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TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
Fri May 17, 2024, 12:23 AM May 2024

NETANYAHU'S WAR ON TRUTH Israel's Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians

https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/

TWO WEEKS BEFORE Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.

“What a historic change for my country! You see, the land of Israel is situated on the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe,” Netanyahu bellowed at a handful of spectators in the large hall, nearly all of whom were his loyalists or underlings. “For centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents.”

Just as the Bush administration exploited the 9/11 attacks to justify a sweeping war in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once and for all.



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NETANYAHU'S WAR ON TRUTH Israel's Ruthless Propaganda Campaign to Dehumanize Palestinians (Original Post) TeamProg May 2024 OP
"Eliminate Israel's Palestinian Problem once and for all"? Understand that I was brought up to admire the Jewish..... MMBeilis May 2024 #1
That is indeed disgusting loaded language. SunSeeker May 2024 #3
"Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, not Palestinians." Dave Bowman May 2024 #9
Even taking Hamas' 35k figure, that is low for urban warfare. SunSeeker May 2024 #10
+10000000 betsuni May 2024 #15
So it's a 'small war'. That makes it okay to commit war crimes? Clearly the IDF who are not yet deemed a 'terrorist TeamProg May 2024 #21
History will not be kind if rhetoric like yours gets Trump elected. nt SunSeeker May 2024 #30
Not at all. Netanyahu is more aligned with Putin and Trump than Biden. Thanks for playing though! TeamProg May 2024 #34
Read about what happened in 1968. This is not a play date. nt SunSeeker May 2024 #36
"The U.N. nearly halved its estimate of women and children killed in Gaza ...." Rob H. May 2024 #40
Nothing I said was false. Your article confirms what I said about WOMEN AND CHILDREN. SunSeeker May 2024 #44
This. TeamProg May 2024 #20
You might listen to David Grossman on this Ponietz May 2024 #31
Starving Palestinians to eliminate them is funny way to show it. Butterflylady May 2024 #35
Hamas is stealing the aid and shooting at the aid pier and aid convoys. SunSeeker May 2024 #37
Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas,HamasHamas AloeVera May 2024 #43
"All of it is on Israel." Hamas could not have said it better. nt SunSeeker May 2024 #46
Hamas hamas hamas. N/T. AloeVera May 2024 #48
MAGA enid602 May 2024 #52
Refusing to acknowledge Hamas' role is indeed MAGA logic. SunSeeker May 2024 #65
How can we not talk about Hamas when Hamas is the government of Gaza? SunSeeker May 2024 #64
+1 Dave Bowman May 2024 #54
The right wingers keeping Bibi in power have publicly stated they want to start Israeli settlements in Gaza dutch777 May 2024 #7
Ethnic cleansing in the West Bank as we write Ponietz May 2024 #33
Right now it is Hamas who is keeping Netanyahu in power. SunSeeker May 2024 #38
By his funding of Hamas, Old Crank May 2024 #2
Israel has not funded Hamas anymore than the UN has funded Hamas. SunSeeker May 2024 #5
Bibi was a conduit for cash to hamas Old Crank May 2024 #19
No, he wasn't. Re-read your article. SunSeeker May 2024 #25
This article keeps getting posted here Mountainguy May 2024 #68
The Intercept is itself a propaganda outfit. SunSeeker May 2024 #4
I knew it was The Intercept or Jacobin before clicking. Propaganda -- I know there's a effort to betsuni May 2024 #6
I was guessing Haaretz. Mosby May 2024 #24
What is your opinion of The Nation and James Bamford? nt PufPuf23 May 2024 #8
They are both past their prime. nt SunSeeker May 2024 #11
