The US, in a continued demonstration of the degree of enbubblement of what passes for its leadership, seems to believe it still has the force and soft power to be able to bully talk its way out of its geopolitical messes. Yet this week we have stunning examples of how critical players in the rest to the world no longer buy what the US is selling. The gap between the American establishment’s connection to reality and facts on the ground has opened up to a yawning chasm as the Arab world, aa Jordan cancelled a Biden summit with its king Abduallah II plus PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in response to Israel’s shelling of Al-Ahli Arab hospital. Not only are they rejecting the attempt to shift blame for the attack to Hamas (we’ll soon address the “rogue shell” claim), but also the bigger pretense behind that, that the US is incapable of, as opposed to unwilling to, applying the choke chain to Israel.1
Even the Western media are not much on board with the Israeli and Biden Administration pretense that somehow Hamas dunnit, when Israel has been trying to herd Palestinians out of northern Gaza and specifically attempted to order the evacuation of the hospital. Oh, and this follows Israel ordering the UN to evacuate from Gaza in 24 hours and then shelling its warehouse there:
This is a UN warehouse in Gaza where humanitarian aid was stored. a number of UN aid workers killed in the bombings with dozens of Israeli hostages. but Israel gets away with bombing civilians, aid workers, and their own people; and gets portrayed as the good guys in the media? pic.twitter.com/oukILDQ9WO
— Micheal (@Jumpnfungi) October 17, 2023
To wind back to just before the hospital attack, first, we had the highly visible snub of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken by a nominal ally, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, by keeping Blinken cooling his heels for hours. Blinken got a less impolite but still chilly reception in Egypt and Jordan.
Then Biden decided to go to the Middle East, as if he would be able to get Egypt and Jordan to reverse their firm position that they are not taking in Palestinian refugees. Not only do they not want to enable ethnic cleansing or take on aneconomic burden, they also don’t want the militant contingent operating in and from their territories.
Israel has been acting as if it’s indifferent to forcing Palestinians out of Israel versus eliminating them in place. There are credible accounts of Israel not only refusing to allow humanitarian aid in from Egypt and foreign passport holders out, but also multiple Isreali shellings of the crossing point. It does not take much in the way of discernment to see that denying Palestinians in Gaza water and food is a death sentence.
But even with rising international outrage over these war crimes, the shelling of the hospital was an escalation too far. It’s derailed even the feeble US attempts to get in front of this crisis. Israel, being stymied in its desire to clear Gaza by its obvious inability to do so (lack of experience, lack of equipment, reluctance to take the baked-in high casualties) instead appears to have settled on Plan B of shelling and starving it until everyone there dies.
To clear up “whodunnit”:
People should probably be more aware that according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel hit this same hospital just a few days ago.https://t.co/PYgyf9GhWO pic.twitter.com/4rwd3PfRpP
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 18, 2023
.@HananyaNaftali proudly boasted that Israel bombed Gaza’s ah-Ahli hospital before deleting and two minutes later lying that Hamas did it. He works directly under Netanyahu. pic.twitter.com/6QVS9ZoZhk
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) October 17, 2023
Mass Media Reporters Aren’t Buying Israel’s Hospital Bombing Story
A huge blast in Gaza has destroyed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing hundreds of people. The exact death toll is still unknown.
Details of who is responsible for the explosion are being hotly debated by all…
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 18, 2023
Recall that Jacob Dreizin reported that JDAM kits were being sent in bulk to Israel:
🇵🇸🇮🇱🚨‼️ BREAKING: The hospital was hit with a very high probability by a JDAM bomb.
– This means it was the Israeli airforce.
– This means it was a targeted attack.No words …
UPDATED with comparison to the missiles. https://t.co/uKC8pI8kV4 pic.twitter.com/CJXQa8uMWU
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) October 17, 2023
🚨EXPERT ANALYSIS: WHO BOMBED THE AL AHLI BAPTIST HOSPITAL IN GAZA?
Marine Corps Veteran expert analysis of the recent bombing incident at the hospital reveals critical findings:
– Fuel Explosion Duration: The initial explosion likely lasted 0.5-0.75 seconds, emitting light for… pic.twitter.com/BtCShh5JI2
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 17, 2023
I also reported extensively from Raqqa during the war against ISIS, and from Ukraine during the battle of Kyiv.
No Palestinian group has a missile powerful enough to level a hospital. It was a fucking JDAM. https://t.co/mRhsjvpcLq
— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) October 17, 2023
This is not yet confirmed as of posting time but should go viral shortly if this rumor pans out:
BREAKING ‼️Audio between control and the f16 pilot who dropped JDAM on the Christian hospital has been leaked. Audio is allegedly damning. Pilot celebrates the kills.
Will post as soon as I get hold of it.— KimJongWins (@KimJongwins) October 18, 2023
While as far as I can tell, the Western media has yet to take this press conference up, the number of views on Twitter indicate it is getting traction in the Algosphere, and one has to think elsewhere:
🇵🇸🇮🇱 #BREAKING: The Director of The Al-Ahli National Baptist Hospital in Gaza Delivers A Speech Surrounded By Dead Bodies.
“The IDF told us, ‘we warned you yesterday with two bombs.
So why have you not evacuated the hospital until this moment?” pic.twitter.com/yaLGVNmHjR
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) October 17, 2023
Now to the stunning spectacle of the US/Collective West surprise as to the reaction outside the rapidly shrinking US sphere of influence. A new story in the Financial Times, Western rush to back Israel erodes developing countries’ support for Ukraine, makes for good one-stop shopping.
Before we get to the body of the story, let’s deal with the headline claim. Anyone who has been paying attention knows that various votes in the UN intended to condemn Russia have shown lower and lower vote counts supporting that position. US former at least sometimes friendlies Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Argentina joining BRICS is another proof of waning US influence.
In addition, in the 2023 Munich Security Conference, the US invited Global South members to enlist their support for Project Ukraine. That plan backfired as the US/NATO team was told that Ukraine was a European affair and of no concern to the rest of the world….save they were being dragged in via sanctions blowback, specifically denying poor countries access to Russian grain and fertilizer. Recall that the Collective West doubled down on showing its lack of concern about suffering in poor countries by not delivering on its half of the Ukraine grain deal, which included ending sanctions on the Russian agricultural bank to allow for purchase of Russian fertilizer, as well as not barring Russian shipments.
And finally recall that even UN votes are not a great indicator of sentiment outside the US. There have been reports of the US browbeating foreign diplomats, including threatening expulsion of the kids of UN representatives from schools in the US and dinging any applications to US higher education institutions.
So now to the Financial Times:
Western support for Israel’s assault on Gaza has poisoned efforts to build consensus with significant developing countries on condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine, officials and diplomats have warned…
In the first days after Hamas’s assault, some western diplomats worried that the US was giving carte blanche to Israel to attack Gaza with full force.
