Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 61

The 'Terror Tunnels'

As we know, Israel's initial call for revenge against Palestinians in the current crisis was prompted by the kidnapping and killing of three teens in June, but soon there were doubts raised (even by some Israelis) that Hamas directed that.  Then they highlighted Hamas firing rockets over and into Israel, but they've stressed that less often since flights started getting cancelled and tourism suffered.  They criticized what the U.S. media calls the "terror tunnels" built by Hamas over the years, but this has become the primary, oft-cited cause for the ground and air attacks in the past two weeks.  U.S. media have dutifully taken tours of exposed tunnels and filed scare reports, such as the ones on CNN on Monday.

No doubt Israel is right to be concerned about these tunnels. Several of its soldiers were killed just this week by militants emerging from one of them.  No one would object to them destroying them along their border.  Egypt has somehow destroyed as many as 1000 of them at its border used for smuggling goods (but without killing many Gazans).  The reason I raise this is:  The tunnels are being used as a pretext for mass slaughter--and accepted or promoted as much by U.S. media.   So the threat from them to a civilian population, especially before Israel escalated the war, must be proven and very clear.

The use of "terror" or "terrorism" connotes attacks on civilians.  But have these tunnels only been used for military operations?

Yet the IDF and the media never seem to get around to listing what (you'd think) must be a large number of "terror" incidents and Israelis killed or kidnapped in recent years. A good example was yesterday's report by Jodi Rudoren in the New York Times--quite lengthy but without a single reference to a deadly "terror" attack via the tunnels until the past two weeks of armed conflict.  Like others, she explains that Israel has known about the tunnels for many years yet did not attempt to destroy many of them until this month.  Why?  Because they actually posed less of a threat to civilians than now claimed?  Israelis in the south are always quoted about their fears of militants rising out of the ground in their backyards (one tells Rudoren, "It takes us a little bit to our childhood fairy tales of demons"), but--how many times has this happened?

In that regard, an article this week in the Times of Israel quotes a senior Israeli intelligence officer asserting that the tunnels did not really threaten civilians--Hamas aims for another spectacular soldier kidnapping or killing.  (The Shalit snatching led to freedom for 1000 Palestinians in the prisoner exchange.)  This intel source points out that in the major tunnel incursion last week the militants could have easily invaded a nearby kibbutz but set off to kill soldiers instead.  They did it again this week.  But using tunnels for military attacks in war has long been an accepted battlefield tactic. It's not "terrorism."

Israelis now seek a broad inquiry into why their officials and military did not take broad action against the tunnels until now.  Was it because they didn't think they were such a huge threat? And now they describe finding dozens of tunnels and a wider network--but is anyone in U.S. media questioning what exactly these newly-found tunnels represent?  They take guided tours of a couple carefully selected--including one unfinished, another uncovered two years ago--but they have to take the word (and do) of the IDF in describing the other tunnels and any weapons/explosives found in them.  Were most of them abandoned years ago? Flooded and not really useable, as Hamas claims?

All this caused me to ask, via Twitter, for anyone to send me a link to a credible history with this information.  I got no replies beyond, "Good luck with that."  I raised this with Jake Tapper of CNN, who had just done his "terror tunnel" report on Twitter, since he had tweeted about Hamas "exporting death."  Well, how many deaths, before this month's Israel invasion of Gaza, in the past ten years since the tunnels were expanded?  Tapper tells me today that he knows of only six deaths from the tunnels, all IDF.  I've seen an Israeli source claim 10 soldiers.  If that's all, then more Israelis have been killed in the past week because of the tunnels, and the Israeli offensive, than in the previous decade combined.

Always cited is the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Shalit, which became a cause celebre until a prisoner swap not long ago.  Since it got such massive and long-lasting attention I presume it was the one and only such case.  Then there was some sort of militants' plan to blow up explosives along the border in the south.  Another thwarted attack on a village years ago.  But that's about all I can find easily.  This fairly detailed history from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no less, is typical in failing to offer more than three or four examples.  Ditto for a lengthy recent Wash Post piece.  Mike Calderone at Huff Post links to my assessment in a wrap-up there but like virtually every other U.S. journo fails to mention the key fact: Not a single Israeli civilian ever killed because of one of the tunnels.

