When Russia invaded and occupied swathes of Ukraine the collective west called it a brutal, illegal and unprovoked war, then imposed sweeping economic sanctions against Russia. Russia called it ‘a special military operation’. As Israel attacks the Jenin refugee camp this morning with a column of armoured vehicles and missiles, so continuing its brutal, unprovoked, illegal invasion and occupation of Palestine…the west calls it a ‘special military operation‘ and sends billions every year in support of it.
When Russian soldiers allegedly executed Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, the West called it a war crime and demanded justice. When Israeli soldiers executed unarmed protestors, journalists and medics with sniper rifles, the victims were said to be involved in ‘clashes’ and a ‘spiral of escalating violence’ and the West shrugged it shoulders.
When restaurants said to serve foreign mercenaries in Kramatorsk were hit by Russian missiles the victims were all framed as innocent civilians (many were) – but when Ukraine fires missiles into Donetsk city and hits markets and restaurants this is not reported at all by the West and when Israel routinely fires missiles into the overcrowded Gaza strip, Israel is excused and said to be targetting ‘militants’.
When Israel imprisons Palestinian children, kills Palestinian children in missile attacks on schools and drags screaming children out of homes that Israeli bulldozers then go on to raze to the ground – the West is silent. When Russia evacuated Ukrainian orphans left behind in Mariupol to Russia – this was called ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘a war crime’ by the West, despite relatives being able to travel to Russia to collect them.
When Russia illegally bombs Ukraine with fighter jets the west howls in condemnation, when Israel illegally bombs Syria with fighter jets and kills civilians they say nothing.
The west calls the Russian annexation of Crimea and the occupied territories in Ukraine an act of imperialism. The de facto annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights and most of Palestine by Israel is defended because ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’. It seems Russia, alarmed by encirclement by a hostile military alliance – does not.
When Israel engages in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories, when they visit all the repression, abuse and apparatus of an apartheid state upon Palestinians (which Amnesty rightly calls ‘a crime against humanity’)– nobody in the mainstream western media calls it racist.
If anyone calls Israel an apartheid state and challenges their murders and ethnic cleansing, they are attacked as racist anti-Semites by the western media and political establishment. But when I and others retain our capacity for critical thinking and refuse to join in the western media’s carnival of hatred towards all things Russian… we are called ‘Putin bots’ and ‘apologists for evil’.
This venal double standard exposes NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine for the geopolitical gambit that it is. The USA and NATO is delighted to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian because they have as much concern for Ukrainian lives as have they have shown for Palestinian, Syrian, Libyan, Yemini, Afghani and Iraqi lives.
None at all.
[Update: I posted this article with a picture of an Israeli solider holding a gun to the face of a Palestinian child – Facebook instantly blocked the image and flagged the post as ‘sensitive content’ so I have been forced to change the image used – and yet I have posted articles many articles with harrowing images from Ukraine. There it is – you can look at Ukraine – but not at Israel.]
Since 2013 I have worked on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and speaking simple truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.
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