You only need to check out those personalities that are marginalized in the media to better understand what is REALLY going on with the reporting. It goes beyond the buzz words of “CNN Effect and Manufacturing Consent,”—those definitions are too mild in describing how the media has become a larger part of the problem. It is the language that matters, the spinning of it, and how it is played to fool most of us, and to reap the BIGGEST profits.
Israeli Civilians and Palestinian children that are being murdering can only be counted as collateral damage in the BIGGER scheme of things. We all know that you cannot always tell a book by its cover, but you can pretty much tell a story by its title, especially where the word unprovoked is used.
The meaning of UNPROVOKED is “occurring without any identifiable cause or justification”.
Examples of this buzzword are plentiful:
- Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked assault on Nagorno-Karabakh following nine months of blockading the region’s 120,000 indigenous Armenians.—Alex Galitsky, Time, 20 Sep. 2023
- The European Policy Centre strongly condemns Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine— David O’Sullivan, European Policy Centre. 25 Feb, 2022
- The White House recently described the Hamas assault on Israel as “unprovoked”, a line widely adopted by some pro-Israel groups seeking to portray the attack as driven solely by hatred of Jews as Jews, and the group as a Palestinian version of Islamic State.
Naturally, nothing is unprovoked, and as Yousef Munayyer, the former executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights wrote
“To call this ‘unprovoked’, as the initial [White House] statement did, is to ignore the daily and constant Israeli violence and war crimes against Palestinians, which has only escalated in recent years. It is language that erases Palestinians and enables continued violence against them.”
It is only too evident that when officials or the news uses the word unprovoked it actually means provoked, as nothing is done in isolation—at least when it comes to Israel and Ukraine. The real word that should be used is intentional!
The time is now!
As one contributor to NEO recently shared, “it is like to compare the white massacre of the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion as having also been unprovoked”. We had been discussing the interview of Norman Finkelstein and his recent insight on Israeli’s BRUTAL Assault on Gaza, and how he described the contradiction of between how Jews and Palestinians are treated, violations thereof of human rights, and how their plight is reported, in the media.
My source added, “that the slave revolt happened about 25 miles from my house. He (Nat Turner) was schizophrenic or something; he kept seeing things and hearing voices. The day of the rampage, he saw blood in the corn and a voice said, “the time is now””.
Naturally, Nat Turners’ revolt hurt ordinary slaves by making things harder for them. Nevertheless, it got people discussing the contradictions of slavery. Before, in the slave holding Southern US, local people would even trust their slaves to go alone to visit friends on other plantations, to attend black churches, even mixed white and black churches, and even to take side jobs to earn money to buy themselves freedom.
Afterwards, people were afraid and cracked down—and now that is happening to Arabs and Palestinians worldwide, things even have escalated to the hate killing in the US of a Palestinian-American child. Does that make you think of what politicians do on a regular basis, especially when they meddle and start wars? Always ready to refocus the blame away from the policy that prompted the pushback in the first place!
Some people to this day believe Turner and others like him are as biblical prophets. The same can be said of John Brown’s Raid on the US Government Arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a few years before the American Civil broke out, as that too must have been “unprovoked”.
His murdering spree in Kansas is also something that is largely forgotten today.
In fact, such events were actually the first shots of the American Civil War, and in retrospect, especially among those who want to rewrite history, crazies became heroes of sorts. Hence, we can conclude that the actions of enslaved and people denied basic rights, liberalities and normal lives, are not unprovoked when they are trying to defend and free themselves, and often in the process they commit hideous acts.
Unfair Comparisons and Double Standards Abound
Yes, there is a comparison with Hamas and Israel, and blatant double standards. Nat Turner killed at least one baby. They had killed the family, heard the baby cry and went back to kill it too. The revisionist history people have changed the story from a bloody mass killing spree to a brave fight for freedom, and they tone down the massacre and say he was hanged only for wanting his freedom
The failed, but deadly, slave revolt contributed to the radicalization of American politics that led southerners and northerners both to reject the type of gradual emancipation plans that had ended slavery in the north, the same process that had earlier freed slaves throughout the British Empire with no bloodshed or civil strife. Nat Turner’s Revolt was a critical milestone in internal relations that set America on a course to Civil War., one that was horrendously more expensive both in blood and treasure, than the simple expedient the British used, of the government simply buying the freedom of the slaves.
So too is the result of Israel bombing hospitals and Hamas slaughtering civilians, neither of which are justified in the ideal world, but which happen as a result of following the accepted play book. The ends do sometimes justify the means, for all sides. Now the Arab World is more united and focused on the plight of the Palestinian people than at any time since the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s.
There are hard lessons to be learned!
Actually, what is happening in Palestine and Israel is like a school shooting when the battered kid gets tired of being bullied and goes on the rampage. The battered child is never completely innocent!
