Gaza Postmortems
Israel bears full blame for grievous crimes of war and against humanity.
by Stephen Lendman
Discussion ranges from who won, who lost, who cares, what's next. Media scoundrels support Israeli aggression like they always do. More on that below.
Operation Pillar of Cloud, like decades of similar Israeli aggression, wasn't about self-defense in response to Palestinian rockets or other incidents.
It reflects Israeli regional hegemonic ambitions, its culture of violence and belligerence, occupation harshness, land theft, Palestinian dispossession, institutionalized racism, and contempt for rule of law principles and democratic values.
Much more about Operation Pillar of Cloud is important. Washington wholeheartedly supports Israeli aggression. Close collaboration is policy.
Political cover is given. Billions of dollars in annual military aid is provided. Intelligence is shared. Joint military exercises are held. They're strategically planned.
Michel Chossudovsky explained that one week after US elections "the largest joint war games in Israeli history" took place. Months of joint planning preceded them.
Their objective "was to test Israel's missile air defense system against attacks from far and near, namely from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas."Austere Challenge 12 joint military exercises "were conducted over four weeks overlapping with the US elections (November 6) and culminating with the commencement of the Gaza bombings (November 14)."
Operation Pillar of Cloud was planned months in advance. Selecting targets take considerable time. Tactics and overall strategy require careful decision-making.
Joint US/Israeli war games had a purpose. They were planned to precede "an actual military operation."
Washington and Israel partner directly or indirectly in all regional wars and lesser-scale conflicts. The Pentagon maintains command and control operations in Israel.
Washington runs things. "With regard to the joint US-Israel war games which culminated with the attack on Gaza, Israel is visibly the junior partner."
