VIEWPOINT / ON ONE SIDE OF THE FENCE JOY AND DANCING. ON THE OTHER MISERY, DESPAIR AND HOPELESSNESS.

THEN THE FURY OF HATRED AND HELL IS UNLEASHED.

By W. Timothy Carrico Weaver, Ph.D.

This genie won’t ever go back in the bottle. Gaza was and remains a powder keg ready to ignite. The killing and savagery are unbidden by any trace of humanity. It’s as though a caged and ever seething beast broke is bonds and struck out at every living creature with a human face. I cry for this wretched place. I have no solutions, only dread that my lifetime will pass with no peace in the great land of peace and forgiveness.

Now, I feel a sense of Deja vu. The lead up to the US invasion of Iraq went on for some time with cable and network news organizations colluding with government officials to create the impression that any form of retribution against Saddam and the Iraqi people was justified. It was a master class in propaganda with constantly repeated claims that Saddam was evil and would blow up the world. The cherry on the top was Colin Powell addressing the UN in prime time. He repeated the repeated.

Now, we are being conditioned by the repetition of horrifying images and personal testimonials from the anguished victims’ families. Israeli and American spokes persons are using language that increasingly sounds like a justification to exterminate Hamas— “it is a zero-sum game; “it’s us or them.” “We have to eliminate them.” The irony of all ironies. Those who suffered the world’s most outrageous infliction of hell are now saying we must do the same to save ourselves. Repeated use of the word, “animal” is a key preparation for what is to come.

Fox, CNN, and MSNBC are of one voice. There is no pretense of balanced news. PBS News Hour is the exception. The key argument is that “there is no other side”. This was so horrific we are justified in using horrific means to eliminate the threat. This convincing shaming of the mere mention of another side has acted to drown out any discussion of the Palestinian plight. The mention of said gets a forceful rejoinder: how can you even think about the Palestinians when we’ve been savaged by animals, when our babies have been decapitated?

American public support is essential in the buildup for actions our close ally will take to “eliminate” the Hamas threat. Any degree of savagery inflicted by bombs, missiles, tanks, cannons is acceptable because savagery was inflicted upon our allies. When state actors inflict the horrors of war on a populace, they inevitably try to justify it by convincing their constituents it was the only option and, though the deaths are just as brutal and final, we’ve shown mercy and restraint by abiding by the rules of war.

Few commentators are addressing it but the worldwide fascistic movement in Europe and the US is not unrelated to events unfolding in Israel. The upsurge in Jewish attacks everywhere and anti-Semitic rhetoric accompanied by direct and indirect condoning and even promoting by government officials must be seen as part of this tragedy. When the US President asserted there were good people on either side during the pogrom-like marches in Charlottesville, he was saying those chanting, “Jews will not replace us”, are good people.

A climate ripe for a massacre by terrorists will lead to a terroristic massacre.

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