As the U.S. and its Western allies lurch into a new and dangerous confrontation with Russia, the different sides don’t even have a thorough understanding of the history behind the tensions, warns Alice Slater.
By Alice Slater
NATO’s recent provocative decision to build up its military forces across Europe — by sending four new multinational battalions to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland — comes at a time of great turmoil and intense questioning of global security with new forces for both good and evil straining to make their mark on the course of history.
A nuclear test detonation carried out in Nevada on April 18, 1953.
This weekend, at the Vatican, Pope Francis held an international conference to follow up on the recently negotiated treaty to prohibit the possession, use, or threat of use of nuclear weapons leading to their complete elimination which was negotiated in the United Nations General Assembly this summer by 122 nations, although none of the nine nuclear weapons states participated.
Honored at the conference were members of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which worked with friendly governments to hold nuclear weapons unlawful, and has recently been awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its successful efforts.
The Pope issued a statement that the doctrine of nuclear deterrence in which countries threaten to wreak catastrophic nuclear devastation on their opponents should they be attacked with nuclear bombs has become ineffective against Twenty-first Century threats like terrorism asymmetrical conflicts, environmental problems and poverty. While the church once held that such an insane policy could be moral and lawful, it no longer views it as such. And there are plans for the church to examine the so-called theory of “just war” with an eye to prohibiting the very morality and legality of war itself.
In the U.S., an unprecedented examination of our hidden history has begun. People are questioning the numerous honorary statues memorializing Civil War generals from the South who fought to preserve slavery. Indigenous First Peoples are questioning the adulation given to Christopher Columbus, who “discovered” America for Spain and was responsible for enormous slaughters and bloodshed of natives in the first colonies established in the Americas. Famous and powerful men are being questioned in an avalanche of truth-telling about how they used their professional power to take sexual advantage of women who feared for their career prospects in theater, publishing, business, academia.
Need for Truth about U.S. and Russia
Unfortunately we have barely begun to tell the truth about the U.S. relationship with Russia and appear to be moving backwards in the U.S. with calls for RT, formerly Russia Today, the Russian equivalent of the BBC or Al Jazeera, to be registered in the U.S. as a foreign agent. This is certainly not consistent with the U.S. belief in the sanctity of a free press and will be challenged in the courts.
President Reagan meeting with Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev at the Soviet Mission during the Geneva Summit in Switzerland, Nov.20, 1985. (Photo from Reagan presidential library)
Indeed, there is a huge effort to misrepresent the provocations of NATO, to gloss over the history of the nuclear arms race– the refusal to take up Mikhail Gorbachev’s offer to Ronald Reagan to eliminate all their nuclear weapons provided the U.S. gave up its plans to dominate and control the use of space; the expansion of NATO despite President George H.W. Bush’s promises to Gorbachev that NATO would not go any further eastward beyond a unified Germany after the wall fell; Bill Clinton’s rejection of Vladimir Putin’s offer to cut arsenals to 1,000 nuclear weapons each and call all the parties to the table to negotiate for their elimination provided the U.S. didn’t put missiles in Eastern Europe; Clinton leading NATO into the unlawful bombing of Serbia, ignoring Russia’s veto of the action in the U.N. Security Council; George W. Bush walking out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; the blocking of consensus in the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva to start negotiations on a Russian and Chinese proposal, made in 2008 and again 2015, to ban weapons in space.
Ironically, in light of the recent NATO announcement that it will expand its cyber operations, the U.S. rejection of Russia’s 2009 proposal to negotiate a Cyberwar Ban Treaty after the U.S. boasted of having destroyed Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity with Israel using the Stuxnet virus in a cyber-attack seems like a gross misjudgment on the part of the U.S. not to have taken Russia up on its proposal.
Indeed, the whole nuclear arms race might have been avoided, if Harry Truman and Josef Stalin could have agreed on a satisfactory arrangement for putting this devastating weapon under U.N. control at the end of World War II. Instead, the U.S. retained control of the technology, and the Soviet Union developed its own bomb.
