Truth is Always the First Casualty of War

News out of Gaza in recent days has announced two things:

500 deaths outside a Gaza hospital and that it was caused  

by an Israeli strike. The source of this news item was Hamas's

propaganda campaign, trying very hard to make the Israeli

forces look like bloodthirsty beasts, and much of the inter-

national media, with its widespread anti-Israel bias,

unquestioningly took Hamas at its word. Thus, truth is always

the first casualty of war, as one side begins to fight on a 

second front --- the battle to persuade people as to who 

are the good guys and who are the villains; the latter always

try to dress up as sheep while covering their wolfish tendencies.

Surprisingly (to say the least), President Biden said in a speech

during his recent visit to Israel that proof emerged that the 

cause of the attack was a Palestinian rocket, not an Israeli

one. In so doing he kept the focus on Hamas's egregious 

violations of the laws of war, which have of late been used 

to hamstring Israel and its capability to defend itself and to

gain support from western nations. The BBC said --- on air

--- that the Israelis "said they are investigating, but it is hard 

to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the 

explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike, or several airstrikes."

Really? Do you Beeb boobs believe that the Palestinians would

never, ever, fire at a hospital, trying to take out doctors, nurses,

children, and patients while the Israelis would do it in a 

heartbeat?

Headlines have since shifted, but now political lefties around

the world are holding protests asking Israel to initiate a cease-

fire. Hamas would like it a lot if Israel were to do this, of course.

Meanwhile, a White House National Security Council spokesman

averred that "(Our) current assessment, based on analysis of 

overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information,

is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital

in Gaza." An intercept of a call between Hamas members 

along with Israeli drone film bolster the already accumulated 

evidence. 

So what actually happened? Either of two things: Possibility one,

the Palestinians launched a rocket which malfunctioned and never

got near its intended (Israeli) target; Possibility two: the Palestinians

deliberately struck the area just outside one of their hospitals and

tried to pin the blame on Israeli forces. The hospital still stands,

but the parking lot outside the hospital had been hit, with lots of 

evidence of fire damage but not the impact crater one usually sees

with Israeli air strikes. 

Now, regarding the rules of warfare which civilized nations developed 

through the centuries, there are two iron-clad rules right off: One,

you can't target civilians. Two, incidental casualties must be balanced

against the aims of war; in other words, proportionality is to be 

sustained. This is acknowledging that in any war some innocent 

bystanders, if you will, are going to get killed, but these deaths must

be related to the goals of self-defense. While zero casualties is, sadly,

an impossible goal, the more realistic goal is then to minimize these

deaths with the count consistent with defeating the enemy.

Hamas and their allies blow it on Rule One; every rocket attack they 

made and continue to make on Israel is a war crime according to this

rule. But journos in the West, government officials in many western 

nations and politicians in and out of office hold Israel to casualty 

totals extremely close to zero while turning a blind eye to the totals

piled up by the Palestinians, and are quick to believe all accounts of 

alleged Israeli atrocities while excusing actual Palestinian atrocities,

blithely lying that they are just defending themselves, or that they 

are getting justice for their own having been killed by the Israelis.

Note: The Israelis DO NOT (emphasis The Peasant's) bomb hospitals,

schools, orphanages, or shoot at civilian women and children.

The Palestinians hide behind children to avoid being shot at, especially

children taken hostage. 

Israel is now getting much deserved support from the United States,

with President Biden seeming to start to understand the truth behind

how the war in Israel is being waged by the Israelis, fighting valiantly

to defend their land and their people. Let's hope that this is the pivotal

point in the war, and that Israel is on the road to victory. And let's 

hope that the rest of the West, especially our allies, are starting to have

this understanding as well.

