Israel’s image crisis and the limits of propaganda

As a growing number of Israeli voices openly condemn the actions of their military in Gaza, the Israeli government is taking extraordinary steps to conceal the identities of soldiers committing war crimes.

Is Israel’s attack on Jenin a war crime?

 

United Nations experts say Israeli forces’ actions amount to ‘egregious violations of international law’.

In one of the fiercest assaults in two decades on the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces brought death and widespread destruction to Jenin.

At least 12 Palestinians were killed and thousands were displaced from the Jenin refugee camp due to Israel’s two-day assault.

  

Investigating Russian crimes in Bucha: Identifying those responsible

 

We speak with Arie Mora, a lawyer at an NGO called the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, which is a member of an alliance of human rights organizations called the Ukraine 5AM Coalition. They collect and document war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during Russia's armed aggression in Ukraine.

Arrest warrant issued for Russia’s President Putin for alleged war crimes

 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The court alleges he is responsible for war crimes, including the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. It says the crimes were committed in Ukraine at least from 24 February 2022 - when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Caught On Camera, Traced By Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens In Bucha

 

 

When videos and photos emerged in April showing bodies of dozens of civilians strewn along a street in Bucha, Ukrainians and the rest of the world voiced horror and outrage. But in Russia, officials had a completely different reaction: denial.

President Vladimir V. Putin dismissed the gruesome scene as “a provocation,” and claimed that the Russian Army had nothing to do with it.

But an eight-month visual investigation by The New York Times concluded that the perpetrators of the massacre along Yablunska Street were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment led by Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov.

Ukraine war: Russian ambassador quizzed over alleged war crimes

 

Russia's ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin has been pressed over whether he believes his country has committed war crimes in Ukraine.

According to Ukraine, at least 34,000 possible war crimes have been carried out by Russian forces since February.

Russia denies its troops intentionally target civilians, or have committed atrocities in occupied areas.

How Bellingcat documents Russian war crimes in Ukraine | Conflict Zone

If you really want to know about war, who’s murdering and torturing, who’s giving the orders and which weapons are being used, much of it is out there on the internet. There is still cause for hope, at least that's what Eliot Higgins the founder of the open-cource research orgnization, Bellingcat, believes.

Russia accused of torture and murder after 450 graves found in east Ukraine -

 

Ukraine has accused Russia of committing war crimes and torture after around 450 graves were found in territory re-taken by Ukrainian forces in the north-east of the country.

How long can Russia's forces sustain their momentum? | Ukraine latest

 

The Ukrainian prosecutor's office said it has uncovered a "few thousand" cases of war crimes in the eastern Donbas region. Kyiv's top prosecutor also said it has identified over 600 Russian war suspects and started prosecuting around 80 of them.

The Horrors Russia Left Behind | Russia-Ukraine War

 

After weeks of heavy fighting in Kyiv’s suburbs, residents who had been in hiding returned to the streets to find damage and carnage — land mines, bullet holes and corpses.

How will the West respond to Russian war crimes?

 

The world has been confronted with horrific images of atrocities against civilians allegedly committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis says it’s clear Russian is carrying out crimes in Ukraine by deliberately attacking civilians and it should be called genocide.

Ukraine war: Bucha massacre is a game changer - Ukraine foreign minister

 

 

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the BBC's HARDtalk that the “Bucha massacre is a game changer”. Citing more than 400 civilian deaths, he said that “the Bucha massacre should remove any kind of hesitation and reluctance in the West to provide Ukraine with all necessary weapons…and the same goes for sanctions”.

The Ukrainian mother who had to bury her own son

 

The UN Secretary General has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of civilians in Ukraine after Russia was accused of war crimes.

As Ukrainian forces have re-entered areas close to the capital Kyiv after the Russians retreated, they have reported finding hundreds of bodies and mass graves in the town of Bucha.