So why have U.S. media gone along with promoting this as a justification for killing 1000 civilians, including 200 kids, far from the border? 

P.S.   I have been live-blogging this crisis for the past week, and here's today's.

Greg Mitchell, the longtime editor of Editor & Publisher, has written dozens of books relating to the war in Iraq, the atomic bombings of Japan, famous U.S. political campaigns, the death penalty and WikiLeaks, among other subjects.  

Countdown to Hiroshima: X-Minus 8 Days

Every year at this time, I trace the final days leading up to the first (and so far only) use of the atomic bomb against cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.   In this way the fateful, and in my view, very tragic, decisions made by President Truman and his advisers can be judged more clearly in "real time."  As many know, this is a subject that I have studied and written about in hundreds of articles and three books (including the recent Atomic Cover-Up on the U.S. suppression of film for decades and another on a Hollywood film)  since the early 1980s with a special emphasis on the aftermath of the bombings, and the government and media reactions in the decades after.

On July 29, 1945: 

—Truman wrote letter to wife Bess from Potsdam on deals there (but does not mention A-bomb discussions with Soviets): “I like Stalin. He is straightforward, knows what he wants and will compromise when he can’t get it. His Foreign Minister isn’t so forthright.“ Truman casually informed Stalin about the atomic bomb but no one is quite certain that the latter understood.

—Japanese sub sinks the U.S.S. Indianapolis, killing over 800 American seamen. If it had happened three days earlier, the atomic bomb the ship was carrying to Tinian would have never made it.

—A Newsweek story observes: “As Allied air and sea attacks hammered the stricken homeland, Japan’s leaders assessed the war situation and found it bordering on the disastrous…. As usual, the nation’s propaganda media spewed out brave double-talk of hope and defiance.” But it adds: “Behind the curtain, Japan had put forward at least one definite offer. Fearing the results of Russian participation in the war, Tokyo transmitted to Generaliissimo Stalin the broad terms on which it professed willingness to settle all scores.”

—Assembling of the first atomic bomb continued at Tinian. It would likely be ready on August 1 and the first use would be dictated by the weather.  The second bomb—the plutonium device—was still back in the States. The target list, with Hiroshima as #1, remained in place, although it was being studied for the presence of POW camps holding Americans in the target cities.

—Secretary of War Stimson began work on the statement on the first use of the bomb that President Truman would record or release in a few days, claiming we merely hit a "military base," assuming the bomb worked.

Tuesday Updates (From the Top) on Israel-Gaza Tragedy

Reuters on the harshest, perhaps deadliest, night yet in Gaza. Other put death toll there at over 1100.

Well, I've had an interesting back and forth late last night with 1) a well-known Hollywood director and 2) CNN's Jake Tapper.   Jake did a segment on the tunnels today that, as I complained, did not reveal how many Israelis have been killed due to them over many years; did not explain why Israel is using them as main pretext for slaughter now when he mentioned himself "they've known about them for years"; and why he closed the spot with reference to claims that a couple Gaza kids may have died in building them when hundreds are perishing now due to Israeli bombing. 

CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.

ViceNews visit scenes of attacks in Gaza and hospitals.

Monday Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-Israel Tragedy

(Frequent postings all day, as I've been doing for nearly the past week.)

Well, I've had an interesting back and forth tonight with 1) a well-known Hollywood director and 2) CNN's Jake Tapper.   Jake did a segment on the tunnels today that, as I complained, did not reveal how many Israelis have been killed due to them over many years; did not explain why Israel is using them as main pretext for slaughter now when he mentioned himself "they've known about them for years"; and why he closed the spot with reference to claims that a couple Gaza kids may have died in building them when hundreds are perishing now due to Israeli bombing. 

