41

The Victims in Gaza and Douma

by David William Pear, first published by The Greanville Post


In their book Manufacturing Consent Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky distinguished between two kinds of victims: the worthy victims and the unworthy victims. The “worthy victims” are the victims (real and alleged) of leaders on the U.S. enemies list, such as Bashar al-Assad. The “unworthy victims” are those of the U.S. and its client states, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. led cabal calling itself the “international community” is outraged when there are worthy victims. For example the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley holds up pictures of dead Syrian babies for the world to see. Worthy victims are granted human rights, and Assad deserves our outrage.
Unworthy victims for example are the 50,000 Yemeni children who have died of starvation because of Saudi Arabia’s total blockade of Yemen, including blockading food, water and medicine. Unworthy victims are blamed for being victims and ignored by the international community and the mainstream media. Unworthy victims have no human rights. Yemen is a humanitarian disaster that is ignored, because Saudi Arabia is a friend of the U.S.A.
There is no outrage from the U.S. when Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad bin Salman (MsB) is dropping U.S. manufactured bombs from U.S. manufactured airplanes and indiscriminately slaughtering Yemeni men, women and children. MsB is the new darling of the neocons, and Thomas Friedman writes words of praise as if it is really cool to be an absolute monarch in the 21st century. The late Robert Parry described Friedman and the neocons as being “disconnected from reality”.
For weeks now, tens of thousands of Gazans have been legally protesting for their right to return to their homes in Palestine. There is no outrage when Netanyahu and his regime orders Israeli soldiers to massacre them. Hundreds of Palestinians were gunned down on Land Day and during demonstrations for the Right to Return. Netanyahu has the full support of the U.S. so there is no outrage and he will not pay for his crimes. Netanyahu has every reason to believe that the U.S. will protect him, as the U.S. has many times in the past. Nikki Haley is not going to hold up pictures of dead Palestinian children. Instead she will shield Netanyahu from criticism, and accuse his critics of being anti-Semitic. Netanyahu’s victims are unworthy victims.
The Palestinians that were massacred in Gaza were inside the Israeli enclosure that has been their prison for over a decade. They were on Palestinian land. They presented no danger to the Israeli soldiers that were on the Israeli side of the barricade. The soldiers had telescopic sights on their rifles and fired from a distance of over 100 yards away. Hundreds of Palestinians were shot with illegal fragmentation bullets that have been banned by the 1899 Hague Declaration. Netanyahu’s orders were illegal and the soldiers committed war crimes by following illegal orders. The Nuremberg Trials of Nazis after World War Two declared that “just following orders” is not a defense against war crimes.
Two million Palestinian refugees have been trapped in Gaza for over a decade. Gaza has been turned into an inhumane open-air concentration camp. The people in Gaza have been cut off from the outside world. They are living under a blockade and Israel controls everything and anything that goes in or out of the Gaza Strip. What goes in is barely enough food for Gazans to survive. Netanyahu jokes that he has put Gaza on a diet. The sick, wounded and dying are not allowed to get out of Gaza to go to a hospital for medical treatment without Israeli permission. Netanyahu rarely gives that permission. Netanyahu’s victims are unworthy victims and are blamed for being victims.
In 2006 Israel tightened the noose around Gaza’s neck by imposing a total blockade by air, land and sea of Palestinians living in Gaza. The supposed crime for which Israel imposed an illegal collective punishment on Gazans is that they democratically elected the wrong government, against Israel’s wishes. Instead of electing the Israeli controlled Palestinian National Liberation Movement, known as Fatah, Gazans elected the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. Israel used to consider Fatah a terrorist organization, but now it does not because they are collaborators. Instead Israel, which secretly backed the formation of Hamas in a divide and conquer strategy, now considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Netanyahu falsely accuses that the demonstrators are Hamas terrorists.
Netanyahu has killed and wounded journalist reporting from Gaza. They are unworthy victims so there is no outcry from the mainstream media about killing journalists. The mainstream media repeatedly accuses Russia’s president Vladimir Putin of (allegedly) killing journalists, and there is an outcry because they are worthy victims. The U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Israel gets billions of dollars in U.S. financial aid every year, regardless of what crimes Netanyahu commits. Putin’s supposed crimes are that Russia has given aid to the breakaway region of Ukraine after a U.S. sponsored fascist regime change in Kiev. Putin is accused of invading Crimea when the Crimeans voted in a referendum to rejoin their historical attachment to Russia. Putin is vilified for (allegedly) meddling in U.S. politics. Netanyahu gets standing ovations from the U.S. Congress.
Netanyahu has been illegally occupying the West Bank of Palestine, and he is building illegal Israeli settlements there. Netanyahu thumbs his nose at international law. The U.S. has vetoed 43 U.N. resolutions against Israel. Nikki Haley says that Putin is an obstructionist for vetoing a U.N. resolution condemning Assad for an alleged chemical weapons attack, without any evidence. The U.S. tried to block an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of the alleged chemical weapon attack site in Syria. The OPCW says it will investigate anyway.
President Trump’s order to attack Syria based on an alleged use of chemical weapons is a violation of international law. The U.S. is not the international policeman, judge and executioner. Article 2, section 4 of the U.N. Charter states:

