Israel’s Latest Assault on Gaza: The Lie of Who Started It

[RFS_Br]

Israel’s Latest Assault on Gaza: The Lie of Who Started It

Israel has again attacked Gaza. In its aerial and ground assault that began on Saturday, November 10th, at least 7 Palestinians have been killed, 5 of them civilians, 3 of whom were children. Up to 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.


One of the wounded is carried into a hospital in Gaza City following Israel’s shelling (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)


As in every vicious military offensive Israel carries out in Gaza, the dominant narrative is that it is a response to rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. This is how it’s being reported in the US, and this is how virtually every American understands it.

And it’s a lie.

It’s true that on Saturday, prior to the expanded Israeli bombardment, the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine shot an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle near the Gaza border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. But what prompted the firing of the anti-tank missile?

First, on Monday, November 5th, Israeli forces shot and killed 23 year old Ahmad Nabhani when he “approached the border fence with Israel.” According to at least one account, Nabhani was mentally challenged.

Then, on Thursday, November 8th, the Israeli Occupation Forces – eight tanks and four bulldozers, to be exact – invaded southern Gaza, shooting and killing a 13-year old boy. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (via):

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 16:30 on Thursday, as a result of the indiscriminate shooting by IOF military vehicles that had moved into the ‘Abassan village, 13-year-old Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa was seriously wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. At the time he was shot, Ahmed had been playing football with his friends in front of his family’s house, located nearly 1,200 meters away from the area where the IOF were present.
[More about it. -- RFS_Br]

So, even if honest observers brush to the side the cruel and inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza and refuse to let it influence the equation of exactly which side started this flare up of violence, it is clear Israel started this latest clash. And in response to the response, Israel has waged a harsh, disproportionate military assault.

This would be a simple thing to understand if, for example, Western media bothered to ask the other side what happened. Palestinian news media immediately reported that the anti-tank missile Israel was supposedly responding to was admitted to by the Popular Resistance Committees, who described it as “revenge” for preceding Israeli violence on Gaza. But that basic task of honest journalism is apparently out of the question.

Every single Israeli incursion or attack on Gaza is accompanied by the same narrative: Israel fairly responded to unprovoked Palestinian rocket fire. The last major war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in December ’08-January ’09, also carried this narrative. Israel committed war crimes in that one-sided conflict, targeting and killing hundreds of civilians, using indiscriminate weapons, and intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure. It has become an accepted fact – even among critics of Israel – that the offensive was a response to Hamas rocket fire. The rocket fire did indeed occur immediately before the assault, but it was in response to Israel’s breaking of the six-month cease-fire, which even Israeli officials in WikiLeaks cables admitted Hamas had kept to.

 

[PeaceGen]

Israel’s Latest Assault on Gaza: The Lie of Who Started It

Israel has again attacked Gaza. In its aerial and ground assault that began on Saturday, November 10th, at least 7 Palestinians have been killed, 5 of them civilians, 3 of whom were children. Up to 52 others, including 6 women and 12 children, have been wounded.


One of the wounded is carried into a hospital in Gaza City following Israel’s shelling (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)


As in every vicious military offensive Israel carries out in Gaza, the dominant narrative is that it is a response to rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel. This is how it’s being reported in the US, and this is how virtually every American understands it.

And it’s a lie.

It’s true that on Saturday, prior to the expanded Israeli bombardment, the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine shot an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces vehicle near the Gaza border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. But what prompted the firing of the anti-tank missile?

First, on Monday, November 5th, Israeli forces shot and killed 23 year old Ahmad Nabhani when he “approached the border fence with Israel.” According to at least one account, Nabhani was mentally challenged.

Then, on Thursday, November 8th, the Israeli Occupation Forces – eight tanks and four bulldozers, to be exact – invaded southern Gaza, shooting and killing a 13-year old boy. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (via):

So, even if honest observers brush to the side the cruel and inhumane Israeli blockade on Gaza and refuse to let it influence the equation of exactly which side started this flare up of violence, it is clear Israel started this latest clash. And in response to the response, Israel has waged a harsh, disproportionate military assault.

