Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): CNN’s Clarissa Ward and her crew became the first western journalists to enter Gaza independent from Israeli forces since October 7, briefly visiting a 150-bed hospital that was recently constructed in a soccer stadium by the United Arab Emirates in the southern part of the enclave before leaving to report on the footage from Abu Dhabi.
I just cannot purge from my mind Miko Peled's recent talk at MIT. I'm only slightly paraphrasing. What the hell is wrong with us, he insists. The terrorist is Israel. Sanctions and a no fly zone over Gaza immediately. Disband the apartheid state. He's absolutely right. We should be bloody tired of this and demand nothing less.
I am Jewish (and who cares?!). In the name of humanity, stop the f@*$n bombing, cut off all US aid to Israel, Stop the Occupation!, and let the huge amount of humanitarian aid needed into Gaza NOW.
I have been watching Al-Jazeera (Arabic and English) since October 7th and they have been showing the daily carnage since it started. Can anyone really claim that they are only now seeing these images? Really?
If Clarissa Ward's report made it clear that Israel was the attacker, if she made it clear that Israeli murdering was facilitated by American money and munitions, she would have been out of a job.
I remember the NYTImes and CNN headlines when the bombing started saying that Israel was "pummeling" Gaza -- as if we were witnessing a boxing match.
If Biden thinks that the outrage of the people who have been following this closely in the US will dim and subside once the bombing stops to give him time to recover his brand after a few months, he has no clue. Once the bombing stops, that's when the reckoning begins, as the images and stories of hell and horror emerge, and the question will become: How could you not only have let that happen, but actuallty financed it with OUR tax dollars.
That and the outrage will surely rob him of any moral overtones as he talks about Ukraine.
And there is the matter of Democracy -- and its gross violation by the DNC by effectively banning any challengers to Biden to stand in primaries.
And then there are the many broken promises -- including his weak, dismal moves to protect women's right with whatever tools he has (and he has plenty).
In any case, it is indeed fitting that the Democratic Convention this year is going to be in Chicago. It's going to be 1968 all over again, with the many, many factions loudly calling for a platform against militarism, corporatism, political spinelessness (Trump's Louis DeJoy is STILL Head of the US Post Office!), the destruction of the environment. In the middle of all that, the Trump scarecrow will be consumed and reduced to ashes by the flames of anger and disgust for Biden, the DNC, and their many minions in the US mainstream media.
I was contemplating writing a Substack about how you don't see CNN's Clarissa Ward in Gaza, but only a team of al-Jazeera reporters instead, risking life and limb. This article pre-corrects what I would have mis-written, so Big Thanks! Of course, Palestinians are merely "dying," not being indiscriminately killed by US-backed Israeli bomb strikes. IDF no doubt were well aware of Ward's assignment, probably OK'd it, and deliberately "non-targeted" her location. All said, CNN's coverage of Gaza still doesn't hold a candle to al-Jazeera's; translation: More people are watching al-Jazeera English than CNN--so send in the Clarissa Ward to Save the Ratings!
Towards the end of the segment, Clarissa Ward enumerates other cities that had undergone horrific destruction this century. Grozny, she says, Aleppo, Mariupol... No Fallujah, no Mosul, no Raqqa.
Together with everything that Caitlin describes here, I have to say that's quite a way for a reporter to pull their pants down and take a dump on all the hard work they'd done. I am sorry for the wording, but it pains me to see the Palestinians being taken through a spin yet again, and that as they are being literally wiped out.
"At no time in the 14-minute segment does Ward or anyone else make any mention of the fact that this relentless massacre can only happen because it is being backed by the US, and that the Biden administration could end it at any time by withdrawing that backing."
This. The completely disjointed coverage that the US has nothing to do with this immoral genocide of Palestinians is almost worse than calling the bombs dropping "strikes" without mentioning the Israelis' hand in dropping those bombs. Most can figure out who is doing the carpet bombing of Gaza (the folks next door), but not everyone understands that without the US handing these bombs over to the murdering Israelis, these wounded people in a Gaza hospital where CNN filmed wouldn't be in the state they're in. CNN must accept its responsibility for misleading their viewers, but, of course, they're on the US "Ministry of Truth's" payroll so they won't.
