The other day I caught Robby Price on the Family Life Network express surprise (even irritation) at the notion that the US was spying on Israel. This was in reference to the leaked plans of Israel's coming attack on Iran - which is now underway. The US had satellite data and other intelligence tracking just what Israel was putting together for the attack - that is assuming it wasn't a deliberate and misleading leak. Of course the American's are privy to this information anyway and have sent one hundred US troops to Israel with missile defense batteries in preparation - yet another escalation of the growing Middle Eastern War.
It would not be uncommon for the US to collect independent intelligence and then compare this with what the Israeli government actually reports to them. The US frequently spies on its own allies and vice versa - this is especially true when it comes to Israel which most certainly has extensive operations in the United States. Tel Aviv is pursuing enemies, gathering information, lobbying, manipulating, and looking for any sign that the US might not be fully on their side. Most recently there has been evidence to suggest Israeli agents have been involved in gathering data on campus protesters and trying to disrupt their activities. Needless to say, Israel has great interest in US media and how events there are reported. Clearly, the Israeli viewpoint dominates as the US population is ignorant. More on this in a moment.
It is also well known the US keeps a close eye on Israel's nuclear activities and its arsenal. From the US standpoint, given the fact that if Israel is entangled in a war, it will certainly include the United States - as such Washington wants as much information as possible and in a timely manner. Additionally, there's quite a sordid history regarding the Israeli bomb and the acquisition of fissile material from a facility north of Pittsburgh in the 1960's as well as it's later nuclear collaboration with South Africa in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Israel helped South Africa develop its nuclear weapons and the Apartheid government reciprocated with materials and testing grounds. Whether this was done with tacit US approval or under Washington's nose is an open question.
Apparently the self-described 'newshound' Bob Price is ignorant of all this as well as the Jonathan Pollard incident or say, Lawrence Franklin passing DoD documents to AIPAC. There have been many more. Price it would seem is unaware of the Snowden revelations regarding extensive US spying on the German government and other allies. There's a long history here. Price frequently notes that he just loves history. I'm guessing he loves the History Channel or maybe some Bill O'Reilly books but that's about the extent of it. His ignorance is palpable and his news coverage is amateur to say the least - riddled with mistakes, mispronunciations, and the like. A lot of them are inconsequential things like confusing Budapest with Bucharest, but it just demonstrates a lack of basic familiarity with the topics and even general aptitude. One wonders then how this squares with his network's assertions that they report the news from a 'Christian Worldview'. Given the levels of misinformation and at times disinformation and the general bumbling and lack of accuracy, such a claim is sobering. Does he not think that he will give account for this? I suppose in the cheap grace world of Evangelicalism, the answer would be 'no'.
Additionally he automatically employs the 'we' and 'us' pronouns when referring to the United States and in particular the actions of the government and military. This just fosters and reinforces the dominant confusion among Evangelicals between their Christian and American identities and that of America and the Kingdom.
Due to the prevalence of Dispensational Theology, Israel is given special treatment and the coverage is slanted and misleading - an affront to truth and the ethics of the New Testament.
But the US Establishment isn't much better - case in point Marco Werman on PRX's The World. While interviewing Amir Tibon the 'General's Plan' was mentioned - which took me by surprise. Like the Hannibal Directive, this is openly discussed in international media and even in Israel itself, but is virtually never mentioned in mainstream US coverage. The General's Plan involves deliberate war crimes... forcing (by means of notification) large segments of the population out of regions of Gaza. The reasoning is that those who deliberately choose to remain must be Hamas and then the plan is to block all aid, all food and water, etc. - to eradicate the remaining population in a one-two punch of siege/starvation and a kind of free fire/extermination zone akin to what the US did at times in Vietnam.
Israel of course will insist that those who remained aren't civilians but rather Hamas - and are thus exempt from such legal protections. The US used similar arguments in Vietnam as they massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians.
This is faulty reasoning on the part of Israeli thinkers and constitutes exactly the kind of war crimes the Nazis were condemned for at Nuremberg. And once again we've seen how Israel plays - they force the refugees into camps like Jabalia - and then proceed to bomb the camp insisting Hamas is there. And so it could be said the reasoning isn't actually faulty but just a case of deceptive rhetoric. The plan is eradication - genocide. They're simply hiding their objectives by means of dressing them up with fake justifications and under the fig leaf of strategic planning and careful deliberation.
The people who remain in Northern Gaza are not Hamas - they're refusing to flee to places like Jabalia because every time Israel says 'go here' - they're bombed. But if they stay put, they're labeled as Hamas. They're to be starved to death and those that don't die will be hunted down by patrols - which are tantamount to death squads. If it was Poland in 1939, they'd call them Einsatzgruppen.
It's clear that Netanyahu and his fascist allies want Gaza cleansed and re-colonized by Israel. In other words this is a quest for Lebensraum hid in a morass of smoke-and-mirrors language and tactics. The Likud-led coalition is literally fascist and in a case of truth being stranger than fiction, their ideology and actions are akin to and apparently inspired by the same monsters who slaughtered Jews during World War II.
The journalist Amir Tibon mentioned the plan and at one point called it the 'starvation policy' - for that's what it is. This is reiterated at about 5:30 in the interview. A starvation policy is clearly a war crime that would land other politicians and military leaders in the ICC and would (if acknowledged) create a legal tangle for the US government and its sponsorship of this plan. Blinken was just there and is clearly complicit in this as it's openly acknowledged that this General's Plan has been implemented - on an 'experimental' basis. Werman (the host) heard this language and yet did not ask for clarification or seek an explanation. He chose to move on to the next part of the interview - rehashing Israel's larger goals. It is thus revealed that he's not a journalist - he's a corrupt hack, more concerned with his paycheck and pleasing his sponsors than adhering to any kind of principle or exhibiting any degree of integrity.
Please note this was not a case of refusing to cover the story - which is common enough. In this case his actions can only be described as covering up or rather covering for Israeli actions. The pro-Israel reporter went off script and yet no worries - Marco Werman has it covered. The media is complicit and playing an active role in keeping the truth from the public and (along with the government) they are hiding the fact that the US is being pulled into a larger regional war.
Can you even imagine if Russia did this - how it would be covered?
These media outlets couldn't be more different - both evidencing corruption but from different angles. The FLN example is made worse by the fact that it's not a serious news channel and that it claims to be Christian but is not. The heresy of Dispensationalism and the Consequentialism of Evangelical ethics have combined to create a situation in which the Church is not just turning a blind eye to evil but actively supporting it.
The big lesson when reflecting on The World and similar outlets like the BBC and American media is that they cannot be trusted. Given these examples, why should we trust them when it comes to Syria, Iran, Russia, or China? The truth is we shouldn't and while there are many blatant and egregious examples of disinformation out there, in the end these outlets that crow about their reliability and integrity are found to be corrupt as well and untrustworthy. This bit about Israeli war crimes is a huge story and yet The World doesn't want to venture down those paths. Its corporate sponsors wouldn't like it. It would lose its access to all the officials and connected people that are interviewed on the show. That's fine but then it can't be taken seriously - it's mouthpiece news at best, stories that represent the perspective and interests of the Corporate Establishment. They can mock RT all they want but the difference is at best one of degree not of kind.
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