Why is this war happening?
Who murdered three Israeli teenagers? Media have largely accepted Israel’s claim that it was Hamas–but little evidence has been offered to substantiate this claim.
The conventional answer tells us that the June abduction and murders of three Israeli teenagers is the answer. This crime was carried out by Hamas, Israeli officials claim, and it led to a brutal crackdown on Hamas officials in the West Bank. Hundreds were detained, and several Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli security forces. Rocket fire from Gaza then intensified, forcing the Israelis to launch the current military assault
But did Hamas actually kill Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar? And if there’s no evidence that they did, shouldn’t more journalists be pressing Israeli officials about their claims?
There seems to be agreement on the timeline. As the Washington Post (7/22/14) put it:
Israel accused Hamas of orchestrating the killing. Israeli troops cracked down hard on the militant group in the West Bank; Hamas responded by escalating rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
Time magazine’s Joe Klein (7/24/14) wrote that Hamas “was in an existential jam this spring,” and their best option was simple: “Provoke Israel.” He writes:
The initial provocation, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, was indefensible, as was a retaliatory murder of a Palestinian teen. In a moment of moral clarity, Hamas lauded its kidnappers, while a furious Netanyahu called the retaliation “reprehensible.”
It is true that Hamas lauded the kidnappings, most likely as one way to strike a prisoner swap with Israel. The group did not claim responsibility for that action, though–which is precisely what one would have expected them to do.
So what is the evidence–other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s word–that Hamas carried out these murders? A CNN report (6/15/14) noted:
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza told CNN that Netanyahu’s comments attributing blame were “stupid and baseless.”
“The arrest campaign made by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank is targeted to break the backbone of Hamas and bring it down, but the Israelis will not succeed in achieving their goal,” Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz said Hamas killed the Israeli youth–then said his point was that Hamas praised their killing. Both claims were dubious. (cc photo: David Shankbone)
Fox News host Howard Kurtz (7/27/14) was, like Klein, sure about what happened: “There is no question that Hamas started the latest round of Mideast violence, first with the killing of three Israeli teenagers, and then by firing rockets indiscriminately at the Jewish state.” When it was noted on Twitter that there were still no evidence that Hamas was responsible (Mediaite, 7/27/14), Kurtz tweeted: “My point on the three slain Israeli teenagers is that Hamas praised killings as a heroic act.” Which is, of course, not the same point at all.
(The Al-Jazeera interview in which Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal heralded the abduction of the teenagers as “a heroic act”–in the Times of Israel‘s paraphrase, 6/24/14–took place on June 23, a week before the discovery of the youth’s bodies, so it’s also inaccurate to say that Hamas praised the “killings.”)
Controversy over who carried out the murders kicked into high gear recently when two reporters tweeted that Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld had admitted that they could not pin the crimes on Hamas. First from BBC reporter Jon Donnison:
Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership1/2
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
And then Buzzfeed‘s Sheera Frankel:
After Israel’s top leadership exhaustively blamed Hamas for kidnap of 3 teens, they’ve now admitted killers were acting as “lone cell.” — Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) July 25, 2014
Those posts garnered some attention–most specifically via a New York magazine post (7/25/14) that was originally headlined, “It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the Three Israeli Teens After All.” Then came some pushback in the form of a Daily Beast report (7/27/14) by Eli Lake, who got a denial from the Israeli source:
Rosenfeld said that he had told Donnison what the Israeli government had been saying all along. “The kidnapping and murder of the teens was carried out by Hamas terrorists from the Hebron area,” he told the Daily Beast. “The security organizations are continuing to search for the murderers.”
Donnison on Saturday said he stood by his earlier tweets.
Lake’s piece does not substantiate the Israeli claims that Hamas bears responsibility. “Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu famously declared after the victims’ bodies were found (Washington Post, 6/30/14). While the controversy over Rosenfeld’s statement and subsequent walkback is interesting, it does not change the fact that linking the crime to Hamas has always been a stretch (FAIR Blog, 7/2/14), since the suspects were not considered to be part of any formal Hamas cells.
As Shlomi Eldar (Al-Monitor, 6/29/14) wrote, the suspects belong to a clan that “has a well-earned reputation as troublemakers. Not only does it tend to ignore the movement’s leaders. It even acts counter to the policies being advocated by the movement.”
Journalism about the current violence is bound to focus on the death and destruction in Gaza. But there remains ample space to ask whether the war was launched to punish Hamas for something it had nothing to do with.
Wow, sounds like Gulf of Tonkin and WMD redux. Just make up something and the ignorant masses will eat it up. To show how well these liars work, today more than half of all Americans still believe Saddam had those invisible weapons.
This recent “return to form” by the US media has helped elucidate something: Who sees/experiences this media in all of its forms along with the general public? People who are active members of state, local governments, federal government groups in all of their forms, as well as those involved in all related industries all experience this same media. It seems clearer now that it’s produced especially for these eyes and minds, to keep them thinking the same ideas over and over again.