"Still, every little bit helps, and if the CNN segment opens one more pair of western eyes to what’s going on, I’ll take it." - the bar for commending a western MSM media outlet is indeed very low, if off the ground at all.
I am beginning to feel vaguely optimistic that Israel has begun to finally push their fiction over the edge. For the first time on local news tonight I did not hear about an alleged war between Israel and Hamas, but instead details about the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.
I am so tired of funding bullies, both at home and abroad. We need to cut the purse strings.
No, every little bit does not help. This bitch Ward and her pablum reporting masquerading as “news” is just to let the supine US public feel reassured that it’s not so bad after all. This is the height of the propaganda so deplored at this site because it puts a pleasant and reassuring wash over the real blood soaked, body parts carnage that real journalists are dying to get out to the public—literally. One mass airing of this tripe makes the real pictures and real reporting seem like put up jobs—because after all, that wasn’t the cute blond’s experience—and she was REALLY THERE!!!! You should be ashamed of falling for it.
a religious and white supremacist, racist settler colonial regime called the government of Israel.
The nation was self declared by Zionists who had already rejected unoccupied land in Africa when the lands of Palestine were gifted to them by guilt stricken Europeans after the last World War. Or, the pathetic Europeans, who also don't like the scheming Zionists, solved the problem by dumping it on the Palestinians and shifting it out of Europe.
ZNN (Zionist News Network) otherwise known as CNN is a propaganda outlet, nothing more. Thank you for watching so I don't have to. Fact that even this farcial 'News' organization reports some truth gives you a sense of the catastrophe happening currently in Gaza. Free Palestine, stop the Genocide.
Witnesses Say IDF Troops 'Executed' Women and Children in Gaza School
The Biden administration "must respond to the reported execution-style massacre of women, children, and babies," said the spokesperson of a U.S. Muslim advocacy group.
BRETT WILKINS
Dec 13, 2023
Eyewitness testimony reported Wednesday by Al Jazeera accused Israeli troops of massacring forcibly displaced women and children sheltering at a school in northern Gaza, an allegation that prompted a leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group to demand a response from President Joe Biden.
The reported massacre took place at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School in the al-Faluja area west of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Video footage aired by the Qatar-based news network showed numerous covered bodies piled in one of the school's classrooms.
"The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire on them," one unidentified witness said. "They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her," including "newborn children."
"The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank," she added.
A man who arrived at the scene after the alleged mass murder told Al Jazeera that "we found dozens of dead bodies in the classrooms."
"There is no sign of any missiles or shells," he added. "All those who were in the buildings were executed from point-blank. The Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. Many families came searching for their children. They found them all killed. They were all killed, executed at gunpoint."
As of press time, the alleged massacre had not been independently verified.
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that "because the Biden administration stands almost alone on the world stage in defending and enabling the far-right Israeli government's campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, administration officials must respond to the reported execution-style massacre of women, children, and babies seeking refuge in a school in Gaza."
“Our nation must stop enabling what even President Biden privately admits is the 'indiscriminate' targeting of innocent Palestinians," he added.
Also on Wednesday, Palestinians sheltering in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli troops stormed the facility after days of shelling and siege.
"Conditions in the hospital are dire with no water or electricity," one survivor told Al Jazeera. "Bodies are scattered on the ground."
An elderly man told the network that "the Israeli army used loudspeakers to demand the evacuation of the displaced individuals from the hospital," but IDF troops subsequently shot people trying to flee the facility.
Gaza health officials said Wednesday that at least 18,608 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since October 7, with over 50,000 more Palestinians wounded.