CBS legend Bob Schiefer weighs in on the side of Hamas wanting to get as many civilians killed as possible.

Update on Israeli civilian casualties:  well, no update needed.  Still one Bedouin, one Thai worker, one settler. 

A Twitter commenter:  "CNN covering this for Israel like it's an American war. In essence, it is."

Beloved Gaza children's TV performer killed in home.

Pulitzer-winning editorial write for Wall St. Journal, Bret Stephens writes tonight that he questions number of Gaza casualties, and says to oppose the slaughter is to defend "barbarism." Ironic choice of words, given tonight's carnage (see below).

What appears, from tweets and reports, to be shock and awe--and slaughter--all over Gaza tonight, including another UN school filled with kids hit. U.S. and U.S. media have willingly accepted carnage so tonight--Israelis are topping everything previous, it seems, according to Gazans who have seen the worst in the past.

All Israel has to do is "accidentally" hit one hotel filled with Western journos and then media outlook may change.  And only then.  Although they may claim that the hotel housed rockets or that they had a right to defend themselves from truthful reports by the media.

Amira Hass column in Haaretz: Israel's "moral defeat" will haunt them for years. "If victory means causing the enemy to pile up a number of slaughtered children on one stretcher, since there are not enough stretchers, then you have won, Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon – you and the nation that admires you."

New video from Jewish Voice for Peace features dozens, including a few celebs, holding up names of dead Gazans.

Apparently Israel today hit a refugee camp and Shifa hospital nearby killing several more kids, photos have been posted (see left).  Israel once again claims not targeting or operating in area and says must have been Hamas rockets--in both cases!  NBC says at least 30 dead, mainly at the camp, and blames Israel: "The Israel Defense Forces told Haaretz that a 'preliminary investigation has found the Israeli army did not fire at the Shifa Hospital, and the fire is believed to have been Hamas.'  However, a NBC News journalist witnessed the attack on the hospital and said it had been fired by an Israeli drone--this attribution, oddly, removed from a revised NBC story, which now highlights Israel's denials.  ("Early reports from the ground said an Israeli drone was responsible for the attack.")

The NYT, as expected, gives equal weight to Israel's denial--and includes this right in the home page headline despite lies about not hitting the UN school last week. 

Shifa is the most sophisticated hospital in Gaza.  Israel has hit several other hospitals in recent days.

@DrBasselAbuwarda there tweets: "The dead children r from attacking a park in Alshate camp & it was Simultaneous with attack on Alshifa hospital 10 dead majority r children...the children were wearing new cloths for Al Eid , they were just playing in the par." His Twitter response to Israel's claims that hit by Hamas rocket:  "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"
We reported days ago on two reporters quoting Israeli police spokesman seeming to admit that Israel is not (and never was) certain that the kidnapping and killing of those three teens back in June which set the current crisis in motion had actually been ordered by Hamas (as Israel).  He said it's believed it was actually a small local "cell," perhaps not ordered by Hamas to do this.  Great controversy has erupted since.  Here's a lengthy piece at Vox today by Max Fisher that probes the matter, noting that questions about Israel exploiting the kidnapping have been there since the start. 

Don't miss my piece today on shameful David Gregory and NYT "journalism" related to Israel denying it killed anyone at that UN school last week.

Israel says a mortar attack in southern Israel has killed at least three. 

David Grossman, famed Israeli writer,  op-ed at NYT today includes:

Since I cannot ask Hamas, nor do I purport to understand its way of thinking, I ask the leaders of my own country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors: How could you have wasted the years since the last conflict without initiating dialogue, without even making the slightest gesture toward dialogue with Hamas, without attempting to change our explosive reality? Why, for these past few years, has Israel avoided judicious negotiations with the moderate and more conversable sectors of the Palestinian people — an act that could also have served to pressure Hamas? 