All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

The only legal uses of force according to the U.N. Charter are for self-defense and when force is authorized by the U.N. Security Council. Violations of the U.N. Charter are also a violation of the U.S. Constitution under Article VI which states:

…all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.”

The U.N. Charter is a treaty that was signed by the President of the United States and ratified by the U.S. Senate. Under the U.S. Constitution the U.N. Charter is the “supreme law of the land” in the U.S., as well as internationally.
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights everyone has a presumption of innocence until proven guilty before a court of law. The U.S. does not have the right to declare a sentence before there is a trial and verdict. Article 66 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entitles those accused of crimes the “presumption of innocence” and further says:

The onus is on the Prosecutor to prove the guilt of the accused. In order to convict the accused, the Court must be convinced of the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.”

We do not even know if a crime has been committed. There has been no investigation yet. There is considerable reason for doubt. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and others (Robert Fisk, Ron Paul, Jeffrey Sachs, former U.K. ambassador to Syria Peter Ford, Fox News Tucker Carlson, Larry Wilkerson, etc.) have raised serious doubts about the alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad. There are no known facts about the latest alleged chemical weapon attack, or the past alleged attacks either.
The unproven allegation of chemical weapons comes from U.S. backed terrorists that have been waging a war against the Syrian people for over 7 years. It has been widely reported and documented that the alleged chemical weapon attacks, supposedly perpetrated by Assad, have been false flags and faked. The terrorists have been reported to have chemical weapons in their arsenal. If chemical weapons were used in any of the attacks they could have come from the terrorists themselves.
It is well known that the U.S. has been behind the war against Assad, and that the U.S. admittedly is backing terrorists in a U.S. regime change projects. The dead and wounded of U.S. aggression during the 21st century number in the millions of people in over half a dozen countries. The mainstream media ignores the magnitude of the wars of U.S. aggression, and the U.S. people mainly go about their day to day activities as if nothing is happening. Since the U.S. is allegedly a democracy and has freedom of the press, then U.S. citizens and the U.S. mainstream media are responsible for the actions of their government. Ignorance of the law about what their government is doing is not an excuse.
Under international law the Palestinians have a right to resist the illegal military occupation of Palestine that has been going on since 1967. But Israel does not have the right to impose collective punishment, deny refugees the right to return home, to confiscate land, impose indefinite detention, torture prisoners and restrict the free movement of civilians; nor to confine them in inhumane living conditions in Gaza. Israel is acting no different than the Nazis did against the Jews in 1939 when they enclosed Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Just like the Warsaw Ghetto, Gaza is unlivable, the people are starving, the water is contaminated, disease is rampant, and Israel has systematically destroyed their homes and civilian infrastructure.
Israel routinely shoots to kill anyone or anything entering a “no man’s land” buffer zone inside Gaza. It even has remote controlled machine guns and other indiscriminant instruments of death within the buffer zone. When tens of thousands of unarmed demonstrators approached the buffer zone, the Israeli military snippers were prepared to massacre them. Netanyahu says that Israel has the most moral army in the world. Massacring unarmed civilians is immoral.
The demonstrations in commemoration of Land Day and protests for the Right to Return have been announced in advance. Israel opened fire and massacred demonstrators, killing and critically wounding hundreds of Palestinians, including clearly identified journalist, such as Yasser Murtaja. The massacre of unarmed civilians who are demonstrating on their own land is a clear violation of international law, and a crime against humanity. On April 3rd the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem called on Israeli soldiers to refuse illegal orders to shoot unarmed civilians saying:

The use of live ammunition against unarmed persons who pose no danger to anyone is unlawful. It is even more blatantly unlawful in the case of soldiers firing from a great distance at demonstrators located on the other side of the fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip. In addition, it is impermissible to order soldiers to fire live ammunition at individuals for approaching the fence, damaging it, or attempting to cross it.”

