Why not sanction Israel?

1,300 lives and over 7,000 wounded people later, there is no stopping Israel from destroying Gaza and threatening its future existence.

Relentless as the Israeli war machine against Palestinians, Israel has yet to be held accountable for any of the atrocious acts it is committing, in front of millions of viewers worldwide, thanks to the Western mainstream media’s approval of the so-called operation Protective Edge.

In light of the mass recalling of Latin America ambassadors from Israel in condemnation of the US-backed onslaught on Palestine, we are yet to see serious counter propaganda against the war emanating from the West, either from the media giants or from the State Department.

Israel’s biggest foreign donor, the United States, continues to supply it with ‘aid’, the biggest proportion of which goes to research, development and deployment of military hardware, including the much hailed Iron Dome missile defense system. Lauded as an ongoing ‘refinement’ of the missile defense system, Israel has secured additional funding for its development from the Washington.

For its part, the United States has been reaping what it sowed by way of more international criticism regarding its resupplying of ammunition to the unstoppable Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including mortar rounds, grenades and other weapons. This act runs counter to Obama’s claim of ‘concern’ regarding a recent shelling of an UN-run school in Gaza.

Ceasefire Confusion

Last week was marked by the United Nations Security Council’s condemnation of the fighting in Gaza and corresponding ceasefire agreement to finally stop the atrocities committed by both sides. Apparently, a third mediator in the conflict, Egypt, failed to inform Hamas about the ceasefire, the silence of which was interpreted by Netanyahu as a rejection, leaving him “with no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it.”

So far in the operational timeline of the conflict, Israel has used the ceasefire to prepare for more savage operations against Hamas and civilians in Gaza, including the July 17 ground invasion after the UN ceasefire proposal, and the more recent 12-hour humanitarian ceasefire which saw the IDF receiving more weaponry from the United States to help destroy even more Palestinian lives.

Such deception and betrayal is not surprising, especially when Israel tried to sugarcoat and justify its bombing campaign when it spread propaganda that Palestinians where ‘informed’ before an impending aerial assault on their city, except that the warning gives residents just 5 minutes to leave their homes.

Western Media Makes Propaganda out of Malaysia MH17 Tragedy

Just hours after the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukrainian territory, you could believe that the story of who shot down the civilian airline was already concluded, if you have been watching CNN, Fox, Bloomberg and other neo-con infested news outlets.

In stressful moments like this, the last thing you want to hear from the news is a constant barrage of baseless accusations and politicization of tragic events: we can only imagine the distress of the families of the passengers aboard flight MH17, and it is regretful to hear Obama, Hillary, and King ‘comfort’ their viewers with nothing but Russia-bashing garbage.

President Obama’s ‘Russia is responsible’ claims were quickly absorbed by the mainstream news media outlets just a few hours after the tragedy – never mind the evidence and international pressure to gather an independent investigation about the plane’s terrible fate.

Repeat a lie a thousand times and it becomes the truth

That line, attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of the Third Reich, remarkably applies to how the Western mainstream news media are spreading and taking advantage of brittle emotions and unanswered questions to disasters like the downing of flight MH17.

Obama was quoted as saying “I want to point out there will likely be misinformation as well. I think it’s very important for folks to sift through what is factually based and what is simply speculation.” Of course, he is referring to how Putin ‘might cover up’ the investigation, but who succumbed to propaganda first Mr. Obama?

Refresher on Ukrainian rebels

As a thousand lies have already been said about how Ukraine evolved into the tragedy that it is now, it is admittedly hard for the non-expert audience to sift through Ukraine’s 2013 revolution, but a quick refresher on who really are the ‘rebels’ is useful, if we are to keep referring to the information that ‘rebels shot down flight MH17.”

Remember that the legitimate government of former Ukraine president Victor Yanukovich was ousted in a Western-backed coup in the lead up to 2014. Today, we have a bunch of loyalists (undeniably pro-Russia too) who are fighting for their own independence from the unwanted coup government in Kiev.

Trusting the ‘intel experts’ again?

How many times have we been fooled by the ‘US intelligence community’ in the past few years alone? From the illegal invasion of Iraq which was based on false intelligence, to the illegal wiretapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, to Edward Snowden’s Internet privacy revelations, and today a tragic downing of a civilian aircraft. Do we really need to trust the ‘intelligence community’ as our firsthand source of information during tragedies like this?

Ukraine government hiding information

An accidental shooting of a civilian aircraft it may seem right now, the fact of the matter is the situation is more complicated than what appears right now. The Ukrainian government has yet to answer a few questions, including:

1. Immediately after the tragedy, the Ukrainian authorities, naturally, blamed it on the self-defense forces. What are these accusations based on?

2. Can Kiev explain in detail how it uses Buk missile launchers in the conflict zone? And why were these systems deployed there in the first place, seeing as the self-defense forces don’t have any planes?

3. Why are the Ukrainian authorities not doing anything to set up an international commission? When will such a commission begin its work?

4. Would the Ukrainian Armed Forces be willing to let international investigators see the inventory of their air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, including those used in SAM launchers?

5. Will the international commission have access to tracking data from reliable sources regarding the movements of Ukrainian warplanes on the day of the tragedy?

6. Why did Ukrainian air traffic controllers allow the plane to deviate from the regular route to the north, towards “the anti-terrorist operation zone”?

7. Why was airspace over the warzone not closed for civilian flights, especially since the area was not entirely covered by radar navigation systems?

8. How can official Kiev comment on reports in the social media, allegedly by a Spanish air traffic controller who works in Ukraine, that there were two Ukrainian military planes flying alongside the Boeing 777 over Ukrainian territory?

9. Why did Ukraine’s Security Service start working with the recordings of communications between Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the Boeing crew and with the data storage systems from Ukrainian radars without waiting for international investigators?

10. What lessons has Ukraine learned from a similar incident in 2001, when a Russian Tu-154 crashed into the Black Sea? Back then, the Ukrainian authorities denied any involvement on the part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces until irrefutable evidence proved official Kiev to be guilty.

Israel Attacks Gaza Anew

While the Israeli military justifies its uncompromising ‘retaliation’ against Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian civilians have died and been injured as a result, with no equivalent casualties in Israel as of press time.

Much has been said in the Western media about Israel’s right to protect itself against aggression, but very few mentions can be found on how civilian targets have been leveled, except for Al Jazeera and Russia’s RT news channel.

It also worrying, though not surprising, that there is less coverage on how disproportionate the Israeli offensive is, according to WSWS, “a total of 180 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the course of the last month, since the crisis first flared following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenage settlers on the West Bank. Most of these primitive rockets have fallen harmlessly in open areas, and about 20 percent have been shot down. Not one Israeli has been killed, and there are few reports even of minor injuries.”

On the one hand, the social media Twitter is abuzz with Israelis shown celebrating rocket fire against Gaza in a beach in Sderot, a city two kilometers from Gaza. An American civilian in Sdreto was also quoted as saying “we are here to see Israel destroy Hamas.”

More destruction to come

In a statement in Beersheba, Israel Prime Minister made sure a ground offensive is imminent, instructing the military to “intensify even further…operation will expand and continue until the rocket fire on our cities stops and quiet returns.”

Indeed that has happened today, when Israel navy commandos raided a suspected missile launch site, as confirmed by IDF’s Twitter page: “BREAKING: IDF forces raided a site used to fire long-range rockets at Israel. The mission was accomplished.” Indeed, with some 20,000 troops mobilized, Israel keeps a full-scale invasion as an option.

Meanwhile, The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine on Saturday.