Philip Giraldi – The Unz Review Apr19, 2024
Given the lying and fact twisting that have routinely been part and parcel of accounts of what is occurring in the Middle East, the past several weeks have nevertheless been shocking in terms of how an abysmally low standard of truth can be reduced even farther. Looking at developments objectively, one comes up with a series of facts. First of all, Israel was not at war with either Syria or Iran during the first weeks in April. Iran had never attacked Israel prior to that point and Syria last fought Israel in 1973, over fifty years ago. Israel, however, has regularly been assassinating Iranian officials and scientists and it has been frequently been bombing Syria since 2017, increasing the pace to weekly and sometimes even daily attacks over the past six months paralleling the Gaza fighting. A particularly devastating attack took place on March 29th when the Israeli military launched massive strikes against a weapons storage depot in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo which killed at least 40 people, most of them Syrian soldiers. The air strikes produced a series of explosions that also killed six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.
But three days later on April 1st a very damaging and unprovoked attack was directed against the Iranian Embassy’s Consulate General, which was located in an upscale neighborhood in Damascus, Syria’s capital. The building was completely destroyed by missiles fired from F-35 fighter planes that had crossed over the Syrian border from Israel, killing Iranian diplomats as well as Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Zahedi’s deputy, General Haji Rahimi, and also Brigadier General Hossein Amirollah, the chief of general staff for the al-Quds force in Syria and Lebanon. Syria subsequently confirmed that a total of 13 people were killed in the attack, including six Syrians and a Lebanese Hezbollah militiaman. Both Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge.
Attacking a diplomatic mission is considered a major war crime according to the Vienna Convention, but there was no condemnation of the incident coming from the US and the usual suspects in Western Europe. Instead of doing what was right by pressuring Israel to stop attacking its neighbors and thereby possibly preventing a major war in the Middle East, President Joe Biden repeated his pledge that the United States would regard as “ironclad” its commitment to guarantee Israel’s security if Iran were to strike back. This guaranteed to Israel that any action taken by it would be supported by Washington. The Biden Administration also predictably voted against a Russian and Chinese drafted UN Security Council resolution to condemn the Israeli attack on the Iranian Consulate, which was a clear violation of international law and an act of war committed by Israel. The US reportedly cast its veto vote “no” after “Diplomats said the US told council colleagues that many of the facts of what happened on Monday in Damascus remained unclear.” What was actually unclear was the fog that generally surrounds the Biden foreign policy and national security team since it was pretty transparent who was the aggressor in terms of means, motive and outcome.
When Iran did retaliate on April 13th, it carried out a carefully calibrated moderate strike against military targets intended to do damage but not cause a large number of casualties. It reportedly hit several airbases from which the Israeli fighter bombers had begun their attack on Damascus as well as an Israeli Air Force intelligence center in the formerly Syrian Golan Heights. No one was killed in spite of the 300 estimated drones and missiles that were launched, most being intercepted by Israel and its allies. But the attack nevertheless sent a message from Tehran that next time it could be much worse, both immediate in timing and “considerably more severe” than its response on Saturday night had been. Iran also claims that it attempted to prevent an escalation by warning the US about their plans, which would be passed on to Israel, that a “controlled” retaliation was coming. The Pentagon denied that it had been told anything, which may mean that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asleep at his desk once again.
Not content with the outcome, Israel inevitably struck back on Friday, hitting a major airbase near Isfahan, and, to make sure no one was missed, targets in both Iraq and Syria. Iranian military sources advise however that the loud explosions heard by local residents were Iranian air defenses shooting at some flying objects, presumably drones. Per the New York Times and other accommodating media, the strike was a warning that Israel could penetrate Iranian airspace and not intended to do serious damage. The Pentagon was apparently informed shortly before the Israeli action. Iran’s counter-counter retaliation is now pending, but it is clear that Netanyahu will not be deterred by electoral considerations in the United States to stay his hand in his own counter-counter response.