Under international law commanders giving the orders to shoot unarmed civilians and individual soldiers who do so could be charged with wars crimes by the International Criminal Court. That is not likely to happen anytime soon because the U.S. protects Israel and allows Netanyahu to literally get away with murder. Netanyahu’s victims are unworthy.

This article is the original work of David William Pear. There is no copyright, and it is available free to any publication in the world that wants to publish it in any language. Editing is permitted for spelling errors, grammar errors, to fit the space of the publication or any other purpose except to change the intended meaning of the article. You may change the title. You may use the suggested graphics, your own or none. Please share and distribute widely. Thank you. My contact email is [email protected].
David is a progressive columnist writing on economic, political and social issues. His articles have been published by OpEdNews, The Greanville Post, The Real News Network, Truth Out, Consortium News, Global Research, and many other publications. David is active in social issues relating to peace, race relations and religious freedom, homelessness and equal justice. David is a member of Veterans for Peace, Saint Pete for Peace, CodePink, and International Solidarity Movement.

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vexarb
vexarb
Apr 20, 2018 5:49 PM

Fr,m Stephen Bottrill:
comment image
This girl is from Yemen, attacked by Saudi white phosphorus. Do not hold your breath to see Tomahawks fly into the palaces of Riaad
[Vexarb adds, If the Link to the photo does not work you may count yourself lucky. I couldn’t bear to look at it. War criminals USA and Israel have used white phosphorus against civilians in this century. I wonder which one supplied that chemical weapon to Saudi Arabia — Israel’s only ally in the ME.]

tomiejones
tomiejones
Apr 20, 2018 3:33 PM

Reblogged this on circusbuoy.

BigB
BigB
Apr 20, 2018 12:08 PM

There is a permanent “kill zone” around the border: 3-500 m deep. The recent Land Day massacre was set off by two men acting dangerously and threateningly in their field. In less murderously reactive regimes their activity is also known as “farming”. Other dangerously and existentially threatening activities are also known as “fishing”, “growing dates” or on the beach “playing ball”. Any of these activities can result in being shot, or vapourised by tank or gunboat shells. This is known as “morality” and is immune from prosecution under the “right to self-defence (from being slapped by angry teenagers)” and the “right to self-determination (by the incremental annexation of Palestinian land in the ongoing Nakba”).
We need our own “working definitions”: because this article definitely contravenes the IHRA working definitions for conflating the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians with Nazism: probably not clever; definitely nu-antisemitic (of the politically weaponised and criticism silencing type) …but only as it will allow the easy dismissal of an other wise excellent article. The question needs to be asked: just exactly can we say to denounce such abhorrent, amoral and criminal behavior as has been perpetrated for 70 years?
And if the answer is increasingly “nothing”, then the moral majority must unite behind BDS. Given the amount of resources the Anglo-Zionists are willing to deploy against it ($40mn for the Ministry of Strategic Affairs; $70mn for the Anti-Defamation League are just two examples) it is the one weapon they fear. As Roger Waters recent experience attests to. Racism of every type must be resisted: particularly when it manifests as weapons grade anti-racism.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:07 AM
Reply to  BigB

The ambition of the Zionists to overturn all International Humanitarian Law, and replace it with Talmudic Judaic Law, where killing civilians is not just permissible, but a mitzvah, a religiously approved devotional act, where killing children and even babies is also similarly approved and where an entire city may be punished for the ‘crimes’ of a few, is a real turning-point in history. That religious barbarity akin to the behaviour of the Nazis is to be, not just ignored, but raised to the level of a ‘good deed’ is almost meta-Orwellian. Big Brother Bibi makes Orwell’s boy look like a beginner.

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 20, 2018 11:49 AM

Trump’s threat to renege on the nuclear deal with Iran has nothing to do with Iran building a nuclear weapon, the US/Israel are going ape shit because Iran’s conventional weapons capability notably its precision guided missiles are being produced in large quantities. Hezbollah have a number of these targeted at Metropolitan Tel Aviv where most of the Israel population and infrastructure are, including Ben Gurion airport, the loss of which would cause enormous damage to its tourist and business trade, one wayward Hamas rocket in the last massacre of Palestinians caused the FAA to close the only International airport Israel has for two days. In comparison with Hezbollah missiles, the Hamas rockets were a complete failure, of the approx 7,000 rockets fired in the 2014 [protective edge] only a few caused damage, 99% fell in the desert because they had no guidance systems. In reply the Israelis destroyed 20,000 houses [Professor N.Finkelstein] and caused over 2,000 Palestinian deaths.
There is a very knowledgeable commentator on ‘Informed Comment’ called ‘spyguy’ may I take the liberty to reproduce a comment of his last year……
“The 100000 missile amount came out in budget negotiations in the Israeli legislature, so since all military leaders tend to hype the threats when asking for money, I discounted the amount by 50%.
Either amount is more than enough to make most of northern Israel into one big rubble heap. This would destroy the Israeli economy since a majority of the population and industry is within range of the missiles.
You are correct that the missile technology has gotten MUCH, MUCH better since the early 2000s. This is because the basic weapons technology has gotten BOTH better and cheaper. In some cases, a country (other than the gold plating ones like USA and Israel) can get three very accurate missiles now versus one less accurate missile at the start of the 2000s.
Most analysts, especially USA based ones, can not seem to understand that a computer with a quad-core, 64-bit, 1 GHz CPU, a decent GPU, 1 GB of memory and up to 32 GB of storage, running FREE Linux OS, costs LESS than US$ 50. Couple that with Open Street View’s very accurate FREE maps and a “hacked” GPS chip (the USA restrictions on altitude and speed have been removed) and a very nice guidance system can easily be built for less than US$ 100. The rest is just basic rocket science and chemistry that is well understood by now”.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Apr 20, 2018 10:17 AM

I’m waiting to see what kind of False Flag Israel will have its ISIS terrorist buds set off this weekend if the IDF butchers go on another mass-murdering spree against the Gaza inmates.

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 20, 2018 5:17 AM

This critique of the Selectivity of Victimhood in the MSM gives a new meaning to the old saying, “No man is an island”. No victim is more deserving than another. That of course is Christian charity, Christian neighbourliness, and the ethic of the Red Cross. The AZC cabal that grabbed power over the Western world now order us to show a sympathy which is selective, false and against God. As false as the news which they disseminate in their MSM. The one commandment , “Thou shalt Love thy neighbour” (whether Samaritan or Jew) is as much an aspect of the Universality of God as the other commandment, “Thou shalt not Lie”.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:11 AM
Reply to  vexarb

The Talmudic Rabbinical religious authorities in Israel EXPLICITLY reject all ‘Christian morality’ as encapsulated in International Humanitarian Law, and these are the figures who control religious affairs in Israel, are central to Rightwing Knesset coalitions, and whose ideology suffuses Likudnik Zionism. They hate Jesus Christ with fury, imagining him to be in Hell, up to his neck in boiling faeces.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 20, 2018 3:16 AM

Gaza clubbed with Douma? Both bombarded surrounding neighbourhoods as long as they could. Both dominated by a Sunni militias but supported by Shia Iran. Both anarchic islands in democratically elected nations. Nethanyahu has quite a lot in common with Assad: leaders of persecuted minority groups in Sunni dominated ME. I don’t understand why the former attacks the latter, a fellow victim.
Why cheer at the conquest of Douma but cry at any incursion into Gaza?

bevin
bevin
Apr 20, 2018 4:10 AM
Reply to  AntonyI

This is nonsense: the militias in Douma were well supplied, financed and armed by the imperialist powers, including Israel. Moreover most of the militia members were foreigners, mercenaries recruited by western intelligence agencies and utterly ruthless in their treatment of civilians in the areas conquered.
The situation in Gaza is quite different- there is no support from the imperialists.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 20, 2018 5:01 AM
Reply to  bevin

Ok, you agree that clubbing these two areas is pointless.