That had eroded efforts since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to build consensus with leading states in the so-called Global South — such as India, Brazil and South Africa — on the need to uphold a global rules-based order, said more than a dozen western officials.
I have to stop here. Those of you who watch Alexander Mercouris or Alex Christoforu regularly will have seen clips of how Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is received at various conferences…as in enthusiastically. And as both Putin and Lavrov have taken to saying, no one has the rules for this supposed rules-based order, calling out the US pretense that it means anything more than the US preserving its hegemony.
The story continues:
“We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South,” said one senior G7 diplomat. “All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost . . . Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won’t ever listen to us again.”
Many developing countries have traditionally supported the Palestinian cause, seeing it through the prism of self-determination and a push against the global dominance of the US, Israel’s most important backer….
“What we said about Ukraine has to apply to Gaza. Otherwise we lose all our credibility,” the senior G7 diplomat added. “The Brazilians, the South Africans, the Indonesians: why should they ever believe what we say about human rights?”
This comes off as Western diplomats having gotten high on their own PR. The fact that some countries are still trying to maintain a productive relationship with the US can’t be seen as tantamount to support. But the US has been desperate to depict our relations with key players as better than they are, witness in particular China. Chinese officials repeatedly turned down US meeting requests and were apparently upset when the US leaked the fact that a supposedly confidential meeting between Jake Sullivan and (IIRC) Wang Yi in Italy was publicized, apparently to depict US and Chinese relations as on the mend. Recall also that after that incident, Xi decided not to go to the G20, with some pundits taking the view that it was to make sure he was not buttonholed by Biden, which the US would then try to depict falsely as a thawing.
And now the US is reduced to desperately scheming to prevent a Russian UN Security Council proposal, which includes among other things a cease fire, from garnering enough votes to force US veto. The article skips over what it would take to get such a resolution to the floor of the General Assembly where the odds are good that the US and Israel would get a stunning rebuke by it passing:
Russia’s proposed UN security council resolution garnered support from only four countries — China, the United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Gabon — but many western diplomats worry that an amended Russian resolution could gain the nine votes required to pass. The US, UK or France might then veto it, handing Moscow a propaganda victory.
“We have to prevent Russia . . . supported by the Chinese . . . taking the initiative to use this against us,” said a senior western diplomat. “There’s a risk that at the next vote in the [UN] General Assembly on supporting Ukraine, we’ll see a big explosion in the number of abstentions.”
In other words, the loss of US authority has become so visible that even loyal organs like the Financial Times are forced to take notice. How long before the rest of the mainstream media follows suit? Or is Biden so deluded that he too will escalate in the hope that playing war president will force a show of loyalty?
____
1 Consider how intransigent Israel would be if it were told replacement parts for US weapons would not be forthcoming until they shaped up. The reason the US does not use that and other obvious sources of leverage is fear of the Israel lobby in DC. It’s striking how the US tries to bully pretty much everyone except our military dependents who need to have their ears boxed. And that is set to decline generationally as young Jews in the US don’t much identify with that cause.
2 Anyone who knows the procedure is encouraged to pipe up.
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hey Biden and Blinken — play stupid war games, win stupid war prizes. The entire non-Jewish Mideast is now aligned against you.
The worst POTUS in history and arguably Blinken the worst SoS. (Certainly the most corrupted… he was up to his eyeballs in the Biden Family grift at U Penn and elsewhere.) And what happens if (or when) a serious attack takes place within the USA?
Jesus wept.
On a more positive note, I commend The Duran (Alex and Alexander) and their geopolitical analyses on Youtube or Rumble or podcast or wherever. An order of magnitude better than anything in the US lamestream media. The contrast of Putin arriving in China with Biden being shunned in the Mideast speaks volumes.
The Duran is great, also The Grayzone and Useful Idiots
icymi, Norman Finkelstein on Gaza (Katie Halper Show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m36CUGA1Ucw
I agree & have been being informed by all of these. I stopped listening to NPR altogether early in the SMO when they recorded UK Guardian bull shite about the Azov battalion being “evacuated” from the Mariupol caves when it was a surrender due to their being starved out . . . & I saw subsequent videos by Abraham Stein of the captured Azov Nazis being stripped & their Wolfsangel, swastika, Black Sun tattoos being displayed before they became POWs.
I will add 2 good sources to your list above– Ali Abunimah & Nora Barrows Freidman’s Electronic Intifada is outstanding, on the ground Gaza reporting from their associates. Also, Richard Medhurst is a young anti-imperialist YouTuber from Ireland who’s done amazing reporting recently & I just added him to the sites I monetarily support like the Grayzone.
I can’t agree with you that Blinken is the worst Secretary of State. Henry Kissinger holds that title. Blinken is simply a guy who is in over his head. As is Biden. Kissinger was/is far more calculating.
Alex and Alexander great on this yesterday, as usual. I have also been following along with that hard-to-find kid Nick at night: facts and in-depth analysis.
Sheer arrogance and hubris is enough to explain “why?” the hospital was hit.
an alternative cynical take that I read online: (a) Biden (or rather those without dementia in the West Wing) knows that things are spiraling out of control, so Biden’s trip was meant to rein-in Bibi and plead to the Arab leaders—give me time to rein-in Bibi.
(b) the maximialist, eschatological blob within the IDF/Bibi’s government get a whiff of (a) and wanted an escalation to prevent any restraint from DC
Note: the Al-Ahli hospital is run by the Jerusalem branch of the Anglican Church.
This wasn’t a ragtag clinic euphemistically upgrades to a hospital.
pretty much the worst target to pick from a PR point of view.
feature, not a bug?
and (i hate when media can’t be bothered to take an extra step)
al-Ahli Arab Hospital fully translates as “the Arab People’s Hospital”
oy vey, what terrible optics (beyond the lives of course).
being persuaded by “it’s a feature, not a bug”
Could you please splain an idiot like me where to find the feature? Expose the brutality of the united government of Israel? Arrogance and hubris fall short as qualifiers.
How has that ever worked out? He is a cartoon villain and everyone who has ever dealt with him–Obama for example–says he is a liar. Of course a large segment of the Israeli public would agree with me and supposedly he is getting far more criticism in the Israeli press than his cheering section in the Western media.
By contrast here billionaires are withdrawing their support from Harvard for even thinking about criticizing Israel. From the safety of their US mansions they think they can buy off reality itself. Meanwhile the American public lives in a Taylor Swift bubble and knows little to nothing about what’s going on in the world even as we supply the Jdams to blow up hospitals.
To some of us the Israel issue has always been about what we were told versus what is real. For Americans, caring about the truth is the real stake in this conflict or the doublethink will come here–as has been happening. So thanks for the above.
In other words, the loss of US authority has become so visible that even loyal organs like the Financial Times are forced to take notice. How long before the rest of the mainstream media follows suit?
