Glenn Greenswald, now at
The Guardian, weighs in on the new air war,below. Plus
see my post on how so little has changed since the last time around, in 2008.
Israel's escalating air attacks on Gaza
follow the depressingly familiar pattern that shapes this conflict.
Overwhelming Israeli force slaughters innocent Palestinians, including
children, which is preceded (and followed) by far more limited rocket
attacks into Israel which kill a much smaller number, rocket attacks
which are triggered by various forms of Israeli provocations -- all of
which, most crucially, takes place in the context of Israel's
45-year-old brutal occupation of the Palestinians (and, despite a
"withdrawal" of troops, that includes Gaza, over which Israel continues
to exercise extensive dominion).
The debates over these episodes then follow an equally familiar
pattern, strictly adhering to a decades-old script that, by design at
this point, goes nowhere. Meanwhile, most US media outlets are petrified of straying too far from pro-Israel orthodoxies.
But now there's this twist:
Extra-judicial assassination - accompanied by the wanton killing of
whatever civilians happen to be near the target, often including
children - is a staple of the Obama presidency. That lawless tactic is
one of the US president's favorite instruments for projecting force and
killing whomever he decides should have their lives ended: all in total
secrecy and with no due process or oversight. There is now a virtually
complete convergence between US and Israeli aggression, making US
criticism of Israel impossible not only for all the usual domestic political reasons, but also out of pure self-interest: for Obama to condemn Israel's rogue behavior would be to condemn himself.
It is vital to recognize that this is a new development.
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