Washington is nervous the four-day military pause in Gaza could allow journalists to report the extent of the enclave’s devastation, further turning public opinion against Israel.
A rally in front of the White House in support of the Palestinian resistance to Israel, Oct. 8, 2023. (Ted Eytan, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a four-day ceasefire which will entail the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 150 hostages held by Israeli forces.
In an article titled “Biden admin officials see proof their strategy is working in hostage deal,” Politico describes the deal as “the administration’s biggest diplomatic victory of the conflict” and reports that White House officials are calling it a “vindication” of Biden’s decision making — which is an entirely inappropriate level of braggadoccio for an achievement as minimal as not murdering children for a few days (and which was really negotiated by Qatar).
Tucked away many paragraphs into this report is a sentence that is getting a lot of attention on social media saying that, according to Politico’s sources, there has been some resistance to the pause amid in-fighting within the administration due to fears that it will allow journalists into Gaza to report on the devastation Israel has inflicted upon the enclave. Politico reported:
“And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.”
The Biden administration worries that the pause in Gaza will allow journalists to show us the extent of destruction from Israel’s genocide. These people are vile. https://t.co/AsOBfVcJ3I pic.twitter.com/D3NxUsEPXY
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) November 22, 2023
In other words, the White House is worried that a brief pause in the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza will allow journalists to report the truth about the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza, because it will hurt the information interests of the U.S. and Israel. They are worried that the public will become more aware of facts and truth.
Needless to say, if you’re standing on the right side of history you’re not typically worried about journalists reporting true facts about current events and thereby damaging public support for your agendas.
But that is not the side that the U.S. and Israel have always stood on, which is why the U.S. empire is currently imprisoning Julian Assange for doing good journalism on U.S. war crimes and why Israel has a decades-long history of threatening and targeting journalists.
During Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza in 2021 the IDF reportedly targeted more than 20 Palestinian press institutions in the enclave, as well as the tower hosting the international outlets AP and Al Jazeera.
During this current onslaught Israel has been killing dozens of Palestinian journalists, sometimes by actively bombing their homes where they live with their families. The IDF’s campaign to wipe out inconvenient news reporters has resulted in the Committee to Protect Journalists calling this the deadliest conflict on record for journalists anywhere, ever.
“The spiralling death toll over a six-week period compares with the 42 journalists killed worldwide in the whole of 2022, including 15 who died covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, widely considered a highly dangerous conflict for news media.”https://t.co/u7JIA6VChZ pic.twitter.com/wg7DwLiFpj
— wsbgnl (@wsbgnl) November 21, 2023
Both the U.S. and Israel have been attacking the press in this way because their governments understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world.
They understand that while power is controlling what happens, ultimate power is controlling what people think about what happens. Human consciousness is dominated by mental narratives, so if you can control society’s dominant narratives, you can control humans.
This is why the powerful have been able to remain in power in our civilization — because they understand this, while we the public generally do not.
That’s why they bombard us with nonstop mass media propaganda, that’s why they work to censor the internet, that’s why Assange languishes in prison, that’s why Israel routinely murders journalists, and that’s why the White House is afraid of what will happen if worldwide news reporters are able to get their cameras into Gaza.
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This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Evidently the PBS Newshour is also afraid its viewers will see too much. Their Friday night “analysis” featured reliable establishment spokesman Jonathan Capehart, and substituting for Israeli David Brooks was Eliana Yael Johnson. Eliana was a hardcore Israeli spokesperson unabashedly pushing for genocide.
Other stories were doubling down on sympathy for Israel stories. There was no mention of the well-documented Zionist terrorism ongoing since 1948, slaughtering and terrorizing the Palestinians, stealing their homes and farms, and continuing the slow-motion genocide to this day.
It’s a tragic fate that has befallen the Newshour.
W/o a doubt, Caitlin Johnstone’s “On the Money!!!” The WH is hemorrhaging deception, destruction, death; hence, the ask, “Qatar, “Here’s the Deal,” Help! Release the Hostages & Nobody dies, tomorrow; but, after five days……”
Agreed, “POWER” gets its freak-on in “controlling what happens,” i.e., Qatar’s got control of who & when hostages will be released. Caitlin Johnstone hits the nail, precisely, on the head, “[The HOSTAGE DEAL] was really negotiated by Qatar.”
“Ultimate power is controlling what people think about what happens;” hence, Politico, a rabid, right wing, MSMedia publication pens, “The WH’s Biggest diplomatic victory of the conflict.” The temporary Prime Minister calls it, War. Nevertheless, POTUS pats himself on the back, declaring “ownership” of the negotiations, i.e., “We worked around the clock, to get the hostages released.” Joey R. Biden, “talking turkey,” from the Nantucket estate of David Rubenstein, Billionaire, Co-Founder of the Carlyle Group.
OCTOBER 13, 2023, “We’re working round the clock to deliver weapons to Ukraine.” Once again, Joey R. Biden, “The Eagle” yappin’ & yellin’, shuffli’n around, dragg’n a$$. His two right-wings, tattered, torn, and pissed on. The lasting memory, “The Eagle’s“ dazed, confused, glossed over, infected eyeballs, squinting while he shouts out, “Where am I?” Concluding, “a bird that is not flying, cannot discover where there is harvest.”
“Human consciousness is dominated by mental narratives,” Caitlin Johnstone. “so, IF” [the WH] can control society’s dominant narrative, [keep POTUS away from the public & a mic], control the narrative, consequently, “controlling humans.”………“Give me absolute control over every living soul & lie and beside me, baby; that’s an order!” Leonard Cohen, “The Future.”
“This is why the powerful have been able to remain in power, in our civilization-b/c they understand this, while we the public generally do not.” Caitlin Johnstone.
OUCH!!! This cuts deep.
