Netanyahu to bomb Beirut civilians for LEBANON ‘ceasefire violations’

The Israeli occupation regime is never afraid of rank hypocrisy. Presumably a result of its decades of impunity and the readiness of both western politicians and media to cover for it. That has continued today with coverage of wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of new airstrikes on Beirut. These are supposedly because Lebanon has been violating the ‘ceasefire’ with Israel.

Israel has, of course, been criminally destroying entire villages, murdering families, displacing over a million Lebanese civilians and desecrating ancient religious landmarks. But readers of Western mainstream coverage would struggle to discern this.

Instead, Israel is “targeting terrorists”. It has not illegally invaded — it has “carved out a self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon“. Destroying villages is presented as an inevitable step to creating this ‘security’.

Netanyahu and Katz issue joint statement

According to the BBC, Netanyahu’s hand has been forced by a “conflict” that “continues to escalate”. The US is trying to ‘remedy’ the situation by telling the Lebanese government to “pressure Hezbollah to stop its attacks on Israel”.

If Lebanon caves, Israel won’t stop attacking, but there might be a “gradual de-escalation”. But not really: Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, says Israel’s invasion of Lebanon is “not over”.

There is no mention of Israel handing back stolen Lebanese territory, of course, or even the suggestion that it has stolen any. Hardly surprising when it has already started flogging it off to would-be illegal settlers.

‘Copy and paste’ enablers

Calling out such craven nonsense is left to independent media and commentators, such as historian Dr Assal Rad. She pointed out western media’s “copy and paste” habit of western so-called journalists when Israel makes its Orwellian pronouncements.

 

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Dahiyeh doctrine

Netanyahu’s selection of Dahiyeh (again) as his target is no coincidence and has nothing to do with targeting terrorists. Israel routinely commits atrocities against Dahiyeh’s civilian population. It does this to punish Lebanon for daring to exist and to try to spark a new civil war.

Such a war would, it thinks, allow Israel to roll in and occupy, then permanently settle, large areas of Lebanon. This has been such a common tactic that it even named it after the area in which its victims live: the “Dahiyeh doctrine”.

Israel’s Dahiyeh doctrine “intentionally violates international humanitarian law“. Developed in 2006-8, it involves the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. With the emphasis on “civilian”. While the mainstream media might forget to mention it now, its creators were quite open that it is about targeting civilians:

[Israel] should target economic interests and the centers of civilian power.

State terrorism

Leading professor of international law, Richard Falk, who is Jewish, is absolutely clear what the tactics still being deployed by the occupation really are. Falk said that there was no room for doubt that they are a violation of international law. One so egregious that it is terrorism.

The civilian infrastructure of adversaries such as Hamas or Hezbollah are treated as permissible military targets, which is not only an overt violation of the most elementary norms of the law of war and of universal morality, but an avowal of a doctrine of violence that needs to be called by its proper name: state terrorism.

Netanyahu claims his order is targeting “terrorists”. If he wants to target a terrorist, he should be bombing himself and his fellow ethno-supremacist, land-thieving mass murderers.

Featured image via the Canary