Hiroshima commemoration and the genocide in Gaza: discussion on Iran’s Press TV
I use the word ‘discussion’ to characterize my interview yesterday morning because the Press TV presenter is an active interlocutor who does not merely pitch questions prepared in advance to interviewees.
The commemoration ceremonies of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima were dedicated to the 70,000 civilians who lost their lives instantly and to the total of 140,000 who died within a year from cancers and other consequences of radiation poisoning. Almost no coverage of the 79th anniversary of the bombing appeared in major Western media.
On Russian state television, by contrast significant attention was given to the proceedings, beginning with exposing the extraordinary hypocrisy of the Japanese prime minister’s address in which no mention was made of who had dropped the bomb. Meanwhile, Russia and Belarus were not invited to the ceremony whereas more than 100 other countries were. But then again, the Palestinians were also excluded, whereas Israel was welcomed to Hiroshima by the city’s mayor.
It was the latter invitation which was at the center of attention on Press TV’s News Review in which I participated together with a panelist in Australia. Israel’s presence had prompted protest demonstrations in Hiroshima on the day before, 5 August, with signs reading “No to the Genocide State.” The logical connection was clear: the above-mentioned civilian deaths in Hiroshima are matched with the 40,000 plus deaths in Gaza by the official tally, in reality perhaps 200,000 deaths if one factors in death by hunger and disease in a situation where food supplies are being withheld and medical facilities have been destroyed.
In my interview, I called out the paradox: whatever the intentions of the organizers, de facto the inclusion of Israeli representatives was justified given that precisely Israel is positioning itself as the likely second nation after the United States to use nuclear weapons in wartime. I say this because it is an open secret that Israel has been pondering dropping the bomb on Gaza to hasten the elimination of the Palestinian population or on southern Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah once and for all.
That Israel has long wished to atomic-bomb Iran is known to all for more than a decade. It has been restrained from doing so only by lack of needed air support from the United States. In the present circumstances of possible escalation to a region-wide war in the Middle East, Washington may well present itself as the enabler of an Israeli bombing campaign in Iran that includes a nuclear component.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024
Japanese gathered in Hiroshima to denounce the massacre of Palestinians
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