This would be a simple thing to understand if, for example, Western media bothered to ask the other side what happened. Palestinian news media immediately reported that the anti-tank missile Israel was supposedly responding to was admitted to by the Popular Resistance Committees, who described it as “revenge” for preceding Israeli violence on Gaza. But that basic task of honest journalism is apparently out of the question.

Every single Israeli incursion or attack on Gaza is accompanied by the same narrative: Israel fairly responded to unprovoked Palestinian rocket fire. The last major war on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in December ’08-January ’09, also carried this narrative. Israel committed war crimes in that one-sided conflict, targeting and killing hundreds of civilians, using indiscriminate weapons, and intentionally destroying civilian infrastructure. It has become an accepted fact – even among critics of Israel – that the offensive was a response to Hamas rocket fire. The rocket fire did indeed occur immediately before the assault, but it was in response to Israel’s breaking of the six-month cease-fire, which even Israeli officials in WikiLeaks cables admitted Hamas had kept to.

Thank you for this report. I will be trying to verify the authenticity of these reports, and possibly talk (more) to the Israelis about the need to keep Palestinian civilian casualties a low number this time around.

I do know Israelis are not strangers to employing false flag operations. At times, I can be assertive towards the Israelis as well.
But first I need to confirm these reports.

 

[PeaceGen]

I'm just going to take all these reports in this thread as truth. It seems realistic enough to be truth.

But even when this is the truth behind the current escalation of hostilities in Gaza, I must remain of the opinion that one side in the NATO+Israel+Friends vs Muslims conflict must play the military underdog and refrain from using military means against the stronger side at all!

Simply put: hold a peaceful demonstration, many of them, with cameras running and youtube upload connection nearby, about the fate of those initial Palestinian civilians getting killed (God and Allah, please give their souls rest and joy..), RATHER than firing at Israeli soldiers.

If you want to prevent suffering of the Palestinian people, then start using cameras and youtube and your own hollywood/bollywood industry (yet to be made, isn't it?) as your weapons instead of bombs and missiles! For the fate of the poor Palestinian and other Muslim peoples, who I *do* care about, I beg you Muslims to see this basic truth!

 

[Cherokee]

It Started A week Before the timeline . On October 23rd 50 rockets were fired by Hamas . in which 2 citizens Died .

From that day they have been continuously firing rockets into Israeli Territory . Then they fired anti-tank missiles killing or injuring 4 soldiers . By that time Israel decided they have had enough .

 

[fallstuff]

It is always the case. The Israeli starts with a shooting, a missile attack or a surgical strike.

 

[PeaceGen]

@MarkRegevPMO @CNN @IDFSpokesPerson http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/219225-israel-s-latest-assault-gaza-lie-who-started.html … … please dont create many Palestinian civilian casualties this time around
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@BarackObama @MarkRegevPMO @CNN @********** http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/219225-israel-s-latest-assault-gaza-lie-who-started.html … please dont create many Palestinian civilian casualties this time around

 

[Developereo]

As I posted in another thread, this is about Israeli elections: http://www.defence.pk/forums/irania...spiral-into-wider-war-iran-2.html#post3605037

5 of last 7 elections took place after IDF ops - JPost

Tension fuelled by election and UN bid

 

[RFS_Br]

Thank you for this report. I will be trying to verify the authenticity of these reports, and possibly talk (more) to the Israelis about the need to keep Palestinian civilian casualties a low number this time around.

I do know Israelis are not strangers to employing false flag operations. At times, I can be assertive towards the Israelis as well.
But first I need to confirm these reports.

Just a good indication as to the veracity of that account is that Israelis already have a record of manupulating the media narrative of its conflicts so as to portray itself as the victim, not the initiator, of aggression. On The Guardian, Avi Shlaim, a very well known Israeli historian, detailed how, in 2008, Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas by making incursions into Gaza and attacking Hamas fighters and then, when Hamas retaliated, it blamed Hamas's missiles for the start of the "war" (which culminated in Operation Cast Lead).

