http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=14044

The Israeli propaganda machine has called up its allies in the media and Congress to make sure that no one will condemn the invasion of Gaza, which has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians, most of them civilians and many of them children. The pictures of small bodies lined up to be buried are convincing evidence that something is very wrong in Gaza, but leaders in Congress from both parties have nonetheless rallied to the cause of Israeli victimhood, putting all the blame for the conflict on the Palestinians.

Folks outside the United States who do not have the benefit of the Israel lobby to guide their thinking are seeing the carnage in a different way, noting the disproportionate nature of the Israeli attack and also the unlikelihood that Tel Aviv's stated objectives are obtainable without utterly destroying Gaza's infrastructure and turning the strip of land into a military-occupied moonscape. Many are also wondering what Israel's actual goals might be, since the invasion will only empower Hamas politically, not destroy it. Is it to tie the incoming Obama administration irrevocably to Israel's security agenda or to strengthen the Kadima Party in the lead-up to national elections next month? Only time will tell, but, as always, the Palestinians will bear the brunt of the suffering, and the United States will surely pay some price for green-lighting the Israeli offensive.

...

In short, to read America's self-described newspapers of record is to receive the Israeli propaganda line in its purest form. There are signs that many Americans are not buying into the nonsense, that an increasing percentage sympathize with the Palestinians and even more do not want the U.S. involved in the conflict. The rise of the Internet as a source of information, which makes it as easy to read papers from London or Dubai as from New York, has been a dramatic development. It is now harder for the Israeli spinners to make believe that an attack on a school was actually a strike against terrorism when the evidence to the contrary can be found on YouTube. Hopefully some day, the information explosion will completely discredit pundits like Brooks and Kristol and put them out of business.

... much more at link or click on sig

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Do I sense a GG post topic in the air? Hint, hint!

What happens to our politicians when our foreign and domestic policy elites get their grips into them?

-- Bushfatigue

They appoint Hilary "we can obliterate Iran" Clinton as Secretary of State.

What sort of constructive engagement is the USA going to have with Iran when the person directing that engagement has already told them "Submit, or Die"?

Hmmmm ... tough choice ... especially when the subtext of the first option is often "Submit, and Die"

It's not like every US-sponsored regime in history have been choirboys, is it?

My God! it's like a bad movie script ... "Resistance is futile!" ... just shout it loud enough lady, and it will make sense ...

The US should stop being the World's Police. Even if Iran has nuclear weapons - who can blame them? Any leader would be foolish not to since the US help topple the Iran government and the US without cause invaded its neighbor Iraq.

Also, if the Obama admin does not investigate the many crimes committed by the Bush administration, it will be a slap in the face to Justice and Liberty. How could anyone defend not investigating. No It is NOT time to move on for Justice demands the wrongs be righted.

Sorry to have to post this here but the Salon's Gaza threads have been closed down even more effectively than an Hamas rocket attack position.

This is a brilliant picture from Gaza and is comparable to the classic shot of St Paul's Cathedral during the height of the Blitz. Talk about every picture tells a story - Rod Stewart didn't know the half. I should imagine this picture is going to be appearing on posters through out the Muslim world for years to come and to inspire pride and confidence in a peoples as the London one did for us Brits.

7 / 13

Gaza, January 12: A mosque minaret appears between layers of smoke as the Israeli army battles Hamas militants

Photograph: David Silverman/Getty Images

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/jan/13/gaza-israelandthepalestinians?picture=341685405

Re: Israeli censorship

I read what I can as widely as I can and watch Al Jazeera's English language coverage of the unfolding horror in Gaza -- I see very little other television coverage of it, due to lack of time and lack of desire to be exposed to our media's straightforward pro-Israel propaganda.

Al Jazeera has reporters in Israel and in Gaza, and I've noticed that they are very careful about what they say and how they say it. From time to time, they allude to the fact that there are certain things they cannot report from Israel, primarily troop movements and so on, but they have never directly stated that they are being censored by Israeli authorities; they probably couldn't say it on the air if they were.

I'm not sure why they are so careful in Gaza, but it seems to me they really are. So far as I can recall, they have never interviewed -- or even shown -- a Hamas leader or representative in Gaza, only in Damascus. I can understand why it would be dangerous to be anywhere near a known Hamas rep in Gaza, but still it is strange that based on Al Jazeera's coverage, there is no civil authority in Gaza at all. Whether this is a censorship issue, I don't know.

They have Israelis on all the time, as representatives of their government (Avital Liebovitz and Marc Regev frequently, but many others as well), and as panelists in their discussion segments. It seems to me there is never a Gazan, either as a representative of the Hamas government or as a member of the civil society on either news or discussion segments, with the exception of some of the doctors at the main hospital and occasional phone interviews with (primarily) NGO reps in Gaza. Of course I haven't seen everything, so I could have missed some segments featuring Gazans. They do man-on-the-street type interviews with ordinary Gazans after Israeli raids and/or bombing runs, but that's quite different than having an "official" representative during news and discussion segments, and that absence tends to make their news seem rather sterile and their discussions somewhat abstract.

The impression they convey, whether they mean to or not, is that there is no civil authority in Gaza, and that the situation is complete anarchy, yet they show what appears to be coordinated rescue and recovery efforts wherever bombs have fallen or shells and missiles have exploded, they show markets in operation, bread and supply distribution and so forth, not normal society by any means, but not the anarchy implied by the apparent absence of any authority at all. Somebody is coordinating all of this. Who? Well, they don't say.