As the MSM spins out more and more desperate lies, and as history incontrovertibly demonstrates that they work on the behest of the “controllers”, it makes me wonder why people continue to be drawn to anything they may have to say.
I think Alexander Dugin tries to answer this question:
Several versions of reality are clashing with each other more and more openly. Societies and individuals choose for themselves which reality to believe in. And then they live in it…Multipolarity is an act of asserting the sovereignty of other consciousnesses, different from the Western. Which means that reality itself becomes polycentric. Information constitutes what we perceive as being. That is why neither the military nor journalists should be at the center of information warfare, but first of all philosophers. Sovereignty is first and foremost a question of the mind. Sovereign is the one who is the independent and final master of the construction of reality.
https://twitter.com/agdchan/status/1714543553081196797?s=51&t=AUfFy8U2kzC43inNg4r9_w
How is this different from Karl Roves “when we act, we create our own reality”? Decisionism is nothing new, and Dugin, as a parasite of Nazi philosophy (Carl Schmitt, Heidegger), knows all about it. Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten how these two philosopher kings ended up in the shit.
Sovereign is the one who is the independent and final master of the construction of reality.
Are you on drugs?
Excellent post.
Ending with this important question: “Or is Biden so deluded that he too will escalate in the hope that playing war president will force a show of loyalty?”
The U S of A is a-boil with McCarthyism. Censorship and self-censorship are the order of the day.
So my answer to Yves Smith’s question: Yes.
The Israelis have been confiscating Arab houses and lands and tearing up olive trees (metaphor alert!). Where were Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden? So, yes, indeed, Biden is corrupt. “Deluded” is too fine of a word. Corrupt and obtuse and a bad politician. And here we (collectively) are.
I agree. Neocons always double down. They have no alternative.
NEOCONs need be perished to the dung heap of history before they get us all killed!
Why in the world did Biden get into a plane and go to Israel, where he is hated by Netanyahu? Is he and his clique that clueless? Was this a campaign stop?
Stay away from downtown NYC for awhile, if you can. This is going to get ugly.
I’ve been mulling the same question. Just a few months ago Biden was actively soft color revolutioning Netanyahu. I think (and it’s only that) that Blinken’s first trip to sell the Sinai Option was plan A as it would give Israel a win without too much war; that obviously failed. Then the US announced the aid convoy for US and Euro citizens out of Gaza, which Bibi quashed by striking Rafah. And then Blinken hopped back on a plane.
Originally Biden wasn’t going to Israel. After a 7 hour meeting between Bibi and Blinken, Biden is heading to Israel. And then the hospital. I think the Biden admin is generally aware that this is going badly for them and is likely to get worse. It’s not the war they want. It might be hard to really hold Europe onside, public reaction is bad, their whole Mid East plan is cooked, etc. Netanyahu may be forcing their hand and dragging them fully into it. Of course he desperately needs the US. Requiring resupply 24 hours after the start of hostilities suggests Israel can’t go it alone.
Nobody in the Biden admin will stand up to Tel Aviv, Bibi knows it and so he’s making sure that if things go south Biden gets dragged down too. How much understanding of this dynamic there is in DC is an interesting question.
Biden is weak politically and spiritually, a classic bully and liar. Netanyahu already knows Biden won’t lean on him, so Bibi decided to do the equivalent of a stadium proposal. Biden wouldn’t say no with the Euros mugging in Kiev to avoid looking weak, and Biden isn’t going to lean on anyone he thinks can hurt him. Netanyahu isn’t afraid of calling Biden a coward publicly if he didn’t come.
Biden already lied about the orphaned premie abortions, so he’s in Bibi’s pocket now. Biden is stupid too and couldn’t see this.
How anyone in the world could think that Biden (and his cronies) were competent at any phase of governing is beyond the horizon! He’s going to get us all killed. Frag the bastard. (Oh wait!…Kamala is on the horizon.)
At this point I would prefer Harris over Biden as POTUS. She couldn’t possibly be worse.
>>>She couldn’t possibly be worse.
About that. At her best, she never was the equal of Biden even at his worse, until just recently. Only by Biden recently slipping so far into his decline is she anywhere near his equal excepting for the fact that she has always (AFAIK) refused to do even the minimum of study on the position papers and other research her staff would prepare for her. Add her abusing of, and blaming for, her staff for everything that goes wrong including her personal performance, I am really not so sure about her not being worse.
Honestly, we are just screwed, unless she immediately gets “ill” and retires with someone else taking her place. Probably who ever has taken the VP position. But the political bench is so shallow, I do not know of anyone who is both prominent enough and capable for either job.
It’s also instructive to remember the first time Biden went to Israel as VP in 2010… a total PR disaster during that trip. Headline: “As Biden Visits, Israel Unveils Plan for New Settlements”.
I remember thinking at the time that if that had happened to me, I would immediately cancel all meetings and get on the first plane back home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10biden.html
Of course, this is a campaign stop, Biden and Netanyahu walking side by side, looking all Stirring And Brave while air raid sirens blare for no particular reason other than to emphasize how Biden Stands With Israel In Its Hour Of Danger.
Of course, if Biden does anything other than double down on every war from here to eternity, his enemies on Team R surely will pounce, accusing him of Weakness In The Face Of Evil and also conducting seances with St. Winston Churchill at every possible occasion. That’s not an excuse – Team D was happy to do the same to Trump, not that the imbecile offered much resistance.
Thanks for mentioning that air raid theater scene. Right on cue as they strolled into the courtyard. Nobody flinched.
“No Palestinian group has a missile powerful enough to level a hospital”
Are you sure that it was indeed “leveled”? I see a lot of close-up footage but nothing showing the overall damage. This MSNBC video shows a lot of burnt-out cars and a mostly intact building at 2:24
This video of unclear provenance also shows the parking lot after the fire and doesn’t show the hospital buildings themselves, except for a tiled roof awning (0:13) which sustained pretty minimal damage.
Now I’m definitely not an OSINT expert but this seems strange. Probably worth waiting for some evidence before making conclusions.
Forgot to add links
https://www.msnbc.com/katy-tur/watch/spokesperson-claims-bombed-gaza-hospital-was-not-a-target-of-israeli-defense-forces-195823173763
https://abualiexpress.com/en/additional-documentation-from-the-al-ahli-hospital-plaza-regarding-causalities-i-dont-particularly-notice-bloodstains-they-didnt-clean-the-plaza-because-otherwise-the-soot-would-have-been-washed/
Alex, I’m afraid you are fighting a losing battle here. Citing an Israeli spokesman and an IDF propaganda site is probably not going to do it, certainly not for NC readers. However, I watched the mainstream news last night pretty carefully and I was struck by their skepticism toward the Israeli spin as well, which reinforces what Yves is saying above. The genocidal response is so undeniable that it is making its way into the MSM in the US, which is saying something. The rest of the world already knows.