And how does the United States fit into the story? The White House response to the Iranian attack on Israeli territory was inevitably completely unlike the previous uncritical response to Israel’s Consulate General attack, namely condemnation of Iran and the repetition of the usual tripe about “Israel has a right to defend itself” and the sanctity of the “ironclad” defense arrangement. Biden also attempted to cover himself against political blowback due to his licking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s shoes in the upcoming November election by making it known that he had spoken with and advised Netanyahu, recommending not carrying out a reprisal of the reprisal, which Washington would be unable to support as it could/would lead to major escalation. Netanyahu, not fearing Biden’s displeasure, blew the advice off and he and his war cabinet made clear that they were working on a response as well as setting a timetable for invading Rafah in south Gaza, which Biden had also recommended against.
The White House completed its groveling to Netanyahu by vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on April 18th that would have advocated full UN membership status for the state of Palestine, demonstrating that kicking the Palestinians is always a good way to maintain Israeli favor! The vote was 12 (including France, Japan and South Korea) in favor, two abstentions (the shameless United Kingdom and, surprisingly, Switzerland) and an American veto. The US insisted that elevation of Palestine’s diplomatic status can only be obtained after negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield absurdly raised another objection: “Right now, the Palestinians don’t have control over a significant portion of what is supposed to be their state. It’s being controlled by a terrorist organization.” She was referring to Hamas but the comment actually more correctly is applicable to Israel. In any event, a leaked White House memo had previously revealed that Biden opposes full UN membership and statehood for the Palestinians without Israel’s approval, which, of course, will not be forthcoming.
So we have Israel as the aggressor against two countries that were not declared enemies and had not attacked the Jewish state in any way in many, many years. But when Israel attacked them, committing a major war crime Joe Biden and company preferred to sit on their hands and mumble, saving their vituperation for when Iran staged a deliberately mild counter-attack as a warning. That is called hypocrisy, to turn things on their head to provide the answer that one wants to see and it applies equally to Biden accusing the Russians of “illegal occupation” in Ukraine while Israel’s theft of Syria’s Golan Heights and ongoing seizure of the West Bank goes unchallenged by Washington. And the pushback against Iran is unlikely to diminish very soon as the Jewish controlled US Congress also has the bit between its teeth to demonstrate how much it loves Israel. Congressman Steve Scalise, GOP House Majority Leader, has announced that “In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel, the House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable. The House of Representatives stands strongly with Israel, and there must be consequences for this unprovoked attack.” Over at the Senate Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is advocating punishing Iran by beating on its possible friends in the US, physically attacking folks who are demonstrating in support of the Palestinians. Cotton said that the “pro-Hamas criminals” should be confronted by angry citizens who “take matters into [their] own hands” and confront the offenders, endorsing the use of force against peaceful demonstrators.
But there is also the back story behind why Israel likely attacked the Iranians in Syria in the first place. I and a number of other observers immediately after the Israeli attack assumed that the Jewish state had staged a deliberate over-the-top provocation to draw Washington into its wars. Just as in the case of the October 7th Gaza attack by Hamas, which Israel had full knowledge of and let happen, Netanyahu sought to create a situation in which it would goad Iran into being forced to retaliate to force an “ironclad” Biden to protect its “ally” by taking on Iran directly.
Why did Israel do it beyond the obvious desire to destroy Iran just like it is destroying the Palestinians? It was done because Israel has likely become aware that it is viewed as the world’s greatest pariah state due to its genocide in Gaza, to include the recent horrific killing of hundreds of Palestinians in the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as well as the targeted assassination of seven employees of a charity that was bringing in food to those starving due to Israel’s blocking the entry of relief supplies. And also because Israel is actually not winning its war against Hamas, it needed to shift the narrative to something different. That would be using its time-honored technique of making itself once again the “victim” in confronting a powerful new enemy, Iran, which would make the problem of bad public relations with the world over Gaza be in part mitigated.
A shift in the story would also presumably bring with it the expected help from the United States and its European allies to do the hard work in killing Iranians. And the trick seems to have worked, predictably. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain has been recently facing demands to cut off arms shipments to Israel because of the devastating death toll in Gaza, but on the following Monday, he was able to salute the British warplanes that had shot down some Iranian drones sent by Iran to attack Israel. It was a telling example of how Israel has been able to scramble the equation in the Middle East. Faced with a intensively publicized barrage of Iranian missiles, Britain, the United States, France and others rushed to help the Israelis who had in fact started the conflict. The United States is also currently planning on increasing the pressure on Iran through a series of tough new sanctions being prepared by Treasury Secretary Janice Yellen, saying “Treasury will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity.” Yellen notably did nothing when Israel committed a major war crime in its attack on the Iranian Consulate General in Damascus, nor has she supported sanctions over the Israeli Gaza genocide. She is, of course, Jewish. More aid for the Jewish state is also still waiting for a congressional vote to approve the $14 billion currently in the pipeline, with Washington Report claiming that this year’s total US aid to Netanyahu will likely exceed $25 billion “in direct costs related to its fervent support for Israel.”