It is here and in the surrounding areas that the BBC has filmed bodies of civilians in the streets - some with their hands and feet bound - who had been shot. Russia says images of civilian killings are ''fake''.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen met a bereaved mother on the outskirts of Kyiv, who had to bury her own son after he was killed by Russian soldiers.

National state of emergency declared in Ethiopia

 

Ethiopia's government has declared a national state of emergency and ordered residents of Addis Ababa to prepare to defend their neighborhoods -- as Tigrayan forces make rapid gains and advance towards the capital.

The Killing Field

 

We investigate explosive revelations about killings and cover-ups by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Content warning: This film contains graphic images of death throughout.

They are Australia’s elite special forces. For more than 10 years, they were on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. But explosive revelations expose a series of killings by some of these highly trained soldiers.

Should Israel be investigated for possible war crimes?

 We challenge Danny Danon on why Israel opposes a war crimes probe, and debate the future of opposition protests in Russia.

In this episode of UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill asks Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations why Israel should be exempt from an International Criminal Court investigation into potential war crimes.

Donald Trump The Petulant Know Nothing

As per usual with the immature, insecure, unschooled occupant of the White House everything revolves around his own personal feelings and inadequacies.   On Saturday in series of bellicose tweets the mango moron threatened to destroy 52 cultural sites of importance to Iranians.  The 52 is in reference  to the 52 Americans taken hostage when the U.S. embassy was stormed following the Islamic Revolution.   While most thought that the orange menace was projecting his supposed tough guy bullying persona in making those threats; well they were wrong.  It seems that he is prepared to commit war crimes as prescribed under international law and treaties if he followed through with his threats.  Speaking to pool reporters on Air Force One he continued with his insistence that his statements from the previous day were en fact U.S. policy.

   Trump’s comments suggest he was making no idle threat when, on Saturday night, he tweeted that the US has “targeted 52 Iranian sites ... some at a very high level & important to Iran & Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One a day later, he sought to offer a justification. “They’re allowed to kill our people,” Trump said, according to a pool report. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Then turned his ire on Iraq for passing a resolution requesting the withdrawal of all American forces from that country.

He also turned his ire on Iraq after that country’s parliament passed a resolution calling on the Iraqi government to expel US troops. “We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there,” he said. “It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it.
“If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

Abe says it is his duty to revise constitution

Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party gain a majority of seats in the recent upper house elections giving them, when including New Komeito and smaller nationalist parties a 2/3 majority. Abe's first turn as Prime Minister ended when he was forced to resign over his insistence of revising Japan's constitution to the detriment of other pressing issues facing the country.  Shinzo Abe and his allies think in the long term and now they may have achieved their long sought after goal. Restoring Japan to its pre World War II status as a major economic and military power.

Shinzo Abe is a member of a prominent Japanese political family his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi served as minister of munitions during World War II was arrested and briefly imprisoned, released and went on to become Prime Minister.  His views on the Second World War come through his grandfather a man he greatly admired.  Like many of his fellow travelers he believes history has distorted Japan's imperialist history starting with the occupation and annexation of Korea, the invasion of Manchuria and the rape of Nanjing to Japan's role in the war.  Never mind that many in his party and cabinet believe the rape of Nanjing never took place or that the imperial army never committed war crimes.  In 1974 a group of politicians and like minded supporters formed a group whose goal is to restore the dignity of  emperor and Japan following the humiliation of its defeat in World War II and the imposition of its pacifist constitution by the United States.  That group with  30,000 members is now called Nippon Kaigi.

      

Less than two days after winning that election Shinzo Abe has declared that the most import issue facing Japan isn't its declining birth rate, aging population or a struggling economy. No, the most important issue is the revision of the constitution. Thus restoring Japan's supposed loss of dignity and allow Japanese military forces to once again in engage in military adventurism.

An emboldened Shinzo Abe called Monday for debate on Japan’s pacifist constitution, which he said it was his “duty” to revise after scoring a strong win in weekend elections.

