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What does Putin have to do with Israel’s attacks on Lebanon?

By Tarik Cyril Amar | RT | September 23, 2024

On September 17, Israel launched one of the largest and cruelest terrorist attacks in modern history. For Lebanon and Syria, the victim countries, 9/17 will now have a meaning akin to that of 9/11 in the US. That date will be remembered for a very long time, and beyond those two states, as the start of two waves of explosions, mostly affecting pagers on the first day and walkie-talkies the following day. There have been reports of other everyday objects, such as laptops and tablets as well as solar energy systems blowing up as well.

While some details are still murky, we already know that the attacks were devastating: According to an Amnesty International summary from September 20, more than 2,931 victims were injured and at least 37 were killed. Amnesty International tends to be cautious and conservative with its figures, and it is still too early for a full assessment of casualties and damage. It is certain that the final count will be worse.

Events are moving fast. The onslaught seems to have served to either provoke or start a larger war; UN General Secretary António Guterres quickly – and plausibly – suspected that 9/17 was meant as a preventive strike and prelude to a larger escalation. It has been followed by more and increasingly brutal bombings and massacres, in the manner that we know so well from the rogue state Israel. For now, it is already clear that after a horrific scene of mass terror in shops, streets, and homes, many of the victims of 9/17 have been injured severely, often leaving them with “life-changing injuries.”

An ophthalmologist at Mount Lebanon University Hospital in Beirut told us 60 to 70 percent of his patients “had to have at least one eye removed. [For] some of the patients, we had to remove both eyes. It kills me. In my past 25 years of practice, I’ve never removed as many eyes.”

Israel, the perpetrator regime, has done what it always does, namely release a barrage of lies. The first step, as so often, has been to boast of its crime without, however, officially admitting it. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a chief genocidaire in the Gaza slaughter, has spoken of a “new era” of war with Lebanon and extolled the “excellent achievements” of the Israeli intelligence services. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Get it, get it? By the way, that is a technique that Western propagandists just love to ascribe to Russia. Yet it’s as Israeli as (stolen) shakshuka and (authentically Zionist) ethnic cleansing. But that’s okay in the West. Because – Israel.

Israeli politicians, propagandists, and many cut-outs and useful idiots in the West claim that this was a legitimate intelligence operation to strike at Hezbollah, the resistance organization and political party based in Lebanon with which Israel is, in effect, at war. In reality, things are as clear as can be: Using civilian devices in this manner is a war crime.

Legally, two points are decisive as well as incontrovertible: First, Hezbollah is both a military and a civilian organization. Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which applies here without a doubt, only those Hezbollah members serving in a military capacity are combatants. All others are and remain civilians, who have and retain a right to protection – obviously also during armed conflict because (duh…) armed conflict is what IHL is all about. Amnesty International has found evidence that the exploding devices of 9/17 had indeed been distributed to members of Hezbollah’s civilian offices, too, as was perfectly expectable for the Israeli perpetrators.

Second, 9/17 was, in any case, fundamentally criminal because, as Amnesty International has explained, it was “indiscriminate […] according to” IHL as “those who planned and carried out these attacks could not verify who would be harmed when the devices exploded, or even if only fighters had been given them.” Indeed, booby-traps spread throughout a civilian population – yes, even while perhaps in immediate possession of a Hezbollah member – are “inherently indiscriminate,” as one expert has put it. That is also why booby-trapping things that are generally associated with civilian use – such as pagers, which are not, obviously, tanks or trenches – is explicitly forbidden by the 1996 Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps, and Other Devices, a United Nations treaty.

Against this background, Western Israel apologists have bent over backwards to spin 9/17. Indeed, this time they are doing overtime, not only downplaying and justifying brazen Israeli criminality as usual but also celebrating it as exemplary and clever (Ironically, dwelling on the stereotypical “cleverness” of Jews is a classic anti-Semitic prejudice, but let’s not dwell on that.) The Wall Street Journal editorial board has framed 9/17 as an example of Israel’s “remarkable” abilities. As if being bankrolled and protected by the US is a skill set. For the reliably warmongering British outlet The Telegraph, the attack was “audacious.” Interesting: how? Did the perpetrators show their face for an open fight? The Bild, a powerful, ultra-Zionist German yellow press outlet from the right-wing Springer group, admired the “almost movie-like spy thriller” behind the operation, that is, the criminal infiltration of civilian supply chains to plant explosives.

If you think that such comments are ever appropriate for a terror attack, try using them for the 9/11 assault on the US in 2001 instead of the 9/17 one on Lebanon and Syria now. See? Not funny, right?