Name It and You Own It

Jewish Voices for Peace with new video, narrated (I believe) by Wallace Shawn, with a little background on history but mainly scores of people, including a few celebs (such as Jonathan Demme, ChuckD and Gloria Steinem), holding up names of dead in Gaza.

Monday Updates (From the Top) on Gaza-israel Tragedy

(Frequent postings all day, as I've been doing for nearly the past week.)

Apparently Israel today hit a refugee camp and Shifa hospital nearby killing several morekids, photos have been posted (see left).  Israel once again claims not targeting or operating in area and says must have been Hamas rockets--in both cases!  NBC says at least 30 dead, and blames Israel. Shifa is the most sophisticated hospital in Gaza.  Israel has hit several other hospitals in recent days.

@DrBasselAbuward there tweets: "The dead children r from attacking a park in Alshate camp & it was Simultaneous with attack on Alshifa hospital 10 dead majority r children...the children were wearing new cloths for Al Eid , they were just playing in the par." 
We reported days ago on two reporters quoting Israeli police spokesman seeming to admit that Israel is not (and never was) certain that the kidnapping and killing of those three teens back in June which set the current crisis in motion had actually been ordered by Hamas (as Israel).  He said it's believed it was actually a small local "cell," perhaps not ordered by Hamas to do this.  Great controversy has erupted since.  Here's a lengthy piece at Vox today by Max Fisher that probes the matter, noting that questions about Israel exploiting the kidnapping have been there since the start. 

Don't miss my piece today on shameful David Gregory and NYT "journalism" related to Israel denying it killed anyone at that UN school last week.

David Grossman, famed Israeli writer,  op-ed at NYT today includes:

Since I cannot ask Hamas, nor do I purport to understand its way of thinking, I ask the leaders of my own country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors: How could you have wasted the years since the last conflict without initiating dialogue, without even making the slightest gesture toward dialogue with Hamas, without attempting to change our explosive reality? Why, for these past few years, has Israel avoided judicious negotiations with the moderate and more conversable sectors of the Palestinian people — an act that could also have served to pressure Hamas? 

Zen and Now

The Zen master "Roshi"--best known as fabled teacher of Leonard Cohen at his L.A. center in decades passed--has died at the age of 107.   It must be added that his final years were dogged by multiple allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct. 

Oliver on Geckos and Nukes

From John's HBO show last night.

The Shame of David Gregory--and 'NYT'

It's been a tough week for NBC's David Gregory.

First were reports that his "Meet the Press" was sinking under even weaker ratings and that he would soon be replaced.  Then as we noted here yesterday:  Gregory, after a weak interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu,  committed one of the worst journalistic ethical lapses of recent vintage.  After letting Netanyahu claim, again, that Israel may be blameless in the school massacre, despite all the evidence and logic to the contrary, he brought on UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness--and blindsided him by showing a 10-second, hazy, tape just released within the hour by Israel allegedly showing a Hamas rocket being fired from the grounds of a UN school.  Yet Gregory said NBC had not "verified" that it's accurate--and admitted that Gunness could not view  it and had never seen it before.  Yet then asked Gunness to respond!  Gunness naturally protested the unfairness--and then the segment quickly ended.

Gregory has now issued this statement:  “An end note in a discussion about Gaza we asked a spokesman about this video which Israel claims showed rockets being fired by Hamas from a U.N. school in Gaza,” Gregory said. “This is shot by the Israeli government, and that’s their claim. The U.N. has reviewed it, tells us they have confirmed, in their view, the video does not show rockets being fired from U.N. administrative school in Gaza. So this is a back and forth we are not able to settle at this point.”   No apology or recognition of his severe ethical lapse.  Shameful.  And leaves it at the usual "he said/she said"--rather than NBC attempting to verify tape or prove Israeli propaganda.  Which it should have done before airing it.