The data so far give the impression that (i) a Hamas/PIJ missile of the type seen so far was NOT to blame and (ii) the weapon was probably an Israeli JDAM-type weapon.
HOWEVER, I have not seen any pictures that the hospital has been levelled. It appears that a forecourt in front of the hospital has borne the brunt of the attack. I’m willing to be corrected on this point but, as it stands, claiming the hospital has been levelled and therefore Israel did it undermines the argument if there is no evidence of levelling. The sonic signature from the LordBebo post and the size of the apparent explosion are stronger evidence for a US weapon and therefore probable Israeli involvement.
That and the fact they admitted it and then deleted the post.
This corresponds to what I have seen so far as well. Evidence of a large explosion, and rapid and widespread reports of a large number of casualties, many of which, I believe, were on the hospital grounds. I do not know what kind of damage was done to the building at this point. That is not the issue for me.
The hospital need not be “leveled” in order for there to be hundreds of casualties. There were buildings left standing in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing. Concussive forces alone can kill humans. And if they are densely packed inside a structure (as they were in the hospital) they can all be killed by the forces of the blast, even if the walls didn’t come down on them.
The amount of damage sustained by the building itself is important. A JDAM would be unlikely to miss a building that large. I’m on the fence on this one – I don’t see anything conclusive pointing to either the Israelis or Hamas.
PJ -Caitlin has already addressed the MSM calling Israel’s explanation BS –
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/10/18/mass-media-reporters-arent-buying-israels-hospital-bombing-story/
Caitlin is a Warrior Princess
Here even in New Zealand amid the forgotten fluff in the USA’s back pocket I was gob-smacked last night when the main TV news referred to the hospital event as an atrocity committed by Israel.
Really? It is generally accepted that Gaza is subject to aerial bombardment and has had food, water, and power shut off, and this person is saying that the failure to immediately wash the soot off the plaza is all a PR move?
Really??
And wash off the soot with what water? The Israelis cut off water a week ago and only limited deliveries are going into the south of Gaza right now.
I’ll admit that on the ground photos so far do not show the sort of damage I would expect from a JDAM. But the whole JDAM was from OSINT speculation anyhow.
The bigger problem for Israel is that within a few hours of the event they had produced four different explanations, two of which included admissions that they did it. They published old footage and had to delete it. And then there was the gloating from semi-official accounts. So it hardly matters what the truth is now.
The gravest conspiracy of the event is still effective because the world has come to expect this sort of behavior from Israel. Nobody is surprised by Israel bombing a hospital. Nobody believes them when they say they didn’t do it. (Well, US presidents do.)
You can make two hypothesis and test their validity
1. Israel bombarded the hospital in the belief there were hidden Hamas fighters.
2. Hamas did it for anti-Israel propaganda purposes.
The first one rests on the presumption that Netanyahu et al don’t give a damn on Palestinians. The second, similarly rests on the presumption that Hamas don’t give a damn on Palestinians (evil as they are). The first one has been shown true too many times. The second one can only be given credibility if you are firm on the “Palestinians are cockroaches” camp. Why doesn’t it surprise me Israel sources are voicing it? Examples of the same we have seen a lot on the Ukraine war.
Simply produce the satellite images tor radar that show they didn’t do it.
They won’t do that, will they?
I started to read George Monibot’s article in The Guardian this morning and couldn’t get past the first paragraph. If this conflict becomes a regional war, it will be a war without rules. Israel can and will bomb hospitals, not once but twice and deny it. The rules of the Geneva Convention will simply be ignored. Globally celebrated “victims” won’t play fair, unless forced they are beyond rules. What has our international notions of fairness done for them so far? Mostly good PR?
I rarely bother with the Guardian these days and definitely not Monbiot – he was all in for the Iraq war and most likely Libya as well. He is another warmongering Green.
He exemplifies what The Graun has become over the last decade. From a supporter of the middle and working class and sensible foreign policy to neoliberal globalist warmongers.
Not my parents’ Manchester Guardian alas.
Only the last decade? Many of us wrote letters to Alan Rusbridger to try to persuade him that Saddam didn’t have WMD. He did put Scott Ritter’s views on p. 6 of the newspaper, but that didn’t stop the neocon agenda swamping the front page.
vid, on stage with bibi: https://twitter.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1714570141055521173
Biden backs Israel account of Gaza hospital strike, denounces Hamas: “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”
Based on what I’ve seen… don’t forget he said the other day he had actually seen footage of the alleged beheaded babies.
He probably went to check he would still get his 10% for the big guy cut from the latest billions to be sent to Israel.
So, has the Islamic Jihad, which we are only now hearing about, ever delivered an explosive device powerful enough to blow up a hospital? The expert analysis offered says they do not have that capability. We would be inundated with pictures of destroyed Israeli buildings if they did. Or even could knock down a wall or two.
Give cover to the Hezbolla maximalists and we will see pictures of destroyed Israeli buildings. The smart ones in the room will talk the Ultras out of going “an eye for an eye” and bombing Israeli hospitals simply as a factor in International Politics and Public Relations.
At the least, Iran will be far enough removed to influence the ‘front line’ Arab organizations to grasp a clear moral high ground. In terms of ‘soft power,’ this is now a stealth World War.
Can Hezbolla and Hamas even reliably target an objective? Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, their rockets are guided by pointing them towards the general target area and hoping they go near to where expected and actually hit something, glorified bottle rockets.
Hezbollah certainly can as they have top of the range guided missiles. That is why Israel won’t invade them as those missiles can do pin-point attacks on military targets as well as infrastructure.
I believe that is why the United States is talking about a pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah.
But would they know what/where to attack? Like Hamas, I’d think Hezbollah has their weapons stash safely tucked away.
Yeah, for Hamas and probably Islamic Jihad, bottle rocket is probably an apt description. No guidance system and no payload is the way I recall it.
It is worth remembering that Hezbollah is a Shiite Lebanese organization originally organized for self defense against Israeli incursion into Lebanon. They have a different religious basis than Hamas, and are not pushing to impose an Islamic state, unlike Hamas. They would like Israel to disappear, but their attacks on Israel have been in areas adjacent to Lebanon, often former Lebanese territory. While they may exploit Israeli distraction on a “their difficulty is our opportunity” basis, and they will voice solidarity with people in Gaza, they do not seem like a group likely to advance against Israel in a major way during this crisis. What could they gain?
I can’t believe they agreed to Biden going directly to a press conference from the flight. Even in AF1 that’s almost a 12 hour flight and a lot of time zones. Biden’s barely coherent on a normal day, and he wasn’t at all coherent in that press conference.
I saw that broadcast in the middle of the night. It was truly a (yet another) facepalm moment for the Administration. Did someone forget to give him his shot?
To quote Charles Barkley, “It was TURRIBLE”.