If the war launched on Hamas after the kidnapping was based on Netanyahu’s deceptions, then its an illegal war. That it was he that broke the ceasefire. It means Israelis and Americans were deceived, that American weapons were used illegally and America made complicit by a unquestioning media. Further it raises the question if Palestinians have the right of self defense.
I’m reminded of a comment made by a lifelong observer of the Palestinian Question. In talking about the 2008 War on Gaza, I noted that it was Israel who violated the ceasefire. His response, “Israel had violated every ceasefire since 1948.”
In my judgment NPR’s Israel centric mindset has played a large part in misinforming America.
“But there remains ample space to ask whether the war was launched to punish Hamas for something it had nothing to do with.” Right!!! Everyone at FAIR knows that gremlins, not Hamas, are responsible for launching rockets from Gaza’s backyards, hospital grounds and schoolyards into Israel! Damned gremlins (probably Israeli agents)!
This is a desperate piece, even by FAIR standards. To begin with, Rosenfeld insists he never used the term “lone cell.” But let’s look more closely – Donnison stated that the kidnappers were “Hamas-affiliated,” even if they did not receive direct orders from Hamas leadership. But of course that’s the way cells operate – sometimes they operate on their own, and sometimes they don’t. In short, we’re supposed to shed tears for Hamas, a terrorist militia whose charter explicitly calls for the murder of all Jews, because the kidnappers possibly were only “Hamas-affiliated.” C’mon, Hart, you can do better than that! (Needless to say, there’s an even larger problem with Hart’s story – he entirely neglects to reference the larger background to the conflict, namely, the fascist militia’s constant lobbing of missiles at Israel’s civilian population, and – ultimately – the Arab world’s decades-long refusal to accept a Jewish state.) Next, I will lay out a history for dummies, i.e., all those who deny Jewish self-determination – look for it soon!
I’m willing to be described as a dummy on Israel/Arab politics. I look forward to reading an objective dummy’s guide. I will be interested especially to see how supporters of Israel justify mass killings of innocents.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/07/26/israels-slaughter-based-on-a-lie/
It started right after Zionists, including a former CIA agent, [during the time of the #BringBackOurGirls-Nigeria] were whining on the Radio about Ambassador Power’s proposal to President Obama to take part of Israel’s 8.2 Million a Day Welfare Allotment and providing that aid to the Palestinian Authority.
One of the problems I have with liberals on the issue of Israel/Palestine is one, that when it changes, we will finally make progress. Before I say what that problem is, if your political perspective only runs from conservative to liberal, well, let me just say that there are a lot of us a lot further left than that limited spectrum. And so what is my problem with liberals on the issue of Israel/Palestine? Whether they fully understand this or not, they equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Those are two totally distinct things, but they are confused on this issue. When this is finally resolved we will make genuine progress in this country. The other idea I’d like people to consider is this: the policy pursued by this country in the Middle East is not to stabilize the region (that of course is what they claim is the goal) but to destabilize it.
This is why: http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-natural-gas-the-israeli-invasion-and-gaza-s-offshore-gas-fields/11680
CRISIS AT FAIR – A TRUE STORY!!
HART: We’ve got a big problem, Naureckas!
NAURECKAS: Huh?
HART: You know how Hamas is always comparing Israel to the Nazis?
NAURECKAS: Sure. And our readers eat that up – they’re always saying that Israel is genocidal, etc.
HART: Right, but I just found out that Hamas says the Holocaust is “a lie invented by the Zionists.”
NAURECKAS: So? Israel is always lying about something.
HART: Don’t you get it? If Israel is like the Nazis, but the Nazis weren’t genocidal, that would mean Israel is not genocidal.
NAURECKAS: Holy smokes! What do we do? Can we scream that Israel is the first country in the history of the world to inflict civilian casualties during a war?
HART: No, we’re running out of steam on that one. I have a better idea.
NAURECKAS: It better be something good.
HART: Oh, it is. We’ll “Naqba” Israel!
NAURECKAS: Huh?
HART: We’ll “Naqba” the heck out of them!
TO BE CONTINUED – SEE IF THE CRISIS AT FAIR WAS AVERTED!!
Excellent article.
See also Max Blumenthal article:
http://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-government-knew-teens-were-dead-it-whipped-racist-frenzy/13533
the kidnapping and murder of 3 young israel, was the pretext to invade Gaza and try to destroy the tunnels used by Hamas to break the blockade imposed by Israel to acquire food and basic livelihood, since the conditions of life of the Gaza Strip resemble the Warsaw Ghetto.
There’s a saying, “if you will lie, you will steal” and in Israel’s case also murder.
I now believe it’s an unwritten policy for Israeli representatives to tell a lie every other sentence.
The shame of it is that U S officials starting with our President condone these lies.