Right now, the dilemma for the US government will be that it must pull out all the stops in supporting Israel or face inter alia retaliation by the Israel Lobby working through its donors and media resources to defeat Biden in November. And there hovers in the peripheries of one’s mind the worse grim possibility that Israel, if rebuffed by its “allies,” will use its secret nuclear arsenal to blow up the Middle East and presumably a large chunk of adjacent areas in Europe and Asia as well. There are stories already circulating suggesting that the Israeli nuclear reactor at Dimona might have been an Iranian target and that Israel is right now preparing to take out Iranian nuclear research sites. Netanyahu is calling the shots while a befuddled White House looks on. Israel has baited a trap and Joe Biden has stepped right into it.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
every man woman and child in the UK of all and no religion culture and place of origin must condemn israel for these crimes
and punish them
Hello i only disscovered this site last week and am well impressed
but what is this about natzis ? whats that all about ?
some fella on here keeps on about natzis
where are they ?
Who wouldn’t be party to Geneva Conventions? Nazis, of course. These rules were set up because they had won, so they suited the field of play.
These days, they are hanging onto a small percentage of that field, as they are abandoned by the NFW.
We see UKraine and Gaza as Nazi aggression, but let’s look at it slightly differently. To me, they are more like defensive strikes, at the moment. UKraine might have started out as an expension in 2014, but since the SMO, it has been a defensive operation, more face saving, and like Iraq and Afghanistan, they never provided the boots to win. A simple analysis of land area, population, and Nazi boots, and it’s clear to see, this was never about winning.
As I said many weeks, and months ago, UKraine will get its money, mostly via the US MIC, but it’s been approved, as I understand, and I believe I was the only one to say they would get their money. I believe every pundit said they wouldn’t get their money, oh well, I was right, and so the UKraine war goes on for now.
I would suggest there’s a good chance that NATO forces will enter UKraine in an official capacity. My guess is, around the end of May.
US forces will probably join in around August, so Biden gets his bounce, as a war time leader. House leader has already stated the US is at war, even though only Congress can decide this, because a president can only enact war when the US is under attack, or attack is clearly immentent. So House Leader is really telling us whats coming over the horizon. He played the ‘I’m not going to give you any money’, and now it’s done and he’s saying ‘we are at war’.
Take notice, this is where we’re heading, and now you know why both Russia and China are on a major war footing.
Their gamers have reached the same outcomes, and they’ve probably had face to face meeting sharing their respective analytics.
And I keep saying this. Even if we ignore the core Nazi desire to make wars and have control. Just set this aside, they are being crushed economically. Yellen recently visited China, and the Chinese rejected all her suggestions. It’s akin to David Cameron asking the EU for a veto on City Crime Cartels and off shore banking regulations. The EU said no, so we got rigging referendum, and out. It’s the same with Yellen, and Western fiance experts are seriously shocked at China’s growth spurt, which will see the US easily as the 2nd economy by some margin, in 2025.
The US and UK have thrown everything at China. 2008 designed financial collapse, currency wars, illegal sanctions, a trade war, and Covid. Then we must take into account the 1000 US Nazi troops on Taiwan? Take about waving a red flag at China!
So we’re all conditioned into see war by what we’ve seen in the past, and UKraine looks alot like WW1, because the Nazis had 8yrs to did in, deep. So if we ignore nukes for a moment, because once nukes are used, everything stops. So even though I can’t get my head around it, a major super power conflict, escalation, won’t look like anything we’ve seen before. It’s like comparing WW1 verses WW2, there’s so many differences, and one of the main diffences, it that Nazi Amerika will find is hard, if not impossible to rearm or supply Europe. Most of the new forms of warfare haven’t been seen. We could see nuclear power stations melt down, like Fukushima. lol, where the cooling systems were sabotaged. Banking and the financial centers will cease immediately, so holding some cash, and prepping is important, because even if you have a caring considerate regime, it will be weeks before they send you aid and food, if they have it. lol
Remember, I’ve only said this in the unlikely event there’s some sort of delay to using nukes. I think China is much less likely to fall back on nukes, but Russia has big borders, so they will use nukes pretty quickly, especially on their Western border with NATO.
