The Insane War On Lebanon & The Related Propaganda

Friday, 21 July 2006, 1:48 pm
Opinion: Scoop Blogwatch

The only blemish on my happy return to the United States after six weeks of travels in Europe during the World Cup has been this insane, disgusting war Israel and the United States have launched on Lebanon.

The propaganda assaulting the American population via the mainstream media today is possibly even worse than it was during the initial invasion of Iraq. We're led to believe that Israel is simply attacking Hezbollah nay, defending itself against Hezbollah, an implacably evil foe, and not actually attacking a sovereign nation. "Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fierce Missile Attacks," headlines the San Francisco Chronicle, as if the two are 'trading' something, as if they are equal foes, when one is a nation, the regional military superpower, a combatant which wields nuclear weapons and receives billions in military aid from the US every three months, while the other is a weak band of (depending on your perspective) terrorists or freedom fighters intent on ridding southern Lebanon of the Israeli troops and Mossad agents who have been in southern Lebanon for three decades. For it's easier to propagandize people to hate and see as less than human a group with a strange-sounding name than it is to legitimize the bombardment and invasion of a nation. A headline like, Israel Bombs Lebanon All Night, Killing Hundreds would be a bit too accurate for comfort.

The New York Times: "Israel Pounds Lebanon After Hezbollah Launches Missile Attacks." As if Israel did not strike first and strike harder. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians are dead, hundreds more wounded. Israel has lost about a dozen civilians and perhaps a dozen soldiers. One will be led to forget this disparity by reading American or British media.

This situation is not black and white. There is history and religion and racism and fear and terrorism to consider. But the bias of the media in this country defies belief. Consider the story of the abductions, the ostensible casus belli. Never reported in the American media were the abductions on June 24 that likely started the abduction tradeoff.

A quick timeline:

June 24th - Israel kidnaps two Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

June 25th - Palestinian militants kidnap an Israeli soldier.

June 28th - Israel kidnaps 64 members of the Palestinian government.

July 12th - Hezbollah kidnaps two Israeli soldiers.

Then Israel gets up in arms about the kidnappings and decides it was an act of war, and that they have the God-given right to massacre Lebanese civilians.

Israel begins bombing Lebanese civilians.

Hezbollah responds with rockets at Israeli civilians.

It would be more factually accurate for the media to say Israel started this. The last time Hamas had kidnapped an Israeli was in 1994. Also, it would be accurate to point out that Israel targets civilians and government members, while Hamas and Hezbollah target active soldiers. Third, it should be mentioned in the news that Israel continually targets the Palestinian government, specifically members of Hamas, despite the fact that no one in government, including Hamas, had been linked to the abduction of the soldier.

And then theres the fact that ten of the fifteen members of the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israel, before Bolton again used the US veto to shield Israel from any meaningful repercussions for their actions.

This is not about Zionism, Semitism, or anti-Semitism. Nor is this about forgiving or legitimizing the abduction or killing of anyone.

This is to say, we Americans are being deceived once again by the mainstream media. When someone is killed or abducted, proper and immediate law enforcement must be brought to bear and justice must be served. This is how civilized society works. Israel shows no interest in running a civilized society. Launching a war, invading a sovereign nation, killing hundreds this is illegitimate and savage and disgusting and destructive to any sense of shared humanity.

Stepping back, what could be the real reason for this new war on Lebanon? It isn't about abductions. In fact it would be naive to think this war has anything to do with anything the weak Hezbollah has done. So, why? What would the media be telling us if they weren't biased? I honestly don't know. This is one of the reasons the medias propaganda is so frustrating. Im left to imagine, based on my research, that probably it is something along the following lines.

Most likely, the reasons for this war lie in a desire on the part of the US-UK-Israel alliance to control the oil regions of the Middle East not so that we get cheaper oil here in the USA, since nearly all the oil we use comes from this hemisphere, but so that we can control the rest of the world's access to oil. Controlling the oil is crucial to asserting complete control over the world economy. The nightmare scenario for US-UK-Israel is the prospect of growing pan-Arab sentiment that might lead to an Arab league of some sort, a united community of nations in that part of the world that could conceivably create as powerful a pole in geopolitics as Europe or the US (or, eventually, China). So probably the inhumane greedy endgame at the bottom of this is to passively or actively control the nations there in the Middle East, so that any Arab Union becomes impossible and the US can control the world economy. Of course, as a byproduct, as collateral damage, the people of the region are to remain powerless and poor. As for Israel, the politics and problems of the Jewish state are only important insofar as they lend a sheen of legitimacy and the grounds for effective propaganda to US-UK-Israel actions towards this larger goal. Put simply, this war is likely a coordinated and pre-planned element of a war to either conquer or destabilize the entire Middle East.

Saying and thinking all of this pains me deeply, but I cannot believe the propaganda any longer. This war is insane and horrible. It flies obviously in the face of any talk of aiming for democracy or peace or freedom. We need to unite in our desire to bring peace to the people of the Middle East. We need to unite in our efforts to see through the propaganda to the real reasons this war is supported by both Democrats (listen to Hillary Clinton at AIPAC) and Republicans (Bush pretends occasionally not to support this war but of course he could stop it in an instant if he wished by simply threatening to cut off Israels billions in military aid).

Honestly, bringing peace to the Middle East means granting the people of these nations legitimate political power to control their own affairs. It also means paying a fair price for oil. It means, ultimately, that Americans and Europeans and others prepare to share power and resources with the rest of the world. This is the real, simple key to peace and sustainable life for humanity in this century. Sharing.

And I can tell you, from my travels, the vast majority of the people of the planet are willing to do this if they are presented with the real options rather than with the propaganda.

ENDS

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