As Turner and John Brown were mentally ill, or at least are claimed to be, the same can be said of most shooters, terrorists and fledgling politicians—especially those seeking reelection and a diversion from family corruption scandals. They cannot pass up an opportunity to ride the wave of anger for more votes or a better situation—more profits and a boost to their egos to boot!
Some pundits already do justify Hamas the same way, including the reaction of the Israelis. But tell that to American politicians, who also like to buy into the eye-for-an eye concept of retribution.
Like Senator Jim Jordan of Ohio, and his use of misleading language to further his own agenda.
The unprovoked terror attack today and the murders of innocent Israeli citizens are a stark reminder of the brutality of Hamas and Iran-backed extremists. The indiscriminate killings of men, women, and children are sickening. We must pray for Israel, its leadership, the men and women serving in its defense, and all Israelis today. It is heartening that Congress has come together in a bipartisan manner to strongly condemn the horrendous attacks on Israel and the Israeli citizens. We must continue to support our great ally as it expels this invasion, overwhelms these extremists, and works to prevent Hamas from ever harming Israeli citizens again.
Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, knows better than anyone that it was very much a provoked attack, more like a prison break or a slave revolt. That is why subjugation never works; there needs to be a two-state solution and, like Ukraine, there needs to be a split up, a national divorce of sorts. But for Israel, either a one or two-state solution—perhaps it is too late in the game for two states to live side-by-side in peace.
Also disturbing is the slogan “America’s greatest ally!” heard from both sides of the House, and constantly repeated in the media. I am sure that our real allies, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and others, who fought alongside US troops in both world wars, in Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, in the first Gulf War and the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They must be surprised to see that title given to a country that has never fought on behalf of the United States.
One State with equal rights for all citizens would be the perfect real-world solution. Of course, everyone in the Middle East uses God to justify their actions: Jews, Christians, Muslims, they all use G-d. But it should be remembered that you can push people only so far, and they will fight back, even if it means their own self-destruction.
Manipulated news, clickbait, and propaganda
It is becoming obvious that manipulated news, clickbait news titles, and propaganda is all around us, and it is concerning how much of it is taken at face value by the public, this recent promotional video of the resolve of the IDF shows how it works. Viewers are becoming callous and many are losing faith in all traditional forms of media.
The [apparent] objective of the IDF is to try to force the Palestinians out of Gaza into Egypt and out of Palestine never to return, “out of sight and out of mind!” Would it not be better to allow the IDPs to enter into Israel proper, even if it would be a temporary safe haven, to set up camps in close proximity close to the Gaza Strip, at least for women, children, and the old? Why is nobody suggesting that? Then to let the warmongers and their fighters to have a go at Hamas fighters, now isolated from civilians.
Hospital Bombing
The media spin doctors, IDF, and others, have already tried to claim it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that blasted the hospital, killing 700 or more. Few are buying that story. Such a terrorist act has a purpose, and it is not the first time in the history of Israel that such methods have been used to force the locals to flee their homes. It is sad and funny at the same time, as the Palestinians know their history with mostly immigrant European Jews.
And not forget to mention just how little real damage Palestinian rockets actually do, and the story that this was a Palestinian rocket, if true, should have not only Israel shaking in its boots. It does not matter now. No place is safe now, nowhere, even in what was thought to be safe areas off limits to attack; it is certain that are no safe places where geopolitical interests conflict, Ukraine, Africa, countries of the former USSR, and especially the Middle East…
In Israel, where every house and apartment block must have a bomb shelter, people are on high alert for the next attack. It will come, however, which direction it will be coming, or at what time, is almost like Biblical prophecy.
Israel’s Impervious Maginot Line Breached
What comes next is unsure; even if Israel is able to get its revenge on Hamas, but even more so, not just revenge, but the utter destruction of Hamas as an organization. Israel has repeatedly said that its goal is to destroy Hamas—but that is easier said than done.
Then what? That result may simply be opening up a wider war in the region, [in the meantime] and all depends on how many innocents are killed in the crossfire by all sides. How and when the pending wider conflict may conclude remains unclear as leaders contend with “the risk of the conflict becomes a war on more than one front” and involving several countries.
The ground rules would definitely change if Iran and Hezbollah would engage, and for sure the United States would use this as a way to justify direct intervention, naturally R2P, Right to Protect, but on which side of two wrongs?
The US can claim it has been provoked to launch direct strikes on Iran and Hezbollah and the hell with unintentional consequences, the end of the world, a real holocaust! That would be a real shooting war!
And those political elites closing ranks, doing the so-called “right thing”, especially among US politicians and those in the Military Industrial Complex, are just frothing at the mouth as to the potential windfall, and to get the least bang for the buck which REALLY means GETTING the BIGGEST Bang!
And one final thought, all wars are unprovoked, even false flags attacks are unprovoked! Everybody is just minding their own business, and nobody knows who actually provoked the war in the first place. At least, this ordeal will teach us how offensives can be launched and “impervious barriers” can be overcome—a very good lesson for the Ukrainians and NATO planners in how to conduct an offensive.
Henry Kamens, columnist, expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.