I am continually happy to read the pin-sharp analyses presented by Yves Smith. This is yet another example of a proper overview which carries on the tradition of her superb Ukrainian war situation summaries. Nobody else pulls all the disparate elements of a situation together as a whole so well. Kudos to the max.
Amen.
(Tip Jar is over there.)
Biden going to Israel at this time is a huge mistake, likely influenced by the fanatically pro-Israel neocons Blinken and Nuland. However his taking up the line on the hospital bombing that “it was the other team that did it” is infinitely worse. So, he’s not only excusing Israel for this atrocity but blaming it on the victims.
I see Iran is calling for another oil embargo. I’m not sure anything less will penetrate the ‘enbubblement’ of our political class that our support of Israel is a fatally toxic relationship.
‘I see Iran is calling for another oil embargo.’
With an election coming up, that would be something that would grab Biden’s attention, especially since he ran the Strategic Oil Reserves down.
Iran is setting up a “Coalition of the Unwilling” to turn the tables on America.
“Economics as the continuation of policy with other means?”
It could be that right now certain Mideast leaders are watching old videos of the Carter-era gas station lines of cars in the US and laughing, laughing, laughing….and saying “Let’s do it again.”
Imo North America is self sufficient except maybe diesel… but eu is different, especially after cutting themselves off from Russia, and the leakage thru India seems likely to end. Of course, oil majors would happily supply eu at the new price, which would bring the shortage home.
Eu would shut down without substantial imports.
Oil is fungible. Any source shortage shows up in the price. Maybe no gas lines, but how much can you afford to buy at $20/gallon?
If there’s no diesel for the tankers, then the gas stations are still empty even if there’s petrol a-plenty…
Has anyone ever investigated Israeli involvement in or the planning of the 73 oil embargo? Turns out they had secret cooperation with the Saudis on other projects over the years.
After the USS Liberty massacre in 67 I don’t put anything past these backstabbers and their AIPAC fifth column in the US. You listening Schumer?
Anybody who lived through ’73-‘74 can see an oil embargo coming. Today the Islamic and CIS oil producers have alternative markets in South and East Asia that will happily pay to absorb their production.
Biden seems to think he can Wag the Dog. The Dog is about to bite off his face…
and the “team” framing makes it seem like a game
Dont worry, Biden’s controllers are all for the success of the Zionist project, the Israelis may not realise it but the people who control the west, maybe still the world, don’t like the Jews anymore than they did when America secretly supported Hitlers Germany, until 1944 that is.
Why did Pfizer use Israel as its lab and people as lab rats if Netanyhu is such a good guy?
(alleged) distant CCTV footage of the event for anyone interested.
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1714638443366486355
So weird seeing the supposed tail summoning the supposed dog to act as its megaphone/echo chamber, makes the mighty POTUS look like a glove puppet, not an all-powerful, all-seeing, emperor; so who’s calling the shots & why aren’t they the ones paying for it then?
(allegedly, as i am not here) mid-gaza’s bakery gets a JDAM.
https://twitter.com/alijla2021/status/1714566518426439981
when in a hole, stop digging….unless it is a feature and not a bug
Feature. This was done when Biden was doubling down, quadrupling, on lies. Israel is done except as an appendage of the US, so they aren’t going to keep the Palestinians alive any longer. Israel won’t get attacked, and Biden won’t lean on them and is now party to their crimes in the eyes of foreign audiences.
And for how many years now? I saw this article from the highly respectable Jewish dissenter Phil Weiss linked this morning. LBJ was complicit in current events and that was 1967.
https://mondoweiss.net/2018/01/secret-life-mathilde/
Pre six day war the US as a whole was on the sidelines. Afterwards we never were again.
One other thesis, which seems to be adopted by pro-Israel people who think all Gazans are Hamas (the Gazans elected Hamas and keep them in power), which I saw yesterday from videos made before the hospital was bombed, was that Biden was going to Israel as a way to stop the Gaza advance, force Bibi to slow down, not invade Gaza. This group thinks the humanitarian aid convoys are to resupply Hamas. This thesis holds that Biden’s trip is forcing Israel to halt its advance, make the troops restive, weaken Israel; ie, Biden’s trip is being made to outwardly support Israel nut actually in a quiet room tell Bibi to negotiate and get real about peace or the US will halt supplies. Face to face. I know most NC readers will scoff at this, as everyone seems baked in that Biden is a doddering senile fool, and maybe he is, but it intrigues me that there are groups in Israel convinced Biden is actually working for Hamas. And, if you accept this might be what the goal of Biden’s trip was, then apparently while he was in the air heading to Israel the hospital was bombed, so he lands amidst a much greater crisis and is forced to allege Hamas did the deed. I see this morning someone has posted saying there is a recording of an IDF F16 pilot bombing the hospital and crowing about it, to be posted soon.
So maybe Biden was heading over there to rein in Bibi face to face and then the hospital happened. From the Israeli pro war point of view Bibi cannot do anything so long as Biden is in Israel and the Middle East, so every day he is over there is another day of no invasion, giving time for meetings and talk. Could this be true? Doubtful, sure, but not impossible.
Of course the next real danger here is that instead of the Israelis bombing a hospital they might take out one of the carriers making it look like the rockets came from, say, Syria or Jordan…..would Bibi do that? Of course he would. He is standing an an existential spire….
Biden isn’t doing anything for Hamas or Palestinians. I can buy that the US wants this to cool down for a handful of reasons. I can also buy that Bibi is trapping Biden. But that’s Biden’s fault and/or the team around him. He should have stuck to refusing the visit, because unless he walks out of it with Bibi willing to negotiate he loses. And since Bibi loses if he negotiates there never was any point.
Now the possibility that Biden and his people believed that his mere presence would solve all problems is believable. Instead he got his summit outside Israel cancelled and will make decisions based on emotions, which Bibi and his war cabinet will maximize. So he’ll end up looking weak and in the back pocket of Netanyahu while dragging the US directly into the confrontation. He laid out his mid east plan on 60 minutes; it’s in ruins partly because of this trip. There is no plan B, his people don’t produce them.
Nor does he have any sort of escalation dominance to wield in “negotiations”. He can bomb some places, which will be counterproductive. He can’t send in troops, doesn’t have enough nearby and ready, there will be casualties. Never underestimate Joe’s ability to family blog things up.
