I wade through dozens Gaza War-related stories every morning as I build the RUNDOWN. That’s been true since the war started months ago. As a result, I see dozens and dozens of headlines from a wide variety of sources … from the most belligerent Israeli outlets like Arutz Sheva and Israel Today to their most incendiary critics like The Cradle and Electronic Intifada. I also survey state-connected, English-language sources in Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States.
A long story made shorter, I see a lot of headlines.
But few have stood out like this one, which I saw today on The Jerusalem Post:
That’s right … you’ve heard of the “Dogs Of War”? Well, according to this story, there’s a new threat—the “Stray Dogs Of War”! As the splash line warns, they’ve been unleashed after being harbored by the “hundreds, if not thousands” in a strip of land that’s become little more than a bombing range.
And no, this is not “The Onion,” although a close reading of the story might lead one to that conclusion. Authored by “Jerusalem Post Staff,” the report, which cites state-owned KAN News as its source, says “IDF combat soldiers were the target of attacks by packs of stray dogs inside the Gaza Strip over the past several days.”
Target? The Stray Dogs Of War “targeted” IDF combat soldiers? Was this attack coordinated by Hamas Humane Society officials who, as everyone knows, are really just terrorists posing as dog lovers? Does this also mean there might be underground kennels littered around the Gaza Strip? Do we need to deny them kibble?
Thankfully, the story continues, no “IDF soldier was reported to have been injured by the dogs” despite the dogs “being overly aggressive, ‘growling and baring teeth while approaching and trying to bite the troops’." The brave soldiers have “thus far…been able to repel attacks by the packs.”
“Thus far” is key here, because, the story then explains, Gaza is teeming with the Stray Dogs Of War. In fact, the Gaza Strip is “suspected to be home to hundreds, if not thousands, of stray dogs” and “hundreds of stray dogs [have] fled Gaza since October 7,” infiltrating “Israeli territory and hiding in the ruins of Gaza border communities.”
Obviously, this threat, which sounds eerily similar the threat Israeli news outlets describe when they are talking about Gaza’s humans, must be eliminated before these Gazan dogs start burying bones from the River to the Sea.
Of course, the IDF never intentionally targets a kennel or a dog house, or intentionally kills innocent puppies, but this is war and tragedies are simply the cost of doing business. What’s more, we all know the Stray Dogs of War use puppies as “canine shields” and, therefore, any innocent puppies who get blown into dog meat or are maimed or end up losing their entire familial pack in a bombing are actually the responsibility of the Stray Dogs Of War. The same goes for all the kennels and dog houses and dog parks that will have to be leveled to ensure no stray dog can ever-ever in a thousand-million years come over from Gaza into Israel.
Finally, the Israeli government denies that they have plans to spay and neuter the dog population or to round them up and drop them off at shelters in neighboring countries, and the “few” voices inside Netanyahu’s government calling for such actions have been privately admonished for saying out loud what the rest of the government is thinking. And honestly, you must remember that these are dogs we are talking about, and dogs are pack animals and, as such, they naturally run in packs and obediently follow their alpha males. Given that, can we really say that the dogs not actively attacking Israel are ultimately “innocent?” Really, there are no “innocent” dogs, just future threats that need to be eliminated before they are unleashed throughout civilization.
Say “Goodnight,” Gracie.
When I was a kid, we were taught about the horrible Soviet controlled news media, Pravda, and how the people were brainwashed because there was no free press. Now at age 70, I am amazed that our own media has turned into Pravda on steroids!
Our population has become so ignorant that, our corporate media doesn't even have to be subtle about dumping crude propaganda into our minds, because most people truly don't see it as that. The brainwashing of the American public via an almost seamless corporate media is so seamless that even 2/3 of the doctors at the Bay Area hospital where my brother works as an ER doctor voted TWICE for Trump.
Even 2 months after the Hamas attack on Israel, CNN was reporting on "new" findings and details about Hamas rapes (that may or may not have even happened), while Biden/Netanyahu were dropping military-grade American-made explosives and killing thousands of children.
Since 9/11, the American military has caused 4.5 million deaths and 38 million refugees, according to a recent Brown University study. Putin has killed 500 or so Ukrainian children in 2 years, while Biden has killed 12,000 Gazan children in 4 months. Biden's proxy war in Ukraine has already wiped out 3 Ukrainian armies, killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, traumatized EVERY Ukrainian child for life, and left an area of Ukraine the size of Florida poisoned with the depleted uranium from our shell casings and littered with unexploded mines and bomblets that will be blowing legs off children for the next 50 years, while keeping the WHOLE WORLD at a Cuban Missile Crisis level of nuclear danger every day for 2 years.
You like to post links, JP, well so do I. The links for starting one's day for anybody with the guts to take the red pill are https://chrishedges.substack.com, https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au, and https://www.democracynow.org. It's actually possible to know what's going on in the world, but first people need the courage to break free from the "official narrative" and stop being so desperate cling to tribal belonging, a deep and compelling evolutionary urge, I know. There is no dignity to being a zombie, but that's what most Americans are.
Here's our report card since 9/11: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures