Israel's Rescue Massacres Civilians and Censors Media

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

12 Jun 2024

People's Red Line protest at the White House on June 8, 2024 Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

Israel is crowing about rescuing four people held hostage and killing more than 200 Palestinians in the process. It is typical behavior for the apartheid state but all of the pressure it exerts can’t end the scorn, contempt, and protest it faces all over the world.

The Israeli government could have freed everyone that was held by Hamas since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, if it had continued the truce and negotiations that were taking place in November and December of 2023. The government has even killed some of the hostages in its attacks on Gaza, using the people it claims to care so much about as pawns, bargaining chips to serve nefarious ends at opportune moments.

One such moment took place on June 8, 2024, when Israeli forces used humanitarian aid trucks as cover to rescue four hostages while also killing an estimated 274 Palestinians. These same forces killed journalist Abdalah Aljamalalong with his wife and his father, and then claimed without proof that the family was holding one of the captives in their home.

The entire operation was consistent with Israel’s past actions. It came on the heels of a massacre at a school that killed 40 people seeking refuge there, which came on the heels of an attack on a refugee tent camp in Rafah which also killed at least 40 people.

War crimes are nothing new for Israel, but large scale public protest is new and, despite Israel’s stranglehold on corporate media and the political duopoly, represents a threat to continued support. What is a genocidal apartheid nation to do? It has to continue the attack on human beings in Palestine and on any opposition to its client state.

The coordinated astroturf attack on journalist Briahna Joy Gray preceded the hostage rescue massacre. Gray was co-host of The Hill program, Rising, and was fired after months of good reporting, including questioning the narrative of mass rape by Hamas on October 7. It was pointed out that she “rolled” her eyes at a guest who was the sister of a hostage. Not only was she subjected to a relentless barrage of social media attacks, but even after she was fired her podcast was spammed in an effort to take it down. Of course, the mass rape narrative has quite rightly been questioned as relying on unsubstantiated claims and unethical reporting. However, telling the truth is not the point. Silencing critics and frightening others into silence is the point of Israeli war propaganda efforts which are needed now more than ever before.

Student protests on campuses across the country and mass action such as the People’s Red Line at the White House show that Israel is on shaky ground, with fewer supporters than it could traditionally rely upon. After the International Criminal Court (ICC) was finally forced to apply for arrest warrants for its leadership and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) twice ordered Israel to cease its actions in Gaza, it was harder to make the claim that this pariah state is a shining example of democracy in its region.

It comes as no surprise that Israel increased its activities that would have been called “malign influence” if committed by other nations. The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs utilized AI bots and other means to target Black lawmakers like Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Ritchie Torres, who, ironically, were always on board with support for the zionist state. Yet no stone can be unturned in a time of crisis when students in the liberal class are targeted for arrest and other forms of repression. ICC and ICJ condemnation is very dangerous, even when it is inadequate and lacks any meaningful enforcement measures.

That conundrum explains why Briahna Joy Gray and others are targeted. Brute force does the job when public opinion goes south. Making an example of a prominent person is a warning to others. We are all to be terrorized, fearing damage to professional lives and personal harassment as the Biden administration dithers with announcements of dead on arrival peace agreements that neither they nor the Israelis are serious about concluding.

Yet all of the censoring and pressure tactics can’t undo the damage wrought by the United States and Israel. The two countries are pariahs around the world, with only vassal states in the collective west supporting them. Even the citizens of those nations have turned against this project and will never view either nation in the same ways again. The massacres and deaths of at least 40,000 people cannot be unseen and what was the status quo of public opinion is in jeopardy.

Of course in the short term Israel still wins and will have a zionist U.S. president in November, regardless of whether it is Joe Biden or Donald Trump who emerges victorious. Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to congress for a record fourth time, but the proverbial genie is out of the bottle. Some members of congress have a little bit of spine and are publicly questioning the invitation. Netanyahu will surely be greeted by protests, making a political victory somewhat questionable. All of the support will be forced while sincere and heartfelt positive feelings about Israel will continue to be on the decline among the public.

The most important question is whether the people in this country will be cowed into silence or will dare to fight for change. Israel is not the only obstacle to peace and to true democracy but it represents everything from the power of the military industrial complex to various lobbies wielding influence and bought off and cowardly people refusing to work on behalf of the nation’s best interest. Shutting down campus protests and restricting freedom of expression only escalates a political crisis, a crisis of legitimacy that cannot be undone.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at [email protected].