Have you read the recent The Nation articles about the Gaza War? nt PufPuf23 May 2024 #12
If you are referring to Bamford's articles, no. SunSeeker May 2024 #14
Who does this sound like? "It's all propaganda aginst me", "I am a victim" , "It's a witch hunt", "They're trying TeamProg May 2024 #22
Well in this instance, the person screaming about propaganda is the Intercept's Jeremy Scahill. SunSeeker May 2024 #39
Nope, follow the thread. I was referring to the post : "The Intercept is itself a propaganda outfit." TeamProg May 2024 #57
The Intercept is in fact, a propaganda outfit NickB79 May 2024 #58
"Whitewash" has many degrees. Defining whitewash as propaganda is also propaganda, yes? TeamProg May 2024 #59
The Intercept arguing that Hamas DIDN'T actually rape all those women isn't convincing to you? NickB79 May 2024 #61
Ha ha ha. There it is! It is NOT anti-Semitic to attack Netanyahu's plans of ethnic cleansin TeamProg May 2024 #67
The total will be close to 45,000 dead Gazans after the rubble TeamProg May 2024 #69
Odd that you would object to me using the word propaganda, but not to Jeremy Scahill's use. nt SunSeeker May 2024 #60
Exactly Rob H. May 2024 #55
Putin loves anything that causes division, especially on the left. SunSeeker May 2024 #62
Putin has plenty of "hard-left" fans Mountainguy May 2024 #70
Yes it is. The Glen Greenwald Jeremy Scahill rag. Shahill was JohnSJ May 2024 #27
"From the River to the Sea" is now a right-wing Israeli slogan? JustABozoOnThisBus May 2024 #13
It has been an Israeli Likud Party slogan for years. Lonestarblue May 2024 #16
So it's used by both sides? JustABozoOnThisBus May 2024 #42
Yes but only one side gets demonized for it. AloeVera May 2024 #49
It has been for years obamanut2012 May 2024 #28
the ultra RW fascist Israelis use it and have used it for over 100 years Celerity May 2024 #66
Our foreign policies have been catastrophic for the most part. Passages May 2024 #17
THIS malaise May 2024 #63
It is apparent that this is a war against a whole people including children. David__77 May 2024 #18
The actions of Israel certainly looks like ethnic cleansing. nt TeamProg May 2024 #23
It is literal textbook ethnic cleansing obamanut2012 May 2024 #29
Textbook ethnic cleansing is what Palestinians did in Gaza to Jews and Christians. SunSeeker May 2024 #41
Actually that was an Israeli decision not Palestinian. Nanjeanne May 2024 #50
BS. As your article notes, the Israelis agreed to move them in the face of Palestinian threats of desecration. SunSeeker May 2024 #53
The families didn't want to. They argued with Israeli government. You forgot to quote the Israeli govt Nanjeanne May 2024 #71
They couldn't leave the graves there because the Palestinians would desecrate the graves. SunSeeker May 2024 #72
Ok. The Palestinians are to blame for everything. Got it. Have a great day. Nanjeanne May 2024 #74
It is an interesting discussion in light of the mass grave desecration and grave robbing by Israel's army. David__77 May 2024 #75
Interesting how prejudice can color everything but I guess it's easier for some to sleep at night. Sad too. Nanjeanne May 2024 #77
THIS malaise May 2024 #73
"Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel" Commandos? EX500rider May 2024 #26
Uh, "we"? That's very accusational. Are "settlers" what some call murdering and rapist land thieves? TeamProg May 2024 #32
I didn't post the article with the BS framing of terrorists as "Commandoes" EX500rider May 2024 #45
There are no settlers in Gaza. All Jews, even their dead, left in 2005 NickB79 May 2024 #47
That term "settlers" was used on the radio, reminded me of our own history. CoopersDad May 2024 #76
Right wing extremists need to be Times Persons of the year. SleeplessinSoCal May 2024 #51
Many scumbags were persons of the year. Dave Bowman May 2024 #56