The other dimension is that not just Netanyahu, but the Israeli Right generally considers US at least an adversary if not downright an enemy. (A strand of this may go back all the way to USS Liberty or even the Suez Crisis, although back then, it was not necessarily “Israeli Right” that was subtly hostile to US). They are aware that, when it comes to “territory/security” issues, their conception of a “secure Israel” is incompatible of that of virtually any US government. Even if they might appreciate military and political support from the US, they also want to weaken the US so that they can act in defiance of US when it suits them (Alastair Crooke made this point, I think, when he was on the Duran podcast, in reference to what Ariel Sharon said back in the oughts). Things couldn’t have gotten better not only because US may well have tried to stage a color revolution against Netanyahu specifically (in addition to many in US PMC hating him), but that US tends to be too heavily biased in favor of Israeli Left (especially the Democrats). So US faces lack of credibility on both sides: Arabs and Muslims won’t trust US because US is too pro-Israel. Israeli Right (who, let’s face it, are increasingly the dominant force in their domestic politics) don’t trust US because US is too pro-Israeli Left.
Or, in other words, US really has no business getting involved in this conflict, really.
(shorter version) . . . Bibi is suicidal.
Haven’t seen any reluctance to use extremely paranoid interpretations when there is major reason for the US to distance itself from Israeli actions and some actual reason for responsible analysis.
Seems I remember a Nobel level award to someone or group for game theory, saying that taking a crazy take-no-prisoners even suicidal position helps win. Get on the email list for any of the Israel advocacy groups and watch the game in action.
So, I know that the debate over the two explosions – one in the background, one in the foreground on the hospital – is still going, and so things are not confirmed yet – but the extensive geolocation of the main video (the one shown on Al Jazeera) actually checks out, even though I don’t trust any of those Twitter accounts for a second:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1714390254935851272.html
I agree the narrative should fall heavily against Israel on this, but there is more than enough good reason to be cautious in making a call due to that video (even though I’m happy to continue seeing people assume it was Israel until more evidence comes to light…).
If you can tell me how hitting the hospital helps Hamas, I’d love to hear it. Admittedly there has been more support for the Palestinians then those of us with memories of the last four decades have seen. But even with the skepticism being directed at Israel there was no reason to believe they would have almost immediately be pegged for it. And in friendly press even.
The hospital would just be about Hamas hitting their own people. It would not only confirm their brutality, it would cost them what little high ground they had. It would also destroy boodles of future support from people they need to join them.
Normally I would say that Israel wouldn’t be this stupid but they have been acting like the biggest and stupidest bully. They announced on day 1 they would commit war crimes against the Palestinians. And then did it. They honestly do not care, or rather they didn’t. One of Bibi’s top aides took credit for bombing the hospital almost immediately. And even though they took it down almost as fast, this is the kind of arrogance we see in the Biden administration. Partially it was because they have had it that way for decades. But mostly it is because they have as big a bubble as DC.
Delusion is a way of life. It may even be the same delusion. Nothing will be done to punish Israel because the biggest most powerful nation in the world, America, will make sure it doesn’t happen. Unfortunately, America being stupid for decades (economically and in foreign policy) has seriously undermined American power.
There is no way that Hamas would intentionally hit the hospital – but if you look carefully at that linked thread, look directly at the video (straight from Al Jazeera livestream! I even rewinded their arabic YouTube livestream to verify) where they zoom in on the site of the explosion after the rocket broke apart – and then compare that to images of the hospital, particularly the solar panels (using the thread as a guide, but Googling/sourcing the images yourself) – then you can see directly that it’s quite conclusively a video of the hospital being hit.
That doesn’t mean it was the Hamas rocket that hit the site – there are two explosions in the video, far removed from each other – but it would be an awfully unlikely coincidence for Israel to have struck the hospital, right as a Hamas rocket broke apart directly in line of sight above it, from the point of view of that camera.
It’s possible – I’m pretty happy to see the narrative remain weighted against Israel for now, pending further verification – but I can’t really judge it as likely.
And how objective is Al Jazeera?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera
I don’t think we are going to settle this question here in comments but the bogus Syria revolution that was a regime change operation relied heavily on Youtube. Pictures can lie…are not dispositive.
Have you seen the video showing the rocket break-up? First one in the link.
It doesn’t even require relying on Al-Jazeera’s reputation – it’d require a mastery of AI-generated-propaganda like we’ve never seen before, executed by Al-Jazeera, aimed at pinning the blame on an errant rocket – which wouldn’t make any sense for them to do.
Really, the video is very strong evidence by itself – which still leaves a bit of wriggle room for debate (the near + far explosions in the video), but really not much – as it has very precisely been geo-located, in a way which is extremely easy to independently reproduce/verify.
I’m late to the party here- but you are misinterpreting that video. That is not a rocket breaking up. It is established doctrine in every single air force, the world over, to release flares and chaff as decoys for air defense missiles after releasing ordnance on a target- whether it is a missile, bomb, or gun run. What you saw were flares being released immediately after the JDAM was dropped. There are other people bringing up the lack of a crater- that is because the bomb was fused to air-burst.
I’ll add- the air burst makes this an even larger war crime than it already was. Air-bursts are designed to destroy soft targets (humans) specifically, and are less damaging to physical infrastructure and equipment.
Hamas or PIJ rockets rarely kill more than half a dozen people when they land right. Their payload is not simply that big. Not how one can overlook that hard fact by trying to minutely dissect grainy videos.
That is one (two potentially) of the other very valid arguments counterpointing that video – there seems to be discussion that it could be the fuel rather than the payload that exploded – I know nothing about their weapons, though.
The graininess of the video in this case doesn’t affect its status as rock-hard evidence though – as it literally zooms straight into the bombed hospital moments after the bombing, showing all of the landmarks both local and at the hospital site, needed to indisputably verify the location of everything.
The level of coincidence required to capture everything that happened with the rocket, for it to fail perfectly in line of site of the camera and the hospital, and for an Israeli missile to then hit the hospital directly within that line of site moments after the rocket came apart…It’s possible, I just can’t judge it as at all likely.
The Western press was widely reporting shortly after the strike that over 500 were dead. Dead mind you, not injured. Count now estimated at 900.
Not even 10 Hamas rockets could do that.
I agree, none of that adds up – and the relatively small amount of destruction to buildings at the site may not add up either.
I don’t know what to make of any of it, other than that the Al Jazeera video provides very strong evidence – and that while what the video shows happening is up for debate still – the final explanation of what happened must be consistent with (and have an explanation for) everything in that video.
Yeah, I don’t trust the accounts either (GeoConfirmed shares data with BellingCat, per their main ThreadReader page). Seems like they’ve done a remarkable job, but is it brilliant propaganda, or analysis?
Seems like the narrative is: a single rocket is fired (but not from the same place as the barrages going on at about the same time), something happens in mid-air (medium explosion), booster and payload fall to Earth, the latter in the hospital parking lot (fairly big explosion).
Somebody did a heckuva job zooming in on mid-air explosion—is this a drone camera or what? I have no idea how much to trust any of this, video or analysis. But then, how can we trust any of the other narratives either? (Maybe that’s the idea).
Still, thanks for this.
If the United States were to mind its own business, and lead by example rather than by bribery, blackmail and aggression, it would have considerably more power than it does today, like a turbocharged version of the American that existed before it became an empire.