Now we are entering a New Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Perhaps the only way to understand this deterioration of U.S.-Russian relationship is to remember President Eisenhower’s warning in his 1961 farewell address about the military-industrial complex. The arms manufacturers, with billions of dollars at stake, have corrupted U.S. politics, media, academia and Congress.
U.S. public opinion is manipulated to support war and “blame it on Russia.” Meanwhile, the so-called “War on Terror” is a recipe for more terrorism. Like throwing a rock on a hornet’s nest, the U.S. sows death and destruction around the world killing innocent civilians in the name of fighting terrorism and thus invites more terror.
Russia, which lost 27 million people to the Nazi onslaught of World War II, may have a much better understanding of the horrors of war. Perhaps we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reveal the causes and provocation of the historic tensions between the U.S. and Russia. After all, in other spheres, we seem to be entering a new time of truth-telling. And what could be more welcome and important than an honest presentation of the U.S.-Russian relationship over the past century to further better understanding and a peaceful resolution of our differences. With the looming environmental climate catastrophe and the possibility of destroying all life on earth with nuclear devastation, shouldn’t we give peace a chance?
Alice Slater serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by JJ Mearsheimer does provide a lens.
I am sorry, I do not wish to be rude or insulting to this writer this is widespread throughout journalism, but I am really tired of hearing what I believe is a shallow, misleading and just lazy analysis about a “new cold war.” There is no such “history repeating itself” taking place and current circumstances do not receive proper examination because other more careful analysis is shunted aside – Oh, it’s just the “cold war” all over no need for further thinking – just same ol’ same ol’ — how tragic for the prospect for understanding and movement toward solutions.
The Imperial US has trillions of dollars in military equipment including thousands of nuclear weapons encircling both China and Russia. It is bullying and threatening China in the South China Sea and planing to put nuclear tipped cruse missals in Eastern Europe. The US led Empire is continuing with its foreign policy goal of “Global full spectrum domination.” which was established August 6, 1945 and continues to today. For the past 72+ years starting in Italy, the US has slaughtered innocent people all over the world EVERY SINGLE DAY. What’s so cold about that?
The idea of “history repeating itself” isn’t meant to be interpreted in strictly fundamentalist terms – it applies to themes and lessons from history, and not (necessarily) the same (exact) course of events. I believe that this is what George Santayana meant when he said that “Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
For example: Napoleon invaded Russia, with catastrophic results (as I recall, about 90% of his troops were killed from start to finish). The Nazis attempted to do the same, with similar results. The lesson not learned was to not underestimate the cold Russian winter, to understand the geography of the region to be invaded, and to have an adequate supply line, as well as an intelligent exit strategy. The concept of history repeating itself need not necessarily apply to an invasion of Russia, per se (though very few other countries have the same set of potential circumstances, but that’s besides the point.)
The designation of a “New Cold War” applies mainly to the rise of a non-militaristic hostile environment between the U.S. and Russia, which is being perpetrated and propagated by the globalist elite. In the way it’s often interpreted, at least as far as I can tell, it’s not really meant so much to suggest that the same events will play out all over again, as much as it’s a marketing ploy designed to draw attention to the so-called Russia issue.
It appears I may have undermined my own point in the example – the events were not exactly the same, but they were nevertheless too similar. There are other examples from history that could be cited, which can be used to explain how a lack of military preparedness and lack of geographical understanding can doom a military campaign – the ancient invasion of Rome by Carthiginian forces while employing elephants, without factoring in the logistical difficulty of navigating through the Alps, for instance.
In regard to “stumbling blindly into war” listen to podcast #13 from Citations Needed: https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/ep-13-the-always-stumbling-us-empire
LOCKHEED IS NOT THAT BLIND!!
For details read William Hartung’s excellent book
PROPHETS OF WAR….
From policy to profit (for Lockheed and others).
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
8582
Do you utilize a pay~pal account.. in case you do you can make an extra 650 /week to your account working at home for a few hours each day, check out this site
I think that it would be extremely beneficial for all parties to sit down in talks and come to some agreement. It would be a catastrophic war and think about the children that would lose their lives and possibly their mothers or fathers….It’s not acceptable to thru the excuse of war to determine someone else’s life. We all need to play nice in the sandbox………..
