One 77-year-old’s search for the truth: 9/11, election fraud, illegal wars, Wall Street criminality, a stolen nuke, the neocon wars, control of the U.S. government by global corporations, the unjustified assault on Social Security, media complicity, and the "Great Recession" about to become the second Great Depression. "The most important truths are hidden from us by the powerful few who strive to steal the American dream by keeping We the People in the dark."
Israeli Forces Target UN School Shelter, Children and Hospitals
Pernille Ironside: The Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Gaza describes the growing death toll and the rising humanitarian crisis - August 1, 14
Bio .
Pernille Ironside
is UNICEF's Chief of Gaza Field Office, where she is leading UNICEF's
emergency response across the Gaza Strip in the occupied Palestinian
territory. She has held this position since August 2013; and has served
in various other roles since joining the United Nations in 2002,
including in the Philippines, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
and as UNICEF's global adviser on child protection in emergencies at
Headquarters in New York.
So many wars to launch, so little time. When you're the political leader of the most militarized nation on the planet -- as is the case with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu -- you gotta find ways to play with your toys.
Even if you're itching to, you can't bomb Iran because you don't have
the right bunker buster bombs and enough fighter jet refueling
capability. And on top of it, re-elected US President Barack Obama has
made it absolutely clear; the way forward is diplomacy, not bombs.
This may be an indication that Obama is at least considering a deal:
"There should be a way in which they [Iran] can enjoy peaceful nuclear
power while still meeting their international obligations and providing
clear assurances to the international community that they're not
pursuing a nuclear weapon." This had led to the president's commitment
to "make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a
dialogue" cutting through the US/Iran Wall of Mistrust.
So what is Bibi to do? Simple. Launch Operation Pillar of Cloud (then Pillar of Defense; see this priceless piece on
the "divine" ramifications) against the only place on Earth the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) can raise hell and wreak havoc with total impunity
and negligible "collateral damage"; the under-siege, illegally
blockaded, collectively punished-to-death inhabitants of the open-air
prison known as Gaza.
Of course you won't find this explanation by reading the Murdoch press
or watching CNN. Nor will you get any detailed explanation on the real
timeline leading to what could be another war.
This is
the best timeline so far. Crucial in it is what happened last Sunday.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra announced that a
13-year-old boy, Hameed Abu Daqqa, was shot in the stomach while playing
football with his friends outside his southeast Gaza home. This soccer
terrorist was evidently a threat to myriad Israeli helicopters buzzing
overhead.
Launching a war, for the IDF, is child's play. Tel Aviv just had to
kill a few Palestinian civilians like the dangerous soccer terrorist --
and send in some extra tanks. Gaza factions had to respond -- and they
targeted Israeli soldiers (not civilians). That was the perfect excuse
for Tel Aviv to go on a rampage.
On Monday, Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza offered a
renewed truce to Israel. To no avail. On Wednesday, the head of the
armed wing of Hamas, Ahmed al-Jabari, was killed in a targeted
assassination (ask General David Petraeus and his CIA buddies about it,
they are specialists in the matter). One does not need to read Haaretz to
know that al-Jabari has been the top Israeli subcontractor in Gaza --
as in charge of assuring Israel's security -- for the past
five-and-a-half years. In exchange, Israel once in a while would drop a
few shekels on Gaza's banks, via bulletproof trucks.
So why snuff out al-Jabari? Simple. Israel goes to the polls in
January. Thus emerges Bibi's political campaigning in full-action mode.
Campaign motto: Let's kill Palestinians. With such thrills on offer, any
other Israeli political voice -- even slightly dissenting -- is
drowned.
Lemme change the subject
On Iran, former CIA analyst Paul Pillar and then John Glaser at antiwar.com have
been right on the mark. Bibi bet on the wrong horse in the US -- his
pathetic, defeated pal Mitt "Binders Full of Women" Romney.
To compound matters, the relationship between Obama and Bibi is as
frosty as holidays in the Arctic -- at least since 2010, when Obama
wanted a freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank and Bibi
responded with provoking Iran into attacking Israel, hoping to drag the
US into a new war.
