Topic: Israel-Palestine
AP: Maybe Israel is targeting women, children and mosques; but ... The Associated Press and those 'Secondary Explosions'!by Dan Alba
(libertarian)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
With all the news lately of the death and destruction happening in "the Holy Land" this past week, it's good to know that Israel, the Middle East's "only fledgling democracy," has at its disposal "the world's largest and most trusted source of news and information" to help explain away all the unfortunate results unexpectedly occurring after its 1-ton bombs are unintentionally dropped on Palestinian non-combatants and civilians in Gaza.
Who knew?
You'd think it would be enough that the Israeli army boasts all the cutting-edge, U.S.-manufactured, mission-accomplishing technology that U.S. taxpayer money can be looted pay for — or, that the permeation of the U.S. government, media editorial boards, "civil rights" groups, and academia by Israelis and Israeli "advocates" was at all-time levels. You'd figure they could just bomb or brain-cleanse their way to "victory."
Boy, were you wrong!
As it turns out, the "most moral army in the world" and the state it represents — "America's best friend" — require even more than that in order to take the load off the rest of the Amen crowd back in the States. Lo and behold, those darn ankle-biting opponents of Israeli liberation from the Palestinian existential threat are relentless!
No problemo. For whenever the most powerful military power in the Middle East needs that extra boost of rocket-propelled propaganda, they turn to The Associated Press to make sure we "understand" it wasn't really their fault. I call this phenomenon the "informational secondary explosion" — so-named after one of the IDF's favorite explanations for why the accidental and unfortunate results of its heroic airstrikes "appear to be" so "collaterally damaging."
Here's how it works.
The first explosion is the initial, shocking account of the death of women, children, elderly, etc., and the obliteration of mosques, ambulances, universities, and such; while the crucial, secondary explosion is the unbiased, objective, conscientious, contextual background on the "unintended recipients" of said fate. The informational secondary explosion has the suggestive net effect of telling the reader: "See? It wasn't all that bad. When you put 2 and 2 together you get — uh, well — legitimate targets!"
For instance, a story broke the other day about an Israeli airstrike on a five-storey building in the women's wing of Gaza's oldest university. Thank goodness for Israel's otherwise spotless image, no casualties were reported. (Sheeew!) Still, in the informational secondary explosion, AP made sure that we "knew" that the university, like all major universities, housed a security apparatus. We were told that, because the security apparatus was linked to Hamas, the ruling government in Gaza, the building, like perhaps all buildings in Gaza by the same standard, was "one of the most prominent Hamas symbols in Gaza." [1]
(Thank God it wasn't actually "seen as" a civilian object, where non-combatants go every day to learn in hopes that they could make something more of, say, their miserable lives, under, say, a belligerent occupation. Otherwise, the noble Israeli airstrike would've been seen as a so-called war crime.)
Are you catching on?
In another example — the leveling of one of many mosques accidentally targeted this past week by the IDF — AP's blast of post-mortem propaganda came in the form of an assurance that those Islamic, Israel-destruction-seeking, militant, Hamas militants were storing weapons inside, causing a secondary explosion to go off, which caused all the ensuing civilian carnage.
It wasn't the initial, wedding-party-erasing effect of the 1-ton bomb that killed them, you see; it was that weapons cache that was hidden inside the mosque, according to Israeli sources. (And we know that the IDF, being the "most moral army in the world," would never lie about something like that.)
The ordnance secondary explosion version of the informational secondary explosion technique is the most common. Just yesterday alone, AP probably used it more times than you could count on all the fingers of all the charred hands of all the Palestinian children killed by those Palestinian-induced secondary explosions these past few days.
Take, for example, the AP report on the death of Nizar Rayan, "the Hamas militant leader killed Thursday when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on his home." According to our secondary-explosives experts, "20 people, including all four of Rayan's wives and 10 of his children" were killed. [2]
Uh oh! Danger ahead for the noble image of the "Jewish state"!
But fret not, for it wasn't the initial explosion — the one-ton bomb — that heroically exterminated the militant leader and his family!
Israel's military said the homes of Hamas leaders are being used to store missiles and other weapons, and the hit on Rayan's house triggered secondary explosions from the stockpile there. [Duh! Everyone knows that it takes much, much more than a 2,000-pound bomb to raze one large house. I mean, c'mon!]
Not only that, but the informational secondary explosion on the ordnance secondary explosion created a chain reaction of secondary informational secondary explosions!
Boom!
Rayan, 49, ranked among Hamas' top five decision-makers. A professor of Islamic law, he was known for his close ties to the group's military wing and was respected in Gaza for donning combat fatigues and personally participating in clashes against Israeli forces. He sent one of his sons on an October 2001 suicide mission that killed two Israeli settlers in Gaza. [And as we know, those "settlers" are never legitimate military targets* themselves!]
Pow!
Israeli defense officials said the military had called Rayan's home and fired a warning missile before destroying the building. [How very moral of them to separate themselves from the terrorists!**]
Ka-bam!
Rayan . . . was known for openly defying Israel and in the past had led crowds to the homes of wanted Hamas figures — as if daring Israel to strike and risk the lives of civilians. [How dare he do that according to unnamed sources! How. Dare. He!]