The United States has some enormous advantages, and should use them, rather than squander them.
The US was founded on the genocide of all peoples they first found there, to steal their land …..& then slavery to enrich themselves off those resources they stole, using the cheapest labour possible. (In the case of Californian native tribes they could be enslaved or shot on sight as vermin by law, whatever was in the best interests of the newly arrived settlers at the right end of the guns) So, given this violent, nakedly greedy national birth, why would they see any wrong in others doing the same thing that enabled them to rule the world so long?
The most successful rulers of our planet have always been the most utterly ruthless, look at history …..we are 98% genetically similar to chimpanzees for an excellent reason & made the world in our own image.
I have long said that power is to sociopaths what catnip is to cats.
Except that catnip is basically harmless, while sociopaths are the last sort of humans who should have power.
Umm, show us the country without a violent, nakedly greedy national birth.
Lol. You must be kidding. I love the complete lack of awareness of a large segment of Americans. Is the whole world comprised of countries established by settler colonial regimes that viewed the natives as unworthy vermin??
Never fails to amaze me, I even deliberately emphasized ‘look at history’ …..Wikipedia has the origin section for most people on earth including those wiped out, so there’s no excuse to not do your own research, but people spend more time on cat videos with their internet time. Given our savage species, as you say, its surprising that most peoples were/are relatively peaceful given the choice – travelling also helps with educating the ignorant.
Post 1066, the Norman conquerers of England acted like settler colonialists and treated the locals as unworthy vermin. The way they reallocated land ownership reverberates to this day.
https://www.historytoday.com/history-matters/harrying-north
They also got rid of slavery, up until that time 1/3 of england was enslaved. oftentimes kidnapp victims, raped for a while then sold across the channel.
Ummm, guys? Maybe there’s too much propaganda to make snap judgements?
It’s very, very possible the hospital wasn’t leveled, it wasn’t a JDAM, and Israel didn’t fire the rocket that blew up the parking lot.
Hard to know the truth until there’s irrefutable proof.
Biden and Netanyahu aren’t even denying the deaths. All this is one 29 second clip with nothing added. How strange?
I’m sure there were deaths but I’ve not seen anything that corroborates “500 dead” or any proof that Israel fired at the hospital or even that the hospital has suffered significant damage.
All I’ve seen is confirmation bias on both sides.
My default is to not believe anything either side says.
This is talking out of both sides of your mouth. The death tolls listed are from each side. Do you believe those? Simply put, Palestinian rockets don’t have a large payload to inflict deaths on this scale. Whether the hospital was leveled or not is irrelevant.
I’m sorry.. I must have missed where Israel confirmed specific numbers of dead at the hospital.
Care to point me to where Israel said anything about the number of causalities?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
So tired of humans raging for other humans blood based on…what?…twitter/tikTok bullshit?
Enough with the bloodthirsty tribalism.
They’re all beasts.
I’ve tried to refrain from jumping to conclusions, as we have seen so many times in the past, that usually doesn’t end well.
What I think we know:
1. The hospital is still standing – early reports that it was leveled were wrong. Yves pointed this out in the morning links.
2. Body count still unknown. Lots of pictures and videos that are highly disturbing but subject to the usual deep fakery or borrowing from past atrocities.
3. Hardly anyone is calling for an independent on-the-ground investigation, for obvious reasons. German Chancellor Sholz, shockingly, to his credit called for one. Or maybe he is just eyeing the large ME immigrant population in his own country rather nervously.
4. Both sides pointing the finger at each other. As usual.
5. The IDF had ample time to manufacture evidence, using AI/deepfakery.
6. There is no evidence of secondary explosions or ammo “cook-offs” in any of the videos I have watched. That seems to rule out the “Hamas using hospital as a weapons depot” stories from the usual suspects.
7. The lack of any crater, at least as far as I can tell, is disturbing. We see cars flipped and burnt out. That suggests something pretty powerful. Maybe one of those “air burst” bombs that are set to detonate just above the target?
This leaves us with the unsatisfying outcome that we really may never know “whodunnit.” But it may simply not matter, as the US/Biden admin by siding so heavily with Israel are now stuck in a credibility trap. And we know they lie constantly, as evidenced by the fake chemical weapons attacks in Syria along with Ukraine lies.
My own attempt at analysis, just based on the video and what I can piece together:
1. A large rocket or some sort of bomb hit the parking lot of the hospital. There may have been a makeshift triage area concentrating patients there, supporting the high casualty statements from Hamas, but likely exaggerated.
2. There is no crater in that video. That means no JDAM or heavy bomb.
3. It could have been either a friendly fire incident or deliberate IDF targeting of that area with some smaller missile, perhaps delivered by a drone, intended to take out a Hamas leader in the area.
4. Presuming there were doctors who survived, they should be able to give some testimony to what happened, but not necessarily shed much light on who did it.
Gun to head, I would blame the IDF. It seems too much of a coincidence that an errant rocket from either IJ or Hamas would land right in the middle of a makeshift hospital triage. And the clumsy way that Biden jumped to conclusions makes me suspicious that he was told to lie.
That’s not an unreasonable take. Very measured.
I lean toward the home-made-rocket-goes-awry based on the video footage of rockets caught on live TV but… I wouldn’t declare anything with certitude.
If you look at that link Caitlyn Johnston provided, the IDF have been constantly either bombing hospitals or ordering them to evacuate over the last few days. Mostly there are minimal casualties.
That’s a volatile situation to begin with and it would be very easy for an incident like this to occur just from a targeting issue, misjudgment, or wrong intelligence. I doubt the IDF intended to kill hundreds of civilians but it does seem most likely that they are the ones responsible.
Didn’t The UN OPCW declare that Syria used chemical weapons back in 2013? The White Helmets stuff? Not sure I take them as a credible source but yeah, maybe they’ve got better intel….
On the other hand…
Human Rights Watch said that in 2021, roughly 18% of Hamas missles misfired and fell in Gaza.
Like you said, impossible to say, as of now, what really happened.
I will say this…the hate peddlers and warmongers should rot in Hell and my prayers are with the innocent.
Airbursts do not leave craters- They were targeting a densely packed crowd of people in the courtyard. Just as with a cluster of military personnel in the open, this is the specific type of target airbursts are engineered to destroy.
The propagandists are relying on people not being knowledgeable of military hardware, capabilities, targeting and tactical doctrines. Everything I have seen points to a low altitude bomb release (flares/chaff and afterburner spike after release are visible in videos) of a precision (Joint Direct Attack Munition bolt on kit) small bomb (250-500 lb) set to airburst (this is how bombs are fused when targeting troop – in this case crowd, concentrations). Air burst will not leave craters, but they certainly will exert downward pressures that would distort the roofs of the vehicles in the manner visible in the photos.
