destruction of others who are virtually defenseless. The death of one Israeli is worth, at a minimum, ten half-human non-Jews.
That the general public in America believes Israel to be an underdog beset by hordes of savage Arabs is the crowning tribute to Israeli PR efforts. Unfortunately, it also highlights the American street’s utter lack of sophistication and susceptibility to propaganda.
Among the more common myths believed by the disinformed general public is that Israel has been attacked time and again by its enemies and is only defending itself. In actuality, Israel has been the aggressor in virtually all of the wars they have fought. Of course, they always claim provocation for these attacks but they have lied time and again while conducting disinformation campaigns. In 1956, Israel attacked Egypt only to be forced back by the U.S. In 1967 Israel launched its six-day war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, telling the world that it had been attacked. Only after the war was over, and enshrined in Jewish folklore as a great victory against overwhelming odds, did Israel finally admit it had launched a justified preemptive strike.
Don’t be surprised if it comes out that the latest excuse for warring on Lebanon, which it has destroyed twice before, is a fabrication and that Hizbollah actually captured the Israeli prisoners on Lebanese soil.
Lebanon is a country that has made a conscious decision not to participate in the arms race and is thus defenseless. This is the way Israel likes it. They traditionally use the element of surprise or run over populations that can’t defend themselves.
The “peace loving” Israel has at times bombed Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and even the United States, via its attack on the USS Liberty in June 1967. It tried to sink that vessel with all hands because it feared the American spy ship had monitored communications verifying Israel had lured Jordan and Syria into the 1967 war and had detected the war crimes they were committing in the Sinai (where they executed Egyptian prisoners and UN peacekeeping personnel).
The latest canards we’ve been treated to involve their repeated attempts at spinning their withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza. “See what we get for our peace initiatives? Rocket attacks.” What is never mentioned is the repeated incursions and “targeted killings” that have taken place after their withdrawals. In Gaza alone Israel killed 144 people over the year and a half after they left. In Lebanon they targeted and killed members of the Hizbollah hierarchy. High tech bombs, artillery shelling and sound barrier blasts over civilian populations are just benevolent acts courtesy of the big bully on the block.
“We just want peace,” we often hear the Israeli apologists claim. They really must think all Americans are stupid because they seem to be falling for it. In fact it is the Israelis who have successfully scuttled every so-called "peace accord." The original Camp David Accords, under the Carter administration, which returned the Sinai to Egypt, was supposed to halt settlement activity in the West Bank. Since then the Israelis have confiscated more land and added thousands more settlers. The heralded Oslo Accords have been scuttled to resounding applause from its supporters and without a peep from the West. Overtures by its “enemies” have been easily rebuffed by setting onerous pre-conditions. When Hamas declared a unilateral ceasefire, Israel reciprocated by continued killing in the ensuing seventeen months. Finally, Hamas gave up and fought back, capturing an Israeli soldier. Israel’s response: Massive shelling, invasion and collective punishment.
Israel would have us believe that state sponsored activities such as assassinations, home demolitions, confiscation of property, mass deportations and myriad other humiliating human rights violations are legal and justified as self defense when in actuality they are terrorist acts. Resistance to these crimes is, of course, terrorism.
The case against the Israeli propagandists and their unsuspecting cohorts is neither complicated nor complex. Israel has painted a canvas of fear and hatred in the Middle East while picturing itself as the victim and anyone who opposes them as terrorists. From the newspapers and TV op-ed accounts, which parrot and spin variations of the above, one can see that the big lie is alive and well in the United States of America.
Raff Ellis is a retired computer industry executive and a frequent visitor to and commentator on the Middle East.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04). | ||
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |