Cover: via https://theintercept.com/2024/08/09/israel-prison-sde-teiman-palestinian-abuse-torture/
Caitlin Johnstone || Israel is now saying it will sue The New York Times as Zionists continue their days-long freakout over the outlet’s reporting on the systemic rape of Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons.
Israel apologists aren’t shrieking about the New York Times report because they believe Israel was lied about, they’re shrieking because they’d assumed it’s the Times’ job to administer propaganda for Israel. It’s not about “blood libel”, it’s about narrative control.
We know this is true because there’s not actually any new information in Nicholas Kristof’s report; every significant point in the article had already been reported by other less-influential media outlets and human rights groups. We didn’t see this kind of outcry with all the other mountains of reports on the sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners that have been coming out over the years. We only saw it when a more influential news media outlet reported on it.
This shows that their real objection isn’t so much about the actual contents of the article as it is about the information influencing a larger number of people than the earlier reports did. It’s not about the facts, it’s about the numbers. It’s about making sure the largest possible number of westerners think nice thoughts about the state of Israel.
Everyone you see blubbering about journalistic integrity and sloppy reporting today is just admitting that they’re a propagandist. They’re admitting that it is their job to manipulate the way the public thinks about Israel, and that they believe it should be every mainstream news outlet’s job too.
And what’s so funny about this hysterical meltdown is that the New York Times actually has been wildly biased in favor of Israel. Its slanted reporting, unequal word choices and passive-language headlines have been well-documented. All that’s changed is that Israel’s abuses became so obvious and undeniable that its editors could no longer justify spiking a well-sourced report about them.
Israel propagandists are used to the New York Times carrying water for their beloved apartheid state, so they view this as not just a propaganda concern, but as a betrayal as well.
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The mass media have been rapidly churning out articles about alleged sexual abuse by Hamas in the wake of the New York Times report, which is some mighty interesting timing to say the least.
Israel announced it’s quintupling its propaganda budget and now we’re seeing the news cycle actively manipulated to advance Israeli information interests, and we’re just expected to clap along and pretend we’re seeing real news stories about real things.
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One of the weirdest things about the outcry about the New York Times report is the fixation on the mention of dogs being used to rape Palestinian prisoners — a well-evidenced claim that we have discussed here previously. The hasbarists are all over social media acting outraged and indignant, calling it “blood libel” as usual, but one strange thing they’re also doing is claiming that it’s literally impossible to get a trained dog to rape someone.
“Implausible anti-Israel dog rape claim goes mainstream,” reads a headline from The Times of Israel, featuring a statement from a retired police lieutenant that it is “highly unlikely that anybody is going to be able to train a dog to successfully commit a sexual assault.”
“There is no scientific or behavioral evidence that dogs can be trained to commit sexual assault. Experts and dog behaviorists point to several biological and cognitive barriers that make this impossible,” tweets hasbarist Eve Barlow.
War criminal David Frum writes that “the ‘Jewish rape dogs’ hoax has been refuted not because it’s a slur against Jews, but because the American Kennel Club attests it’s an impossibility for dogs,” a claim that was later refuted by a statement by the American Kennel Club itself, who said they attested to no such thing.
“Dogs cannot anatomically rape humans. As a physician, I thought I would just point that out. Why are antisemites such idiots?,” reads a viral tweet by a Dr. Sheila Nazarian.
This is just objectively, indisputably false. There have been numerous examples of tyrannical regimes using dogs to rape captives in the past, including in Nazi Germany and Pinochet’s Chile. The serial killer David Parker Ray is known to have raped his victims using dogs. This is a well-documented abuse that can and does occur, and it’s just so Israeli that they’d try to advance such an easily disprovable lie about something so horrific.
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“Zionists: It is antisemitic to equate the state of Israel with all Jews. Also Zionists: It is antisemitic not to equate the state of Israel with all Jews.:
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They made up lies about atrocities so that they could justify committing atrocities.
They made up lies about rape so that they could justify rape.
They made up lies about dead babies to justify killing babies.
They framed themselves as victims to justify victimizing others.
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In other news, militarized robots are now fully operational and deployed on the battlefield — coming soon to a protest near you.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli military has been using robots in its invasion of Lebanon, saying “The IDF’s Golani Brigade announced on Tuesday that it recently advanced all the way to the Litani River, around 10 kilometers from Israel’s northern border, and used robots for parts of the operation.”
We’re going to be seeing more and more of this as automated weapons systems become more common. So that’s one more thing to have nightmares about.
Night night.
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