MMBeilis

(351 posts)
1. "Eliminate Israel's Palestinian Problem once and for all"? Understand that I was brought up to admire the Jewish.....
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:05 AM
May 2024

......return to their ancestral homeland after suffering the atrocities of the Second World War. The return of my people to their land, making the desert bloom, creating democracy in a part of the world that didn't know it. A new generation of Sabras, born in Israel and forging a new life alongside people of other faiths in a new spirit of tolerance, born of the horrors of a world at war.
Middle school social studies and history classes seem to have underestimated human beings capacity for hatred of "the other", particularly when steeped in religion. I don't think that it's too much to say that Netanyahu's government is looking for a "final solution" to this Palestinian Problem, if not killing all of them, at least getting them to go elsewhere.

Yes, believe me, I know what this loaded language means.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
3. That is indeed disgusting loaded language.
Fri May 17, 2024, 02:13 AM
May 2024

Israel is not trying to eliminate Palestinians. 2 million Palestinians live in Israel, including every openly gay Palestinian. Hamas kills gay people; they executed one of their own commanders when they discovered he was gay.

Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, not Palestinians.

Dave Bowman

(3,552 posts)
9. "Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas, not Palestinians."
Fri May 17, 2024, 03:15 AM
May 2024

So they have killed over 35,000 peoples, mostly non-combatants, destroyed the vast majority of the buildings in Gaza and are also starving the Palestinian population by mistake then?

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
10. Even taking Hamas' 35k figure, that is low for urban warfare.
Fri May 17, 2024, 03:43 AM
May 2024

The U.N. nearly halved its estimate of women and children killed in Gaza after relying on figures from Hamas-controlled organizations.

The U.N. offered no explanation for the sudden change. On May 6, the body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released an infographic showing that more than 9,500 women and 14,500 children had been killed in Gaza. Two days later, OCHA’s updated graphic cut those numbers nearly in half, showing that 4,959 women and 7,797 children had actually lost their lives — a combined reduction of more than 11,000.

When a reporter pressed U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq to explain the revision, all he received was a standard disclaimer that “in the fog of war, it’s difficult to come up with numbers.”

Translation: a completely unethical terrorist organization invented numbers to advance their false narrative and we accepted them and splashed them all over the media, no questions asked, until it was glaringly obvious Hamas’s numbers were complete fabrications.

Of course there’s nary a mention of the revised numbers in the media since rather than proving the false narrative that Israel is wantonly killing civilians and committing genocide, these numbers show that, in fighting a defensive war that Israel was dragged into on Oct 7 when Hamas broke the existing ceasefire and invaded Israel, killing over 1200 civilians and raping, torturing, and kidnapping hundreds more, Israel has avoided killing Palestinian civilians, used by Hamas as human shields, at a ratio lower than any other nation has ever achieved in urban warfare. https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-created-new-standard-urban-warfare-why-will-no-one-admit-it-opinion-1883286

While every civilian death in war is a great tragedy, each of these deaths is unequivocally the fault of Hamas, which sought and benefits from the death and suffering of its own people.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
21. So it's a 'small war'. That makes it okay to commit war crimes? Clearly the IDF who are not yet deemed a 'terrorist
Fri May 17, 2024, 10:22 AM
May 2024

group' unlike Hamas, should be held to a higher standard, esp since Israelis using OUR WEAPONS.

History will not be kind.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
34. Not at all. Netanyahu is more aligned with Putin and Trump than Biden. Thanks for playing though!
Fri May 17, 2024, 12:07 PM
May 2024

Rob H.

(5,563 posts)
40. "The U.N. nearly halved its estimate of women and children killed in Gaza ...."
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:20 PM
May 2024

FALSE. That claim has been debunked numerous times over the past few days but here's one more.

Fact Check: Did UN Halve Gaza Death Toll?

{...}
"The overall number of fatalities that's been tallied by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is our counterpart on dealing with the death tolls, that number remains unchanged and it's at more than 35,000 people since October 7," (U.N. spokesperson Faran) Haq said.

"What's changed is the Ministry of Health in Gaza has updated the breakdown of fatalities for whom full details have been documented.

"So what they recently published was that they gave figures for 24,686 out of 34,622 overall fatalities recorded in Gaza, and those 24,686 people are the ones for whom full details have been documented. In other words, people who have been fully identified.

{...}

The number of deaths in Gaza reported by the U.N. has not been halved.

New figures, that broke down the number of fully identified and documented deaths, were published by the U.N. on May 8 along with the number of reported fatalities from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, whose figures the U.N. says are proven to be "generally accurate."

The smaller number of fully identified deaths was thought by some to mean the total figure had been revised, in some cases by half, which the U.N. has denied and clarified.


All emphases added by me.




SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
44. Nothing I said was false. Your article confirms what I said about WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:29 PM
May 2024

I never said the TOTAL figure, WHICH INCLUDES HAMAS COMBATANTS, was halved.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
37. Hamas is stealing the aid and shooting at the aid pier and aid convoys.
Fri May 17, 2024, 12:55 PM
May 2024

And it was Hamas that stopped the air drops of food.






Hamas is causing the starvation.



