By Peter Wedlund | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Israel and its proponents have engaged in a systematic practice of disinformation and misinformation. A recent example is the Goldstone report. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that the Goldstone report was supportive of terrorists and attacked a nation simply defending itself. He described Israeli actions as surgical strikes against rocket launchers. He told of countless flyers warning the population of impending Israeli attacks. He said Israel was acting responsibly in self-defense after suffering from thousands of rocket attacks for 8 years.

Unfortunately, Mr. Netanyahu left out a few details the Goldstone report clarified. First, the strikes by Israel were too widespread to be simply directed at rocket launchers. How else does one explain the destruction of food production, water resources and sewer treatment plants? The flyers and calls into Gaza were indeed abundant and numerous, but Mr. Netanyahu did not address the fact most didn't inform anyone where or how to escape the impending bombing. A population walled in by 20 foot cement barriers, no bomb shelters and nowhere to run left Palestinians only knowing they were the next bomb targets. Mr. Netanyahu claims mosques served as weapons depots and ambulances carried explosives so all mosques (occupied by civilians or not) and ambulances (carrying wounded or not) were fair game for attack because of their "potential" to hold weapons? Mr. Netanyahu claims Hamas hid behind civilians and were responsible for the death toll. What he fails to mention is that almost regardless of where one is in Gaza it is near civilians.

The Gaza strip contains approximately 1.5 million people and occupies a space of about 141 sq. miles. For perspective, Washington DC has about 600,000 people and occupies about 61 sq. miles or slightly less than the people/area density of Gaza. Philadelphia has 1.5 million people in 142.6 sq miles or about the same people/area density as Gaza. Chicago has 2.8 million people in 228 sq. miles or slightly less people/area density as Gaza.

In short, Israel was attacking a heavily populated area where virtually anywhere Hamas was located put them in or near innocent civilians by definition of high population density.

Netanyahu is absolutely correct that Hamas fired rockets into Israel by the thousands for 8 years. Those attacks by Hamas on innocent civilians in Israel are despicable and indefensible. What he fails to mention is that Israel hardly sat by and did nothing for 8 years but take it. Israel hit back multiple times and bombed Gaza on numerous occasions. It placed a wall around Gaza to control the inflow of not just rockets, but humanitarian aid, resources and supplies to the people in Gaza. None of this was criticized in the Goldstone report which viewed Israel well within its rights to defend itself.

The Goldstone report WAS NEVER about Israel's right to self-defense as Netanyahu, Gold, Olmert and other Israeli politicians have repeatedly stated. The Goldstone report was about disproportionate response to a terrorist threat. It was a response that was designed not just to address the Hamas threat, but to punish civilians and innocent people who were not responsible for the attacks in any way.

The extent to which Israel has gone to deny any wrong doing, discredit the authors and carry out its own "assault on the truth" has been nothing less than horrific. Netanyahu compared Israeli actions to those of Britain and the US during WWII when they ordered indiscriminate bombing of German cities like Dresden to instill fear and suffering on the German population. Dore Gold in a debate with Goldstone at Brandeis University this month (http://bit.ly/3vuG86) bluntly denied Israel bombed a mosque filled with worshippers by Israel. Richard Goldstone informed him he was there as they removed the Israeli rocket remains from the walls, not Hamas weapons. Gold also complained the Goldstone report did not call Hamas a terrorist organization as though that somehow justified indiscriminate killing of civilians by Israel. Gold further misled people by suggesting the Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt was opened to Palestinians and they can get what they need in Gaza from that border. This also is inaccurate as Israel can and has controlled the opening and closing of the Rafah border gates out of Gaza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafah_Border_Crossing).

How has Israel responded to the request it examine its conduct during the Gaza conflict? To date, Israel has charged one person since Operation Cast Lead with the theft of a credit card. This is Israeli justice. This is Israeli democracy in action. This attitude of denial and inaccuracy extends beyond the Goldstone report. A recent video by al Jazeera (http://bit.ly/uYqFn) confirms what Amnesty International has claimed, that Israel denies Palestinians the water they need to live in the West Bank (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8327188.stm ). Israel responded that they agreed to provide Palestinians with 23.6 million cubic meters of water/yr (http://bit.ly/10dTKO) and have lived up to this agreement. This maybe true, for 23.6 million cubic meters of water annually for 3.5 million people amounts to about 17 Liters of water/day/person or about 4.5 gallons water/day/person. Even efforts by Palestinians to collect rain water has been hampered by Israeli soldiers while Israeli government officials complain the problems with water for Palestinians is their own fault and that they have not lived up to their end of the deal on water rights.

Without equality and equal rights, there can be no peace. When one group ignores or purposefully imposes draconian conditions upon another, there can be no trust or goodwill. If one side continually blames the other for all problems as it refuses to look inward at its own actions all they will ever see is their own perspective. For peace to flourish there must be honesty, truth, trust and justice.

There must also be an ability to see how your actions affect others. None of this is possible so long as a policy of disinformation and misinformation is allowed to prevail and the goal is not truth and understanding but dishonesty to avoid criticism, deceit to encourage sympathy and lies to deflect blame or responsibility.

Until the truth replaces this dishonesty and misinformation, peace in the region will never be possible.

Source: OpEdNews

Does the Media have a Double Standard on Israel? – Max Blumenthal
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