Additionally, more than 1.9 million Gazans—or upward of 85% of the strip's population—have been forcibly displaced since October 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
I just cannot purge from my mind Miko Peled's recent talk at MIT. I'm only slightly paraphrasing. What the hell is wrong with us, he insists. The terrorist is Israel. Sanctions and a no fly zone over Gaza immediately. Disband the apartheid state. He's absolutely right. We should be bloody tired of this and demand nothing less.
I am Jewish (and who cares?!). In the name of humanity, stop the f@*$n bombing, cut off all US aid to Israel, Stop the Occupation!, and let the huge amount of humanitarian aid needed into Gaza NOW.
I have been watching Al-Jazeera (Arabic and English) since October 7th and they have been showing the daily carnage since it started. Can anyone really claim that they are only now seeing these images? Really?
If Clarissa Ward's report made it clear that Israel was the attacker, if she made it clear that Israeli murdering was facilitated by American money and munitions, she would have been out of a job.
I remember the NYTImes and CNN headlines when the bombing started saying that Israel was "pummeling" Gaza -- as if we were witnessing a boxing match.
If Biden thinks that the outrage of the people who have been following this closely in the US will dim and subside once the bombing stops to give him time to recover his brand after a few months, he has no clue. Once the bombing stops, that's when the reckoning begins, as the images and stories of hell and horror emerge, and the question will become: How could you not only have let that happen, but actuallty financed it with OUR tax dollars.
That and the outrage will surely rob him of any moral overtones as he talks about Ukraine.
And there is the matter of Democracy -- and its gross violation by the DNC by effectively banning any challengers to Biden to stand in primaries.
And then there are the many broken promises -- including his weak, dismal moves to protect women's right with whatever tools he has (and he has plenty).
In any case, it is indeed fitting that the Democratic Convention this year is going to be in Chicago. It's going to be 1968 all over again, with the many, many factions loudly calling for a platform against militarism, corporatism, political spinelessness (Trump's Louis DeJoy is STILL Head of the US Post Office!), the destruction of the environment. In the middle of all that, the Trump scarecrow will be consumed and reduced to ashes by the flames of anger and disgust for Biden, the DNC, and their many minions in the US mainstream media.
I was contemplating writing a Substack about how you don't see CNN's Clarissa Ward in Gaza, but only a team of al-Jazeera reporters instead, risking life and limb. This article pre-corrects what I would have mis-written, so Big Thanks! Of course, Palestinians are merely "dying," not being indiscriminately killed by US-backed Israeli bomb strikes. IDF no doubt were well aware of Ward's assignment, probably OK'd it, and deliberately "non-targeted" her location. All said, CNN's coverage of Gaza still doesn't hold a candle to al-Jazeera's; translation: More people are watching al-Jazeera English than CNN--so send in the Clarissa Ward to Save the Ratings!
Towards the end of the segment, Clarissa Ward enumerates other cities that had undergone horrific destruction this century. Grozny, she says, Aleppo, Mariupol... No Fallujah, no Mosul, no Raqqa.
Together with everything that Caitlin describes here, I have to say that's quite a way for a reporter to pull their pants down and take a dump on all the hard work they'd done. I am sorry for the wording, but it pains me to see the Palestinians being taken through a spin yet again, and that as they are being literally wiped out.
"At no time in the 14-minute segment does Ward or anyone else make any mention of the fact that this relentless massacre can only happen because it is being backed by the US, and that the Biden administration could end it at any time by withdrawing that backing."
This. The completely disjointed coverage that the US has nothing to do with this immoral genocide of Palestinians is almost worse than calling the bombs dropping "strikes" without mentioning the Israelis' hand in dropping those bombs. Most can figure out who is doing the carpet bombing of Gaza (the folks next door), but not everyone understands that without the US handing these bombs over to the murdering Israelis, these wounded people in a Gaza hospital where CNN filmed wouldn't be in the state they're in. CNN must accept its responsibility for misleading their viewers, but, of course, they're on the US "Ministry of Truth's" payroll so they won't.
"Still, every little bit helps, and if the CNN segment opens one more pair of western eyes to what’s going on, I’ll take it." - the bar for commending a western MSM media outlet is indeed very low, if off the ground at all.