I also wanted to say, I don’t come back to read other comments, because if I reply, they don’t get posted. Even my first comments don’t get posted sometimes. Not much I can do about it when the Ed, doesnt want any debate, and doesn’t update like he used to. Maybe this is a Nazi condition to carryon under controlled conditions. You can only find truth through open discussion. I’m a stoic, so what I can’t affect doesn’t bother me.
It should be NO surprise that those faggot-fluffers France, UK & US
– FUKUS for short (lmfao!!😅) –
are tripping over themselves to be ‘first in line’ to drop to their knee-pads to “stiffen” ISISrael’s resolve..
Either Biden’s dementia has turned him into a blubbering fool or the Zios have some really nasty, X-rated video of Joe in bed, doing some really bad things to underage girls, maybe even boys.
As drugged out as his son Hunter is, it’s possible Pedo Joe also showered with his son.
Jews are relentless malevolent pricks, so just wait a week for more intrigue and fireworks, not to mention total mayhem, death, destruction, and immorality. Jews are the most evil people on earth and ordained by god to kill us all – yet loved by the Evangelical loons.
Read my comments on Unz how I think Israel will fail
https://www.unz.com/aanglin/hoax-watch-israel-attack-on-iran-confirmed-to-be-trumped-up-nonsense/#comment-6527978
https://www.unz.com/aanglin/netanyahu-tells-west-israel-will-decide-how-to-defend-itself-i-e-israel-will-decide-if-the-west-goes-to-war/#comment-6526153
https://www.unz.com/aanglin/netanyahu-tells-west-israel-will-decide-how-to-defend-itself-i-e-israel-will-decide-if-the-west-goes-to-war/#comment-6524798
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https://t.me/rocknrollgeopolitics/11024
https://www.unz.com/comments/all/?commenterfilter=Yukon+Jack
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What is the link between Ukraine and Israel? Israel is about to fail, so Ukraine is being ethnically cleansed of white Christian Ukrainians as their new national home. So far 500,000 Ukes have been killed and no Jews – as they are exempt. Over half of the Ukraine people have left since the war started.
The United States is 35 trillion in debt, going up a trillion every 90 days, interest soaring past 1 trillion a year – so ask yourself. do they really have any money for any foreign aid?
Money to Ukraine = more dead Ukrainians
Money to Israel = more human rights atrocities in Gaza
It is evil to give either of those two states anything.
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Just remember Abraham is fiction and the modern Israel Jews are not Semites. The holy claim to Palestine is based on myth, and thus no court recognizes the Torah text as a legal claim. The Jews from Europe who are slaughtering the native Semites are not blood related to the Israelites of the Bible fable.
Johns Hopkins genetic study shows 97.5% of Jewish people living in Palestine have absolutely no ancient Hebrew DNA, are therefore not Semites, and have no ancient blood ties to the land of Palestine at all. Whereas 80% of Palestinians carry ancient Hebrew DNA and thus are real Semites.
The fake Jews of Poland, Lithuania, and Russia are killing the real Semites, and screaming anti-semitism at anyone who challenges their cruel, barbaric acts – caused because of their insane and irrational beliefs in words in a plagiarized unholy fable.
Just because you believe something does not make it true. Like the father Abraham – who is a ripoff of Brahma.
Abraham never existed. Abraham and Sara are stolen directly from Hindu mythology, Brahma married his sister Sarasvati, likewise Abraham married his sister Sara(h). Sarah’s maid servant Hagar is derived from the Ghaggar river in India.
ISRAEL is derived from 3 Egyptian gods ISis, RA, and EL(ohim). None of those gods were real. Inventing a nation from 3 fake gods does not make that nation real. Israeli archeology proves it never existed. It was only a story – a powerful one that has captured men’s minds and emotions.