Remember, we are dealing with the same elements that executed 911, covered it up, and made others who didn’t go along
Hamas here, Hamas there, Hamas everywhere and one behind every fire hydrant. Sounds like McCarthy’s communists and Bush’s Al Qaeda which turned up wherever it was convenient for Bush. Since it’s impossible to get a bag of potatoes into Gaza without Israeli soldiers pawing it, I doubt there are any rockets in Gaza period. The Israeli just fire off fireworks and small explosives to have an excuse for their horrendous genocide. There is no excuse for the massacres these evil Israeli and their stark-raving mad Netanyahu carry out, none whatsoever. Along with innocent people (all Palestinians are civilians, by the way, and innocent children, these evil madmen in Israel even massacre innocent animals in their kill-craze. These Israeli subhumans need to be sent to concentration camps and kept there forever.
Israel’s aim is to find every pretext it can to disable Gaza and slowly strangulate it. Yes, 3 settlers in the occupied areas were kidnapped, but 2 weeks earlier 2 Palestinians were shot dead by the IDF, and well-armed Israeli settlers are always taking potshots at the natives, kinda like our early Western train passengers, who’d fire out the caboose at prairie buffalo, just for the target practice.
Now, Hamas praised the kidnapping before it was known the settler boys had been murdered. Israel knew these kids had died, but failed to announce it. Instead, they used this awful event as a pretext for home invasions, airstrikes, and other incursions that they claimed to carry out to rescue these boys. See the pretext here? Hamas had denied doing the killings, and the Israelis have no proof Hamas did these killings. Why would Hamas want to risk the disproportionate Israeli retaliation that always follows even a single Israeli casualty?
The Israelis were looking for a reason to weaken Gaza again, and this time around it was because Gazans had settled upon a unity government for once, one that certainly would have been more moderate than Hamas, had Israel allowed it to function effectively.
But the last thing Israel wants is effective governance that might lead to a stronger and rising state on its borders. The more such a state flourishes, the more Israel thinks it has to fear. It prefers a Palestine beset by rifts and civil wars, as borne out by the events following Hamas’ 2005 electoral victories, when Hamas could consolidate its fairly won electoral gains only by beating back a Fatah- insurgency financed by the US and Israel.
So this Israeli war is the latest in a series designed to seal Israel’s self-fulfilling prophecy that Hamas cannot effectively govern the citizens who elected Hamas. These wars set back infrastructure and educational and health developments and assure that life will be miserable for those in Gaza. Why else has Israel purposefully attack UN schools, power plants, radio and YV stations, and hospitals?
In the meantime, Israel continues to bring in Russians and Poles to settle native lands. Israel now occupies 78% of historic Palestine and is gobbling up even more as we speak, making a fair peace settlement impossible. Gaza, after all, is where many of the dispossessed live, their point of destination after eviction from the lands to which Israelis think they have a biblical right. The fact that israel still engages in collective punishment and the demolition of family homes is never addressed by the media reporters here, intimtidated as they are by bosses fearful of anti-semitic accusations.
And we give yearly these prosperous warriors and expansionists over 3 Billion Dollars of our US tax money? Why?
911 was an inside job–watch the below c-span interview with Richard Gage and do your research–stop WW3–what israel is doing is provoking war since they had our bought-for-Congress passed P.L. 112-179 (public law) which forces the US to defend israel no matter what. Again, it’s American blood that will be spilled for israel who was the only one who benefited 911–even Nutmanyhu [sic] said “911 was good for israel”!!! That’s recorded also. Boycott israel and call you bought-for-Congressperson and give them an ear fill.
Desperate times require desperate measures. Remember when a ship carrying thousands of Rockets and ammunition bound for Hamas from Iran was stopped? They are the controlling Party in Gaza. They failed to stop the rain of rockets over recent years. Israelis were beyond patient enough. Something needed finally to be done.
I fully understand the desire to counteract a strong US media bias in favor of Israel, but I fail to see why this needs to swing to the opposite extreme and accept uncritically all the information that Hamas provide. Their use of Gaza residents as human shields is well established, as is their siting of rocket launchers near schools, mosques and hospitals, with tunnels underneath residential housing. I fear that F.A.I.R. is beginning to look like the pot calling the kettle black, i.e., that its criticisims are as grossly one-sided as the mainstream media. That is a serious disappointment to this loyal supporter.
Roger Williams: You seem to be a middle of the roader who wants it both ways. Fair and balanced, eh? The truth is somewhere in middle, yes. OK. You cite often repeated statements of HAMAS’s use of human shields. OK. I get it. But why not cite the UN Goldstone Report or the findings of Amnesty International. Under Operation Cast Lead Israel was found to use Palestinian children as human shields. That you don’t hear much about, do you? And isn’t that really the point? The Goldstone Report also found evidence that Israel was punishing the entire Gazan populations, civilians and all. Would that meet the definition of terrorism?
What is happening there my god why hasn’t anyone threatened the Israelites or something, yeah they killed 3 kids after we took 80% of their land now we gon take the other 20% just cuz. These people are straight up Nazis Shit even worse these people are using American money and weapons to bomb the crap out of this poor people , then I see the news showing Palestine sites that have been blown to rubble as if they where Israeli city blocks, I’m really begining to question why so many Jews own our midia
please st0p the attacking on gaza