the devil's chosen people......

One aspect of the Israeli military operation in Gaza that has been largely ignored by the mainstream media is the highly sophisticated psychological warfare being waged against the Palestinian people. A close look at some of the more unusual elements of Israeli strategy reveals the outlines of a plan that is clearly aimed at inflicting maximum psychological damage on its victims.

by Mike Whitney

Take, for example, Israel's repeated demand that civilians leave a given city at a given time. Each time this demand was made, it was followed shortly thereafter by airstrikes on fleeing civilians. We could easily dismiss this unfortunate action as an operational incident attributable to human error, but that does not appear to be the case. After all, these airstrikes happened not once or twice, but repeatedly. This suggests that this is official policy. The same goes for the seemingly random killing of civilians by Israeli snipers (some of whom wave white flags), for the so-called "indiscriminate bombings" of homes, hospitals and refugee camps, for the hyper-belligerent statements of political leaders or for the mass massacre of civilians peacefully collecting food from humanitarian aid trucks. What we are saying is that none of these have any apparent tactical value, but that their effectiveness can only be measured in terms of how they help Israel achieve its overall strategic objective, namely the expulsion of the entire Arab population. In this regard, the strategy seems to be working quite well, as the majority of the population is now convinced that "nowhere is safe." This is, in fact, the cornerstone on which Israel developed its psychological battle plan, to eradicate any sense of personal security and incite feelings of anxiety, confusion and despair. Keep in mind that this mindset didn't appear overnight. This mindset is the result of a meticulously crafted and utterly sinister plan to inflict maximum psychological damage on two million people so that it would be easier to expel them from their historic homeland. This is the underlying objective of the Israeli operation: ethnic cleansing. And the psychological aspect of the campaign may be more critical to its success than the relentless airstrikes or the burgeoning ground war. Here is an extract from an article from Save The Children:

«In times of war, people usually seek refuge in safe places. There are no safe places in Gaza right now, and there is no way to seek shelter outside. With a sense of security, the constant and reassuring presence of a family, some sort of routine and appropriate treatment, children can recover. But so many children have already lost family members, some have lost everything, and the violence and displacement are unrelenting.».1

While Jason Lee recognizes the importance of “safe places,” he fails to make the connection. He seems to think that the current situation is an accident of war, but that is not the case. Israeli leaders undoubtedly worked hand in hand with groups of behavioral psychologists to develop a plan that would allow them to achieve their political goals while minimizing casualties. (Massive casualties lead to fierce political opposition that Israel wanted to avoid). Current psychological operations achieve both of these goals, which is why we must assume that they are not “accidental.” In short, Israel's bombing campaign is aimed more at terrorizing and traumatizing than at killing. Do you understand this?

Once we understand that there is a rational motive for Israel's seemingly random violence, we begin to see it everywhere. Every day there are new airstrikes on tent cities and refugee camps that have no strategic value. Have Israeli leaders lost their minds?

No, they haven't lost their minds. They are deliberately terrorizing Palestinians into rushing to Egypt as soon as the wall is breached. This is the true objective of the psychological warfare waged by Israel.

So what are the consequences of Israel's psychological warfare on the Palestinians?

If we look at past data, we see that Israel's frequent incursions have been nothing short of catastrophic. Here is an excerpt from a report written by a group of academics at the University of Washington in 2009:

«A recent report found that 91,4% of children in the Gaza Strip suffered from moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress. (…)

The most recent studies indicate that the vast majority of children in Gaza experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (…) In a representative sample of children in Gaza, more than 95% have encountered artillery fire in their area or sonic booms from low-flying jet planes. In addition, 94% of them remember seeing mutilated corpses on television and 93% witnessed the effects of aerial bombardments on the ground.».2

I repeat: “91,4% of children in the Gaza Strip” already present “moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress”.

Thus, even in 2009, Palestinians suffered a “staggering level of psychological trauma". Imagine the number of people who will be seriously affected by today's carnage. It should be noted that the psychological damage caused by the current conflict will not disappear with the end of hostilities. Many of these people will spend the rest of their lives battling their own demons in a hell created entirely by Israel. Here is more information from an article published four months ago by the Guardian :

«Children in Gaza are developing severe symptoms of trauma in addition to the risk of death and injury, according to a Palestinian psychiatrist. (…)

The psychological impact of war on children is evident, said Fadel Abu Heen, a psychiatrist in Gaza. The children “began to develop severe symptoms of trauma such as seizures, bedwetting, fear, aggressive behavior, nervousness and not leaving their parents.”