Interesting little bit of gloating from the Israel propaganda site debka:
This is a sweet deal for Holy Israel. They’ll demand most or all of the billions of bribe money up front, of course. Lull the Saudis that they’re REALLY on their side – which in fact they may be! – but there is the option of hanging Saudi Arabia out to swing slowly in the breeze. The announced intelligence sharing agreement just got a motive so far as I’m concerned.
Best of all, Israel can play innocent bystander – Saudi Arabia Started It. Poor little Israel is only defending itself when it bombs the bejeebers out of Lebanon.
The Pope and the church have, in part, become an institution, as opposed to some nebulous intellectual and spiritual theocracy . Speaking a Christian (myself), the Church finds itself ever so gradually, merging with western government policy, propaganda, politics and that despised word-globalisation. Examples; encyclicals on climate change, warfare and aggression, wealth disparity and so on… may easily evolve into a Russian Federation-Russian Orthodox church alignment (scary). Another institution this article points to are the war-footing, command economies of the western Occident, that began during WW I I and continues unabated, albeit in disguised forms, up to this very day. The aforementioned institution, was a creation of Mussolini, granting sovereign and privileged status to the Vatican City State. The second institution was raised up and preserved by rifle fire, an organized and well planned series of assassinations of JFK and RFK, MLK. These murders were contrived by the ultra-right wing Pentagon and CIA ” rogue elephants” , to fashion a, new world order, long before the concept became a popular phrase. In any case, the Rothschilds, Farben, Rockefeller, Mellon, Soros, Stamp, Brown & Root, Et AL'(s) of this world, those who instigated W W I I and soon enough, W W I I I, NEVER, at any time, stumbled blindly into a war-footing economy or into “cold-war(s)”. Their business portfolio’s are both well hidden with detailed, long range planning, sometimes with fifty to one hundred year projections. Today, the International Corptocracy goal(s) are becoming ever more obvious to citizens, everywhere. Those nations not subject to western fiat currencies and thus cannot be subdued for purposes of commodity extraction, intellectual property theft et cetra, Shall be designated as “the enemy”. The flag hoisted, the political or religious persuasions, the diplomatic skills, are all just window dressing. The almighty dollar and corporate exploitation, Rule Supreme!! To wit, the Japanese Diet (parliament) has it’s communist party wing, the German’s, their unbreakable organized labor, Finland and Sweden, true social democracies and China-the biggest “red party” Commie leadership and numbers since the 1917 revolution, but in each case, the hidden international corporation, it’s (Ober) hand, rules the roost, border less, lawless, hidden…. So it has come to pass, that the Africans and South American countries have been repeatedly raped (commodities) , other treasures pilfered, even during the USSR’s fall, Russia underwent this capital flight carnage by the West for a while-but no more! If a country cannot be controlled, or it’s resources have been exhausted or proves too strong militarily, they will be left behind and thrown into total chaos, this future thesis is real, outlined by those very much in the know such as, Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski, or surf the internet for- the new world of the haves and have not’s. Those who are included and excluded, by visiting web sources that reference the phrase; non-integrating gap countries by Thomas P.M. Barnett…ugh! No stumbling what-so- ever folks, it’s a contract on our collective futures and therefor, war will be guaranteed !
And I guess the Pope’s broadside against capitalism is part of some devious plan to promote it?? Maybe you have not read his encyclicals?
mike k..there’s nothing capitalistic about corporate welfare and a US economy preoccupied with making arms and selling them, or just dumping them in the worlds hot spots. Instigating frictions between cultures, religions and ethnic groups, all funded by diverting our sorely needed infrastructure tax dollars and or illegal narcotics peddling (CIA) has little to do with those carefully crafted Vatican diatribes and encyclicals-. It’s all old stuff and as a body of works, fail to seriously address our lopsided military economy. Nor does the Pope directly address corporate welfare funded by taxes gleaned from the middle and lower income brackets (a condition though out the western Occident) . You don’t read through those tiresome Vatican spiels, you wade through them with hip boots. Old stuff like, we need more peace in the world, the world is warming up, pollution is bad, ongoing abortion issues, another yawn, the rights of individuals must be a global commitment and so on- Got an insomnia problem? go ahead read through them all!