Jen
Jen
Apr 20, 2018 6:18 AM
Reply to  AntonyI

Gaza and Douma are not exactly equivalent in spite of your attempts to make them so.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 20, 2018 6:31 AM
Reply to  Jen

So address David William Pear, the author of this article.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 23, 2018 10:16 PM
Reply to  AntonyI

‘Clubbing’ (what an ODIOUS usage!) Gaza means killing hundreds of children, in the MOST brutal and cowardly fashion.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:17 AM
Reply to  bevin

Antonyl’s comment puts me in mind of what a German Nazi might have said of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 20, 2018 9:16 AM
Reply to  AntonyI

Quite the most vicious, racist, lies I’ve seen for some time, of which the lie that Iran supported the Wahhabist scum in Douma takes the case. Hasbara filth.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 20, 2018 4:35 PM

Correct, the Douma Sunni militias were not supported by Iran; only those in Gaza. The illogical combos in this region can trip me up easily. Racism has nothing to do with it by the way.
I am no fan of Nethanyahoo at all, but do know that he is now dependant on orthodox Jewish support at home. Extremism creates problems all around, even here.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:15 AM
Reply to  AntonyI

No, Antonyl-you are a typical Zionist racist, judging from these words alone, of course. You are either unaware of your condition, or not being honest.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 21, 2018 7:17 AM

I could equally label you: Chinese Communist Party imperialist hack. Easy to type stuff.
Name calling only drags down a forum, one reason why I left the Guardian’s CIF; this one might be next.
Best…

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 11:01 AM
Reply to  AntonyI

Arrivederci, Bibi junior. Now you can pop down to the Gaza border, and cheer on the Israeli Death Force snipers, as they shoot children in the back. You’ll have a ball.

AntonyI
AntonyI
Apr 21, 2018 11:54 AM

Admin please note, I am off Off Guardian due to this Mulga character.
FAIL.

Peter Schmidt
Peter Schmidt
Apr 20, 2018 12:36 AM

Someone else’s comment, but I found it important:
..The joint UN-OPCW team was headed by Guatemalan Edmond Mulet who was presumably vulnerable to blackmail because he was once active in child trafficking as described here.
If Edmond Mulet is involve in Douma gas investigation, Syria Arab Republic and Russia Federation are guilty. Beside a child trafficking he’s a f…. anti Dr. Assad.. “

Peter Schmidt
Peter Schmidt
Apr 20, 2018 12:38 AM
Reply to  Peter Schmidt
FobosDeimos
FobosDeimos
Apr 20, 2018 3:07 AM
Reply to  Peter Schmidt

Well, the longer it takes the Syrian and Russian authorities to take the inspectors to Douma, the greater the chances are for a propaganda driven campaign claiming that there was a CW attack in Douma after all. Both the Syrians and the Russians promised to take the inspectors safaley to Douma and to let them work there. They also said that Douma was completely liberated from jihadists on April 7 or so. Therefore it is imperative for the OPCW team to be transported to the site without further delay.

FobosDeimos
FobosDeimos
Apr 19, 2018 9:38 PM

I am starting to get anxious about the on-site visit of the OPCW inspectors to Douma. Frankly I am a bit frustrated because the inspectors have been in Damascus for five days now, and all of a sudden the Syrian Government and the Russians are saying that it is not safe for them to go to Douma, that there are still militants there, etc. I thought that the Syrian Army had celebrated the full liberation of Eastern Ghouta, including Douma, around April 7 or so. So I sincerely hope that the inspectors can get to the site right now, in order to avoid any further speculation about the reasons for this delay.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Apr 20, 2018 12:17 AM
Reply to  FobosDeimos

Guardian misreporter Martin Chulov is on Australian ABC speaking from Turkey claiming that he has been talking to “medics” who have “escaped” from Douma and they tell him that an “event” did take place in Douma and that these medics told him they were warned not to speak out of their families would be harmed. He claimed they had bought hair and blood samples to prove some sort of gas was used.
As a non expert who has learner about hair samples I know hair samples will not show up any internal information that has just occurred because the hair has to grow out to where it can be clipped off the scalp whereas on the day of an attack or for some time after the contamination would be in the follicles or so close to the scalp it could not be clipped. Furthermore any blood samples in Turkey which is an enemy of the Syrian Government and which assisted jihadists in smuggling Sarin into Libya would be extremely suspect.
His clever tactic of saying families of the “medics” were threatened enabled him to avoid saying if these “medics” were white helmets.
How much more of this nonsense will be given credence by major news outlets and particularly the national broadcasters .
We need to challenge these UK state actors who spread this nonsense and the newspapers that employ them need to be outed too.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 20, 2018 12:58 AM
Reply to  Jim Scott

