Israel's Massacre and PR operation. posted by Richard Seymour

A nice chap over at MediaLens supplied the following clip from BBC News about the Israeli massacre of 18 civilians in Gaza:



You noted, if you could stomach all of that hideousness from the Israeli PR woman, the repetitive misdirection, the strident assertions about the difference between Us and Them, the simply incredible claims about this unfortunate accident, tragedy, Israel never ever targets civilians etc etc. Well, now, have a look at this piece about lies you aren't supposed to believe:

So if these lies aren't intended to convince, what are they for?

First, to lay out policy. Bush, for example, did not seriously expect sensible people to believe that there was an "axis of evil". Rather he was announcing intent - explaining the terms, priorities and main targets of US imperialism.

Second, to muddy the waters. Political outrage is endlessly deferred by never ending fact-checking. There have been many sterling pieces researching and undermining Israel's Gaza fairy story, but even they are evidence that Israel has succeeded in setting an agenda. They answer the question, "Did Israel kill the Ghalias?" when the question should be, "What do we do about the fact that Israel killed the Ghalias?"

Read the whole thing.