Concise and very well-done article on the aggression and Russophobia on the part of the U.S. However, in light of some recent (and not so recent) developments, I despair for the future of humanity, in a time where news corporations and journalists are profiting from the stupidity of the masses, who seem to care more about scandalous gossip than the truth.
Whatever drives up the ratings and generates profit becomes the new norm. And yet somehow, simultaneously, people also trust the media less than ever before. I find these two factors, while they could co-exist, seemingly at odds with each other. I’m guessing that the lines are becoming more strictly defined.
I should add, though, that the article does have a critical flaw, which others have pointed out – the strategic architects that are drawing us closer towards WW3 are most certainly not doing so “blindly” , as suggested. It would certainly appear that way to the casual observer, though.
Perhaps the “blindness: referred to relates to some “leaders” failing to see that their
policies may well lead to the extinction of humanity – and yet they blindly follow the fatal course of flirting with or even planning nuclear war. Do you really think these idiots are taking delight in executing the extinction of themselves and all of us? Not really, the truth is that they know not what they do. And this tendency to unconscious action and decision making is not common to them alone; all of us are blind to deeper currents within ourselves and our culture. Waking up to this is so far uncommon in our world.
Members of Congress and other leaders are merely executors of the plan that’s bringing us closer to Armageddon. The architects of this plan reside somewhere within the matrix of the financier oligarchy, paid contractors, and Deep State apparatus. While there probably are a relative few politicians in public office who might be carrying out these schemes knowingly and willingly (those who have money and influence at their disposal, and strong connections to any/all of the three factions), most are probably either in denial of the actual consequences, blinded by personal motives, or perhaps know what is happening but are fearful of retribution for exposing the truth.
Also, I have reason to believe that the Deep State has leverage on most/all members of Congress – there are files on them which can be used for blackmail purposes, if any of them stray too far from the course. (If blackmail doesn’t quite work, there’s always that possibility that an “accident” or “lone wolf” incident might happen.)
Of note is the discovery that the phones of Congresspeople were bugged – I think it was Dianne Feinstein who decided to switch her support from being in favor of mass surveillance to being against it because of this. I’m sure Internet traffic from Congresspeople is also being meticulously logged and recorded, as well.
Information and influence is power.
Where is the unprecedented historical awakening the author describes? Americans are dumbed down as they have ever been. Given this information age, their insistent confinement to MSM can only be construed as pathological. As if their attempted mass suicide after 9/11 (ie their refusal to verify ‘why they hate us’ and nip terrorism in the bud) wasn’t deranged enough…
https://flashpointssite.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/explosive-new-book-film-on-the-threat-of-nuclear-war/
I didn’t mention the Pope’s fake warning on Global Warming. Here are two links:
h**ps://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/19/the-popes-global-warming-warning/
h**p://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
The old man may be not as bad as some of his predecessors, but he remains quite irrelevant to real-world discussions about anything.
Zachary – Your link to CN re; the Pope and climate change does not bring up such an article. Perhaps you could explain why you think the present Pope’s views on this are “fake”?
And your comment seems to dismiss his groundbreaking critique of capitalism also?
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/19/the-popes-global-warming-warning/
That bolded part is why Pope Francis is in ga-ga land. It was more work than I expected to track down the full text of the address Francis made, but here it is:
h**p://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/11/10/pope_on_disarmament_world_without_weapons_is_possible/1348088
The best “spin” I can put on the speech is that it’s an exercise in wishful thinking. As a matter of fact the world has had 72 years of no-nukes usage because of deterrence. In the course of looking for the full text I found this:
“As Pope Francis recalls, advances in science and technology from useful domestic appliances to great transportation systems “ “wonderful products of a God-given human creativity” “when directed to truly helping people live with more dignity and less suffering, have contributed greatly to improving the quality of human life,” the archbishop said. “Yet, such technological prowess inevitably also has an impact on weapons and on the nature of conflicts”
One of the wonderful advances in human science and technology was the ability to control our fertility so as to truly help people live with more dignity and less suffering. Yet the old man doesn’t have the guts to embrace THAT one. So I don’t really give a hoot about Papal ramblings, especially senseless one forbidding contraception or loopy ones on Nuclear Weapons requiring intervention by the tooth fairy.