US Jewish activist Richard Silverstein also produced a similar account about Hamas-IDF clashes earlier this year.

 

[Hasbara Buster]

Double post...

 

[Hasbara Buster]

Israel has been occupying/bombing/blockading and annexing Palestine for decades. What exactly do people think the response to this should be? Should the Palestinians merely wave a white flag and leave the region? Is this the response you want?

For God's Sake put it into some sort of context. Some people seem to think that the rocket attacks are completely unprovoked, which can't be further from the truth. The SHAME lies with the rest of the world. Not with the Palestinians who fire a few primitive rockets in response to all the hardships and suffering and land theft of Zionist terrorists.

I wonder how those Zionists on this forum would respond, if they were living (if it can be called living) under those circumstances. Personally, I would prefer to die and kill as many Zionists as possible. Better to die on my feet than live on my knees.

 

[JonAsad]

Israeli elections are near- the war mongers needs the general dumb israeli public votes to win again-

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

Isreali and their propaganda machine. They always play the role of the victim although they are the occupiers, aggressor, the illegal settlers, the bombers and destroyers, the land thieves, the water thieves, the olive trees up rooters, the houses demolisher etc

 

[PeaceGen]

Israel has been occupying/bombing/blockading and annexing Palestine for decades. What exactly do people think the response to this should be? Should the Palestinians merely wave a white flag and leave the region? Is this the response you want?

For God's Sake put it into some sort of context. Some people seem to think that the rocket attacks are completely unprovoked, which can't be further from the truth. The SHAME lies with the rest of the world. Not with the Palestinians who fire a few primitive rockets in response to all the hardships and suffering and land theft of Zionist terrorists.

I wonder how those Zionists on this forum would respond, if they were living (if it can be called living) under those circumstances. Personally, I would prefer to die and kill as many Zionists as possible. Better to die on my feet than live on my knees.

Well, I'd hardly call myself a zionist.. But I do support Israel's right to defend itself from rocket attacks.

You keep advocating violent resistance against the measures Israel has to take to protect itself from the still unreasonable hatred from Palestinians and Arabs alike, apparently still without realizing that this insistance on violent resistance is what creates the suffering of the Palestinians (also in truce time).

Once again, if the Palestinians and all Arabs would cease their calls for Israel to be removed, then you would find that living conditions in Palestine can improve (within 20 years).

Keep the calls for violence up, and you doom the innocent peaceloving Palestinians to a life of oppression and violence.

 

[isro2222]

mossad should stop creating a situation that will give israel military an excuse to launch attack on palestianians.... Mossad is very clever.... They even attacked its own minister in india so india can get angry on iran.... It didnt worked even when terrorist was from iran (hired by mossad).... To me both mossad and hamas are terrorist organisation.... Pleiadians recently named america and israel by saying this countries are against humans.... i worship to Elohim (annunaki race) and lord of israel people but i dont like mossad.... They are far deadly than hamas terrorists.... peace is must....

 

[RFS_Br]

Anyone else finding it weird that the tireless defenders of Israel haven't yet stopped by to make their usual spin?

Anyway, a number of articles, apart from that of the thread, are picking up on the truth -- that it was Israel who first started the war by killing Gazans with no provocation.

"Terror in Gaza", by Belén Fernandez.

"Obama's kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza", by Glenn Greenwald.

"Bodies for Ballots", by Yousef Munayyer.

This interview with an Israeli peace activist -- "Long-term peace was within reach before Israeli attack" -- about how Israel's assassination of Ahmen Jabari was calculated to re-ignite conflict.

This statement by Noam Chomsky and other linguists, "Who's doing the killing in Gaza?".

This John Mearsheimer article, which explains Israel's war on Gaza, not as "self-defense", but as a manifestation of decades-old doctrine of Israel of trying to make Palestinians submit to Israel's policies of apartheid and colonization by means of brute force.