I am beginning to feel vaguely optimistic that Israel has begun to finally push their fiction over the edge. For the first time on local news tonight I did not hear about an alleged war between Israel and Hamas, but instead details about the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.
I am so tired of funding bullies, both at home and abroad. We need to cut the purse strings.
No, every little bit does not help. This bitch Ward and her pablum reporting masquerading as “news” is just to let the supine US public feel reassured that it’s not so bad after all. This is the height of the propaganda so deplored at this site because it puts a pleasant and reassuring wash over the real blood soaked, body parts carnage that real journalists are dying to get out to the public—literally. One mass airing of this tripe makes the real pictures and real reporting seem like put up jobs—because after all, that wasn’t the cute blond’s experience—and she was REALLY THERE!!!! You should be ashamed of falling for it.
The passive voice strikes again.
She died.
The wounded child.
The destroyed hospital.
The distressing numbers.
Were caused by ...
a religious and white supremacist, racist settler colonial regime called the government of Israel.
The nation was self declared by Zionists who had already rejected unoccupied land in Africa when the lands of Palestine were gifted to them by guilt stricken Europeans after the last World War. Or, the pathetic Europeans, who also don't like the scheming Zionists, solved the problem by dumping it on the Palestinians and shifting it out of Europe.
ZNN (Zionist News Network) otherwise known as CNN is a propaganda outlet, nothing more. Thank you for watching so I don't have to. Fact that even this farcial 'News' organization reports some truth gives you a sense of the catastrophe happening currently in Gaza. Free Palestine, stop the Genocide.
I guess some mainstream, sloppy coverage of Gaza is better than none at all.
Even if she had said those things, the managers back in the US would have edited them out.
I suppose once those conscripted Ukrainian women and teens start buying farms and it can't be ignored, Western media will call them "civilians".
The BBC- if they ever get there - will be even more craven.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-school-attack
Witnesses Say IDF Troops 'Executed' Women and Children in Gaza School
The Biden administration "must respond to the reported execution-style massacre of women, children, and babies," said the spokesperson of a U.S. Muslim advocacy group.
BRETT WILKINS
Dec 13, 2023
Eyewitness testimony reported Wednesday by Al Jazeera accused Israeli troops of massacring forcibly displaced women and children sheltering at a school in northern Gaza, an allegation that prompted a leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group to demand a response from President Joe Biden.
The reported massacre took place at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School in the al-Faluja area west of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Video footage aired by the Qatar-based news network showed numerous covered bodies piled in one of the school's classrooms.
"The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire on them," one unidentified witness said. "They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her," including "newborn children."
"The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank," she added.
A man who arrived at the scene after the alleged mass murder told Al Jazeera that "we found dozens of dead bodies in the classrooms."
"There is no sign of any missiles or shells," he added. "All those who were in the buildings were executed from point-blank. The Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. Many families came searching for their children. They found them all killed. They were all killed, executed at gunpoint."
As of press time, the alleged massacre had not been independently verified.
Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that "because the Biden administration stands almost alone on the world stage in defending and enabling the far-right Israeli government's campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, administration officials must respond to the reported execution-style massacre of women, children, and babies seeking refuge in a school in Gaza."
“Our nation must stop enabling what even President Biden privately admits is the 'indiscriminate' targeting of innocent Palestinians," he added.
Also on Wednesday, Palestinians sheltering in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli troops stormed the facility after days of shelling and siege.
"Conditions in the hospital are dire with no water or electricity," one survivor told Al Jazeera. "Bodies are scattered on the ground."
An elderly man told the network that "the Israeli army used loudspeakers to demand the evacuation of the displaced individuals from the hospital," but IDF troops subsequently shot people trying to flee the facility.
Gaza health officials said Wednesday that at least 18,608 Palestinians—most of them women and children—have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since October 7, with over 50,000 more Palestinians wounded.
Additionally, more than 1.9 million Gazans—or upward of 85% of the strip's population—have been forcibly displaced since October 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.