On Oct 30, 2023, at 7:09 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:--
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
Before They Launch Missiles, They Launch Propaganda Campaigns by Caitlin Johnstone
Caitlin Johnstone
Before they launch missiles, they launch propaganda campaigns. Before they roll out tanks, they roll out narratives. Everyone who helps manufacture consent for the killing in Gaza is just as culpable for the murder of those thousands of children as the people dropping the bombs.
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In case you missed it there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that many of the horrific acts Hamas is accused of committing on October 7 (burning people alive, burning babies, mowing down concertgoers, etc) were actually the result of indiscriminate fire by Israeli forces. Here’s a link to a Grayzone article and a link to a video presentation by Propaganda & Co, both citing Israeli media reports as their evidence.
To be clear none of this means Israel killed everyone who died on October 7 or that Hamas didn’t kill noncombatants, it just means the narrative is wrong.
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Remember that murderer who took a US elementary school classroom hostage, and the US air force dropped a MOAB on the school and killed all the children, and everyone was cool with it because they needed to kill the guy and he was using the kids as human shields?
No?
Me neither.
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Israel apologists don’t seem to get that we’ve seen every part of their tired schtick before.
“Anti-semite”? Saw it with Jeremy Corbyn.
“Terrorist supporter”? Saw it with Bush’s wars.
“Unprovoked attack”? Saw it with Ukraine.
If you want to fool people, get an original routine.
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Every once in a while I remember that a significant percentage of the Israel apologists yelling at me on social media are American Christians who support Israel because they want Jesus to come back and cast all the unrepentant Jews into Hell.
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Western officials: Israel is defending itself.
Israeli officials: We’re doing genocide.
Western officials: They’re following the laws of war.
Israeli officials: We’re gonna do way more genocide.
Western officials: It’s a measured response to October 7.
Israeli officials: Kill their babies.
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I see people saying the US gets nothing out of its alliance with Israel and it’s all one way, which is inaccurate. The interests of the US empire are massively advanced by having a nuclear-armed intelligence proxy in a strategically crucial resource-rich region constantly inflicting violence and chaos on non-US-aligned nations. Perhaps more importantly, Israel’s existence serves as the ultimate argument against ever removing US troops from the middle east, which it doesn’t want to do because of its interest in controlling the world’s fossil fuel supply.
As Joe Biden said, “If Israel didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.”
People often point to Israel’s aggressive lobbying efforts in Washington to argue that the alliance is not mutually beneficial, but lobbying is just one of the adhesives which holds an unofficial, unacknowledged empire together. You may be certain that if Washington didn’t want Israel manipulating US politics in its own interests, it wouldn’t be happening; the US government has plenty of laws at its disposal to shut that down if it wants.
Israel has no qualms about pushing the US to give it the most it can get for the smallest possible return because it understands, quite correctly, that in the end Israel is still just an ally of convenience and the US will throw it under the bus the moment it’s in the empire’s interests to do so. Israel has an extensive history of aligning with hostile and unpredictable powers to advance its own interests, like the anti-semitic Christian Zionists and supporting the rise of Hamas. So the two power structures use each other for whatever they can get in exchange, and because of the way Israel was set up from the beginning their interests are aligned far more often than not.
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Remember everyone, before you criticize an ongoing genocidal massacre that’s being supported by your own country you must first condemn a small foreign militant group who has spotty internet access, doesn’t speak your language, and will never hear anything you say to them.
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They tell you Israel is defending itself when you can see it’s mostly killing women and children.
They tell you they’re targeting Hamas when you can see them flattening whole city blocks.
They tell you you’re an anti-semite when you know you’re not.
All they’ve got is gaslighting.
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