Demonic US and Israel — captured in two videos

25 January 2024

Here is ITV's video of Israel's kill-the-innocents behavior

In video taken by cameraman Mohammed Abu Safia, a Palestinian man (Ramzi Abu Sahloul) — who was among a handful of people holding a white flag, and all with hands raised — was shot to death, evidently by Israeli Defense Forces for no reason whatsoever:

ITV, ‘It’s a war crime’: ITV News' Gaza clip sparks outrage from charities, US officials and Westminster, itv.com (25 January 2024)

Here is a quote . . .

. . . from the US State Department's press briefing about this particular murder, as well as other matters.

ITV News reporters — Robert Moore and Matt Lee — (admirably) tried to get the US State Department's Vedant Patel to explain, or repudiate, the United States' complicity in this incident, as well as with regard to the larger genocide that it represents.

Patel essentially responds that US communications with Israel are none of the public's business.

By implication, the genocide-fueling United States is free to do whatever it wants — decent Americans be darned.

The following written extract from the US press briefing — also available on full-length video — or short-clip video — is long, so as to adequately demonstrate American Government's always weaseling contempt for the US and world publics:

QUESTION: Robert Moore with ITV News.

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: You may have had the chance to see some of the footage shot by our cameraman in the Gaza Strip widely shared online, showing a group of men waving a white flag, representing no threat whatsoever, unarmed, and moving south to try and reach some relatives.

The IDF opened fire, as you can see on that video, and killed one of them, Abu Sahloul.

I wonder what your response to that is, and whether you think from watching that video, whether that potentially represents a war crime.

MR PATEL: I have seen that footage, but I am not going to comment on the specifics around that given I am not aware of the full circumstances on the ground. And as we’ve said before, this is not an American operation. But beyond that —

QUESTION: That’s true, but nevertheless —

MR PATEL: Beyond that – please don’t – I’m happy to take your questions, if you’ll allow me – if you allow me to answer. I don’t interrupt you, and I ask you to not do the same.

As a general matter, though, we have not parsed our words about the moral and strategic imperative that the Government of Israel and the Israeli security forces have to take every effort possible to minimize civilian casualties and minimize impact on civilians.

As it relates to the footage that your organization has shared, again, I’m just going to refrain from commenting on specific operations as we do not have full circumstances of what – on the ground from here.

This isn’t an American operation. I’m not on the ground there to speak to the full parameters of the situation.

QUESTION: It’s not – it’s not —

MR PATEL: But again, any civilian death – any civilian death is heartbreaking, and any civilian life lost is one too many. And we have made that clear with the Israelis, and we’ll continue to do so.

QUESTION: Beyond that comment about it being heartbreaking, which is a platitude we often hear, are you – would you urge – given that you support, broadly support the IDF operations in the Gaza Strip, would you support an Israeli investigation of what happened in that video?

MR PATEL: That is for —

QUESTION: Given that they’re waving a white flag and they represented no threat?

MR PATEL: That is for the IDF to undertake and determine based on the circumstances of that situation.

What I will say is that we have been clear to our Israeli partners that they need to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm during an operation and investigate credible allegations of law or of war violations when they arise.

But that is for our Israeli partners and the IDF to speak to.

QUESTION: Just on this, Vedant.

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: You said that we don’t have the full facts or something like that in a minute.

Like, did you – did you actually reach out specifically to Israel about this footage and try to get whatever the facts that you guys are seeking?

MR PATEL: This footage just arised earlier this morning, so I don’t have any specifics of our diplomatic conversations around this to speak to.

QUESTION: [from ITV reporter, Matt Lee] All right, well, how about the footage that arose last week, and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, and the week before, where there have been if not similar, awfully close instances?

Have you ever gotten an explanation from the Israelis?

MR PATEL: I —

QUESTION: Have you ever gotten a finding from the Israelis of what their investigation, if they promised one —

MR PATEL: I’m not going to speak to private diplomatic conversations, Matt. But this is something that we raise continuously with the Israelis.

The Secretary has done so, other officials in our government have done so, and we’ll continue to do it.

QUESTION: Okay. Well, have you ever gotten an answer from the Israelis when you ask questions?

MR PATEL: I am just not going to – I’m not going to speak to the privacy of certain diplomatic conversations, Matt.

But we have been clear that there is a moral and strategic imperative to take as many steps as possible to minimize civilian casualties.

QUESTION: Well, that’s all well – that’s fine.

That’s fine that you say that, but then when you are asked specific questions like this relating to specific footage – and this is not the first time that this has happened; you’ve been asked repeatedly about this, and then you – you come back and say, “Well, we’ve raised questions; we’ve asked the Israelis questions.”

Have you ever gotten a response to any of those?

MR PATEL: We – these conversations are —

QUESTION: I am not asking you for the details; I just want to know if you’ve gotten a response.

MR PATEL: We have. These conversations are private.

QUESTION: You have.

