By: Peter Chamberlin
Israel has held a unique position among “civilized” nations, in that it has been allowed to control the international debate about itself and its treatment of the controlled Palestinian territories, by forcing diplomats and the Western press to use a special vocabulary of redefined words. Here is where Israeli “Hasbara,” the official government crafted version of events, comes into play. Hasbara defines its own “reality,” meant for consumption by the Goy world, intending to give the impression that Israel wants conveyed.
Consider the propaganda effort by the IDF to pass-off an attack video of an Israeli missile striking a truck full of oxygen tanks as militants unloading Qassam rockets.
A video grab released by the Israeli Defence Force and broadcast on Sky News shows an Israeli warplane targeting a truck on December 30, 2008 at an unknown location in the Gaza strip.
Photo: AFP
The Israelis obviously knew that they were watching bottles being rolled out of a flatbed, not winged rockets, yet they thought that Western yokels would be convinced otherwise by their Wall Street PR campaign. The entire publicity campaign to sell the war which was being planned for six months, as a Zionist war “reaction” to Palestinian “missiles” (missile implies guidance) stinks to high Hasbara!
There is no place on the earth quite like Israel/Palestine among all of the so-called “democratic nations.” One half of the state of forced union pretends to be the Western bastion of civilization itself, the very hands of the empire. The other half of the bi-state is democratic as well, but, for that very reason, it is seen as an outcast, a pariah among nations. The Palestinian people mistakenly thought that the West would tolerate a true democratic expression there, a forbidden sign of hope in a land defined by the repressed parameters of the “Iron Wall” which contains it. The election of Hamas was justification for a war of attrition and a campaign of military harassment that was indistinguishable from actual war.
The leaders of the international community accepts Israel’s current invasion of Gaza, even though the citizens of the world overwhelmingly reject it. World leaders justify the brutal Israeli invasion as a reaction to “barrages” of Palestinian rockets. They embrace the inflated Israeli claims of danger and terror associated with these homemade over-sized toys as justification for the hi-tech slaughter we see today in Gaza.
(SEE INFO ON QASSAM ROCKETS AT ARTICLE’S END)
The very existence of the Hamas government in Gaza is translated into justification for the blockade of Gaza, the seizing of Palestinian offshore gas deposits, the denial of basic rights, the policies of harassment, the daily beatings, torture and organized attacks.
The international community accepts that Israel has some sort of “free pass” to dehumanize this captive population in this manner, while the “civilized” nations have no right to criticize the “Jewish state,” or to even speak-up on behalf of the abused. The world dares not question, except in hushed voices, the cruel inhumanity of a people who would use the world’s most advanced offensive weapons upon a civilian population for the sake of stealing their land, while laying claim to the mantle of God Himself. The world is afraid to face the answer to that question, afraid to find-out that the people we thought of as “the chosen” were no different than other state murderers we had faced in the past.
Israeli war crimes are not really “war crimes” because of this accepted international double standard accorded the state of Israel, oppression is not “oppression,” terrorism is something else entirely. This double standard permits the practice of behavior that would clearly be labeled as “fascist” or “Nazi-like,” if committed by any other state. If world leaders ever called Israel to task for its actions, it would be charged with “crimes against humanity” and expelled from the United Nations and all organizations which are based on humanitarianism and the rule of law.
Israeli barbarity and deception should be acknowledged and used as a standard for judging national relations with the Jewish state. If it is believed that the brutal immorality of the people doing the slaughtering in Gaza is reason enough to question all relations with them then, one-by-one, all alliances with Israel can be challenged by the popular resistance.
As the assault of Gaza becomes a ground offensive, the true nature of the “most moral army in the world” will become more and more apparent. This offensive is different from previous ones, in that this is to be the final solution to the “Palestinian problem,” meaning that it will not end until the ideas of resistance within the Palestinians are pushed out. It will continue to grow in area and intensity until Obama takes office, or Hezbollah and Iran take the bait and enter the war to defend the defenseless population. This rape of Palestine will soon be forgotten in the series of escalations that will surely follow this one. We are in the beginning days of the impending “testing” that Joe Biden so presciently blurted-out:
“Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy…
we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”
Just as Americans can be counted on to overlook the Israeli start of this war escalation which began on Nov. 4, election day (before “Hamas broke the ceasefire” with the rockets), with the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the killing of six Palestinians, we can be counted on to forget that Israel started world war III, just as it started the war of terror. The firing of dozens of homemade rockets into the mostly uninhabited desert, just like the destruction of a couple of American skyscrapers, is not how the war really started. In truth, both wars began long before the triggering events, in the planning of the war and the planting of militants in key locations, where they could open the floodgates and release the raging apocalypse.
Qassams-Rockets or Missiles?
NOT a Qassam!
Palestinians or agents provocateurs?
The highly inaccurate unguided projectiles have a maximum range of ten miles, and a maximum payload (at closer range) of 10 kg., approximately 22 pounds. Sderot is the only sizeable Israeli colonist/”settler” outpost within range. If Israel had not planted this Jewish colony within eyesight of the Palestinians the rockets would be meaningless. As it is, the rockets are more a psychotic form of “dialogue” than they are an actual threat to thousands of people. Ashkelon has been hit by a few of the more efficient rockets, but in reality, it is only within range of Grad and Katyusha rockets (actual military rockets smuggled in).
Most Qassams end-up sticking out of the desert sand.
If they actually strike a man-made object, they usually crumple-up and bounce-off.
The gerry-rigged warheads are very ineffective, carrying insignificant force, when compared to an actual military explosive.
Notice massive blast craters?
The Seven Nozzle Configuration on A Kassam Rocket
The propellant in these rockets is based on a 60/40 mixture of Potassium Nitrate and sugar. The final solid fuel grain is of a square cross section (see fig. 2), burning both from the outside and the inside. This grain is sized so that its diagonal fits into the inside diameter of the motor casing. The aft bulkhead, containing the nozzles, is then screwed on and a few spot welds are applied to prevent unscrewing. At best this is a dangerous procedure but apparently they do get away with it.
A Solid Fuel Grain for A Kassam Rocket
Video of a Qassam workshop:
Here is a Palestinian-produced video, meant to demonstrate the prowess of rocketeers and intimidate the viewer:
Pretty impressive, until you compare it to the reality of the real firepower of real Israeli/American missiles. The following video is of the MRLS (multiple rocket launch system), which the IDF has hundreds of:
Qassams are toys!
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