Now to what I see as the main theme of this essay – the fact that during the past two decades the US has been moving in on Russia. The evidence author Slater provides is overwhelming, but I missed seeing any explanation as to motive. In that regard, I also missed seeing more than a passing mention of “Israel” in the piece.
The Zionists have demonstrated the ability make long-range strategic plans, and to guide those plans through to the desired goal. The maneuvering for the Balfour Declaration and the building on that to secure the present position of the thieving and murderous state of Israel demonstrates that. It’s my theory that sometime back around when the USSR collapsed Israel saw the chance to accelerate the Yinon plan and begin to nail down the foundations of the Empire of Israel – call it Greater Israel or Solomon’s Second Kingdom. All that stood in the way was Russia, for even then the Zionists owned the US lock, stock, and barrel.
So those Zionists began an alliance with the Military Industrial Complex. There has been an awful lot of profit smashing Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Libya. Lots and lots of money to be made building those hundreds of US bases around the world.
Go to the wiki on War on Terror and observe that 99% of it has been “fought” against Muslims. Saudi Arabia has been extremely generous in the funding of the project, for when Terror Fighting Teams go in and start executing people and blowing up things, the Saudi Missionaries have their opening. Obama was instrumental in building ISIS by using his drone murders to recruit for that organization. The Saudis gathered the furious young men and packed them off to ISIS along with barrels full of money and weapons. Lots of the weapons came from Libya too, of course. Thanks, Hillary.
So a great deal of the Yinon plan has already been accomplished. Perhaps the Zionists always knew that Iran would be a tough nut to crack, for it is directly on Russia’s border and also has a respectable defense establishment.
So I propose that the buildup in Europe, the “Russians are Coming” propaganda directed at the gullible populations and cynical governments there is part of a long range plan to paralyze Russia when the last of Israel’s important enemies is brought under heavy attack. Recall how Hitler used his newly built West Wall to allow him to destroy Poland without the slightest fear of an attack from the Allies. Ditto for the treaty with Stalin to allow him to turn east and destroy France.
Clearly Israel is planning on some kind of vast war project. Probably Lebanon is first on the schedule, and this ought to provoke Iran enough to draw that nation into the conflict. Given how Trump is plainly unbalanced on the subject of Iran, that ought to pull the US into the battle. (Would the Israel-owned US Congress object? Hell No!) With NATO appearing to be ready to invade Russia from all directions, would Russia dare divert resources to decisively aid Iran? Probably not, for while Russia has a good army, it’s not a very large one.
God’s Favorite Thieves and Murderers and most talented Wag the Dog nation wins a final victory. And who will THEN complain when all the Muslims get death-marched out of the Stolen Lands? Nobody I can think of.
Anything to dis he Pope, eh? I give Francis a lot of credit for his bold directions for the church. It’s so easy to nit pick the famous. Does it give us a little lift?
It should also be mentioned that the U.S. has given Saudi Arabia hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons and aid. The Obama Administration was obviously complicit, with plenty of help from Hillary Clinton. It’s also worth noting, as a tie-in, that the vehemently pro-Israel fanatic Haim Saban was a major booster to the Clinton presidenital campaign (in 2016, and probably the three before that too).
Unfortunately, Trump has continued aid and support to Saudi Arabia – this will likely be his biggest foreign policy blunder. (However, he probably faces further threat of assassination if he deviates from that script. But I’m not a Trump apologist, because I know that he has his own ulterior motives.)
I see no end in sight to these conflicts, which will likely end very badly. Most people (who are hopelessly brainwashed) probably believe that Israel and Saudi Arabia are enemies (on the basis of religion), but nothing could be further from the truth.
Another thing I should mention – the descendents of the Saudi royal family are responsible for the creation of a radical form of Islam known as Wahhabiism in the 1700s. Radical Islamists and terrorists are indoctrinated, raised, and manipulated in this specific form. The sad part to this whole story is that at least a few of them probably think they’re actually doing the right thing here (or that it’s ok). But the leadership of these terrorist organizations know exactly what they’re doing, and deploy these “useful idiots” to do their bidding.
