Israel and Ukraine Exposed for Crimes and the Mainstream Media is Silent

IDF kills its own people while the Ukraine has been killing wounded and surrendering Russian soldiers

The Independent media outlet Grayzone (and others) have been reporting for some time that the IDF had killed many of its own citizens during the October 7th Attack. Israel calls this the “Hannibal Directive”. It allows the IDF to fire on its own people when they are in danger of being captured. Israeli spokespeople claim they are trying to save their own people from merciless torture and suffering. But the truth is, Hamas was looking to take hostages to try and bargain with Israel for the release of hostages Israel has held for years, but Israel wanted no part of this. They would rather kill their own people than give Hammas a bargaining chip.

Haaretz, one of Israel’s main newspapers finally confirmed this on July 7th. Israel had invoked the Hannibal directive. According to the Greyzone, they were told to turn the area into a “killing zone”. Haaretz held back from citing the magnitude of how many were killed by the IDF, but they did go further than any other mainstream media by acknowledging that this happened. It’s hard to get a concrete story because Israel has not allowed journalists to investigate. The West, of course allows Israel to investigate its own war crimes and report its findings as the definitive story of what happened. It’s the proverbial fox watching the chicken coop.

The mainstream media has been silent on this for the most part, though Piers Morgan held a “debate” related to Israel’s actions. Piers hosted

Aaron Maté

(from Grayzone), former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus, Rabbi Yishai Fleisher and Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy.

Conricus did not deny the story, rather he said there was so much confusion, chaos and destruction going on, it was hard to tell who killed who. Mate, who was trying to give the facts from his reporting was never able to finish speaking. Conricus talked over Mate and wouldn’t allow him to say his part. Mate’s reporting showed that there were witnesses who had testified that many Israeli’s citizens had died at the hands of the IDF.

If you ever wanted to take a class on “how to deflect an argument”, this video is for you. Interrupting, talking over people, changing topics, smirking, and calling Mate names such as a “BDS supporter”, a “self-hating Jew”, and a “so called journalist”.

Rabbi Fleisher used a reprehensible tactic: deflecting by invoking a conversation about the Holocaust. It’s a common tactic Israel uses to distract from their own war crimes. It’s an insult to the memory of the Holocaust victims and to its survivors. It’s disingenuous and self-serving. As a (non-practicing) Jewish person, I find this offensive.

Morgan, who was host and moderator, did not intervene on Mate’s behalf. Though he did seem to believe that the IDF killed its own people, he seemed to take some glee in watching an independent journalist get shut down.

The Grayzone report is devastating. In an article from October 27, 2023, titled “Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire?”

According to Haaretz, the army was only able to restore control over Be’eri after admittedly “shelling” the homes of Israelis who had been taken captive. “The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri residents were killed,” the paper chronicled. “Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.”

Much of the shelling in Be’eri was carried out by Israeli tank crews. As a reporter for the Israeli Foreign Ministry-sponsored outlet i24 noted during a visit to Be’eri, “small and quaint homes [were] bombarded or destroyed,” and “well-maintained lawns [were] ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank.”

There is testimony from an Israeli citizen that confirms the accusations:

An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military “undoubtedly” killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she stated, referring to Israeli special forces.

There are no words to describe these actions. Just think, Israel has accused Hamas of using children as human shields. But it’s Israel using their own people as sacrificial lambs. Israel can’t dodge the truth about their actions forever. Especially with witnesses who have testified to what they saw. The lack of denial by Conricus and Fleisher and their tawdry tricks to prevent the truth from coming out speaks volumes.

That the mainstream media ignores this has to be one of its most repulsive acts, and there is a lot to choose from there. Israel has been touted as the United States closest ally, a beacon of democracy in an undemocratic region, and highly moral country surrounded by barbarians. Israel has shown over and over that it doesn’t value the lives of the people in countries around them, including women and children. Now it is clear that they don’t value the lives of their own citizens. For this to not be covered, shows a combination of the power of the Israel lobby and the toothless nature of US media.

Another “democratic” US ally has made the news and not in a democratic way. The US narrative has been that Ukraine is a fine democracy fighting against the evil Russians, despite most of the human rights watch sites showing them roughly equal in their lack of democracy and rights violations. The Ukraine has called off elections “until the war is over” and removed all TV stations except for one state TV station. But the story gets even worse. The NY times reported, in a rare moment of genuine journalism, that the Ukraine has been killing injured, surrendering Russian soldiers. Some have been killed in POW camps. The NY Times so far is the only mainstream US outlet to cover this. This is not about taking sides in the war, it’s about the lack of exposure of both sides of the story.

A German medic stationed in Ukraine named Casper Grosse witnessed several of these instances and reported it to his commander. These are apparently not isolated incidents. The UN has cited both sides for killing captured soldiers. This is a serious war crime. Putin has already been charged by the ICC, but Zelensky is highly unlikely to be charged. It’s just the way it goes when you are an ally of the West.

One last case of journalistic malpractice. Israel has bombed most, if not all of the hospitals in Gaza. Not surprisingly it has been crickets when it comes to the media reporting it. Russia recently bombed a hospital, and it has been a constant stream in the media, calling Russia out for its barbaric war crimes. Hypocrisy abounds. Report on Israel’s bombing of hospitals, you are an antisemite. Report on Russia’s bombing of a hospital and you are a top-notch investigative journalist.