Escalation Management: Blinky and Borrell Call for More of the Same War

An "I read it so you don't have to" article

Jan 06, 2024

Published: 2024-01-07

Background

Only hours after the dual terror bombing of a procession to mark the 4th anniversary of the US drone assassination of IRGC Quds Force General Soleimani, YesXorNo and Max Blumenthal had also reached the conclusion drawn by the vast majority of the Muslim community in southwest Asia. This was a provocation by Israel.

Blumenthal suspected that MEK would most likely be the organisation behind the provocateurs. Within 24 hours the wires (at least one of Reuters, AP and AFP) had issued a report which the ABC had used to state that "The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for [the attack]". The article claimed that "The militant group made the claim on social media" including 0 links to the 'claim' and 0 screen grabs too. The article's authors then went on to quote or paraphrase the contents of the mysterious social media post. The article also began with a re-phrasing of "ISIS" as "The Islamic State group". When did that re-naming begin? [A RAND blog used the phrase in 2015, but a BBC article of 2019-03-23 seems the driver behind the re-branding].

Of course, whenever one reads an article with no author using a social media post to which no link or screenshot is provided and it uses that as the source of attributing blame, one tears the article along the perforated edge and assigns it to the next cleaning task on one's list.

How much does one care about the western assigned name of the "group" to which the two extremists who blew themselves up were theoretically aligned when they attacked the commemorative procession? The local law enforcement will investigate and the local intelligence organisation will too, for the purposes of calming grievances and a public show of justice, and identifying others associated with these suicidal idiots who chose to fighting other people's wars.

Following the Narrative

On the grand chessboard this attack on the procession, following the earlier assassination of the deputy Hamas leader with whom Israel was negotiating for the release of prisoners captured by Hamas on Oct 7th, sets the scene for US Sec. of State Blinkenlights' latest trip to the inflamed region. Having most recently been received by the deputy mayor of Ankara in one of the most flagrant diplomatic displays of disrespect, Blinky-Baby is back and risking the same treatment.

So, lets follow the follow up article at ABC News in which some journalist is again swimming in the sewage spewed forth by the "wires".

The article begins with:

Lebanon's Hezbollah militia has fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel on Saturday, warning the barrage was its initial response to the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon's capital earlier this week.

which emphasizes the 'escalation' by describing Hamas’ attacks which it later acknowledges were "toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron" and that Hamas "said rockets also struck two army posts near the border".

Anyone channeling their inner Caitlin Johnstone will immediately note there is no mention that Israel essentially had already declared war by attacking civilians in Lebanon. Equally, there is no mention that Israel is still killing babies (if there are any left) in its genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gazan open air prison full of refugees. Or, one could channel a little Ritter and observe that this Hamas 'escalation' is following the Russian playbook by exclusively targeting military objectives.

The article then informs us that the IDF launched reprisal attacks inside Lebanon using "fighter jets and troops" to cement their declaration of war by attacking "Ayta ash Shab, Yaroun, and Ramyeh in southern Lebanon". By calmly looking at the actions rather than the words we can see who is doing the escalating.

Then, out of nowhere, a source attribution link-free slick entered the flow:

Separately, the armed wing of the Islamic Group in Lebanon said it fired two volleys of rockets toward the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday night.
Two of the group's members were killed in the strike that killed Mr al-Arouri.

Well, that's interesting.

Firstly, we can see that the skewed 'escalation' narrative is being followed by adding another party to those who are firing at Israel. Then we are informed that two unnamed persons who were assassinated by Israel in Beirut along with the Hamas deputy leader are a part of the "Islamic Group", whatever that is.

Given the region being described, there must be thousands of Islamic groups. To which are these deceased individuals being retroactively assigned? Yes, I know we're meant to read "Islamic STATE Group", but that is not what they wrote. And words are the stock in trade for journos, so I think it is thoroughly reasonable to take them at face value. What the hell is "Islamic Group"? I mean, any group of Muslims with a religious component to its work would be Islamic with a capital I. So, the only distinguishment in "Islamic Group" is the capitalization of the G. It theoretically is meant to refer to a specific group. So, it begs the question, which one? This fuzzy phrase is as useless as assigning blame via an unlinked claim on social media, and is par for the course for ‘wires’ narratives.

Some context is then injected into the article, possibly by the ABC journo(s), by quoting the Palestinian Health Authority to inform us that another 122 people were killed in Gaza by the Zionists in the last 24 hours. The journo(s) cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants because the 'Hamas-run' Health Authority "does not differentiate between combatants and civilians". So, I suppose we'll just have to assume that it fits the pattern to date of 70% civilian casualties. This is, of course, is yet another day with (0.7 * 122 ~=) 85 war crimes committed by Israel in a territory it claims is its own.

What are we meant to “know”?

Holding our nose at that stinky statistic, lets watch where this narrative piece is leading us.

Aaaah, we're back to Blinkenlights after a few paragraphs of the obvious with the title of "UN warns Gaza 'uninhabitable' as war rages on".

Noting that the leader of Hamas (who Israel is also trying to assassinate) has called on Blinky to urge Israel to end its '"aggression"'. Yes, I'm quoting their quotes. And, I sorta like this by the journos. This is not 'aggression', it is a two front war, though one is against an imprisoned population.

The article then opens the sluice gates to issue forth a sequence of turds known as US talking points issued by the US state department, Blinkenlights and "Jungle" Josep Borrell about how they're all trying to prevent an escalation. Again, channeling our inner Caitlin we can see through this floating shit as:

What the US/EU really wants is for the war to continue in its current state.

An escalation would be an interruption to the current, happy state of affairs. This happiness is the US providing weapons at tax-payer expense to the genocidal, murderous, inhuman national Israeli military forces acting according to the explicit command of the elected, Zionist political leadership of Israel.

Okay, Blinkenlights and Jungle Jim, message received. And that is why the entire planet holds you in contempt along with the Zionists.

The unnamed ABC journos who've been swimming in this shit continue to put pressure on their sphincter by continuing to stand astride the fence on which this article sits by concluding:

The United States is Israel's chief military and political backer and has repeatedly refused to support calls for a ceasefire.
However, Washington has lent its support to humanitarian pauses and backed a UN Security Council resolution demanding more aid be let into Gaza.

Ouch!

NB: The US did more than 'refuse' to support calls. It issued a sole vito in the UN Security Council to BLOCK a call for a ceasefire. Enjoy that fence, ABC News!

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Sources

Islamic State claims responsibility for deadly attack in Iran, as Tehran vows revenge, ABC/wires, ABC News, 2024-01-05

Provocations to Disappear a Genocide, YesXorNo, 2023-01-04

Israel-Gaza updates: Hezbollah says it hit Israeli observation post with 62 rockets, ABC/wires, ABC News, 2024-01-07