No, they haven’t been “stumbling blindly into cold war.” We’ve watched the steady increase of US/NATO troops near the Russian border throughout 2017, seen by the world as a potential US (Trump) provocation of war. This has largely been ignored because it contradicts the Democrats’ claims that “Russia stole the election.” Now add in Trump’s economic sanctions against Russia, understood by the international community as economic warfare. Evidently, the Clintonites see this as a gesture of friendship.
Republicans have also worked to build support for war against China, via Korea. They’ve made some significant progress. The results: Our political leadership, rattling their war sabers at both China and Russia, have brought these two nuclear powers together, resolving their years of conflict in view of the potential world threat, the US. Cold War would be a best-case scenario, but it appears that the US wants to “go out with a bang.”
The world isn’t “stumbling blindly into Cold War Two”, it’s marching to an Israeli propaganda drum.
In comments above and elsewhere, “D.H. Fabian” offers up rapid-fire barrages of Conventional Hasbara (overtly “pro-Israel” / “pro-Zionist”) propaganda canards.
For “D.H. Fabian”, Israeli interference in US politics is merely a “trendy” notion of the “liberal bourgeoise”.
The online Hasbara troll army tries desperately to deceive, distract, divert and disrupt discussion of the workings of the Israel Lobby and Israeli influence on American foreign policy, Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestinian territory, and Israeli collusion with terrorist forces operating in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
The Israeli government, major pro-Israel media organizations, Hasbara troll army “commenters” online weave a dense fabric of deceit.
In 2009, Israel’s foreign ministry organized volunteers to add pro-Israeli commentary on news websites. In July 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would conduct “internet warfare” to spread a pro-Israel message on various websites.
The program has expanded to a real Hasbara troll army that promotes pro-Israel policies in the press and online media.
US/Israel-backed al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria advance key geopolitical goals of Israel, including permanent annexation of Syria’s resource-rich Golan Heights area.
The illusion of a “threat” to Israel guarantees an ever greater cascade of military and economic aid supplied by slavishly pro-Israel politicians in the United States.
Hasbara propaganda additionally aims at promoting fake news and conspiracy theories to divert attention from an actual and very public conspiracy: the efforts of the Israel lobby to manipulate politics in the United States.
HASBARA PROPAGANDA FUNDAMENTALS
The basics of Hasbara propaganda are easy to identify: simplistic phrases, repeated over and over, designed to engage emotions rather than produce rational arguments, all shaped to fit into a narrative of good (Western-oriented Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy) versus evil (Arab/Muslim terrorists who seek not only to destroy the Jewish state but kill all Jews).
To persuade Americans to accept this impoverished account of the conflict, Hasbara propaganda rewrites history, rejects international law and ignores the struggle over land and resources that is at the heart of the conflict.
Hasbara propaganda relies on public ignorance of basic facts about international law, the history of Zionist land grab efforts in Palestine, and Israel’s wars of aggression in the Middle East
Conventional Hasbara (pro-Israel) propagandists works in tandem with Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” and fake “anti-Zionist”) propagandists
PRO-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA MANUAL
Back in 2009, a propaganda organization known as “The Israel Project” published a manual titled “Global Language Dictionary”
https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sf-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary.pdf
Written by Republican pollster and political strategist Frank Luntz, the Hasbara handbook of “The Israel Project” was labeled “Not for distribution or publication”.
The manual published by “The Israel Project” is a treasure trove of scripted propaganda canards. For example, page 96 of the manual recommends: “‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.”
“The Israel Project” is managed by an American-born Israeli, David Hazony, whose brother is an advisor and speech writer for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Registered as an NGO, “The Israel Project” does not report any details of the origins of its funding.
In addition to managing “The Israel Project”, Hazony is editor for the online propaganda site “The Tower” and a frequent contributor to major pro-Israel media and neoconservative organs like the New Republic, The Forward, Commentary Magazine, Moment, the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Chronicle, the New York Sun, and Jewish Ideas Daily.
