Pages

Friday, December 8, 2023

Dane Giraud: A free rein to broadcast falsehood


A few weeks ago, a swivel-eyed Chloe Swarbrick appeared on the AM show in a regular segment that pits her against ACT leader David Seymour.

This appearance was filmed after her performance at the Auckland Domain, in which she led a chant for the genocide, or at the very least, the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Levant. Post the Oct 7th pogrom, Chloe, and the NZ Green co-leader Marama Davidson, have both sought to create theatre out of not wanting to label the architects of the massacre terrorists.

When it walks like a duck, as they say…

But on this appearance, Swarbrick tried out some new material, accusing Israel of carpet-bombing Gaza.

Carpet bombing is a military strategy in which a large area is systematically and extensively bombarded with explosive weapons, typically from aircraft. The term “carpet” refers to the idea of covering or saturating a broad target area with bombs, much like laying a carpet on the ground.

Carpet bombing is characterised by the indiscriminate nature of the attack, as it does not specifically target military installations or specific military objectives. Instead, it aims to destroy or disrupt a wide range of targets within the designated area, including infrastructure, residential areas, and military and civilian assets.

This strategy was notably employed during World War II, particularly by Allied forces against Axis cities and industrial centres. Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo were all infamous examples of cities that suffered from carpet bombing during the later phases of the war. The intent behind carpet bombing is often to weaken an enemy’s morale, disrupt their industrial capacity, and undermine their ability to wage war effectively. With a genocide accusation to peddle, it is no surprise Swarbrick would reach for the term, despite her probably being well aware it was false in the current context.

The sheer magnitude of devastation during the dark final days of World War II serves as an ominous backdrop against which we can assess her claim against Israel.

In February 1945, the Allies unleashed an astonishing 4,000 tons of explosives upon Dresden, resulting in the tragic loss of 25,000 German lives in a mere two days. Come March 1945, Tokyo faced the wrath of 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs, leading to the heartbreaking demise of 130,000 Japanese souls. Operation Gomorrah, a brutal two-week campaign in July 1943, subjected Hamburg to over 2,000 tons of explosives, causing the deaths of around 40,000 civilians.

Today, Israel stands accused of deploying ten times the explosive tonnage dropped on Dresden, twenty times what was used in Tokyo and Hamburg, and even surpassing the destructive power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. All this firepower is ostensibly directed at an area densely populated, with anywhere from 6,000 to 30,000 people per square kilometer (15,000 to 77,000 per square mile).

A question looms: If the intentions of Israel are indeed genocidal, as Swarbrick would fervently assert, why have the casualty numbers not reached the cataclysmic levels witnessed in those historical bombings?

Shouldn’t a basic understanding of statistics compel us to anticipate death tolls far exceeding what we’ve observed thus far?

The gaping chasm between the allegations and the actual figures is both astounding and deeply unsettling. If the intent were truly genocidal, if Israel were truly engaged in indiscriminate carpet bombing, then the inescapable logic dictates that the death toll would be nothing short of apocalyptic. Yet, the stark reality contradicts such claims.

This is not an attempt to downplay the anguish and suffering experienced by civilians caught in the crossfire of conflict.

Rather, it is an urgent call for intellectual rigor.

Such calls are likely to fall on deaf ears in the case of Swarbrick and her colleagues; the NZ Greens now being a reactionary party, lying about Jews is par for the course.

The question is, how long will our media, an industry that exists solely to verify claims and narratives, tolerate their game?

Dane Giraud is a comedy writer and a member of the NZ Jewish community. This article was first published HERE

8 comments:

Rob Beechey said...

The ignorance of Swarbrick and her ilk is largely known to the intelligent sector of the population. Her twisted view of life from the relative safety of gross ignorance would quickly cure itself if exposed to the genocidal barbarity carried out on the unsuspecting innocent. The Israeli response to the unjustified butchery is measured in their search for the perpetrators. .

Anonymous said...

Phase One of Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza has ended. Phase Two has begun. It will result in even higher levels of death and destruction.
Nothing is off limits. Hospitals. Mosques. Churches. Homes. Apartment blocks. Refugee camps. Schools. Universities. Media offices. Banks. Sewer systems. Telecommunications infrastructure. Water treatment plants. Libraries. Wheat mills. Bakeries. Markets. Entire neighborhoods. Israel’s intent is to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure and daily kill or wound hundreds of Palestinians. Gaza is to become a wasteland, a dead zone that will be incapable of sustaining life.
This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against Palestinians.
Some 16,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 children and 4,000 women, have been killed since Oct. 7. Some 30,000 have been wounded. Over six thousand are missing, many buried under the rubble. More than 300 families have lost 10 or more members of their families. More than 250 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, and more than 3,000 injured, although the area is not controlled by Hamas. The Israeli military claims to have killed between 1,000 and 3,000 of some 30,000 Hamas fighters, a relatively small number given the scale of the assault. Most resistance fighters shelter in their vast tunnel system.
This war is not over. It has not even begun.

Andrew Osborn said...

Of course, the IDF isn't carpet bombing Gaza; that's just polemic from a narcissistic politician trying to get her name in the papers. That said, civilians are being killed.

When surveyed, about 85% of Gaza residents supported Hamas. So just like Germans who voted Hitler into office in a democratic election, maybe Gazans are now paying for their ill-considered choice of government. Maybe this is Gaza's Dresden. I have little sympathy for them.

CXH said...

'intellectual rigor' and the Green party in the same sentence. Your jokes get better all the time.

Anonymous said...

The palestinians are all indocrimated in school to hate israel. Wouldn't chloe and her band of lowlifes love to do this to our kids. Let's hope she keeps spouting her nonsense so that the green-hamas party lose many more voters in the next election.

Chuck Bird said...

The Maori Party's hatred of a race of people, Jews is hypocritial.

Tom L said...

We have to remember, folks, Debbie Ngarewa Packer and her supporters now suffer from far more than just the ravages of Post Colonial Trauma.

Now they must also deal with the further ravages of the newly discovered and self diagnosed "Terrorist Colonial Genocide Trauma" , to quote Ms Ngarewa-Packer. Or was it "Colonial Terrorist Genocide Trauma ?

However she and others of the Maori and Green Parties got great comfort from wearing the black and white checky scarves of the the Palestinian Liberation Organisation , itself a recognised terrorist orgaanisation, to the opening of our Parliament this week.

Not that they see anything hypocritical in that.

Anonymous said...

Well said. To see Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi frothing at the maw about "Maori rights" being cast aside, "genocide", "State-funded terrorism" etc, begs the question if they have ever lived, or even travelled outside of New Zealand. Their parochial and provincial rantings remind one of petulant children "throwing one" cos they can't have a lollipop.
The Jews belong to Israel and Israel belongs to the Jews. You cannot occupy your own country. The Jericho of the Bible is still there, as is Jerusalem, built by King David and his son Solomon. The crystal-clear archaeology that the arabs are trying desperately to erase literally and figuratively, remains as a beacon of historical fact.
Rather than call for a ceasefire, let's call for the release of the captives, held in wretchedness and misery by depraved devilish criminals called Hamas.