MR PATEL: We have raised with the Israelis specific circumstances, and we have received —

QUESTION: And you have gotten answers?

MR PATEL: Correct. I am not going to speak to those conversations right now.

QUESTION: And – but you can’t just say – in any case are you aware that the Israelis say, “We screwed up here”?

MR PATEL: I am just not going to speak to the private conversations, Matt.

QUESTION: And on this one.

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: Just to close this, since you – it sounds like you haven’t had a chance to ask about this one, are you planning to ask about this particular instance, or no?

MR PATEL: I am just not going to speak to specific diplomatic conversations.

What I will just reiterate, Humeyra, is that we talk to our Israeli counterparts all the time, regularly, from various interlocutors across our government, and we’ll continue to do so.

And front and center, part of those engagements will continue to be the moral and strategic imperative that our Israeli partners have to minimize the impact on civilians.

Leon.

QUESTION: Yeah, Vedant, just on the same line of questioning —

MR PATEL: Yeah.

QUESTION: — do you have any comment, reaction to the UNRWA saying that a UN shelter was shelled by tanks in Khan Younis today, killing nine people?

They say what is UN shelter – they’re calling it a blatant violation of the rules of war. Would you agree?

MR PATEL: It’s incredibly concerning – incredibly concerning, Leon, and we deplore today’s attack on the UN’s Khan Younis training center.

You’ve heard me say it before, you’ve heard the Secretary say it before, but civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected.

And humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the lifesaving humanitarian assistance that they need.

QUESTION: So – and so have you asked the Israelis to look into this?

MR PATEL: We – I’m not – Matt, I am not going to read out every single conversation that we have with the Israelis or read out every issue that happens —

QUESTION: I don’t think that you even have to have every single – I don’t think you’re asked – being asked about every single conversation you’ve had.

MR PATEL: — or every issue that happens in the region —

QUESTION: Look, you’ve been – like twice here in the last three minutes, you’ve been asked about two specific incidents. Have you raised either one?

MR PATEL: We continue to raise with the – our Israeli partners the need and the responsibility that they have to protect UN facilities and to protect humanitarian workers so that they can continue to carry out and conduct the lifesaving work that they’re doing in the region.

QUESTION: Right. I think you need to go back to NEA or whoever is in charge of this and get a definitive answer about whether you’re asking about specific incidents —

MR PATEL: We are asking —

QUESTION: Yeah? Well, then —

MR PATEL: We are asking and engaging about specific incidents, Matt. I am not going to specifically read them out to you from up here.

QUESTION: Okay, well then, when the Israelis respond to you, if they respond to you, you need to come back and tell us what they say.

And if they don’t respond to you, which it sounds like you’re – may very well be the case, you should say that.

MR PATEL: Matt, certain conversations, diplomatic conversations – sensitive, tough diplomatic conversations – are best kept private. I assure you, though, we are raising these issues directly with Israeli counterparts and will continue to do so.

QUESTION: Well, Vedant, assurances mean a whole hell of a lot if you’re not able to say that you’ve gotten any response to them.

I mean, you are the biggest supporter of the Israeli Government – not you personally, but the United States is.

MR PATEL: And —

QUESTION: If you can’t – if you ask questions about troubling incidents, which you said – just said that this one is Khan Younis was incredibly concerning and we deplore the attack – if you can’t get an answer from them on this, what does that say about where – what the — U.S. position?

MR PATEL: Matt, we’ll intend to – continue to have these conversations with the Israeli Government and raise these very tough and difficult situations.

As I noted above . . .

. . . a shorter (less time-consuming) video clip of this press briefing is at Decensored News on the X platform.

You will intuit . . .

. . . from the above-linked materials, that no one in Israeli and American power gives a darn about human beings and the quality of their lives and deaths.

For both of these neocon-imperialist nations — it is exclusively about money, terror, theft, pillage and power.

Slaughter, according to the Zionist-American Axis of Rampaging Evil is innately good for business.

If you have a strategically minded brain . . .

. . . you will also recognize that the only way to protect Humanity from the Neocon Slaughter Machine is for humbler nations and peoples to arm themselves with nuclear weapons.

Why do we think that Pakistan and North Korea have not yet been blasted by the United States?

The moral? — Evil has never been more blatantly exposed, than it is today

And still, most of the world sits complacent.

With the sole exception being (arguably) Yemen's exceptionally courageous Ansar Allah Houthis.

Apparently, on this planet, only the most abysmally poor and attacked groups of people are gifted with courage, adaptability, integrity and spine.

Is having nothing, the key to integrity of soul and resistance to imperialists' tyranny?

The Peace Quotient on this planet will only rise, when the current crop of Oligarchy-controlled tyrants in Israel and the United States have been — probably forcibly, if History be a guide — removed from power.

Kudos to ITV for contributing to giving the world no excuse for its placidly posturing acceptance of Neocon US and Zionist Israel-sponsored butchery.

PeteFree.com

Demonic US and Israel — captured in two videos