The lack of a safe place has created a general feeling of fear and horror among the entire population, and children are the most affected,” he said. (…)

Studies conducted after previous conflicts showed that a majority of children in Gaza experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Other UNICEF findings include: 91% of children reported sleep disturbances during the conflict; 94% said they slept with their parents; 85% reported changes in appetite; 82% felt angry; 97% felt insecure; 38% felt guilty; 47% bit their nails; 76% reported itching or feeling sick. (…)

A report released last year by Save the Children on the impact of 15 years of blockade and repeated conflict on the mental health of children in Gaza found that their psychosocial well-being had “declined dramatically to alarming levels ".

Children interviewed by the humanitarian organization “spoke of fear, nervousness, anxiety, stress and anger, and cited family problems, violence, death, nightmares, poverty, war and "occupation, especially the blockade, as the things they liked least in their lives."

The report quotes António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, who described the lives of children in Gaza as "hell on earth."».3

We tend to think of survivors (of war) as the "lucky ones", but that is not always the case. When a child is stripped of any sense of personal security and thrown into a world of uncertainty, violence and death, his or her ability to feel joy, love or thrive is reduced. I find it greatly diminished. We believe that Israeli war planners deliberately created the conditions necessary to inflict maximum psychological damage on Palestinians living in Gaza. We don't think there is anything "accidental" about what we see. We believe this is the only rational explanation for an erratic battle plan that aims less to beat the enemy than to terrorize the population. For Israel, driving the Palestinians out of Gaza is simply not enough. He wants to ensure that his victims endure years of excruciating psychological suffering until the day they die.

Although we do not yet have sufficient data to accurately assess the extent of the damage, we can safely say that the current massacre far exceeds any that have been perpetrated in the past. For all intents and purposes, Israel has destroyed the lives of every man, woman and child in Gaza. But when we see the videos of the wasteland that Israel has created – with the rubble stretching in all directions – we should remember that the psychological damage they have inflicted is far greater. These are invisible wounds that will never heal and will plunge an entire population into a world of chronic anxiety, depression and despair.

Israel is solely responsible for their suffering.

source: The Unz Review

https://en.reseauinternational.net/la-guerre-psychologique-disrael-est-implacable-vicieuse-et-deliberee/

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By Gus Leonisky at 5 Mar 2024 - 5:53am
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wasted lives.....

Israeli airstrike kills twins in mother's arms

Wafaa Shurafa

RAFAH: It took 10 years and three rounds of in-vitro fertilisation for Rania Abu Anza to become pregnant, and only seconds for her to lose her five-month-old twins, a boy and a girl.

An Israeli strike hit the home of her extended family in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, killing her children, her husband and 11 other relatives and leaving another nine missing under the rubble, according to survivors and local health officials.

She had woken up about 10pm to breastfeed Naeim, the boy, and went back to sleep with him in one arm and Wissam, the girl, in the other. Her husband was sleeping beside them.

The explosion came an hour and a half later. The house collapsed.

‘‘I screamed for my children and my husband,’’ she said as she sobbed and cradled a baby’s blanket to her chest. ‘‘They were all dead. Their father took them and left me behind.’’

Israeli airstrikes have regularly hit crowded family homes since Israel started its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation to the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. Even Rafah, which Israel declared a safe zone in October, is now a target of its devastating ground offensive. Strikes often come without warning, usually in the middle of the night.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and says Hamas positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.

The military didn’t comment on this attack but said it ‘‘follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm’’.

Of the 14 people killed in the Abu Anza house, six were children and four were women, according to Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of the hospital where the bodies were taken. In addition to her husband and children, Rania also lost a sister, a nephew, a pregnant cousin and other relatives.

Farouq Abu Anza, a relative, said about 35 people, some of whom had been displaced from other areas, were staying at the house. He said they were all civilians, mostly children, and that there were no militants there.

Rania and her husband, Wissam, both 29, spent a decade trying to get pregnant. Two rounds of IVF had failed, but after a third, she learnt she was pregnant early last year. The twins were born on October 13.

Her husband, a day labourer, was so proud he insisted on naming the girl after himself, she said.

‘‘I didn’t get enough of them,’’ she said. ‘‘I swear I didn’t get enough of them.’’

Less than a week before their birth, Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack, rampaging through communities, killing some 1200 people – mostly civilians – and taking about 250 hostages, including children and a newborn.

Israel responded with one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

The war has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. About 80 per cent of the strip’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and a quarter faces starvation.

Yesterday, US Vice President Kamala Harris demanded Hamas agree to an immediate six-week ceasefire. She also urged Israel to do more to boost aid deliveries into Gaza, where she said innocent people were suffering a humanitarian catastrophe.

Harris pressed the Israeli government and outlined specific ways more aid could flow into the densely populated enclave where hundreds of thousands of people are facing famine after five months of Israel’s military campaign.

‘‘Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire,’’ Harris said. ‘‘There is a deal on the table, and Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let’s get a ceasefire.