Then there’s the more sophisticated and yet still completely misguided take. Writing for the Daily Mail, Mark Almond, not a stupid man, also felt he had to acknowledge how “spectacular” the “operation was on its own merits” and dwell on Israel’s “excelling” at this kind of “warfare.” That kind of “warfare” is criminal, and if Hezbollah had used it against Israel, Mark Almond would have found the correct word for it: terrorism. It is a principally wrong step to avoid facing or naming the true legal and ethical nature of an act of violence by focusing on how well it was executed, or, in Almond’s words, its “brutal ingeniousness.”

It’s also, frankly, immature. It’s what young bro’ish boys do, when they admire a war criminal such as Nazi Otto Skorzeny because his glider landing on Gran Sasso mountain to snatch washed-out Mussolini must have looked just so damn commando cool. But a world of Israeli genocide and mass murder forbids such infantilism. In a sadly fitting manner, and quite perversely, Almond has not one word for civilians, except Israeli ones.

Almond, however, does see a real downside to Israel’s “sophisticated” attack nevertheless: He fears that its perpetrators may have miscalculated this time and, in essence, bitten off more than they can chew, inviting a backlash he compares with what happened to Japan after its – by the way, non-terrorist – attack on Pearl Harbor. Again, not a thought about Israel’s victims.

What’s the worst that could happen, according to Almond’s unfortunately typical Western mind? That the Israeli terrorists get some pain in return for the suffering of their victims which he has painstakingly made sure not to even mention. Not a word, either, about Lebanon’s or Syria’s right not to be attacked by a terrorist rogue regime next door. Not a word about their sovereignty or their governments’ right and duty to protect their citizens. If this isn’t a racist bias, I don’t know what is.

And then, finally, it’s time for – you must see this coming by now – RUSSIA! Yes, Russia. Not that Almond has any factual reason to bring it up in this context. None at all. Strictly zero. But you see, when we talk about a horrific crime committed by, actually, Israel, but we can’t actually say that, then we talk about Russia. To be on the safe side, let’s add China, too. “How long before Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping,” Almond dramatically asks, “works out how to make millions of iPhones around the world burst into flames in the pockets of their foes?”

Holy Sigmund Freud! Displacement is a powerful force indeed. Yet here’s the thing: If Moscow or Beijing wanted to do the same horrible things Israel routinely does, they easily could. There’s no issue of “working out” here. What Almond can’t face is that they simply are not like that. Israel is like that, criminal to the core, completely spoiled by decades of US-sponsored impunity, and addicted to underhanded violence and lying. It’s Israel that he supports with the absurd propaganda trick of talking about Russia and China instead of the state that has actually committed the crime and set the precedent he wants to warn about. The West is delusional. Clinically speaking.

Tarik Cyril Amar is a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

September 23, 2024 - Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia, War Crimes | , ,

3 Comments »

  1. Has it dawned on anyone yet that ANYTIME you dare look into the ongoing Jewish Zionist Israel project in Palestine it completely muddies the waters of everything else you’re working on. IMMEDIATELY. It instantly polarizes everything else the world over.

    Case in point: The following video is making the rounds now. It’s about US plans for war with China. Brian Berletic, whose voice is drony like an AI thingamajig, makes the point that every conflict in the world comes back to the US-Rumsfeld plan to dominate the world. He then goes on to mention a number of conflicts, BUT HE MAKES NO MENTION WHATSOEVER OF ISRAEL:

    Here are both the video and his article so that you can indeed confirm that no mention whatsoever is made of the Palestine-Israel ‘conflict’ at all:

    https://rumble.com/v5ewv01-us-war-on-china-is-a-war-on-the-entire-world.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp

    https://journal-neo.su/2024/09/07/us-war-on-china-is-a-war-on-the-entire-world/

    Russia seems to disagree with Berletic, although they continue their own pathetic mixed messaging and weak-tea attitude towards what they officially refer to in very benign terms as ‘the conflict.’ This is intentional and carefully-crafted, as are all political statements and directives. Here’s what Russia’s Sergey Lavrov recently said:

    “The problem is that the United States is unwilling to let pass the resolutions that would seriously imply an end to the bloodshed which is what everyone wants. They have vetoed several resolutions promoted by our Arab colleagues, other Security Council members, and us.

    Several months ago, in May, the Americans submitted their own draft resolution, a vague and non-specific document. However, they said it was enough, Israel agreed with this approach, and everything would be fine.

    We asked them to provide evidence. We asked our Israeli colleagues to confirm that they agreed with what was written in the American document, but Israel refused to do so.”

    https://archive.ph/RjtcA#selection-1365.0-1371.171

    This very well illustrates the very convenient plausible deniability both sides can hide behind. So the interests are the same and they’re acting in concert? Well, let’s look just a little further:

    “I hope independent observers who are closely watching international developments and the way the United States and its satellites are doing everything possible, impossible, and unimaginable to stop the objective process of forming a multipolar, just, and democratic world order are clear about that.

