Items clearing the record on Propaganda in the Middle East, and how that conflict is accelerating a totalitarian world: Links 1 for Oct. 24th, 2023

1. In a post yesterday where we had an interview with a former Israeli PM on BBC, we broke down some of the tactical deception the BBC interviewer did. One grimace causing regret post hoc was that she grotesquely misused the Geneva convention in the way leftists always do. The Geneva Convention is a rational document. While it does indeed place limits on armed conflict, it does not expect only one side in that conflict to observe it. As I recall the document, if one side is not properly uniformed as a fighting force for example, the Geneva Convention protections do not apply to them. But more to the point, if they act as Hamas acted, they do not get the protection of the convention’s limits and responses. Hizb’allah might for the moment as they are rocketing Israeli military targets for the moment. But once they start going for villages and so on, those limits come off. The Geneva Convention is meant to be a system to allow a policy dispute being solved by force not to become a genocidal all out war. But the media uses it as a set of handcuffs on whoever they want to lose. It simply is not written that way.

2. As if Hamas was not abusing the people of Gaza enough…

3. Europe Successfully Closed its Borders to the Unvaccinated. Why Can’t it Stop Illegal Immigrants Pouring in?

(I looked up “rhetorical question” in the dictionary and found the headline above)

Europe has entered it second great migration crisis since 2014.

Numbers are now at levels not seen since the aftermath of the Libyan civil war in 2014. Here, from the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, is a graph of migrant arrivals in Italy from January 2010 through September 2023:

4. Article on how the Israel-Hamas (Iran) war is serving the agenda of the communists and “the great reset”

A few days ago we published an article discussing how the Great Reset agenda is still moving forward behind the scenes, while the headlines are full of Israel-Palestine.

But it’s also true that, in its thirteen days of existence, the war itself has already pushed that agenda forward as well.

CENSORSHIP

Normalising the suppression of dissent and creating a culture of fear around free expression are a major part of the Great Reset, after all the other steps are so much easier if you outlaw inconvenient protests.

And, naturally, calls for the suppression of freedom of expression have sprouted up everywhere since the war started. We covered this in our article “Israel-Hamas “war” – another excuse to shut down free speech”

Since that article was published this campaign has gained momentum.

European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton sent warning letters out to every major social media platform, claiming they needed to “combat disinformation” regarding Israel and threatening them with fines.

In yet another blow to the “China is on our side” narrative, Chinese video-sharing service TikTok has eagerly agreed to “combat disinformation”.

Students from Harvard and Berkeley have been threatened with “blacklisting” for voicing support for Palestine.

(As they are fond of saying, “Never let a crisis go to waste”. And the war in Israel is a crisis in a gift box. Liberty is still the important thing here. When Hamas supporters commit crimes like blocking highways, vandalizing property or threatening harm to people or doing harm to people, charge them criminally. Throw the book at them as the saying goes. But that isn’t what’s happening. They are being encouraged. Police are NOT being deployed where they commit crimes and they use social media to ramp up fear and contempt for the events, leading to compliance of the censorship-authoritarian response. This must not happen.)

5. Israeli Arab schools leftist propaganda on “Israeli Apartheid”

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