AloeVera

(1,861 posts)
43. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas,HamasHamas
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:23 PM
May 2024

Hamas Hamas Hamas.

No.

Israel.

Collective punishment, starvation as a tool of war, destruction of the medical system as a tool of war, destruction of all civilian infrastructure as a tool for ethnic cleansing and massive suffering, manipulation of humanitarian laws protecting civilians to justify high civilian casualties, flouting of laws of war on distinction, proportionality, sniping at mothers and their children fleeing, executing hospital staff and patients.....on and on, Israel has done it all.

And all of it is on Israel.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
65. Refusing to acknowledge Hamas' role is indeed MAGA logic.
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:28 PM
May 2024

MAGAts don't want to hear anything that goes against their narrative, let alone discuss it.


SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
64. How can we not talk about Hamas when Hamas is the government of Gaza?
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:14 PM
May 2024

This is who you want to hand "Free Free Palestine" over to.

dutch777

(3,447 posts)
7. The right wingers keeping Bibi in power have publicly stated they want to start Israeli settlements in Gaza
Fri May 17, 2024, 02:34 AM
May 2024

They keep thinking the Palestinians will somehow drift a way or become compliant to Israeli apartheid. Given no one is offering Palestinians sanctuary elsewhere, it is hard to imagine any scenario that allows this settlement plan that does not de facto mean endless, at least low intensity, military action between Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas being truly eliminated seems to be increasingly doubtful in the current version of what seems to be military whack a mole. Maybe they cannot mount another October 7th scale attack and may just become some newly adapted Hamas 2.0 by maybe some other name, but that surely does not bring peace to Israel. Bibi's defense minister made a speech in just the last couple of days saying if there is not a plan to put a peaceful Palestinian administration in place in Gaza the only alternative is endless Israeli occupation with all its inherent risks on the ground, to the economy and to Israel's standing in the world. Bibi has Israel between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Ponietz

(3,273 posts)
33. Ethnic cleansing in the West Bank as we write
Fri May 17, 2024, 12:01 PM
May 2024

Religious fundamentalists control Israel now. The settlers are destabilizing Israel’s security.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
38. Right now it is Hamas who is keeping Netanyahu in power.
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:11 PM
May 2024

If Hamas would surrender, the war would end, and Netanyahu would be pushed out, like he was about to be before 10/7 happened.

Old Crank

(4,586 posts)
2. By his funding of Hamas,
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:53 AM
May 2024

And his deliberate working against the Palestinian elected officials he is partly responsible for the massacre that triggered this current war.

We can never know if working with the Palestinians and working towards a just solution would have helped, but we do know that arming a bunch of radical terrorists didn't. Countries around Israel were beginning to have closer relationships. I think that slow progress has been destroyed.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
5. Israel has not funded Hamas anymore than the UN has funded Hamas.
Fri May 17, 2024, 02:20 AM
May 2024

Hamas is funded by Iran. And Hamas steals aid meant for civilians, aid that we all fund. It is wrong to blame Israel for what Hamas did. Hamas is responsible for Hamas' atrocities on 10/7.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
25. No, he wasn't. Re-read your article.
Fri May 17, 2024, 11:28 AM
May 2024

It blames Bibi for giving work permits to Palestinians and not stopping foreign money going to Hamas.

Mountainguy

(976 posts)
68. This article keeps getting posted here
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:52 PM
May 2024

and I'm fairly sure nobody posting it ever reads past the title.

The article literally blasts BN for not making Gaza an open-air prison in reality.

"Propping up" is defined in the article as things like allowing NGOs to work in Gaza, allowing Gazans to enter Israel for work, etc.

Posting that article is a ridiculous attempt at victim blaming. Even more ridiculous when the people posting it are also saying things like that Israel needs to allow more aide in or that the US should resume funding UNWRA.

betsuni

(27,255 posts)
6. I knew it was The Intercept or Jacobin before clicking. Propaganda -- I know there's a effort to
Fri May 17, 2024, 02:21 AM
May 2024

also give this word a new definition, but it means what it means.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
14. If you are referring to Bamford's articles, no.
Fri May 17, 2024, 04:15 AM
May 2024

Bamford's earlier writings on the NSA were good, particularly The Puzzle Palace, which came out in 1982, as well as his follow up works on the NSA in the early and mid 2000s.

