{"id":254814,"date":"2024-02-19T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=254814"},"modified":"2024-02-15T09:45:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T09:45:55","slug":"the-war-on-gaza-public-relations-vs-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/02\/the-war-on-gaza-public-relations-vs-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The War on Gaza: Public Relations vs. Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>14 Feb 2024<\/em> – For its victims, war is . . . yes, hell. For the rest of us \u2014 the onlooking and supportive patriots \u2014 war is an abstraction embedded in ignorance, a.k.a., public relations, served up for public consumption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be. The reality of war should never directly confront the official PR of those waging it. If it does, God help the war industry!<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what\u2019s happening now, as public support for U.S. complicity in Israel\u2019s devastation of Gaza diminishes, indeed, starts turning to outrage. Official spokesmen for the Biden administration, such as John Kirby<\/a>, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, are forced to start mixing apologetic language in with their unwavering support for the bombing and murder of civilians . . . excuse me, Israel\u2019s right to defend itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cCivilian deaths are happening, and happening at a rate that obviously we\u2019re not comfortable with,\u201d Kirby said in a New Yorker interview. \u201cBut,\u201d he quickly added, \u201cit doesn\u2019t mean that they are intentionally trying to wipe the people of Gaza off the map the same way that Hamas wants to wipe the Israeli people off the map.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wow, Israel\u2019s actions and official declarations of intent to obliterate Palestine are making the U.S. government uncomfortable. (But Hamas is still the bad guy.) Oh, if only fragments of actual truth about the war could penetrate such an interview. For instance:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it was mostly \u2014 I mean, the majority of the patients that I treated were children, anywhere from the age of 2 to 17. I mean, I saw horrific eye and facial injuries that I\u2019ve never seen before, eyes shattered in two 6-year-old children with shrapnel that I had to take out, eyes with shrapnel stuck inside, facial injuries. I saw orthopedic injuries where \u2014 you know, limbs just cut off and dangling. I saw abdominal injuries that were just horrific. And it was just mass chaos. There were children on the floor, unattended to, with head trauma, people suturing patients without anesthesia on the ground. It was just mass chaos and really horrific, horrific scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speaker is Dr. Yasser Khan<\/a>, a Canadian ophthalmologist recently back from a humanitarian mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, near Rafah. He was interviewed by Democracy Now! I wish John Kirby could have been there.<\/p>\n

The hospital, he said, was \u201cabout 300, 400 percent over capacity. There was patients and bodies lying all over the hospital floor, inside and outside. They had orthopedic devices coming from their legs or their arms. They were getting infected, they were in pain, because they were on the floor, so the conditions weren\u2019t very sterile. And if they survived amputation the first time, the infection would get them . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

His words go on and on. OK, you (I mean Kirby) might say, this is war. People get hurt. But Israel has to \u201cdefend itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is self-defense?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have killed over 300 or 400 healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, paramedics. Ambulances have been bombed. This has all been a systematic sort of \u2014 you know, by destroying the healthcare system, you\u2019re contributing to the genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan also notes: \u201cThey\u2019ve attacked the sewage system, the water system, so the sewage mixes with the drinking water. And you get diarrheal diseases, bacterial diseases. You know, cholera, typhoid is not far away. Hepatitis A is epidemic there now. They\u2019re living in cramped spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it gets even more insane: \u201cWhat\u2019s going on is now there\u2019s 10,000 to 15,000 bodies that are decomposing. So, it\u2019s raining season right now in Gaza. So all the rainwater mixes with the decomposing bodies, and that bacteria mixes with the drinking water supply, and you get further disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has the right to defend itself. But come on, guys, be a little bit more careful. Kill fewer children. Try not to poison the water. You might say this is public relations with a limp. Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice<\/a> has ordered Israel to \u201crefrain\u201d from taking action that could be considered genocidal and, good God, \u201ctake measures to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians in the enclave,\u201d as Reuters reports.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s war itself \u2014 regardless of \u201cintent\u201d \u2014 that is causing this hell. The act of war, the weapons of war, the political-economic structure of the globe that is based on endless war and domination, seems never to face serious condemnation, at least not in any official sense. But if we feed war, we feed hell.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there\u2019s one bit of recent news about a challenge to the global war industry, and its public relations perpetrators, that isn\u2019t simply a scream from the political margins or cries from the victims. It\u2019s the Transatlantic Civil Servants\u2019 Statement on Gaza<\/a>, a statement, released on Feb. 2, signed by more than 800 civil servants from the United States, the European Union and about a dozen European countries, declaring: \u201cIt Is Our Duty To Speak Out When Our Governments\u2019 Policies Are Wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement declares the Gaza pummeling \u201cone of the worst human catastrophes of this century.\u201d And it calls on its countries to halt all military support to Israel and use their leverage \u201cto secure a lasting ceasefire and full humanitarian access in Gaza and a safe release of all hostages\u201d and \u201cdevelop a strategy for lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strategy for lasting peace? That\u2019s another way of calling for an end to war. It\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robert C. Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based peace journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, <\/em>Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press) is still available. Contact him at <\/em>koehlercw@gmail.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 commonwonders.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Feb 2024 – For its victims, war is . . . yes, hell. For the rest of us, war is an abstraction embedded in ignorance, a.k.a., public relations, served up for public consumption. At least that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":122360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[867,417,101,2797,87,865,1126,1050,88,2571,427,372,99,70,481],"class_list":["post-254814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tms-peace-journalism","tag-anglo-america","tag-bullying","tag-cultural-violence","tag-culture-of-war","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-israel","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-palestine","tag-propaganda","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254818,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254814\/revisions\/254818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}