Pics Or It Didn’t Happen (aka ‘Schrödinger’s Rockets’)

On Wednesday, Israel struck at several targets in Gaza, IN RESPONSE to recent rocket fire from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas.

Why the bold red font?

Because that crucial bit of context has ended up on the cutting room floor of far too many newsrooms in the last months and years. This massive, mendacious error of omission is why the knee-jerk Red-Green-RonPaul alliance has spuriously accused Israel of unprovoked assault during Operation Cast Lead in late 2008/early 2009.

While there are plenty of people out there who are always ready and willing to accuse Israel of horrible crimes that they know to be untrue, plenty more really are under the impression that Israel keeps throwing the proverbial first punch. And that is largely because the gatekeepers of this information flow have decided not to let that little nugget through.

As you can see on the Official Challah Hu Akbar Gaza Rocket Counter™, there has been no shortage of Qassam & Grad rockets, and mortars recently.

Over the last few months, as Gaza-to-Israel attack totals have been climbing steadily upward, there have been a few lonely voices out there on Twitter, telling anyone who will listen what is happening in real time.

For example, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich of the IDF Spokersperson Unit had this triptych o’ tweets from the beginning of February:

Here’s a more recent set from Paula Stern, aka A Soldier’s Mother:

 

In 2012, we pride ourselves on the ability to instantaneously call up visual evidence to confirm or deny just about any claim out there. In the information age, we are offended by the very thought of information being withheld from us. But because this information never gets to the masses, many people don’t even have a clue that they’re being deprived of this crucial information in the first place.

This leads to the phenomenon I call ‘Schrödinger’s Rockets’.

The Qassams, Grads & mortars are both real and unreal, both true and illusory, depending on which person you ask. They are both slamming into homes, schools, playgrounds & open fields, and sitting peacefully in their launchers, depending on whether anyone in the media has bothered to tell you about them, or whether you’ve bothered to find out for yourself.

To the people who haven’t ‘seen the pics’, it really didn’t happen. So when Israel finally counterattacks, all they see is an ‘unprovoked’ attack.

Of course, the rocket attacks are all too real, just as the frenzied global reaction is all too predictable. So as a public service, for those of you who had no idea that there is an ongoing barrage from Gaza into Israel, here are some pics, so you can no longer say it didn’t happen:

Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza is legal, there is no occupation in Gaza, and now that Gilad Shalit is finally home, there is no humanitarian crisis either.

There is only the lethal hiss of rocket after rocket being fired from Gaza into civilian areas in Israel.

And it sounds eerily similar to the steady drumbeat of an approaching, all-too-avoidable war.

So…y’know…just sayin’…

10 thoughts on “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen (aka ‘Schrödinger’s Rockets’)”

  1. This massive, mendacious error of omission is why the knee-jerk Red-Green-RonPaul alliance has spuriously accused Israel of unprovoked assault during Operation Cast Lead in late 2008/early 2009.

    Please stop libelling and defaming the most pro-Israel candidate. This is highly prejudiced on the par of racism and has no basis in fact. Ron Paul has never said Cast Lead was unprovoked and fully supports Israels right to defend itself in the fashion it deems necessary. The Jewish hatred of Ron Paul is going to lead to violent antisemitic incidents from the few supporters who have such tendencies. They will see another example of the “Jewish establishment” screwing with the US. Even tho this is essentially false, it is not difficult for them to connect Ron Paul not being nominated and the massive Jewish opposition to Ron Paul.

    There is really absolutely no reason to oppose Ron Paul unless you hate freedom and/or want welfare.

    1. Howdy, juvanya. I thought you might be stopping by. 8)

      I considered simply adding the color brown to the anti-Israel color wheel, but as pertains to the scope of this post, there are several relevant Paulian positions that led me to include him:

      * Gaza is a concentration camp [ZS – popular Red-Green talking point]

      * The Palestinians in Gaza are not the aggressors, since they’re only using homemade bombs [ZS – also a popular Red-Green talking point]

      * Toward the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, after using it as an example of “preemptive, preventative war” [ZS – so the thousands of rockets don’t count?], he said, “Israel says they have to go in to prevent a problem that might come [ZS – the problem has already come – it’s rockets], and who knows for what other reasons [ZS – I know. It’s on account of the rockets]”

      All 3 of these points are popular anti-Israel talking points of the Red-Green alliance.

      In particular, the last one is a clear illustration of the very point I was making in that paragraph above.

      Finally, to your comment, “prejudiced on the par of racism and has no basis in fact”? So…in response to your hyperbolic comment, can I use similar hyperbole in my rejoinder?

      Ready?

      Your comment is a hate crime.

      Ridiculous, right? Well, so is your comment. I didn’t prejudge. I listened to his words on the matter of Cast Lead, and then I judged, because what I wrote about him does have a “basis in fact”.

      Although I am no Ron Paul fan, I actually have seen him make a few comments here and there that sounded pro-Israel. But in this case, his inclusion was considered, reasoned, and logical.

  2. The Israeli government has the right to protect the lives of it’s citizens. Hamas seeks to destroy Israel and kill as many Israelis as they can. No people can be expected to endure these rocket attacks without a response. Though the world may not understand, I’m reminded of those words spoken in those golden days of yesteryear, the Lone Ranger would say to Tonto: “You speak the truth my faithful Indian companion.”

  3. It’s time to play the same game as the Arabs. Either the media people tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or their access to stories gets cut off. Let them scream about it. Better a fair press than a free press.

    1. That’s the spirit. Starve those Marxist media beasts and they’ll tire of reporting of Israel just as surely as they say little to nothing about the true dystopias of the world for lack of new material.

      Starving the hostile media outlets is a good first step. However, there should be even more done by the Jewish State: Force those outlets to air the Zionist point of view. As they have for years undermined the legitimacy of the Jewish State, it is only fair for Israel to coerce them to atone for their transgressions. Make them pay through the nose for their unwarranted aggression against the one and only state of the Jewish people! Justice, justice shalt thou pursue!

      (I reiterate my usual point here that such coercion is only legal for the Jewish State to make, being a state; not for individuals.)

  4. I am going to engage in some pop sociology here. Most Arab societies seem to be basically tribal in nature. This is a real problem for nation states trying to deal with them because just because you made a deal with one group does not mean that the other tribes feel any particular obligation to comply with the terms.

    Tribes are also prone to blood fueds and revenge raids. It doesn’t matter if you killed their cousin because he pointed a gun at you. You killed his cousin and honor demands revenge.

    America had to deal with tribal societies for much of its first few centuries of existence. One reccurring issue was that young men would complain that the old men who were tribal leaders had already earned status in raids against the tribe’s enemies and the young men also wanted to earn status. I think that trying to earn status within the tribe goes a long way to explaining the otherwise pointless and largely ineffective rocket attacks.

    The only thing that seems to be an effective deterrent against tribal societies is when their actions result in a threat to the wellbeing or even survival of the tribe. If there is enough intelligence available about the people who are shooting rockets out of Gaza, it might be effective to stage a military raid for the purpose of rounding up all the relatives of the rocket men and deporting the relatives to Somalia (they have no government there to complain about it). That is not really justice by western standards but they are operating from a different frame of reference.

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