    There is no such thing as a purely objective process, nor would you want there to be. This is people using the god of science and objectivity as a veneer. And ‘democratic world order’ is certainly not veribage conducive to ‘winning over’ hearts and minds.

    Anything with ‘world order’ IS NOT in the interest of ‘we the people.’ Period. End of story.

    I mean, they don’t even feign to humor us anymore. No one does. Not Russia, not China, not the US, not Brazil, not…

    But the larger point is this, and I’ll make it again using Sergey Lavrov’s own words, which frankly could have been generated by a computer, as could the entirety of his remarks:

    “We share common commitment to continuing close coordination at the UN and other multilateral platforms.”

    Let’s stop right here. The United Nations IS NOT a truly ‘multilateral’ platform, nor has it ever been. It was set up from the get-go as a facade. The most powerul member-states hold the most powerful cards.

    I understand the retort to this is something along the lines of, ‘Hey man, both Russia and China really want to reform the UN to in fact make it multilateral!’

    To which I respond: Bullshit.

    This and all other ‘world order’ type institutions should be entirely abandoned by other ‘peoples’ and remaining ‘nations’ and ‘states’ to start a new direction based on truly mutual, non-coercive relations.

    But Russia – and now global superpower China – are in no way, shape or form interested in doing this. There have never been ANY even remotely veiled wordings to that effect from either ‘nation.’

    And in the case of Russia specifically this goes all the way back to the seeds of these silly ‘world’ organizations back in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.

    Russia, the Soviet Union, and now Russia again have always been part and parcel of this, going back to the original League of Nations which the US NEVER JOINED because it was rightfully seen as the embodiment of and vehicle for what we are living in now.

    Lavrov continues, ‘We focused on the crisis situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone in light of the unprecedented escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip. We stand united with our Egyptian friends in calling for immediate ceasefire and providing urgent humanitarian assistance to the people of the enclave.’

    Uh, it’s much much more than simply an ‘escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip’ Sergey. And you know that.

    Why are you unable to state clearly that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is illegal under any pretense of ‘international law’ not to mention basic human moral decency? The ‘international community’ led by powerful states such as Russia and China should be calling for international sanctions on Israel and its funders around the world.

    Is Chabad Lubavitch et al a bit too powerful inside Russia, Sergey? Methinks so, because you sound weak and ineffective. Just as the Zionists, your masters, desire.

    Liked by 1 person

    Dan Kelly's avatar Comment by Dan Kelly | September 23, 2024 | Reply

  2. Walter Lippman was quite clear on what needs to happen to change this particular ‘zeitgeist.’ Lippman was a master propagandist and manipulator who was both lead editor of New York World and a leading correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

    Walter Lippman was also a prominent advisor to Woodrow Wilson. Wilson’s presidency included such regressive measures as entry into WWI after adamant election promises not to, and the establishment of both an income tax and, most regrettably of all: The Federal Reserve.

    Woodrow Wilson was branded and promoted as a progressive democrat.

    Here is Walter Lippman on how wars (politics by other means) achieve their ultimate objectives:

    ‘A war is only lost when one’s own territory is occupied by the enemy, the leading class of the defeated people is convicted in war trials and the defeated are subject to a re-education process. An obvious means of that is to implant the victor’s view into the minds of the defeated. It’s of decisive importance to transfer the ‘moral categories’ of the victor’s wartime propaganda into the consciousness of the defeated. Only when wartime propagada has found its way into the history books and is believed by succeeding generations – only then the re-education can be seen as successful.’

    Now, on wars: Please remember that they aren’t only waged in tangible space, on a ‘battlefied.’ They are waged mentally and emotionally every bit as much as physically. Even more so in fact. And while this softening up of ‘a people’ is often done before, during and after a physical war, it is also waged without any physical war in place, or on the horizon at all. It’s a means of control.

    So, I ask: Who is going to conduct war crimes trials on Israel and submit their people to a very necessary re-education process?

    Liked by 1 person

    Dan Kelly's avatar Comment by Dan Kelly | September 23, 2024 | Reply

  3. Does Israel depend entirely on the US for support? Is it an glorified US military base in Palestine as Chomsky likes to infer?

    Israel is supported by very wealthy individuals and organizations – primarily Jewish – the world over. This is made difficult to trace, thus any publicly available info doesn’t nearly tell the ‘whole story’ anyway.