‘‘People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act. The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid.’’

AP, Reuters

SMH, 05/03/2024

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By Gus Leonisky at 5 Mar 2024 - 6:47am
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jewish terror......

Israel: a terrorist state By Stuart Rees

Thursday February 29, starving Gazans try to obtain flour for their families. From the safety of their tanks, Israeli soldiers fire. One hundred and four people are killed, 750 injured. Israeli army spokespersons blame the crowd and insist that most fatalities occurred when Gazans were crushed by aid trucks.

The spokespersons are in damage control. Their country’s reputation as a respectful law abiding state must be maintained, even with a pack of lies.

An image of Israel as a respected ally of the US, the EU, Australia and other western states, has been contrived to affect massive military and economic aid. How could it be otherwise? That’s the only way to think. Western nations’ foreign policy creed says their governments must support Israel.

It is long overdue that the connotation ‘Israel’ an exceptional, humanitarian nation be replaced by an image which reflects its racist barbarity, its dismissal of Palestinians’ human rights, let lone claims to be a worthy member of the UN.

The other side of the exceptional Israel narrative includes the stigmatising of the country’s opponents, in particular the depiction of the governing party in Gaza, Hamas, as a terrorist organisation, a description repeated ad nauseam by news readers whenever Hamas are mentioned. Yet evidence of Palestinian fatalities, dispossession and destruction shows Israel to be the terrorist state.

Let’s assess definitions and weigh evidence.

The description ‘terrorist’ is used by powerful states such as the US, to identify enemies and justify brutalities once the ‘terrorist’ label has been attached. Consistent with dictionary definitions and a US army manual, Noam Chomsky defines terrorism: ‘the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain political, religious or ideological goals carried out through intimidation, coercion or by instilling fear.’

The ICJ interim ruling that Israel cease genocidal acts in Gaza, the killing of 30,000 Palestinian citizens, mostly women and children, and the one hundred plus food supply deaths of a few days ago, should have dented Israel’s morally respectful image even among die hard supporters in international relations, in national politics and media.

Yet the Hamas killings of October 7 2023 have been depicted as the inimitable terrorist act which justified subsequent carnage, a false and deceitful history so easily forgotten unless challenged by facts inconvenient to the Israel image.

The 1948 murders by Zionist terrorist gangs of 15,000 mostly young Palestinians, the slaughter of over one hundred villagers in Deir Yassin, destruction of over 500 villages and towns were accompanied by the expulsion of 750,000 people from their homes, the Nakba tragedy. After 1948, massacres, destruction and dispossession continued.

Fast forward to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, newspaper estimates of 17,825 killed, 30,203 injured. The Times of London, Los Angeles Times and Caritas reported that in early July over Beirut, shells were landing at 30 per minute. July 27 residents experienced 30 straight hours of bombardment, 30 to 50% of the wounded died, 400,000 people were made homeless.

The response of the US government in 1982 has been echoed by President Biden in his 2024 refusal to demand a ceasefire over Gaza. In response to the Israeli devastation in Lebanon, the Reagan administration continued to support the Begin government’s barbarism.

A brief record of Israeli killings in Gaza between 2008 and 2023, (no reference to the massive destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, agricultural land, water and sewage plants) should question media assumptions that the crux of inhumanities is always carried out by terrorist Hamas.

2008, Israeli Operation Cast Lead resulted in 1,400 Palestinians killed including 300 children. 2014, Operation Protective Edge, 2,251 Palestinians killed, including 551 children. In 2014, Aljazeera reported that Israel forces aimed ‘to devastate Palestine bodies and minds alike.’

Gazans’ 2018 march of return to acknowledge refugees’ right of return to their homeland, resulted in over 200 deaths from Israeli sniper fire, 40,000 injured. The World Health Organisation found that 1,200 of the injured required limb reconstruction and long term rehabilitation.

The taste for killing Palestinians continued. In May 2021, following Israeli bombing, 260 people were killed. Following air attacks in August 2022, thirty more Gazans died. On the West Bank, between October 7 2023 and February 1, 2024, armed police, soldiers and settlers have killed 360 Palestinians.

Morality and justice are not determined by body counts, but even a fraction of history shows Israel as a militarised, apartheid state which cultivates violent racism towards another people. Despite Netanyahu’s aim to eliminate Hamas, whom Israel’s President interprets as all the Palestinian people, despite overwhelming evidence of genocide in Gaza, western nations, either ill informed, ignorant or cowardly, still swallow the image of Israel as a liberal democracy.

The Nakba tragedy of 1948 is only one chapter in the development of a violent settler colonialism which has produced a terrorist Israeli state.

https://johnmenadue.com/israel-a-terrorist-state-images-and-evidence/

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