Meanwhile, the NYT has not updated its report last night that focused on a different Israeli video to add the UN statement debunking the one alleged to show rockets fired from the school grounds.  Surely it's worth noting that Israel's videos may be nothing but propaganda.  And today @ChrisGunness has tweeted, "According 2 information UNRWA has gathered about Beit Hanoun incident, there were hundreds of people @ the installation when it was hit...We had staff @ the school when the incident occurred reporting in as the shelling, which caused multiple fatalities & casualties took place...In addition we have spoken to numerous eye witnesses at the Beit Hanoun school # Gaza when it was hit." 

Will the Times now add this to their report which emphasized that casualties "reportedly" happened at the site?  Don't bet on it. 
This is what I wrote about it last night:

Will surprise no one that when NYT tonight reports on Israel's claim it killed no one the school--it's the same old refusal to take on the absurd IDF claims head-on.  You'd never know that Israel lied to them for three days that none of their bombs even hit the school.  It's as if the reporters say, "More propaganda, please."   As from the beginning, they ultimately rely on "different versions can't be reconciled now"--even though all evidence and testimony point to Israel being guilty of this slaughter.  It's a false "balance."

They give their point of view away by not even referring to Israel completely changing its story after three days.  That's more revealing than the totally unverified 10-second video.  Most of those who have gone to the site, such as Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, have all pointed their finger at Israel as no doubt the guilty party.  Another one here. Not the Times.

And see the IDF spokesman's "scenario" (below) that maybe the hundreds of wounded and dead were not hit there but brought to the site from elsewhere.  The Times now dutifully uses the phrase that 16 were "reportedly killed"  at the site.  This is the same Israeli official the NYT  reporters give the benefit of the doubt to re: the grainy video with no time stamp.  See my earlier report on the shameful NYT coverage on this (as with much else on the conflict).
 

Countdown to Hiroshima: X-Minus 9 Days

Every year at this time, I trace the final days leading up to the first (and so far only) use of the atomic bomb against cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.   In this way the fateful, and in my view, very tragic, decisions made by President Truman and his advisers can be judged more clearly in "real time."  As many know, this is a subject that I have studied and written about in hundreds of articles and three books (including the recent Atomic Cover-Up on the U.S. suppression of film for decades and another on a Hollywood film)  since the early 1980s with a special emphasis on the aftermath of the bombings, and the government and media reactions in the decades after.

July 28, 1945

--Two days after receiving it, the Japanese leadership  rejected the Potsdam declaration calling for their "unconditional" surrender, or seemed to. The official word was that it would ignore the demand mokusatsu, or "with silence." Another translation, however, is "to withhold comment." This not-quite-rejection has led some historians to suggest that the U.S. should have pursued the confusing Japanese peace feelers already circulating, especially with suggestions that unconditional terms were the main, or perhaps only, obstacles.

--Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal had breakfast with Truman at Potsdam.  He had flown there at least partly to press the president to pursue Japanese peace feelers--especially concerning letting them keep their emperor-- before using the bomb and killing countless civilians.

 --Returning to Washington from Potsdam, Secretary of War Henry Stimson consulted with the top people at Los Alamos about the bomb (or "S-1" as it was then known) and wrote in his diary. "Everything seems to be going well."

 --U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Joseph Davies wrote in his diary that Secretary of State James Byrnes was overly excited by the success of the bomb test vis-a-vis future relations with our allies, the Soviets: "Byrnes' attitude that the atomic bomb assured ultimate success in negotiations disturbed me more than his description of its success amazed me. I told him the threat wouldn't work, and might do irreparable harm." Four days earlier, Byrnes aide Walter Brown had written in his diary that Byrnes' view was that "after atomic bomb Japan will surrender and Russia will not get in so much on the kill." The Soviets were scheduled to enter the war on August 7 (which might have prompted a Japanese surrender, even without use of the Bomb), so there was some urgency.

--A U.S. bombing raid on the small Japanese city of Aomori -- which had little military significance beyond being a transportation hub -- dropped 83,000 incendiaries and destroyed almost the entire city, killing at least 2,000 civilians.