    The publicly availble info that you can trace will show you how ‘Israel’ has integrated itself deep within the innards of powerful ‘states’ the world over such that the word ‘state’ or ‘nation’ has in all practical reality ceased to have any meaning at all.

    The obviously ‘self-hating’ and indeed thoroughly ‘antisemitic’ New York Jewish lawyer Henry Klein wrote in his book ‘Zionism Rules the World’ that:

    ‘The United Nations is Zionism. It is the super-government mentioned many times in the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, promulgated between 1897 and 1905.’

    https://ia902308.us.archive.org/28/items/zionism-rules-the-world-by-klein-henry-h.-z-lib.org-1/Zionism%20Rules%20the%20World%20by%20KLEIN%2C%20Henry%20H.%20%28z-lib.org%29-1.pdf

    https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/36151983

    Strobe Talbot was a mainstay from George McGovern to the Clintons and beyond. He had this to say to Time magazine back in 1992:

    ‘In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.’

    https://archive.ph/Pr0eC

    https://archive.ph/N5q60#selection-591.20-755.0

    promulgated between 1897 and 1905

    Just as sometime capitalist-sometime marxist Israel Lazarevich Gelfand/Helphand aka Alexander Lvovich Parvus had ‘predicted’ as early as 1895.

    Parvus was the most powerful influence on Lev Davidovich Bronstein, aka Leon Trotksy, as the latter himself stated definitively on multiple occasions – even after their alleged falling out.

    Parvus wrote a series of aptly titled ‘war and revolution’ articles for Iskra, later printed in his book Rossiia i revoliutsiia, which begins with an intriguing and rather prophetic, not to mention downright monstrous, declaration that ‘The Russo-Japanese war is the blood-red dawn of coming great events.’

    His protege Bronstein-Trotsky hailed from an immediate family of wealthy Jewish Russian landowners and was nephew to a one Abram Zhivotovsky who was another very wealthy Jewish Russian banker with international business ties.

    Trotsky was funded primarily by Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb and, a little later, Jacob Schiff. Kuhn and Loeb apparently didn’t know they were bankers…until they did:

    ‘Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb, in 1850, ran a general merchandise business in the pioneer community of Lafayette, Ind. As usual in newly settled regions, most transactions were on credit. Kuhn and Loeb soon realized that they were bankers.

    They gradually forgot about merchandise, prospered and moved east. In Cincinnati they got considerable help from the Civil War. By 1865 they were ready to move still farther east and retire. New York seemed to them an ideal place in which to pursue a life of leisure.’

    https://archive.org/details/newsweek07jannewy/page/n180/mode/1up?view=theater&q=kuhn+loeb+schiff [go to the second entry, p185, and click the bolded ‘Kuhn’ or ‘Loeb’ to open the article]

    Reporter ‘Cholly Knickerbocker’ (a collective pseudonym) writing in the New York American Journal of February 3, 1949 stated that,

    ‘Today it is estimated even by Jacob Schiff’s grandson, John Schiff, a prominent member of New York society, that the old man sank about $20,000,000 (about half a billion dollars today) for the final triumph of Bolshevism in Russia.’

    Continuing with the tantalizingly sick subject of Zionism and its intentionally fomented bloody red revolutions, let’s finish up with some forcefully revealing quotes from both Bronstein-Trotsky himself and The American Hebrew Magazine.

    These unbelievably barbaric words are from a speech ‘Leon Trotsky’ gave in Petrograd in December of 1917, as recounted by Aaron Simanovich in his memoirs published in Paris in 1922:

    ‘We must turn her (Russia) into a desert populated by white negroes upon whom we shall inflict such a tyranny as none of the most dreadful despots of the east have ever dreamt of. The only difference is that this tyranny will not come from the right, but from the left, and will not be white, but red, in the literal sense of that word, for we shall shed such streams of blood that all the losses of human lives in ‘capitalist’ wars will shrink and pale before them. The biggest bankers on the other side of the Atlantic will work in very close collaboration with us. If we win the Revolution, crush Russia, we shall consolidate the power of Zionism on her funeral remains and become such a force that the whole world will go down on its knees before it. We will show what real power is. Using terror, bloodbaths, we will reduce the Russian intelligentsia to a complete idiocy, to a bestial condition…

    And meanwhile, our youth in leather jackets – the sons of watchmakers from Odessa and Orsha, Gomel and Vinnitsa – oh how magnificently, how rapturously they are able to hate everything Russian! With what enjoyment they are destroying the Russian intelligentsia – officers, engineers, teachers, priests, generals, academicians, writers…’

    Sound familiar?

    Liked by 1 person

    Dan Kelly's avatar Comment by Dan Kelly | September 23, 2024 | Reply


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