But his recent writings have taken a sharp turn away from his prior objective reporting. His 2023 book on foreign spies has been criticized as "the most venomous anti-Israel polemic published since Mearsheimer and Walt’s The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy in 2007."

He seems to have lost it, much like his old friend at the Nation, Christopher Hitchens, ended up losing it and endorsing George W. Bush for President in 2004.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
22. Who does this sound like? "It's all propaganda aginst me", "I am a victim" , "It's a witch hunt", "They're trying
Fri May 17, 2024, 10:26 AM
May 2024

to destroy me and my family", "If they can do this to me, thay can do it to you."

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
39. Well in this instance, the person screaming about propaganda is the Intercept's Jeremy Scahill.
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:17 PM
May 2024

A bit of projection there.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
57. Nope, follow the thread. I was referring to the post : "The Intercept is itself a propaganda outfit."
Fri May 17, 2024, 06:49 PM
May 2024

NickB79

(19,604 posts)
58. The Intercept is in fact, a propaganda outfit
Fri May 17, 2024, 07:20 PM
May 2024

For example, their insane attempt to whitewash the systematic raping that Hamas carried out on 10/7:

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/1/nyt_anat_schwartz

If that isn't propaganda, I don't know what is.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
59. "Whitewash" has many degrees. Defining whitewash as propaganda is also propaganda, yes?
Fri May 17, 2024, 08:44 PM
May 2024

I'm not convinced.

NickB79

(19,604 posts)
61. The Intercept arguing that Hamas DIDN'T actually rape all those women isn't convincing to you?
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:08 PM
May 2024

Despite the overwhelming evidence available? The videos and pictures we all saw of hostages bleeding from their crotches while being dragged away?

The Intercept pushes straight-up anti-Semitism at this point. But feel free to keep citing it.

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
67. Ha ha ha. There it is! It is NOT anti-Semitic to attack Netanyahu's plans of ethnic cleansin
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:49 PM
May 2024

and settler land invasions / murder of Palestinians.

Rob H.

(5,563 posts)
55. Exactly
Fri May 17, 2024, 06:26 PM
May 2024

It’s paranoid nonsense to think that a hard-right authoritarian like Vladimir Putin would be a fan of a firmly left-wing website.

Celerity

(46,154 posts)
66. the ultra RW fascist Israelis use it and have used it for over 100 years
Fri May 17, 2024, 09:45 PM
May 2024

From Likud (and other smaller radical RW parties) all the way back to the early 20th century Revisionist Zionists led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, there has been constant advocation for taking all of what they call Eretz Israel, using a 'from the river to the sea' motif.

It is hypocrisy for people to only come down hard on one side and not the other for using that motif, as you have millions of displaced Palestinians since 1947/48, whilst the Jewish Israelis continue to grow in number and Israel, as official state policy, has been illegally grabbing West Bank land and ethnically cleansing it of the Palestinians for ages.

......the election manifesto of the Israeli political party Likud, which stated that “between the sea and the Jordan there will be only Israeli sovereignty.”

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_river_to_the_sea#History_of_the_phrase

snip

...................According to American historian Robin D. G. Kelley, the phrase "began as a Zionist slogan signifying the boundaries of Eretz Israel." Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov notes that Zionist usage of such language predates the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and began with the Revisionist movement of Zionism led by Vladimir Jabotinski, which spoke of establishing a Jewish state in all of Palestine and had a song with the slogan: "The Jordan has two banks; this one is ours, and the other one too," suggesting a Jewish state extending even beyond the Jordan River.


Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River.

Developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, this ideology advocated a "revision" of the "practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann which was focused on the settling of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) by independent individuals. Differing from other types of Zionism, Revisionists insisted upon the Jewish right to sovereignty over the whole of Eretz Yisrael, which they equated to Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan. It was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism.

Revisionist Zionism directly opposed Labor Zionism within the general Zionist movement. Revisionist Zionism had its own paramilitary group called the Irgun, out of which another organization known as the Stern Gang emerged. Both the Irgun and the Stern Gang were responsible for several attacks against the British to try to expel them from Palestine.


The Irgun terrorist organisation eventually morphed into today's RW, racist, fascist Likud Party of Netanyahu and his ilk.