The Genesis creation myth is stolen from Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. How the Universe was formed is not what the Bible says, the Bible was written in pre-scientific days. And if Genesis is wrong, then what measure do you apply to the rest of the text? The truth is, it is all fiction. No “god” told the ancient Israelites to kill all. It was imaginative fiction of psychos that wrote the text.
The Bible story of the Israelites NEVER HAPPENED. It is only a story (or fable) created by rewriting older myth into a supermyth. When a Jewish person claims Abraham as their father they are wrong, Abraham never existed.
https://kevinbarrett.heresycentral.is/2024/04/ffwn-israel-checkmated-with-cat-mcguire/
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Barbaric Savagery! Israel to “Sacrifice” Red Heifers, Tomorrow
Hal Turner World 21 April 2024
“Barbaric Savagery! Israel to “Sacrifice” Red Heifers, Tomorrow
In a display of Barbarism and Savagery, Israel will “sacrifice” Red Heifers tomorrow; as a “Spiritual Cleansing” for the Rabbis who will “rebuild the Third Temple.” Except in order to do that, the Muslim Temple Mount must be . . . ahem . . . gone.
In a ceremony akin to a Voodoo ritual, wherein Witch Doctors cut the heads off chickens or goats, the Israelis will “sacrifice” Red Heifers. And they dare call themselves “civilized?” Barbarian Savages.
But the world already sees that Israel is a Barbaric, Savage, country based on their dropping almost 2,000 pound bombs, from Fighter Jets, onto Apartment Buildings, Schools, Hospitals, and Refugee Camps in Gaza for the past 6 months or so.
Of course, their savagery was also clear when they bombed the Iran Embassy Compound in Damascus, Syria on April 1.
So mentally sick is the Israeli government – and the Israeli people – they became aghast that Iran struck them back in retaliation for the Embassy attack – and then had the audacity to declare there must be “An eye for an eye” calling the Iran retaliation “an attack” for which Israel had to strike back!
It never occurs to the mindless, violent, savages that THEY started it by attacking the Embassy!”
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Ancient man was superstitious – sacrificing animals/humans to the gods for atonement of “sins”. No one believes that anymore except those stuck in the old ways. Go ask a physicist about sin. It does not exist except in theology. Sin is a way to guilt trip the rabble in compliance to priestly edicts. No god is going to judge you upon death. The only judgement you will ever encounter is on earth from other people, yourself, and the courts.
Killing baby cows ritually to the fake god Yahweh should be banned and those who practice jailed in mental institutions. It is one thing the whole nation of Israel is mad, and another for our Congress to support such insanity. Our values do not include genocide and I look forward to the day the Congress is called before a world court and charged with genocide – aiding and abetting makes you just as guilty.
@CJ
…We could see nuclear power stations melt down, like Fukushima. lol, where the cooling systems were sabotaged….
lol?
WANKER!
CRIMES OF ISRAEL
https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=286062
Why Syria hasn’t been targeting every attack aircraft of Israhell as it crosses into Syrian airspace is beyond me. Every single one of them should be targeted and incinerated in mid air.
Then we had a festering sack of pig shit chime in: Cuntgressman “Steve Scalise, GOP House Majority Leader, has announced that “In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel…” … Unjustified, huh? F*ck you, asshole. Your credibility is less than zero, I’m surprised Scalise was even able to make a verbal statement since he is constantly being willingly sodomized on both ends by slobbering kikes, while watching another group of Chabadniks defile his wife…all for a few shekels and a seat at a table with piss poor company…
Then lo and behold, which should really be LOW and behold, there’s Suppositor, er Senator, Tom “Manchurian Candidate” Cotton encouraging the dangerously stupid to beat the piss out of anyone speaking up on behalf of the beleaguered Palestinians. How very Christian of him. “Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is advocating punishing Iran by beating on its possible friends in the US, physically attacking folks who are demonstrating in support of the Palestinians.” Cotton looks like a soulless awkward hick…or maybe a completely psychopathic version of Gomer Pyle in his more animated moments. Cotton thinks “angry citizens” should take matters into their own hands when seeing people protesting about the abject evil of Israhell. Funny, I always thought angry citizens should take matters into their own hands and beat the ever living piss out of agents of treachery and treason, such as, say, Tom Cotton…and 98% of Cuntgress.