How much is enough?

Israel continues to pound the people of Gaza to a pulp, bombing yet another UN school and killing many as they slept. The Palestinian death toll is nearing 1,400 as of this writing. How is our mainstream media handling this? They’re basically ripping and reading Israeli government press releases.

Outrage upon outrageToday (Thursday 7/31), it’s been all about the “sophisticated” network of tunnels through which the diabolical Hamas can infiltrate Israel at will and attack the innocent. I heard a bloodless report on NPR in which a correspondent talked about the improved combat capability of Hamas, which they argued, surpassed that of Hezbollah during Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon. “Hezbollah is watching this closely,” we’re told. Cue the fright music.

It’s no mystery why most Americans don’t understand this conflict; they simply never get the facts from their news sources. This attack is completely unjustified; it is a bald attempt to destroy any opportunity for a united Palestinian front, the prospect of which emerged over the past few months. As usual, the Israeli government is not responding to the threat of war, but rather, the threat of peace. When there appears a chance that a credible diplomatic effort might emerge, they shift the ground to military conflict, something they cannot fail at. They have the fifth largest military in the world; Hamas is a bunch of guys with guns and 10-20 pound artillery charges. Does the media report that? Never.

Take the so-called “iron dome” defense system. According to Ted Postal at MIT (who appeared on Democracy Now! this week), this system, like the Patriot Missile batteries of the first Gulf War (1990-1),  is almost certainly less than 5% effective. But the United States government and our incredibly feckless media merely accept the Israeli governments unverified claims without comment. Again, it’s rip and read — if it’s coming from the Netanyahu government, it has to be right. In the midst of all this carnage, they simply can’t resist raising Raytheon’s stock a little bit.

I could say more, but suffice to say, this has to stop. I know Netanyahu and his ministers are shooting for total capitulation on the part of the Palestinians. They may get part of their wish. But there’s no way in hell we should fail to hold them accountable for what has been a really major crime against humanity, made worse by the fact that we could pressure them to stop, and yet we won’t. We have no leverage in Syria. We do in Israel, and we should use it.

Stop. the. killing. now.

luv u,

jp

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