Now, Bibi obviously sensed that Obama is considering moving towards a
deal with Iran. So he killed two (Arab/Persian) birds with one (or
several) stones/targeted assassinations; he changed the subject -- once
again -- from "existential threat" Iran to "terrorist" Hamas, knowing
full well that as long as Israel is killing Palestinians while
Washington looks elsewhere (the Asia-Pacific?) the leadership in Tehran
will never accept/trust meaningful negotiations.
This is Bibi telling Obama; "You wanna deal with those crazy mullahs?
Over my dead body, Barry boy!" And on top of it he gets away with
Western public opinion being totally brainwashed by corporate media;
once again those evil Palestinian "terrorists" are duly terrorizing oh
so innocent Israelis. The icing on the deadly cake is an IDF spokesman
spinning madly that the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip is "a forward Iranian
base."
Just like clockwork, only a few hours after the truce/ceasefire totally
collapsed, the Obama administration in its pre-2.0 form duly proclaimed
Israel has a "right" to strike anything, anywhere, in "self-defense."
And -- how dare Hamas to retaliate.
A ground invasion may be imminent. But Bibi may -- once again -- be
biting more of a gefilte fish than he can chew. Don't expect any
condemnation from the cowardly petro-monarchies of the Gulf
Counter-Revolution Club (GCC), previously known as Gulf Cooperation
Council. And don't expect any condemnation from all those Western
"Friends of Syria" who get so outraged by the Assad regime killing "its
own people."
Yet Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi will have to do ...
something; the Egpytian street, which is all in favor of scrapping the
Camp David accords, will demand it. On top of that, Cairo itself broke
the truce between Tel Aviv and Hamas -- now totally sabotaged by Israel.
Moreover, Hamas is supported by Turkey and, crucially, the Emir of
Qatar and his petro-billions. Will they just shut up and watch the
carnage? As for King Playstation in Jordan, he cannot play conciliator
towards Israel because he may be booking a one-way flight to London
sooner than he thinks.
If Obama had any balls he would be fuming. Then he would smack down Bibi. Shouldn't even bet on it. We know he won't.
****
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His regular
column, "The Roving Eye," is widely read. He is an analyst for the
online news channel Real News. He argues that the world has become
fragmented into "stans" -- we are now living an intestinal war, an undeclared global
civil war. He has published three books on geopolitics, including the
spectacularly-titled “Globalistan: How the Globalised World Is
Dissolving Into Liquid War”.
His latest book is "Obama Does Globalistan."
"Nowhere to Run": Israel Fires Over 500 Strikes in Gaza, Civilian Toll Grows in Humanitarian Crisis
Israel is continuing to pound the Gaza Strip with air strikes amidst fears that Israel could soon launch a ground invasion into Gaza. Israeli troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are now massing near the Palestinian territory. Earlier today, 85 missiles exploded within 45 minutes in Gaza City, sending black pillars of smoke. At least 21 Palestinians have died in the most recent round of violence, while three Israelis died on Thursday. Israel said it launched 150 air strikes overnight, while Palestinians fired a dozen rockets into Israel. Israel has started to draft 30,000 reserve troops in a sign the assault may soon widen. Among the casualties of Israeli violence was the 11-month-old son of a BBC Arabic journalist, Jihad Misharawi. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil traveled to Gaza today to condemn the Israeli attack. For more, we get a report from Rafah by Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, who says, "One thing that we ought to talk about here is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. This is a situation of targeting a population of civilians, exactly like Israel is shooting in a fishbowl. And there is no shelter, and there is nowhere to run for the general population. Gaza is living in a very dire situation." We also speak with Gershon Baskin, the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, who was the initiator of the secret talks between Israel and Hamas for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. [Original includes rush transcript]
Israeli Negotiator: Hamas Commander Was Assassinated Hours After Receiving Truce Deal from Israel
Israel broke an informal ceasefire on Wednesday by assassinating Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari in an air strike. The Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who helped mediate talks between Israel and Hamas in the deal to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, has revealed Jabari was assassinated just hours after he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the ceasefire. Baskin, the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, joins us from Jerusalem. We also speak with Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer based in Gaza. [Original includes rush transcript]