Menachem Begin, the leader of the Irgun, was the founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun

The Irgun (Hebrew: ארגון; full title: Hebrew: הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל Hā-ʾIrgun Ha-Tzvaʾī Ha-Leūmī b-Ērētz Yiśrāʾel, lit. "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel" ), or Etzel (Hebrew: אצ"ל ) (sometimes abbreviated IZL), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine and then Israel between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah (Hebrew: Hebrew: הגנה, Defence).

The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts. The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. According to Howard Sachar, "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state".

Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.


King David Hotel bombing. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.


The organization committed acts of terrorism against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and against Arabs. In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as The New York Times newspaper; as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the 1946 Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency. However, academics such as Bruce Hoffman and Max Abrahms have written that the Irgun went to considerable lengths to avoid harming civilians, such as issuing pre-attack warnings; according to Hoffman, Irgun leadership urged "targeting the physical manifestations of British rule while avoiding the deliberate infliction of bloodshed."

Albert Einstein, in a letter to The New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".


Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism. Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing Herut (or "Freedom" ) party, which led to today's Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.


The Revisionists, Fascism and Mussolini

Italy and Mussolini were a source of ideological, historical and cultural inspiration for the Zionist Revisionists of the 1920s and 1930s. From the early 1930s onwards Jabotinsky believed that the United Kingdom could no longer be trusted to advance the Zionist cause and that Italy, as a growing power capable of challenging Britain for dominance in the region, was a natural ally.

Jabotinsky set up the Betar Naval Academy, a Zionist naval training school established in Civitavecchia, Italy in 1934 with the agreement of Benito Mussolini.


That all gave birth to things like this:





During the ceremony, Smotrich spoke from behind a lectern decorated with a map that included not only the Jewish state and the occupied Palestinian territories but also the territory of present-day Jordan: the Greater Israel area for the proponents of an expansionist ideology.



https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/03/20/bezalel-smotrich-israeli-ultra-nationalist-minister-delivers-anti-palestinian-diatribe-in-paris_6020081_4.html

https://archive.ph/TVsfb

The Israeli ultranationalist Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister in Netanyahu's government and open Jewish supremacist, participated on Sunday, March 19, in a gala evening in Paris, organized by "Israel is Forever," a French Jewish association close to the far right.

Although it had been announced 10 days beforehand, Smotrich's arrival on the banks of the Seine was a surprise. In the middle of the previous week, following protests from pro-Palestinian movements and human rights organizations, Israeli media reported that the 43-year-old leader of the Religious Zionist Party had given up on the trip.

snip

He gave a speech in which he urged French Jews to settle in Israel, a common call from Israeli leaders visiting France. But Smotrich (who recently called for the Palestinian village of Huwara in the West Bank to be "wiped out" in retaliation for the murder of two Jewish settlers) also made remarks full of contempt for the Palestinians.

"Do you know who the Palestinians are?" Smotrich asked at the start of his diatribe, which was streamed live on Facebook. "I am Palestinian," he replied to the cheers of the audience, about 100 people, judging by the images on Facebook. "My grandfather, a 13th-generation Jerusalemite, was Palestinian. The Palestinian people are an invention of less than a hundred years. Do they have a history, a culture? No, they do not. There are no Palestinians, there are just Arabs."

snip

Passages

(944 posts)
17. Our foreign policies have been catastrophic for the most part.
Fri May 17, 2024, 07:24 AM
May 2024

With exceptions such as Ukraine, of course. There you have a little Cesar playing monster-minded war games to fulfill his lunatic vision for Russia.

There is a reason why Obama went on the record here, because it is for one, undeniable and two, a hideous mess in Gaza and ludicrous not to examine all the players who have political power.

“If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree,” he said in an excerpted interview with Pod Save America released Saturday.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/04/obama-all-of-us-are-complicit-00125395#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%20you%20want%20to%20solve,Pod%20Save%20America%20released%20Saturday.




David__77

(23,863 posts)
18. It is apparent that this is a war against a whole people including children.
Fri May 17, 2024, 07:49 AM
May 2024

Children, in particular, are perceived as a threat, given the racist demographic panic.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
41. Textbook ethnic cleansing is what Palestinians did in Gaza to Jews and Christians.
Fri May 17, 2024, 01:22 PM
May 2024

They even insisted that Jewish graves in Gaza be moved out.

