Sunday, April 7, 2024

So, our Belizean soldiers and Coast Guard members are getting trained and ready for possible deployment as part of an international peacekeeping force in Haiti. Bravo for our looking to fulfill our international obligations as part of the human family of nations. But, as our Minister of Defence assured, a checklist of conditions will need to be met before we send our young people into action on this very serious and dangerous mission; and hopefully among that checklist will be a careful assessment of the facts on the ground, and the roles of various parties in the conflict, so that whatever sacrifice we are called to make will be for the ultimate benefit of the Haitian people, for whom this mission is supposed to be directed. And to make that judgement, our sources of information cannot be limited to only the mouthpieces of the same big countries who have historically manipulated and exploited Haiti for their own national interests.

It has now been six months since the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters upon Israeli citizens and the subsequent, unrelenting onslaught upon Palestinian citizens by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in their “war of self-defense”. While the IDF has persisted in its daily bombardment of civilian-occupied dwellings, as well as vital infrastructure related to electricity, water, health and telecommunications, and the unprecedented targeting of journalists and humanitarian aid workers, there has been one justification put forward for all their actions. The justification that the Israeli prime minister and media repeatedly fall back on, is not the fact that Hamas soldiers killed a thousand plus Israeli citizens and soldiers. In the past, the Israeli forces themselves had on more than one occasion carried out similar attacks and killing of Palestinian citizens. No, the major justification, explanation, excuse that is cited—the extreme provocation involved in October 7 that has been used to justify any and everything that Israel could conceive of doing to the Palestinians and the Hamas operatives who are “sheltering” among them, is the so-called “ATROCITIES” that Israel said were committed—claims which were broadcast on the major “Western” news media as FACTS. Those ATROCITIES were said to include WIDESPREAD and SYSTEMATIC RAPES of women, and the BEHEADING and BURNING of some 40 BABIES IN OVENS. These absolutely gruesome reports, from the Israeli leaders and news organs, were accepted as true, and repeated on major Western media.

It would seem that the ATROCITIES which Hamas soldiers were accused of committing on October 7, were so extreme and abhorrent that any member of the human race would have to believe that these Hamas members were some sub-human animals, beasts of the most decadent and despicable sort on planet earth, and that they did not deserve any form of human sympathy and decorum, but only total annihilation and destruction, which would extend to all who may harbor or allow themselves to be infiltrated or in any way used as “cover” by them. Thus, the utter destruction and death, with much help through U.S. weapons, that Israel has wielded upon Gaza, even in the face of a U.N. resolution to investigate their actions as possible genocide upon the Palestinian people. Yet, it is all excused, explained, justified and given license by Israeli allies who point back to the “ATROCITIES” of October 7.

So far, conservative estimates have put the death toll in Gaza at 33,000, with more than half being women and children, with a figure of 14,000 being given as the estimated number of children killed so far. And these are conservative estimates, as many bodies still lie beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. Starvation and disease have now joined the bombs, bullets and rockets that have been daily taking Palestinian lives. Is that an atrocity? In fact, in the eyes of the Israeli leaders and supporters, this and more is justified because of the abominable ATROCITIES which they have said were unleashed upon Israeli WOMEN and innocent BABIES on October 7. The ATROCITIES of October 7 are the Israeli explanation and justification for everything that they have done since.

Collateral damage in war is unavoidable, and non-combatants have lost their lives in all wars. Some women and children and old folks have perished in wars before, and perhaps never more so than in the Jewish Holocaust, when millions were sent to gas chambers by the Nazis. The world can never forget; and the Jewish people will always remember, and stand guard to ensure that the likes of that never occurs again.

Unfortunately, some extremist Jews, called Zionists, have now used this fear of another Holocaust, to justify their own extermination of the Palestinian people, and the HAMAS ATROCITIES of October 7 is their excuse.

However, today, April 7, six months later, after much searching for evidence and seeking the truth, there is another story being told; and it would appear that the reports of ATROCITIES of October 7 were a hoax, a gross exaggeration.

The recently released Al-Jazeera documentary film, October 7th: The whole story finally revealed, is one of the first indications that all was not as it was made to seem on October 7th. For sure, there was a well-orchestrated and violent attack by Hamas fighters; the Israeli soldiers were caught completely off guard; and many Israeli soldiers and citizens were killed and taken hostage.

But the extreme and continuing military onslaught by Israel, seemingly intended to totally annihilate the Palestinian people, with their actions increasingly being described as genocide, are hanging on to the previously accepted narrative that Hamas was guilty of SYSTEMATIC RAPE OF WOMEN and BEHEADING AND BURNING OF BABIES.

However, with more investigative reports being done and this Al Jazeera documentary film spreading over social media, not by the major TV stations and movie houses, people will be asking serious questions about the veracity of those initial reports. On a recent Owen Jones podcast, he shared an interview with highly respected British lawyer Madeleine Rees, OBE, Secretary General of Women International League for Peace and Freedom, who commented on the widespread allegations of atrocities on October 7, saying, “I believe there was rape. In every conflict, whenever there are men with guns intent on perpetrating violence, it is highly unlikely that there will not be sexual violence. But nothing that I have seen … so far, suggests that it was widespread and systematic.” And, as to the tall tales of some 40 BABIES BEHEADED and being BURNED IN OVENS, that has been totally debunked. A report from news.sky.com dated Thursday, October 12, 2023, said at that time “no Israeli officials have confirmed the claim.”

Specifically, Sky’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay said he interviewed two IDF majors, one of whom was a spokesman. Said Ramsay: “At no point did either he, or the other major I spoke to, ever mention that Hamas had beheaded or killed 40 babies or children. I believe that if it were the case, they would have told me and others there.

“There is no doubt that a horrific attack took place at Kfar Aza, and it needed to be reported, and we did see the bodies of the dead from the community in their houses, in the back of a truck, and on the basketball court.

“But it’s important to separate the facts from speculation in a situation like this.”

In the same news/sky.com report, it is stated that “… another journalist, Oren Ziv, who works for independent news outlet 972 mag, was also present and given the opportunity to speak to ‘hundreds of soldiers on site’”.

In a post on X, he said of the baby claims: “During the tour we didn’t see any evidence of this, and the army spokesperson or commanders also didn’t mention any such incidents.”

The world has been duped before. We all remember the Gulf War and the excuse of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” which were supposedly held by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but were never found.

Closer to home, when it suits certain national interests, major news sources cannot always be trusted to give the whole story. Thus, with this Haiti situation, it is important that our leaders keep a close watch on all angles of news being reported, and be sure our young men in uniform are also apprised of the situation they are reportedly going into voluntarily. In conflicts of this nature, there is a thin line between so-called terrorists and real freedom fighters. All we can be sure of, is that the Haitian people twice voted overwhelmingly for president Jean Bertrand Aristide, and twice he was forcefully removed from office with the help of the same big powers that are now financing the mission of peacekeeping forces to “solve” the crisis in Haiti.