The war of words about Gaza

Sometimes it’s worth examining the propaganda tools, the war of words, and then comparing it against the facts.

Whenever Israel deliberately kills women and children in Gaza, it immediately responds with well-oiled, well-practiced sentences blaming Hamas.  Hamas are to blame for everything.  Yes, Israel fires the shells that kill Gazan children, but Hamas are to blame.

Hamas. Hamas. Hamas.  The point of propaganda is to win the war of words, to shift the blame.  The IDF is extremely good at it. As soon as they kill children in Gaza, they trot out 20 different reasons why it was the fault of Hamas.  Yet, it was and is Israel who fires at the children. They kill children playing on a beach. They kill children trying to shelter in UN run schools and camps.

Funnily enough, the highly controlled Israeli media, both the broadcast media and the print media, never mentions to its own population the massive numbers of babies, children and caring mothers who are being killed in Gaza.

That’s a bit of a giveaway, isn’t it!  Hiding the facts from your own people.  Why would they do that? Ordinary Israelis are kept in the dark about the complete massacre that’s going on the other side of the wall.

Propaganda is a global tool to win hearts and minds.  Outside of the Middle East there are quite polarised responses to what is happening.  Those of a Christian or conservative nature, will of course see the Palestinians as vermin, and the Israelis as ‘doing the right thing’.  They won’t check facts or look at evidence, and are easily fooled by the carefully fed IDF propaganda.

In contrast, there are those who are extremely supportive of Gaza and are outraged by the killing of so many children.  But aren’t they also being subjected to propaganda?

Not so much.  I am one of those who is outraged by the genocide.  I care less about the politics, but strongly care about the slaughter.  Especially of the children who can’t possibly even know why they are being culled, let alone put up any defence.

I have friends in Gaza. I watch them tweet. I watch their comments on Facebook. I look for their emails.  These are doctors, aid workers, humanitarians on the front line trying to save the innocent children.  I also watch the social media reports being made by teenagers and younger who are living there.  In times of peace they talk about other things. When under attack and frightened they talk about what they see, hear, fear and feel. They talk about their losses.  Some of them stop talking. Most times it’s lack of power and communications.  Sometimes it’s because they are dead.

These are people on the receiving end of the missiles, shells and sniper bullets from Israel. These are people who live in Gaza, telling it the way it is, as they run from street to street to try to hide from death for just one more night.

I trust these people.  They are not part of the propaganda machine.  And what they are witnessing at the hands of Israel is an outrage.

Israel has an agenda when it comes to Gaza.  It wants to take the gas and oil resources deep under the ground.  To do this is needs to make a serious land-grab.  To do this it is systematically clearing whole areas of Gaza. Razing to the ground any buildings or life in its way.

The Israeli propaganda machine is always quick to scream about Hamas wanting to blow Israel off the map, yet it has no issues with the (then) Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai saying, “We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water.”

Yes, it’s suddenly not Hamas they are after, it’s the total destruction of Gaza.

The fact that doing this is a war crime doesn’t matter to them. They consider themselves above the law, especially the moral law.

Gilad Sharon (the son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon), writing in the Jerusalem Post added, “We need to flatten entire neighbourhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing.”

Then only last week, the extremely wealthy Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked, who is also a law-maker, used Facebook to call for the genocide of all Palestinians.

Speaking of the women of Gaza this stupid bitch said, “They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists. They are all our enemies and their blood should be on our hands. This also applies to the mothers of the dead terrorists.”

So, for every war cry from the warlords of Hamas, there are dozens of disturbing calls for genocide from those who are supposed to be rational and measured, yet are just as war-like.

It turns out that theses Israelis have exactly the same evil intent as Hamas, except that they are now demonstrating that they actually have the capacity to commit the genocide that Hamas can only huff and bluster about.

I read somebody comment on the often used phrase that Gaza is an open prison at the hands of Israel.

They replied that it was not.

They explained that open prisons have health care, electricity, food, water, and a duty of care over those who are living there, especially the children.