Voters backed the hawkish prime minister, despite a lacklustre economic performance, handing his Liberal Democratic Party and its allies control of more than half of the upper house of parliament.

Analysts say with the support of small nationalist parties, Abe may now have the numbers to push through a change to the constitutional bar on Japanese troops waging war.

“We have always set a goal of revising the constitution…that is my duty as president,” Abe said.

“But the party does not have more than two-thirds of seats in both chambers by itself, so I don’t expect the draft would pass as is,” he said, referring to the parliament’s lower house as well, and suggesting compromise was needed. “So I hope debate will steadily deepen.”

Texas Daddy The American Loved By Japanese Nationalists

Tony Marano is an American living Dallas Texas producing right wing videos. What's unusual about Tony is that his views have been embraced  by Japanese Nationalists.   Even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would deny any association with these groups they share similar views on history especially  that of the Second World War.  One of the most contentious issues in East Asia concerns comfort women.  Mostly Koreans, but included women from many the territories Japan invaded during World War II.   Last December the Japanese government gave and the South Korean government accepted an official apology and monetary compensation dealing with the comfort women issue.  On February 3 of this year the Japanese government issued a finding to the United Nations stating there was no evidence of forced corrosion of these women to work at the comfort stations by the Japanese Imperial Army.   Except that there is clear evidence of just that happening.

Videos he posted from Texas made their way to Japan, where they developed a following.

He became more intrigued about Japan, conducting more research and posting more videos. His notoriety snowballed as more people began paying attention.

A publishing deal followed and within a few years, his Japanese supporters set up an office called the Texas Daddy Japan Secretariat. He has published seven books in Japanese and is set for more exposure with another three books this year, the office said.

Marano is a former telephone company employee who has spent about half of his life in Texas and put together a YouTube video channel called "PropagandaBuster." He speaks little Japanese.

Marano says his mission is to bolster a military alliance among the United States, South Korea and ally Japan, and to speak truth to power.

He has released more than 80 videos in the past year that run with Japanese subtitles provided by the Secretariat, which has seven translators and three editors to prepare the works for the Japanese audience.

South Korea accused of rewriting history in new school textbooks

The South Korean government complains all the time about history textbooks used in Japanese junior high and high schools. Saying that given the government's control of writing and publishing of the materials used by Japanese students that their perspective is skewed towards the conservative views and ideology of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).  To say that the political of the elites of the LDP aren't historical revisionists and war crimes deniers would be disingenuous. Because, that's exactly who and what they are.  Now South Korea will undertake a similar process thanks to the conservative government led by President Park Geun-hye whose father Park Chung-hee is the former military dictator of that country.


        Revisionism row intensifies as ministers push ahead with plans for state-issued texts to correct ‘pro-North Korean’ bias

The policy has become a bitter ideological battleground between left and right in South Korea, with the government claiming the changes are necessary to correct a “pro-North Korean” bias. Critics have accused president Park Geun-Hye’s administration of seeking to manipulate and distort the narrative of how the South Korean state was created.
Following an obligatory 20-day period to canvass public opinion, prime minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn and education minister Hwang Woo-Yea confirmed that from 2017 middle and high school students would each receive a single government-issued history textbook.
“We cannot teach our children with biased history textbooks,” Hwang said in a televised statement.

I love that quote:"We cannot teach our children with biased history textbooks, Hwang said in a televised statement."
So, what's the solution? Using biased textbooks from a conservative revisionist point of view to teach history to South Korean  students.

Battleground with multiple fronts

Arguments have focused on issues such as who bears most responsibility for the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean war, and how the textbooks should reference North Korea’s official “juche” ideology.
Deeply sensitive issues such as collaboration during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule are also strongly contested, as well as the violence that accompanied the move to democracy in the 1980s and 90s.

I'm sure like in Japan, Korea's conservatives will completely whitewash the military dictatorship era of the 20 century.