In 2004-2007, Hazony served as editor in chief of the Israeli Zionist journal Azure. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Hasbara outlets like “The Tower” produce scripted articles, while “staff” from the “The Israel Project” write op-eds and make television appearances to disseminate pro-Israel propaganda.
HASBARA PLAYGROUND ON THE INTERNET
The comment sections of internet sites that post articles critical of Israel and Zionism are infested by pro-Israel Hasbara propaganda trolls.
Hasbara propaganda has two forms:
– Conventional (“pro-Zionist / “pro-Israel”) Hasbara
– Inverted or “false flag” (“anti-Zionist” / “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish or ‘anti-Semitic”) Hasbara
In the face of a sustained intellectual critique of conventional Hasbara propaganda claims of a “new anti-Semitism”, the inverted Hasbara propaganda activity was developed.
Inverted Hasbara operates based on false arguments advanced by individuals who masquerade as “harsh critics of Zionism and Israel” while spewing “anti-Semitic” epithets and abusive rants about “the Jews”.
The internet is a playground for both conventional Hasbara and inverted Hasbara trolls.
The Democrats and Republicans are equally zealous:
– in their loyalty to Israel
– in their demonization of Russia
– in beating the drum for more pro-Israel wars in the Middle East
The pro-Israel Lobby, Israeli influence on both American political parties, and Israel’s constant efforts to direct US foreign policy toward war with Syria and Iran, are manifest realities.
“D.H. Fabian” wants us all to believe that Israel is nowhere in the picture, that it’s merely an insidious “campaign” by “our bourgeoisie”.
In fact, the longest, most expensive war in US history, the war that has drained out the US budget, the war that continues to shatter American families and lives, was promoted by pro-Israel warmongers.
The Israel Lobby and pro-Israel politicians are working harder than ever now, beating the drum for more war.
I need more sacks of ****, says D.H. Fabian
The Hasbara Handbook has absorbed the philosophy of Alfred Bester in his novel The Stars My Destination, utilizing FFCC – fun, fantasy, confusion and catastrophe.
CHANGE THE SUBJECT from the apartheid nation-state-cesspool.
We are in trouble when the vast majority of folks live in an image based culture. The printed word with its nuance, complexity, and differentiation, tend to confuse and bore the boors. Good luck getting them to read!
If they choose to disengage, on their own heads be it.
The MIC is our stock in trade,but their champions,the zionists,are never mentions.
Yes, the anti-Israel campaign has been just one more tool, along with the anti-Russian campaign, that has split apart the “masses” who are not on the right wing. I can’t imagine what our bourgeoisie think “zionism” means, but it is simply about the right of the Jewish people to self-determination within the Jewish nation of Israel. Jews are indigenous to that bit of land (roughly the size of tiny New Jersey) — and admittedly, Americans never did grasp the whole concept of “indigenous rights.”
Not so incidentally, the US is one of the leading providers of weapons to the Arab states, some of which seek to destroy Israel and impose a 100% “pure” Moslem Mideast. Want peace in the Mideast? Get US oil corporations out of the region.
Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll “D.H. Fabian” attempts to divert attention from Israel’s offensive arsenal of nuclear and chemical weapons, and Israeli warmongering in the Middle East, which includes declarations of an upcoming invasion of Lebanon and Syria, and constant military threats against Iran.
Hasbara propaganda is addressed in detail in comment below.
The Zionist propagandist must be getting paid by the word, and is clearly getting either fatigued or lazy in recycling posts among the different essays here. So why should I exert myself in a “reply”? :)
The official Fairy Tale has a bloodthirsty group of nomads slaughtering the “indigenous” population in something called The Exodus.
What a novel way to try to change the subject from Israel’s stealing and murdering! How about the little shithole nation paying reparations to the survivors of the displaced victims, and forgetting about the “Jewish State” BS. If the US Congress (both parties, both sections) would divert 100% of the US taxpayer allowance to the Palestinians, that would also be a very good start. Of course, hell will freeze over first, and the army of Zionist hacks and propaganda *hores will continue to throw sacks of **** at the fan to keep things all blurry and in an uproar.
