By Michael Collins

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has his pretext for an attack on Iran. He left Washington disappointed by President Obama's reluctance to saddle up for Armageddon. Now he's got the formula.

Haaretz (daily news), one of Israel's few liberal media voices, linked Gaza based missile attacks on Israel to the presence of Iranian military experts. This fits nicely into the Netanyahu strategy. Here's how Haaretz reported events:

"Iran pressured Islamic Jihad and popular resistance groups in Gaza to continue firing rockets into Israel despite cease-fire, says high-ranking Jerusalem official.

"Iranian military experts are active in the Gaza Strip and in Sinai, according to a high-ranking official in Jerusalem. The official said the Iranians entered the areas via Sudan and Egypt, and added that some of the rocket-launching systems in Gaza were manufactured under Iranian supervision." Haaretz.com, March 19

The paper went on to say how shocked members of the Israeli left were with the overall theme of the article announcing a unified Israel in support of an attack on Iran.

Of course, any attack is so crazy on so many levels, it is exhausting to comprehend. Aside from the potential collapse of the world economy and the pervasive suffering, let's focus on a sure fired reason that the United States won't green light such a move.

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By Khalid Amayreh

The Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip two years ago, which lasted for three weeks, was pornographically criminal and graphically genocidal. Israel knowingly and deliberately targeted innocent civilians, including children, using state-of-the-art machines of death.

Entire families were simply exterminated at the pretext that a member was involved with the resistance. Homes, hospitals, mosques and other public buildings were obliterated. Even terrified and thoroughly terrorized people raising white banners were mercilessly riddled with bullets.

The sheer criminality of the Israeli army gave the impression that Israeli soldiers were probably trying to mimic Old Testament savagery by murdering men, women, and children, and by destroying and annihilating all that breathe!!

The genocidal onslaught on Gaza is sufficient to render Israel an illegitimate state. No state under the sun, Jewish or otherwise, should behave in such a nefarious manner and remain legitimate.

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DetainThis

Image © IfAmericansKnew (enlarge.)

Yesterday's media critique — "Who needs hasbara when you have AP 'analysis'?" — exposed a few major but subtle tendencies in Associated Press Israel-Palestine coverage that should leave no doubt who is buttering AP's bread. But just in case, the following is a point-by-point critique of today's "analysis" under the same byline: Steve Gutkin, bureau chief for the W. Jerusalem bureau. The report, "Analysis: US, Israel could coax Hamas to moderate," [1] opens:

Postwar Gaza could become a test of President Barack Obama's inauguration speech offer to Muslims to "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

Only, His Majesty wasn't directing that part of his collectivist hypocrisy toward "Muslims," as AP's own transcription shows:

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. [2]

Apparently to Gutkin, Muslims in general don't deserve "mutual interest and mutual respect" because they all "cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent." This subtle if unintentional tinge of Gutkin's Zionist colors sets the tone for the balance of his hasbara-laden U.S.-Israeli policy paper disguised as news analysis.

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DetainThis

"Israelis . . . see themselves as a besieged nation surrounded by enemies who want them dead. Given the rocket attacks from both Hezbollah and Hamas — and the suicide bombing campaigns that killed hundreds of Israelis — their fears are not misplaced.

"Many Israelis believe Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah and Hamas can never be diverted from their stated goal of eliminating the Jewish state no matter how much goodwill Israel might show." [1]

To a vast majority of readers, that excerpt is just a typical analysis from one of the world's largest, oldest, and most trusted news organizations. But to any honest person adequately versed in the contemporary history of Israel-Palestine, those two paragraphs are typical hasbara, a.k.a., Israeli propaganda. But it's actually both: it's the Israeli-centric analysis of Steve Gutkin, West Jerusalem bureau chief for The Associated Press.

Gutkin, like any hasbaranik, omits the most vital and basic facts: that Israel illegally and belligerently occupies and colonizes Palestinian land; that Israel has practically "eliminated" any chance for Palestinian self-determination; and that Israel is the regional superpower subsidized by the world's superpower and, thus, it is ridiculous to even entertain the notion of its being eliminated by army-less, navy-less groups. Under international law, the first fact legitimates violent Palestinian resistance. But AP is not bothered by legal and moral restraints — at least not the ones that restrain the allegedly-Jewish state.

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Link: http://detainthis.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/ap-is-lying-to-push-for-war-on-iran-again/

Imagine that a world leader was quoted as publicly saying: "Judging from recent trends, the neocon regime is not likely to survive in this region."

Now, imagine that a major news organization published a report based on that statement. What do you suppose the headline would say?

A) World leader: Neocon regime survival not feasible
-or-
B) World leader: Not feasible for US to exist

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