moon
Satire for Sanity
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/14/sorry-but-iran-is-not-the-aggressor-here
The Iranian attack, mind you, occurred a little over six months into Israel’s ongoing pulverisation of the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians, including some 13,800 children. And yet given the thousands of missing persons presumed to be buried under the rubble, even these terrifying numbers are no doubt grave underestimates.
More than 76,000 people have been wounded, as the Israeli military has busied itself flattening entire neighbourhoods and blowing up schools, hospitals, and other basic infrastructure, all the while condemning the territory’s inhabitants to famine and starvation.
Talk about “terrorising”.
Indeed, genocide is nothing if not “long term aggressive behaviour” – to borrow the Czech Foreign Ministry’s words. If the whole business weren’t so unprecedently heinous, it would be almost laughable to claim that Iran is the one “intent on sowing chaos” and disregarding “peace and stability in the region”.
But because Israel’s outsize role as a prized US partner in crime entitles it to a total subversion of logic, genocidaires become victims and unmitigated Israeli aggression becomes “self-defence”. And never mind the April 1 Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus; that was just preemptive retaliation, right?
In light of the unceasing slaughter in Gaza, though, the Western response to the intercepted Iranian missiles and drones is sickeningly cynical. Sunak’s pathetic claim that “no one wants to see more bloodshed” fails to account for the reality that, as long as it’s Palestinian blood, it’s all totally fine.
Unfortunately, the Iranian spectacle may provide the Biden administration with exactly what it needs to shift the focus away from Gaza – and specifically US complicity in genocide. After all, it would be a sad day for the arms industry if the US had to stop sending so many weapons to such an active client.