Chulov is MOSSAD, and UTTERLY reliably unreliable. The Zionist killings in Gaza, like all Israel’s massacres, are actually religious observances. The Yesha Council of Rabbis and Torah Sages, an influential group on the Orthodox Right, allied to the settler Judaic Taliban, declared in 2006, as Israel was bombing Lebanon with murderous savagery, that under Judaic religious law, killing civilians was not just permissible, but was in fact a mitzvah, or good deed. International Humanitarian Law to the contrary was dismissed as mere ‘Christian morality’.
Such declarations often appear in Israel, where there is lively dispute concerning them, but the goyim in the West are generally spared such revelations, as the knowledge is intrinsically ‘antisemitic’. Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox authorities also assert the right to kill children, even babies, if it could be said that they would grow up to ‘oppose the Jews’. Moreover an entire city (eg Gaza) may be destroyed for the crimes of a few, and International Law against collective punishment can go to blazes, of course. Israel believes itself set up over all humanity, and the US veto and bullying in international organs and Zionist control of the Western fakestream media ‘discourse’ ensures that they aren’t wrong. And when the ‘antisemitism’ industry succeeds in making ALL criticism of Israel or of any Jew anywhere, criminal offences. they will no doubt move on to making pro-Zionist, anti-Moslem and anti-Arab fervour compulsory, and to be periodically tested under pain of ‘re-training’.

Vaska
Vaska
Apr 20, 2018 12:19 AM
Reply to  FobosDeimos

“The UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) continues to prevent chemical inspectors from entering Douma for their investigation, citing safety concerns. They have offered no timetable for when the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors will be allowed in.
The OPCW inspectors did not visit Monday, and there were many allegations exchanged as to why. Though British officials blamed Russia for the delay, it is now clear that the UNDSS is driving the scheduling.
The UNDSS team visited two sites in Douma, but fled both times. In the first case, they claimed there was a large crowd there, and they were concerned about safety. At the second site there was a report of an explosion nearby, and claimed to have come under small arms fire by some unknown faction. No UN workers were injured, though one Syrian was said to have sustained light injuries working in a security capacity.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/04/18/un-security-team-delays-inspectors-entrance-to-douma-for-safety/

Eric Blair
Eric Blair
Apr 20, 2018 1:13 AM
Reply to  FobosDeimos

It is always good to keep an open mind and accept that all sides in this, and every other, armed conflict engage in propaganda and perception management. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can know the whole truth by reading stuff on the internet or that if one side are despicable liars the other side must be its polar opposite. That would be a shockingly naive attitude to take.
Unfortunately most people pick a side and cheer it on like a sports team, simply denying any information that seeds doubt in their minds. Often even fellow travellers are met with suspicion and hostility for having a slightly different take on events. It’s evolutionary group psychology at work. Humans have a tendency to close ranks around their “tribes” and attack potentially dangerous outsiders and dissenters before they have a chance to cause any harm. Going against majority opinion can be uncomfortable because outsiders have limited access to mates and, historically, a lone human was often a dead human – killed by wild animals, the elements or a rival tribe.
If people knew more about their own psychology TPTB and their media would have a much harder time manipulating them and they wouldn’t be at the mercy of dynamics they aren’t consciously aware of.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 20, 2018 9:21 AM
Reply to  Eric Blair

Moral equivalence between the greatest force for Evil in human history, the USA, responsible for initiating 80% of major conflicts since WW2, and unceasing genocides since the 17th century, and its allies, the Zionazi terror state, the Wahhabist genocide regime and various others, and Syria, which the USA has been attacking since 1949, is misguided at best.