Nanjeanne

(5,436 posts)
50. Actually that was an Israeli decision not Palestinian.
Fri May 17, 2024, 04:06 PM
May 2024

From 2005 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-11-fg-graves11-story.html]

Israel’s two chief rabbis -- Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger -- agreed that the risk of graves being desecrated by Palestinian extremists once Israel left Gaza was enough to justify uprooting the cemetery.

“The graves must be moved if Jews will no longer be there,” Amar told Israel Radio.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
53. BS. As your article notes, the Israelis agreed to move them in the face of Palestinian threats of desecration.
Fri May 17, 2024, 04:35 PM
May 2024

The families of the Jewish dead did not want to move the graves.

As Pullout Nears, Gaza’s Graves a Stumbling Block

“How can I leave without him?” said Yulis, who moved to Gaza 23 years ago. “He wanted to be buried here, and I told him I would stay with him always.”

The disposition of the graves of Gush Katif, Gaza’s main settlement block, has become one of the most wrenching questions surrounding the evacuation of nearly 9,000 Jewish settlers, which is set to begin Wednesday. The bodies of 48 people are buried in the cemetery, where blue-and-white Israeli flags flap in the searing summer wind and an electrified fence carries a warning sign to keep away.


https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-11-fg-graves11-story.html

Nanjeanne

(5,436 posts)
71. The families didn't want to. They argued with Israeli government. You forgot to quote the Israeli govt
Sat May 18, 2024, 01:53 AM
May 2024

official saying they can’t leave their dead in Gaza if Israelis aren’t there. No argumemt from me about the families not wanting to remove them. But it wasn’t the Palestinians who demanded they be moved.

SunSeeker

(53,608 posts)
72. They couldn't leave the graves there because the Palestinians would desecrate the graves.
Sat May 18, 2024, 03:13 AM
May 2024

That is what the Rabbi acknowledged in the article.

The Gaza Jews had to guard the graves and fence the graves off, as your article notes, even when they were living there. Once they left, the graves would be immediately attacked. The Rabbis and Israeli government didn't want the graves desecrated and they couldn't stay to guard them; they had no choice but to move them. They didn't do it just for shits and giggles.

The Palestinians celebrated as they watched the removal trucks go by. The Palestinians wore T-shirts bearing the legend "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem." 55,000 such t-shirts had been distributed as part of their celebration.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070930221143/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article306176.ece

There were no Christians left in Gaza. There were no Jews left in Gaza. Not even dead ones. And Palestinians hoped to continue that ethnic cleansing to Jerusalem.

David__77

(23,863 posts)
75. It is an interesting discussion in light of the mass grave desecration and grave robbing by Israel's army.
Sat May 18, 2024, 09:41 AM
May 2024

Nanjeanne

(5,436 posts)
77. Interesting how prejudice can color everything but I guess it's easier for some to sleep at night. Sad too.
Sat May 18, 2024, 10:18 AM
May 2024

EX500rider

(11,438 posts)
26. "Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel" Commandos?
Fri May 17, 2024, 11:31 AM
May 2024

Is that what we are calling murdering rapists kidnapping terrorists now?

 

TeamProg

(6,630 posts)
32. Uh, "we"? That's very accusational. Are "settlers" what some call murdering and rapist land thieves?
Fri May 17, 2024, 12:01 PM
May 2024

NickB79

(19,604 posts)
47. There are no settlers in Gaza. All Jews, even their dead, left in 2005
Fri May 17, 2024, 03:08 PM
May 2024

You're conflating Hamas in Gaza with the PA in the West Bank. Hell, there aren't even any PA in Gaza; Hamas killed them all as well.

Again.

CoopersDad

(2,834 posts)
76. That term "settlers" was used on the radio, reminded me of our own history.
Sat May 18, 2024, 09:45 AM
May 2024

Settlers, or invaders?
As a species, we don't seem to be advancing at all toward being peaceful or civilized.

Dave Bowman

(3,552 posts)
56. Many scumbags were persons of the year.
Fri May 17, 2024, 06:39 PM
May 2024

Stalin, Trump, Putin, just to name a few. He would be in good company.

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