a hundred years ago when i was a school boy we were taught how to recognize commie propaganda. in this post you can get a re-run of that lesson in how the empire sells its programs, like russia, ukraine, israel and so on. this entry makes it clear by not exactly doing so, cause east is west and north is south and these chocolate covered cotton balls sure do taste good, major major;
Firstly, the presentation of “settler figures” is a subtle way to shift responsibility away from the political arrangement in Israel and conjure up images of civilian crazies, even though numerous government ministers responsible for Israeli policy, including Ben Gvir and Smotrich, are settlers! (And of course the headline demands you accept the underlying premise that not all Israelis are settlers.)
The presentation is intended to create the impression of a few extremist bad apples within a legitimate government, a “coalition,” no less, a deliberate insertion intended to convey a messy political situation in which there is a divide between extremists and non-extremists. A divide which in reality doesn’t exist. In reality there is no distance between “settler figures” and the Israeli government. They are one and the same.
And how about “cement gains?” The “gains” the headline refers to are the illegal expansion of West Bank settlements, expansion which is happening because the entire Israeli government has created the legal framework to enable it, supported by the military. The “gains” are the de facto annexation of West Bank territory, an expansionist policy illegal under both international law and the 1948 UN partition agreement.
If the Guardian had any integrity and wasn’t simply a soft mouthpiece for empire dressed in progressive clothing, the headline would read “Israel advances illegal annexation of West Bank.” It certainly would if they were writing about Russia, which is another clue about the intention here. Can you imagine the Guardian soft-balling it like this over Ukraine?
“Russian government figures seek to cement Crimea gains.”......more........