As arrest warrants are issued for Israeli leaders, it must not be forgotten that they confessed to their crimes from the start. Western media outlets chose to suppress the truth
by Owen Jones
Part 4 - “Eliminate everything”
There was other devastating evidence of Israel’s public intentions. On 10th October, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli troops on the Gaza border he had “released all the restraints”, adding:
“ Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”
Two days later, he declared he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces. He could not have been clearer about the impunity he was granting Israeli soldiers. Again, this proved to be an entirely accurate predictor of how those soldiers would go on to behave.
The Israeli media jubilantly reported such statements, such as The Times of Israel, in an article headlined ‘Gallant: Israel moving to full offence, Gaza will never go back to what it once was’.
“ Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”
Two days later, he declared he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces. He could not have been clearer about the impunity he was granting Israeli soldiers. Again, this proved to be an entirely accurate predictor of how those soldiers would go on to behave.
The Israeli media jubilantly reported such statements, such as The Times of Israel, in an article headlined ‘Gallant: Israel moving to full offence, Gaza will never go back to what it once was’.
Yet Gallant’s orders to his troops were barely covered by the Western media at all at the time, unless mentioned in passing and buried. Striking exceptions included right-wing tabloid The New York Post, which rightly anticipated the apocalyptic conditions Gaza would face, and celebrated them, and Fox News, similarly in an article defined by a pro-Israel tone.
This omission should be considered astonishing: the man in charge of Israel’s military could not have been more explicit about orders amounting to severe war crimes, not least collective punishment, and impunity granted to soldiers. The Western media chose to suppress this.
This omission should be considered astonishing: the man in charge of Israel’s military could not have been more explicit about orders amounting to severe war crimes, not least collective punishment, and impunity granted to soldiers. The Western media chose to suppress this.
The point, as ever, is that if the Western media wanted to accurately report Israel’s intentions, they should have shaped their coverage around the statements of the man in charge of the state’s armed forces. Instead, they largely barely reported these orders, and - at best - offered up a self-evidently dishonest debate about whether Israel’s response was proportionate or not. This did not even include what by definition was always going to be a war against the civilian population by soldiers who were told to “eliminate everything”, with their leader informing them that no “restraints” or “restrictions” on their behaviour existed.
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