Notice the panicky threat to the journalist made by the State Department spokesman in the last few seconds when asked about the risk of Biden being prosecuted. Notice too the disinformation; the journalist says that the White House has bypassed Congress in organising arms transfers to Israel. The spokesman interrupts as if to “correct” a mistake – saying “we notified Congress and all the procedures were followed”. This is classic disinformation, (I would imagine that the spokespeople do role-play games to train how to do this and look normal). The administration did bypass Congress by not turning over the matter to Congress for a vote. The journalist was 100% correct and this intervention is just about throwing out a bit of sand to fool the majority (?) of viewers who aren’t following the detail. Classic stuff.
On the subject of information operations here is a really good example. The authors are the US representative to the UN Human Rights council and a US “antisemitism” “envoy”. The whole narrative about “Hamas horrific sexual violence against women and girls” did not appear until weeks after Hamas’s October 7 massacre. It appeared just as Israel began to face serious criticism from Western media about its slaughter in Gaza. It has all the hallmarks of a calculated information operation designed to deflect attention from Israel’s possible war crimes * (even genocide?) in Gaza. I would guess it is consciously designed to exploit the “woke” political consciousness and rally to the cause liberal Americans who might otherwise find their commitment to human rights was leading them to sympathise with the Palestinians. The article on this theme in yesterday’s Guardian is, of course, timed to coincide with the start of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Information operations are typically used and fully exploited in this manner. This is, of course, not to say that there may not have been instances of sexual violence e.g. rape committed by Hamas on 7th October. But the timings of this narrative suggest a curated and planned info op.
*-
In separate comments, the UN human rights office said that Israel, facing genocide accusations at the ICJ in The Hague this week, had repeatedly failed to uphold international humanitarian law.
“We’ve repeatedly highlighted Israel’s recurring failures to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks,” said Elizabeth Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR).
“The high commissioner has stressed that breaches of these obligations risk exposure to liability for war crimes, and has also warned of the risks of other atrocity crimes,” she added. Israel has denied allegations that it has committed war crimes. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jan/12/middle-east-crisis-live-updates-yemen-houthi-rebels-joe-biden-us-uk-airtstrikes-red-sea-crisis-israel-gaza-war?page=with:block-65a147038f08319df2049bbc#block-65a147038f08319df2049bbc