"Take that, you Palestinian Goliaths!" says the underfoot Israeli army.
"Let that be a lesson to you and your massive army of advocates in the mainstream media!" shout the undermanned and, until now, outmaneuvered Israel advocates.
As you can see, the most effective use of the informational secondary explosion is when civilian non-combatants are killed as a result the deadly blast from those Palestinian-induced, ordnance secondary explosions — themselves, triggered unintentionally by the IDF's ordnance primary explosions. And there's no telling what kind of chain reaction all those Hamas explosives (which, thanks to AP, we "know" are being hidden in every ambulance, home, mosque, school, and refugee camp unintentionally targeted by the IDF) will cause.
But that's not a problem, you see — at least PR-wise — because as long as you have the largest, most trusted, and most sought-after news wire service in the universe at your beck and call to relate your official information on the atrocity collateral damage, you should never, ever have to worry that your beloved leaders will have to account for something they weren't really responsible for anyway.
* The Israeli government and military make available the finest guns and other "defense" ordnance to the inhabitants of Israel's immoral and illegal colonies in the West Bank. Those so-called settlers inhabiting those immoral and illegal colonies (a.k.a., settlements, outposts, communities, neighborhoods, etc., barf baggium) then use the wherewithal — in conjunction with the monopoly on the use of violence in the form of IDF "soldiers" who protect them and make sure their aggression is not met with resistance — to expropriate more Palestinian land and resources. This makes both the "settlers" and the IDF "soldiers" not only terrorists (according to the U.S. and Israeli governments' general definition) but also legitimate targets. Mainstream media do not provide this context when condemning Palestinian violence.
** The 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel was an act of terrorism (at least by the alleged U.S. and Israeli governments' standards) and an act of war, executed by Zionist militant gangs determined to cleanse Palestine of its indigenous inhabitants and the British Mandate, respectively. The common theme (implied in the hyperlink) shared by the '46 bombing and the Israeli bombing of Gaza buildings today is the IDF's reported pre-bomb warnings.
The views expressed in this
article are those of Dan Alba only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Dan Alba is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
These days it is chic, and even cool to condemn Israel, especially in this web site.
The one good thing that comes out of this, people tend to show their true colors when these conflicts explode on the scene. The facts is Hamas who not only denies Israel’s right to exist but calls for the destruction of Israel in its charter launched over 200 rockets into Israel from Gaza before Israel decided enough was enough. I wonder how many bombs the United States would take before it launches a defensive counter-attack? Hamas couldn't wait for the ceasefire to be over to attack because that is all that they do. Whenever they agree on a ceasefire, they violate all the terms by building extensive tunnels for arm smuggling while Israel always fullfills the terms of the agreement as is the case here.Israel went even to the extent in dropping leaflets and calling all civilian Palestinian populations to alert them to evacuate since they are near or on Hamas military targets.The world knows well how Hamas with no regard to life straps bombs to children and fire rockets from schools and mosques so when Israel attacks, they can cry Israel is attacking civilians. Here is the reason Israel fights back:
I don't expect sympathy from anyone here or admit to the truth since Israel haters or closet case anti-semites will always believe what they believe. Tis is especially true in these Libertarian or Third Party web sites. It is the nature of these Third Parties to be different and rebel . I for one am thankful third parties are small in America and vow to never again vote for one. I now realize we could end up with a dictatorship Chavez style or worse a Nazi type party.
I have been voting for third parties since 1992 but i see the errors of my ways now.
It's a damn shame to hear such one sided words from a fellow Libertarian. How about blaming the atrocities of the Palestinian people on who it really belongs: Hamas. Maybe you should rethink about which party beats its women for being raped, and who offers equal rights to its women.
It's certainly not a "damn shame" that a "fellow libertarian" prefers to trumpet that worn-out statist propaganda in the effort to support the predator state over the individuals being crushed by it. Very becoming of a "fellow libertarian." Thanks for the philosophy lesson and the compliment.
My eyes were opened when I discovered that being Jewish and being a Zionist were two different things.(silly ignorant me) I was a staunch supporter of Israel for years but too many scenes of poor Palestinians crying by the roadside while Israeli bulldozers plowed their buildings to make way for Jewish apartment blocks has shown me that blame lies at everybody's doorstep. The state of Israel has been nothing but trouble for this country from the beginning and promises to be trouble in the future.
The fact remains that Israel exists, and will not allow that existence to be extinguished without great consequence for those who pursue such a goal. Gaza has been a teeming firepit from long before its occupation by Israel in 1967. That is why Egypt did not seek restoration of control during its negotiation of peace accords with Israel.
With the ascension of Hamas to govern Gaza, there can be no doubt that Israel is threatened more by nuisance than actual invasion. It seems that Hamas has become a willing surrogate for Iran and Hizbollah to antagonize the sensitivities of that state. What is most interesting is that this hapless surrogate now seems abandoned by its sponsors, who do nothing more than seek to inflame the reactions of their own constituencies.
Why is that? I can only gather that Hamas has outlived its usefulness.
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