James Scott
James Scott
Apr 20, 2018 5:37 PM
Reply to  Eric Blair

In most instances I would agree with the principals of your argument but in this case there is both significant documentation to clearly show that the whole construction of the Western thesis on Syria is a deliberate falsification of events. From intelligence agency documentation and statements from insiders of the US military and intelligence like congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to the extreme cognitive dissonance of the claims by the West about Syrian Government actions as well as the sudden appearance of a huge heavily armed contingent of terrorists driving new vehicles and tanks who were described as ignorant Takfiri tribesmen despite their psychological and internet skills that could attract new young Western adherents to die for their cause.
To add to this we have had recurring evidence of Western false flag incidents in numerous conflicts in the past by the same actors. Korea, Vietnam, Gautamala, Chile, Venezuela, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and many more conflicts that over time were revealed as fake reasons for illegal wars and regime change using terrorism by state actors from the West. As the comedians Cheech and Chong said if something looks like shit, smells like shit and tastes like shit, it is probably shit.

archie1954
archie1954
Apr 19, 2018 7:13 PM

Don’t you know, as enunciated by an American Secretary of State decades ago, “we think it’s worth it”!

milosevic
milosevic
Apr 20, 2018 2:31 AM
Reply to  archie1954

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Apr 19, 2018 6:39 PM

After having zero interest in Syria since her last Guardian hitpiece about critics of the White Helmets, Olivia Solon is sudddenly back tweeting.
Olivia Solon
‏Verified account @oliviasolon
Apr 17
If you send me the White Helmets Mannequin Challenge video as “proof” that they stage rescues you invalidate any other points you are trying to make
Guess The Syria Campaign must have paypaled her $100. Not even kidding.

Captain Kemlo
Captain Kemlo
Apr 19, 2018 8:04 PM

That’s sick. Mebbe she feels emboldened after the BBCTrending bollox. Or the fact that the the rest of the spineless MSM, ignoring any nay, or doubt, sayers, has caused her to peer out from under her rock, eyes blinking in the antiseptic sunlight.
And then the poor bloody Palestinians. Let’s crowd-fund a few Tomahawk missiles. Let’s see them cruising through the stale air above Tel Aviv before diving down to shatter essential infrastructure and innocent lives.
The State of Israel is already failing, it just needs to fall.

milosevic
milosevic
Apr 20, 2018 2:45 AM
Reply to  Captain Kemlo

Let’s crowd-fund a few Tomahawk missiles. Let’s see them cruising through the stale air above Tel Aviv before diving down to shatter essential infrastructure and innocent lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz41Jad1Z94

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 23, 2018 10:26 PM
Reply to  Captain Kemlo

Israel cannot fall. The Zionist elite have often promised to ‘ take the world down’, possibly through a nuclear winter, if they feel that the Eretz Yisrael project is imperiled. So the only hope for Jews, Palestinians and the rest of humanity is an Israel returned to its 1947 borders, with the Palestinians’ ‘Right of Return’ recognised, and both sides disarmed, and protected, as long as they require it, by some international peace force. The true Zionist Nazis could be paid to return to Crown Heights, Golders Green and Dover heights, if they wish, because they cannot exist without the status of ‘Gods Upon the Earth’. A few generations of peace, and a Common Market among the states of the region, and Zionist fascism and racist terror will be things of the past. The alternative leads to mutual destruction, so is not tenable.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 20, 2018 9:26 AM

Since the public is gaining more knowledge of the reality that the White Helmets are jihadist butchers and atrocity fakers, the fakestream media sewer’s liars have redoubled their efforts to support them. Can you imagine scum more vile than those who would be propagandists for such evil killers? I heard one last night, on our ABC Radio, a Pom, actually ending up screeching his deranged hatred of anyone who dared tell the truth about his beloved child-killers.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 20, 2018 11:06 AM

For Roger Waters to stand against a relentless and baseless tide of ridiculous sentimental hysteria expressed by other ‘celebrities’ and the msm is truly admirable on so many levels.

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Apr 20, 2018 1:28 PM
Reply to  JudyJ

Tucker Carlson on Fox News isnt buying the bullpoop either and is saying so increasingly loudly

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:21 AM
Reply to  JudyJ

And the execrable Zionist disinformer, Freedland, went out of his slimy way to vilify Waters today, in a lie-fest in the Fraudian sewer, over just this ‘White Helmets’ affair. But that, coming from a loathsome creature like Freedland, only redounds to waters’ good repute.