– – – – *“Round here, we always stand up straight. Round here, something radiates. Round here, we talk just like lions; but, we sacrifice like lamb. Round here,” the “power“ to send in U.S. Marshals to arrest, indict, prosecute, incarcerate the “Powers That Be” aka POTUS, the Temporary Prime Minister, their War Chiefs and the U.S. Congress for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is NOT in our hands! “Round here, it’s slipping through our hands.”
“Round here,” the Divided $tates of Corporate America‘s POTUS, I$rael’s “Temporary” Prime Minister, their War Chiefs are reaping benefits of the “unintended consequence,” “a PAUSE,” in killing. Some Israeli & Thai hostages have been released. No Americans were released. Qatar resolves to release more hostages, details to be forthcoming. After 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 days, both sides will Refresh, Reload, Re-Trigger?!? It’s f.u.b.a.r., NOT “Paz En La Tierra.” Ciao.
*Counting Crows’ “Round Here” @ hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SAe3sCIakXo&pp=ygUZY291bnRpbmcgY3Jvd3Mgcm91bmQgaGVyZQ%3D%3D
Meanwhile, Oscar Pistorius, a convicted murderer, is being released from prison. Julian Assange, a convicted journalist (well, no, not really, but only because the powers that be don’t recognize journalism), can’t be released from being in prison for no reason . Meanwhile, we’re expected to shout hoorah to the continued killing of innocent children. Chilling. The stupidity of this kind of logic is no accident. Also, Little Bibi, the murderer of children, makes a Thanksgiving message to all English-speaking peoples advertising his cease-fire from killing children for a few days.
There’s this thing called a ‘thoughtform’. Basically, it’s when someone imagines up a thought, feeds it as much energy as they can, and tries to make it take form. The problem, in this particular case, is that the imagined thoughtform is so far removed from anything that could even possibly become reality, that it’s embarrassing and, well, simply not going to happen. What is going to finish happening is Israel and the US getting their asses kicked, again.
Roger Waters Poem of the Day
“Sheep”
“Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away;
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.
You better watch out,
There may be dogs about
I’ve looked over Jordan, and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.
What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes.
Now things are really what they seem.
No, this is no bad dream.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by.
With bright knives He releaseth my soul.
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places.
He converteth me to lamb cutlets,
For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger.
When cometh the day we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,
And then we’ll make the bugger’s eyes water.
Bleating and babbling I fell on his neck with a scream.
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.
Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you’re told.
Get out of the road if you want to grow old.”
— from the Pink Floyd album “Animals”, a collection of poems inspired by the George Orwell novel “Animal Farm”
Don’t bleat, master karate.
There is generally a perceptual chasm between those who derive their “news” from corporate media and those who seek factual sources, such as Consortium News or The Gray Zone. So it can be easy to half consciously assume others have a basic grounding in historical contexts and a fact-based world view that often is woefully absent. But, in the case of Israel’s cataclysmic attacks on Gaza, a shift in awareness has been happening. In part generational, as younger people – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – have slipped through the propaganda cracks. In part technological, with near instant access to information, sometimes before an overlay of ideological filtering has distorted it. Legacy media is now largely only appealing to people who grew up with rotary phones. While Israel’s fascist exhibitionism contrasted with it’s humanitarian posturing for the West {Netanyahu is trying to reduce casualties !} is risible for those not brainwashed by years of Hasbara echo-chamber media.
WHY??? show the ZIONISTS any consideration? All of israel is based on a lie.
I am grateful for your consistenly useful analysis of what’s going on.
I’m not optimistic that western media organizations will take advantage of the 4 day pause to send their “journalists” into Gaza, nor am I confident that if they do go in they will report the truth. Using Ukraine as a dismal example, western media “war correspondents” remain content to sit in cushioned chairs at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and act as stenographers for the Ukraine military. It is very unlikely that Israel and the Biden Administration will permit a single real journalist the freedom to walk around Gaza and have the freedom to interview remaining residents and take photographs of his choice.
Even so, some good is likely to come out of pause. Even on a filtered basis the sheer size of destruction will become apparent to some fence sitters in the United States and EU countries.
‘Western media’ only report what they are told to report.
The NYT should change their banner to read “All the News the CIA says is fit to print”.
The WP should change theirs to “Democracy Dies in Darkness. We Supply the Darkness.”
Although, I’m sure some progressive will try to tell me that we can change this if we would just write a letter to the editor.
The people who want to see the scale of the destruction, already see the scale of the destruction. This is why there are crowds chanting “Genocide Joe”. As Sinclair Lewis once observed, those who’s livelihoods depend on people not seeing the destruction, will continue to fail to see the destruction.
But, I wish people would drop this bizarre belief that the American media represents some form of ‘journalism’. That is the first lie that they tell you, and it is the lie that underlies and supports the rest of the lies. Nothing about CNN, FOX, NYT, WP, WSJ, NBC, ABC, etc, etc, etc is in any way related to ‘journalism’. They don’t report the news. They makeup the news Only the former is properly called ‘journalism’. The latter is the realm of Herr Goebbels.
Nickey Haley has said that as President she would support legislation to eliminate any anonymity for people posting on social media. No blowback that I read from our mainstream media.
The obvious, but never asked question for Haley, is would you support similar legislation against American news media in the use of “unnamed sources”. I see a close correlation.
The Zionists have broken the truce. Not Hamas, the Zionists. The IDF is firing at Palestinians going north in a attempt to return to their homes.
Xxxx://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2003_journalist_killings_by_the_United_States
Xxxx://theintercept.com/2015/10/07/a-short-history-of-u-s-bombing-of-civilian-facilities/
Xxxx://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/11/22/memo-bush-wanted-aljazeera-bombed/
And the WH would know all about that, wouldn’t they?