I know there are other people here with military experience, and my hope is that they will share their knowledge, as it is crucial at this time.
I stated this above- No, the hospital was not leveled. It was almost certainly targeted with a JDAM kit mounted on a 250 or 500 lb bomb set to airburst above the crowd in the courtyard, and given the Israeli love for them, was probably a DIME munition. The release of flares/chaff by the aircraft immediately after bomb release as well as the afterburner flame during aircraft egress are clearly visible on one of the videos, and the flare release/afterburner spike are classic example of the doctrinal behavior for air forces all over the planet.
Doesn’t look like the alienate Russia plan is going well. Putin appears to be getting meetings with everybody involved in this latest upheaval.
And yet you wouldn’t know it from the US corporate media. According to this –
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hamas-expresses-willingness-release-captive-010547045.html
– it’s the intrepid US diplomatic effort that’s bearing fruit.
“After days of tense negotiations involving U.S., Israeli and Qatari officials, Hamas has expressed a willingness to release women and children it holds captive.”
No mention of Russian, Chinese, or any other non-Western country other than Qatar in the entire piece. And definitely no mention of Abbas telling Biden to pound sand.
Why all this hate towards the Israelis? They are doing what they have been taught to do by the United States. Bombing hospitals, ethnic cleansing, genocide, withholding vital medicines and food to civilian populations? This has been standard fare for the United States for decades. The Israelis have learned well. Perhaps it is “we the people” of the United States who should closely examine ourselves. We elect people who commit atrocities in our name and then do nothing more than feebly protest. Few Americans. including many who post here on Naked Capitalism, are willing to get themselves bloodied for their beliefs. It’s easy to post comments on blogs and write letters to the editor. It’s easy to join a peaceful march. None of these steps will effect real change. Only tens of millions of angry people confronting authority directly has any hope of effecting change.
We elect politicians who are over ninety percent incumbents and face little opposition other than from well funded lobbies that threaten to unseat them if they vote the wrong way. And of course this applies to Pharma and many others, not just Israel.
Nations have only interests but sometimes the rulers of those nations have only their interests. I blame our ruling class, not the “people” who are just trying to live their lives.
Agreed!!
As Bill Burroughs once noted, “Control seeks . . . control” for its own sake. It has no other guiding principles, but I, Me, Mine (to quote a G. Harrison lyric).
The Israelis learned from the best (the UK Empire & Hitler’s Germany, as well as the US), & thus can “the tail wag the dog”, as many note in comments above. ‘Muricans are inculcated in dog-eat-dog dominant behavior, competition, striving & aggression. It’s their normal psychological state– no wonder we’re burning the whole world down to “control” it!! The War will come home (indeed already has for the legions of homeless, psychologically scarred & destitute), karma’s not a Newtonian mechanism but to some extent it does operate. We are creating Hell & are unable to even imagine any other path.
The hate arises here because what Israel does is not in US interests material or geopolitical but American administrations keep acting the poodle for the Zionist regime. You can have allies but this completely counterproductive slavish behavior will blow up in their faces as is happening.
I don’t hate Israelis. I hate Netanyahu, the settlers, and the other religious nutters who want to raze Al Aqsa Mosque to rebuild the Temple. If that plan goes anywhere, you will in the end have nuclear war. And the cohort I mentioned openly depicts Palestinians as not human and not deserving to live. They can all go to hell.
There are plenty of Jews who feel the same way but are seldom as blunt about it.
I’m going to add a non Israeli group to Yves list. I dislike the enablers to these people in America. Whether it comes from guilt, romantic ideas of the promised land, misguided but highly paid political posturing, or some demented desire for a biblical apocalypse called Armageddon, they have been instrumental in our government and our media’s refusal to treat unacceptable to outright genocidal behavior as the abomination it is.
Treating disliked groups as something less than human is far too American. It is the slaughter and displacement of Native Americans, the tragedy of slavery or even today when Hillary Clinton calls for the forced reprogramming of people who do not agree with and didn’t vote for her (although I suspect she secretly would rather starve and bomb them). So it is too easy for most of us to follow those leading us along to support it as it happens halfway around the world as long as the illusion that it is right holds. But the illusion isn’t holding no matter how hard so many are trying to make it so. It is an easy and early weapon to accuse those who are rejecting the supportive illusory narrative of bias and hatred in order to bring people back in line. Many times it works…shallowly. But when people tell you what they are, it rarely holds. And throughout this Netanyahu, his administration and most of the Americans trekking to their side have been telling everyone they are war criminals.
Rabbi and professor Dov Fischer opines that, except for the U.S., the international community — and Europe in particular — can take its display of solidarity with Israel and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378670
Israel National News is the media arm of the settler movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-_OVUhdBcs. An official statement from the President of Indonesia on the violence in Gaza.
– Indonesia strongly denounces the violence in Gaza because it has caused untold sufferings on the civilian population including women and children.
– Indonesia also condemns Israel’s attack on the Al Ahli Hospital, a clear violation of International Human Rights Laws. The Indonesian Foreign Minister has been dispatched to Jeddah to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Meeting attended by Foreign Ministers from member countries.
– Indonesia is working on evacuating Indonesian citizens although efforts are still hampered by conditions in the field.
– Indonesia will not stay silent on the perpetual violence and injustice perpetrated on the Palestinian people.
– Indonesia and OIC countries would like to send a strong message to the world to stop the escalation of violence and focus on the root of the problem which is the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel. “This is the time for the world to stand together in solidarity and solve the Palestinian problem fairly and in accordance to already agreed upon international parameters.” Indonesia will continue to voice this issue in every international forum.
A book, ‘The ugly American’ was published in 1958, describing how US policy in its then imperial wars in Asia did the US reputation no favours worldwide (with the exception of its pack of lapdog allies) & the effects of that legacy still particularly linger in several countries in that region today. The blueprint/mentality of its foreign policy and the wars used to carry that out have scorched other continents too, Latin America which has the misfortune to be its ‘backyard’ & Africa being badly hit.
Its unsurprising therefore that the middle east has seldom been at peace since humanity’s current civilisation relies so heavily on oil for even basic survival at the present population numbers, but still somehow amazing that in the 65 years since that book was written, not one lesson has been learned. Unless, permanent war was the aim, not a failure of policy, with the objective to be to funnel US taxes & other wealth in general from its citizenry to the ever-deeper pockets of the elite, via military expenditure.
I’ve said for decades, as a bit of a joke, that the the US is a Client State of Israel. It sails over most people’s heads.
About the hospital bombing: this is a 2-fer.
1. The PMC class cares about doctors, they are One Of Us.
2. Baptist! The hospital has the word “Baptist” in the name. This is a word that the Americans working class will respond to. When you mess with the Baptist Church, you’ve gone too far. Whether this has anything to do with the US Baptist church, I have no idea, and do not care enough to research it. What matters is the word, not the reality.