Insight: Gaza Is A Micro-War Testing Ground

Take care we don't discover too late that we're all Palestinians

• Heaviest bombing yet; of precisely the areas Israel told Gazans to shelter

• 400 targets bombed in past 24 hours; Gaza death toll rises to 5,000, half children

• Türkiye's Erdoğan offers to mediate; Biden admin says 'not the time' for ceasefire

• US military advisers may have suffered casualties in Gaza reconnaissance

• Nat Sec spokesman Kirby does not rule out U.S. war against Iran

• French president lands in Israel; uses language of ‘War on Terror’

• Israel doubles number of Palestinian prisoners to 10,000 in two weeks

• Hamas releases two elderly hostages to Egyptian and Qatari mediators

• ‘We have an obligation to save Israel from itself’ - Col Douglas Macgregor

See also:
The Bottomless Pit - Israel Digs In (Oct 23, 2023)
Sources, Opinions on the Israel-Gaza Conflict (Oct 21, 2013)
Hospital Bombings, Denial And Blood Sacrifice (Oct 18, 2023)
Gaza's Fate Holds A Warning (Oct 16, 2023)
'Beheaded Babies' Is A Century-Old Trope (Oct 12, 2023)
Gaza, An Open And Closed Case (Oct 10, 2023)
Israel-Gaza Clash Is More Than Bad Neighbours (Oct 8, 2023)

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Oct 24, 2023

The latest

The French President says terrorism is the “common enemy” of both Israel and France. “You are not alone,” he told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bombs fall close to three hospitals; those in north Gaza lack power and supplies. One third of Gaza’s hospitals are non-functional, says WHO coordinator. UN says aid trucks are “a trickle” compare to need.

No fuel for water desalination, bakeries, hospitals or even aid trucks.

Emir of Qatar says risk of escalation is a threat beyond the region, to the world. Israel should not be given a “green light for unconditional killing.”

U.S. special forces were killed while trying to reconnoitre in Gaza, according to Col Douglas Macgregor, and sustained heavy losses.

King Abdullah of Jordan denounced the bombing campaign in Gaza, calling it collective punishment of a besieged and defenceless population, a violation of international humanitarian law, and a war crime [1]

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says if Iran launches a "proxy attack" on Israel, the U.S. should "knock Iran out of the oil business." Military force would destroy the "source of funding" for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah destroyed two Israeli bases for electronic warfare on the border with Lebanon. The multi-billion dollar facilities at Al Abad and Ruaisat Al Alam are said to be the biggest electronic warfare bases in the Middle East.

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Commentary

Has anyone noticed that Britain is not at war with Palestine?

Nor is Canada, nor the U.S. nor France, whose president has just landed in Israel to kiss the ring of Benjamin Netanyahu. Nor is any European country at war with Palestine.

So why are the politicians of all these countries not calling for restraint, as you would expect a neutral third country to do?

Especially when the parties have committed, or are still committing, crimes by attacking civilians — on both sides.

Gaza is a part of Israel so technically even Israel is not at war.

So why is censorship on a wartime footing, across the West?

One answer is it bends your perception. The United Nations says about half of the 2.3 million Gazans have been bombed out of their homes.

When Slobodan Milošević was accused of ethnically cleansing 800,000 Albanians from their homes in Kosovo in the 1990s, NATO attacked Yugoslavia. Netanyahu has already out-done Milošević. But you are not supposed to make that connection.

There are other curious clues. McDonalds has in some countries changed its burger wrapping to the white and blue of Israel's flag. It's a small thing, but clearly the corporate executives also believe they are at war.

But at war with whom? The target, it seems, is not only Gaza. Take care we don't discover too late that we're all Palestinians.

Faux unity

Wars always start with a whoop of enthusiasm before reality sets in. This time the hammer has dropped rather quickly.

While many reflexively stand with Israel, many others are asking, “why no ceasefire?”. Why do the leaders of the U.S., Britain and France not only fail to vote for a pause but declare it's "not the time."

Former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn asked PM Rishi Sunak: "Why did the prime minister instruct our representatives at the UN not to support a ceasefire?"

The majority of British people want an immediate halt in Gaza. Of 2,685 British adults questioned by YouGov, 58 per cent said there "definitely should" be a pause, 18 per cent said, "probably" and only three percent said "there should not be." [2]

If the British, who helped found the State of Israel, support a ceasefire, it's likely the peoples of other countries think likewise.

The political and corporate class are out on a limb and they know it. The propaganda machine is desperate to drown out those who criticise the associated war machine.

Shocked by the leaning of students towards Palestinians under siege, billionaires are withdrawing their endowments from universities.

Even calling for a ceasefire is slapped with a label. YouTube demonetises sites and, when it removes adverts, they get down-ranked, reducing visiblity. In the case of Eva Bartlett, YouTube deleted her channel completely. Her reports on Gaza date from 2009 and 2013 — so YouTube is now erasing history.

Desperation

Censorship and the faux unity over support for Israel is dangerous because it is intended to promote an emotional, not a rational, response. The aim is to prevent not only dissent but also debate.

This is the same tactic as was used around Covid: Governments weaponise "hate speech" laws and "online safety" to shut down discussion. “And stay six feet apart!”

The media pumps out disinformation, stories that they know to be false, from the litany of Covid lies, to the war by deception in Israel.

But the information war is turning. The desperation is showing. The opposition leader in Israel, ex-PM and former journalist Yair Lapid says you must not present fair reports on Palestine because, he told Western reporters, that would "serve Hamas."

"The media can't just claim to bring both sides of the story. If you do that, you are only bringing one. If the media is objective it serves Hamas... If it just shows both sides it serves Hamas. creates symmetry between suffering without first checking who caused it, it serves Hamas."

Seymour Hersh reported on Oct 15 that Israel would begin using, that day and the next, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) aerial bombs that explode above people, killing them up to half a mile away. Two days later, people taking refuge in the car park of the al-Ahli hospital in north Gaza were hit.

After initially taking credit for the bombing, Israel's military reversed course. Most of the media, and thousands of social media functionaries, followed suit.

It was not a simple case of embarrassment. The evidence that Israel's military put forth was intended to spark a controversy: an audio recording of Hamas was soon exposed as fake; then trolls questioned if there had been any deaths at all.