The SBS news broadcast on August 10th covered two related events - an Israeli missile strike on a school beside a mosque in Gaza city which was sheltering hundreds of displaced people, and an alleged Russian strike on a Kostantinivka supermarket in Donetsk. The presentation of these two lethal strikes was quite different - giving Israel space to present its justification, but never allowing that Russia may also have had a good military reason for the strike. In the case of Israel's attack on the Al Tabeen school in Gaza city, three missiles hit the compound during dawn prayers, killing at least 120 civilians and seriously injuring hundreds more. Lack of destruction of the building itself and the nature of injuries suggests Israel used some sort of anti-personnel munition like a DIME, which cuts through bodies at ground level; civil defence teams were distressed by the number of body parts they had to collect. This massacre was so blatant and so egregious that even the US and UK expressed 'deep concern'. Israel meanwhile claimed that it had taken care to target and kill 19 militants who were in the building, while Hamas spokesman said this was a lie. This was the fifth attack on a school sheltering displaced people since the start of August, and in each case Israel claimed Hamas militants were the target. In the case of Russia's strike on Kostantinivka, allegedly targeting a supermarket and post office, videos of the scene showed little evidence of the alleged dozen casualties, while there was no suggestion in the commentary that military assets may have been the target. The idea that Russia 'always targets civilians' was endorsed by the expired Ukrainian President Zelensky, pictured above, and supported by Kiev's allies and sponsors, as Ukraine's supposed 'right' to launch attacks into Russian territory were defended. Those attacks - which were actually directed at soft civilian targets, were presented in SBS' preceding report, and framed as a successful military campaign that could challenge Putin's position. The context was ignored, as well as the evident involvement of NATO special forces and intelligence in planning and controlling the operation. In my view at least, the probability that this operation was coordinated with the current Israeli operations in Gaza is almost proven, as one conflict is played off against the other. Disinformation is a euphemism for the psy-ops that enable war crimes to be committed by both Israel and Kiev, gaining public support and ongoing submission of the Western public for their governments' aggressive and illegitimate agenda.
But there was a slip-up. As is illustrated in the above extract from SBS' report, there is a reference to a previous 'Russian' missile strike on Kostantinivka, with the presenter and broadcaster apparently unaware of what actually took place in September last year. And while what exactly took place was not established, the New York Times, no less, demonstrated clearly what did NOT take place; quite simply the missile that hit the market space in Kostantinivka came from the wrong direction, as was quickly revealed by sharp eyed observers on Telegram. Even in the short extract of the video that captured the missile strike we can see people turning round to see the missile approaching before it hits its target, as shown in the frame below, annotated by the NYT. (as the NYT is behind a paywall, I copied the substance of the article into another post here, which includes some comments on the NYT's bias and failure to join dots)
The NYT reporters happened to be on the spot when it happened, and followed up on their observations by visiting the area where the missile appeared to have been fired from. There they found evidence of a recent missile launch, though concluding it was an air defence rocket aimed towards the Russian front to the south. The only problem was - it was too far away for this to be a valid explanation. The only other explanation - that the AFU fired the missile intentionally at the market - was not something that the NYT could admit to or publish, even though they had difficulty explaining how a BUK missile could malfunction in this way. I described the details of the NYT's findings, as well as my own conclusions in this article. In addition to this raw evidence, it should be noted that there was - as always - circumstantial evidence to demonstrate that this was a 'false flag' missile launch, apparently timed to coincide with a visit to Kiev by Anthony Blinken. It was over two weeks before the NYT published its investigation however, and its conclusions were the last thing the Ukrainian President wanted to hear as he prepared to address the UNGA! Little surprise that their investigation was so poorly reported that SBS remains unaware of it - or so one must generously assume. The similarities between these events in Ukraine and Israel's catalogue of false attributions and lies is striking. There are obvious parallels between the missile that hit Kostantinivka last year and whatever hit Majdal Shams on July 27th - both purportedly being air-defence missiles that have been targeted precisely at points on the ground. It also appears that Kostantinivka is a Russian speaking town whose residents have been caught in Kiev-controlled territory since 2015, and are regarded as relatively expendable like the Syrian Druze in the occupied Golan Heights. Without information from Russian sources about the latest strike on Kostantinivka, we can't exclude the possibility that this was a repeat of the September 2023 strike, with an equally significant current motive in the need to further boost support for Kiev's rapidly failing offensives. As I noted in the above articles and analysis, it is again necessary to stress that Russia does not and will not target civilians or residential areas, if for no other reason than that it has no possible military object. Those who claim otherwise are simply liars and agents for NATO and the Imperial powers. It is also always obvious just how bad Russia is at the job of killing civilians, with strikes purportedly on residential buildings rarely killing or injuring more than a couple of people. The depths of Ukraine's deception is illustrated by a tweet from Kiev's chief prosecutor, who labels the Kostiantinivka strike 'terror and barbarism', and notes that "No situation on the battlefield can justify killing civilians".
Perhaps Andriy Kostin should have a word with the Israelis. Russia's puny efforts compare starkly with Israel's obliterative tactics, where they evidently think nothing of killing a hundred innocents in targeting a single individual. Such is their record that one might conclude the Israelis really were trying to kill civilians - just as they falsely claim of Russia. And if #RussiaisATerroristState - for causing the deaths this year of perhaps a hundred civilians who were close to legitimate military targets, then certainly #IsraelisATerroristState for killing twenty thousand civilians trapped in the Gaza concentration camp over the same period. In the extremely dangerous and fractured state we - in the West - now find ourselves in, due entirely to our own malicious and aggressive campaigns to expand our global dominance, relatively small false attributions take on primary significance. Without the justification for Kiev's war that it is fighting a barbaric and expansionist Russian military and ruthless leader, support for Zelensky's war might shrink away; exposing the false claims over Bucha or Mariupol should have such an effect. Similarly the exposing of Israel's second 'foundational lie' that the Israeli state was under attack in Majdal Shams would go a long way to deflating its pretence as a civilised and democratic nation. Or would have. There seems little way now to avoid the impending confrontation between regional and global powers, with Israel and its Western backers evidently determined to have their war with Russia and Iran, and the states of the Global South having no alternative than to fight to defend their own sovereignty and security.
DM 11th August 2024