LOL, the Arabs nationalized the oil companies back in the 70s and the oil companies (US and foreign) stuck around to run things for their minority stake. It seems whoever controls the oil (even ISIS) always wants to sell it. I don’t care if there is war in the middle east or not, but as a US tax payer I don’t want my taxes or countrymen’s lives wasted there. The troops should come home, the bases closed, the carriers demobilized and all military sales should be cash in advance only. Anybody who wants to support one group or another over there should be free to obtain a weapon and go fight for who ever side they want. Just leave me and my country out of it.
In a sane world nuclear weapons would not exist, its just that plain and simple.
It’s the capitalist system that is utterly insane, and propelling us to nuclear and climate annihilation.
More specifically – usury, price gouging, legalized/permitted tax evasion by the financial elites, a severely compromised stock market (e.g. stock buybacks, derivatives speculation), and the rise of ultra-libertarian principles aimed at protecting the largest corporations. Much of these things prove that the law correlates even less with the ideals of justice (and thus debunking the primal idea that criminals are necessarily “bad people) – a corrupt legal system is allowing all of these things to happen.
The Department of Defense, is in the end a GOVERNMENT agency, not some private capitalist company. Plenty of Socialist countries have waged war ( USSR invaded Poland in he 20s and again prior to itself being invaded by Germany, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, etc.) To blame capitalism is ridiculous, as warfare has existed for as long as homo sapiens grouped themselves into clans and tribes.
Oh, and talking about slavery, it’s likely alive and well and planned for our future! the result of the next planned big crash!
There’s nothing stumbling or bumbling about it!
Its not the the stumbling into cold war two I’m worried about, it’s the head long rush into world war three that should have us all worrying ourselves half to death. We can survive a cold war but won’t survive a real nuclear war. Well, not we ordinary folk but you can be sure the elite will come out Trumps as usual. No pun intended.
The resilient roaches who are chiefly responsible for spreading the diseases common in society will probably survive, though. (Well, … maybe.)
Nice article, but your comment:
“People are questioning the numerous honorary statues memorializing Civil War generals from the South who fought to preserve slavery.”
is again repeating the war machine propaganda that Lincoln invaded the South over slavery. He did not. He attacked the people of the South to make them bow down and pay their taxes. Read Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address where he makes his threats for war and outlines his reasons.
The myth that the war was over slavery is “history written by the winners” and provides the justification for going to war as a fight over some noble idea or good thing. People believe the war over slavery myth for the same reason many Americans believe Sadam Husain was involved in 911. They never said Sadam was involved in 911, but they kept insinuating it, just like the years ago SNL skit “subliminal man”. If you read the history books taught to our children, they never say Lincoln invaded the South over slavery, but they just keep insinuating it.
The wars which you are against are justified by this myth: that war is an instrument for good – to get rid of an evil dictator, to bring people the right political or economic system, or to free someone else’s slaves. You know, something good.
If we want to stop the U.S. war machine then we need to destroy the myth of the “war over slavery”, which is the foundation of our people’s belief that war is an instrument for doing good. In fact, war is about conquering territory, conquering resources, and conquering people.
When the Southern states seceded from the Union they specifically list the preservation of slavery as the top reason. Lincoln and his party were committed to ending slavery and this is documented in the Republican platform. Of course one may argue that the major reason they were opposed to slavery was that it was hindering the mechanization of and industrialization of the agricultural South. The North wanted to sell industrial equipment to the South but the South wasn’t committed to using slave labor instead. But this cynical attitude aside, in the end, Lincoln didn’t realize the moral conflicts of slavery.
I made a couple of serious error in the post above and this site doesn’t allow editing, so please read as “…the South was committed to using slave labor……..Lincoln did realize the moral conflicts of slavery.”. thanks.
The site does allow editing, and you made lots more that a “couple” of serious errors in your first post.
Our sleepwalking into World War Three reminds me of a conversation between Gurdjieff and a questioner who wondered what was going to happen during the run up to the First World War. G. said, “Several million sleeping people are going to murder several million other sleeping people.” And of course this is what happened.