by Margaret Kimberley
04/01/2009
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
A nation that has violated “every norm of civilized behavior and
international law” since its founding in 1948 is held virtually
blameless by the U.S. corporate media – Israel sycophants of the lowest
order. “Now members of the Israeli Defense Force themselves are coming
forward to admit that they committed war crimes” – but the U.S. press is
censoring their confessions! Even when Israeli soldiers openly testify
to committing “murder” in Gaza, as reported by the Israeli press, the
U.S. corporate media “keeps the people of this country ignorant” of the
crimes against humanity bankrolled by American taxpayers.
Despite the best efforts
of the American corporate media, the Israeli lobby, and compromised
politicians, the true nature of Israel’s barbarity towards the
Palestinian people is not easily hidden. The massacres of Gaza’s
civilian population that were recently carried out by the Israeli
Defense Force created a turning point in worldwide public opinion. Only
the Israeli and American governments try to deny that war crimes were
committed.
The IDF barred the
world’s media from witnessing the killings of more than 1,400 people.
Every norm of civilized behavior and international law was violated,
including the Geneva Conventions prohibition of acts of revenge against
civilian populations. Israel kept the borders of Gaza sealed, and would
not even allow the population to flee and save their lives. The IDF
takes the term “shooting fish in a barrel” very seriously.
Now members of the IDF
themselves are coming forward to admit that they committed war crimes.
Soldiers have told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they were
ordered to murder civilians without provocation. Haaretz has also
revealed that the IDF prepares soldiers to kill civilians by openly
condoning the killing of pregnant women and little children.
The shirts are bilingual,
written in Hebrew and in English too. It makes sense that the
inscriptions are also in English, because were it not for American
financial support, the IDF would not exist or be able to bomb Syria or
the Sudan or invade Lebanon or carry out massacres in Gaza.
The United States is
the Israeli government’s only friend in the world. While
boycotts and protests against Israel are carried out all over the
globe, concerned Americans are silenced because the corporate media and
the political system have turned their country into Israel’s colony.
The Los Angeles Times
carried the story of IDF war crimes revelations, but only after
censoring the words of the soldiers themselves.
"When we entered a
house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside
and just go up story by story… I call that murder. Each story, if we
identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself – how is this
reasonable?"
The Los Angeles Times
felt that the word “murder” was too much for sensitive American eyes and
left the sentence out. “‘When we entered a house, we were supposed to
bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up story by
story,’ he was quoted as saying. ‘Each story, if we identify a person,
we shoot them. I asked myself: 'How is this reasonable?’”
Apparently, “I call
that murder,” is just not acceptable, even if the words come straight
from the horse’s mouth. The Los Angeles Times knows or thinks it knows
that it can go only so far when Israel is the subject of what passes for
reporting in the American corporate media.
Not only do Israelis kill women and children and use civilians as human shields, but they also occupy Palestinian homes. They routinely desecrate them in ways that are so cruel and malicious, that they must be considered pathological. According to Amnesty International, not only did Israelis in Gaza illegally occupy Palestinian homes, but they left them in a devastated and desecrated condition.
Israelis are not
inherently worse than other human beings. They behave as they do because
they never pay a price for their actions. The American people have paid
and will continue to pay the price as targets of hatred and even of
terror because their government has made them complicit in Israel’s
crimes. But any suffering experienced by Americans is hardly unjust.
Americans do not have a greater right to live in peace than do the
people of Gaza.
If Gazans wore
t-shirts encouraging the killing of women and little babies they would
be no worse than the IDF soldiers whose actions are paid for by the
American tax payer. Sadly, the Los Angeles Times and their counterparts
in the rest of the media are unlikely to explain that very simple fact.
This conspiracy of silence is just one of many that keeps the people of
this country ignorant and incapable of making the demands and taking the
necessary actions that would enable them to help themselves.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms.
Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-barbaric-israel