MEM

Singapore Sings Praises for The Peasant

Something remarkable has happened in recent weeks 

and months; Singapore, located in the Pacific Rim region

of the world, a tiny but bustling nation, has taken a big 

bright shine to The Peasant. As of September, PWAP has 

been attracting a record (for this blog) number of readers

in each of the past four months, reaching a peak of 15,455

for September! Along the way, Singaporean readership 

has surpassed all of the other countries where PWAP 

is read in terms of total views online; even the 

United States has been passed by! The Peasant's home

country! The U.S. presently trails Singapore in total 

views to date: 28,534 to 23,305. Singapore leads 

the world in readership of PWAP, with the U.S. now

in second place.

To my readers in Singapore, it's wonderful to have you

all aboard! I know that you favor limited government,

low (and few) taxes, unnecessary regulation, and 

a harmonious social order for a harmonious society;

the very things that The Peasant likes! In this world,

in these trying times, it is so important and reassuring 

to be united with like-minded people who share one's 

hopes, concerns, aspirations, and a unquenchable thirst 

for freedom, and with that a passion to preserve that 

freedom for not only our generation but for those to come.

Because if we lose that precious commodity, it would be

nearly impossible to regain it. 

In closing, please feel free to leave comments on this blog

telling me what you liked about the pieces The Peasant

has posted and how they resonated with you. Let me know

what you most enjoyed in each article. And also feel free

to tell me a bit about yourselves. In the meantime, thank

you for your most enthusiastic readership! Your humble 

Peasant is most grateful!

MEM

Israel Under Siege

On October 6, Israel was swiftly attacked by Hamas, one of 

the radical Islamic groups in the Middle East, backed by 

Iranian money and supplies. A full-on, all-out jihad was 

launched against Israel by combined forces who have

long wanted to eradicate Israel and her people from 

the face of the earth. Israel has fought wars in defense 

of their country so many, many times throughout their 

3,000 year history. and now they must fight yet another

such war.

Israel was first attacked by an aerial force, followed by 

a land attack. How can this have happened, Israelis have 

started to ask. And how can it be that Israel allowed a 

bloodthirsty terrorist group to rule for as long as it had in 

Gaza, just next door? Hamas's intentions were always 

obvious. To get Hamas out of there, Israel might have had 

to forcefully remove them and take over the governance 

of Gaza itself, and the magpies of the democracies in the 

West, all safe, comfy and cozy would have yelled "Foul!"

and "Bloody murder!" in response. They just plain don't

get it in regards to what Israel faces, and has faced every 

day for many years, nay, generations, centuries; some of 

them don't even care.

Gaza was given up by Israel in 2005 under pressure from 

said Western democracies, including --- quite sadly ---

the United States, and the Gaza is still called "Israeli-

occupied" (!) by the U.N. The Western media journos 

and their higher-ups have fallen in line with this false

bit of narrative. They don't care that the Gaza's dictatorial

rulers are sworn to obliterate Israel; these U.N. and media

elites don't care about Israel, period. 

Israel was even castigated for forcefully stopping Hamas's 

previous attempts to rush the border. The Western media 

called the Hamas border-rushers "protesters". a' la the 

"peaceful protesters" that have been rioting, burning, and

looting in several U.S. cities a few summers ago (!!).

Meanwhile, reports have been coming in from Israel telling

of people dragged off the streets and tossed into vehicles,

taken off by Hamas to who-knows-where, and families 

murdered in their homes, some even in their beds.

Men, women, and children have been thus killed. There 

has been a report of an elderly woman too infirmed to be

taken off by the Hamas invaders, so the latter killed her 

in her home by dousing her with gas and lighting her afire.

Further reports of babies' and toddlers' bodies having been

discovered mutilated, some even having been decapitated.

Anti-Israel politicians and journos around the world, 

including in the U.S., claimed that the grisly fate of those

innocent children was just a lie, and that the adults that

were killed was justifiable, given what Israel allegedly did 

to Palestinians in Israel for so long. 

Israel will do what it has to do in order to defeat their invading

enemies, regardless of what Anti-Israel figures want and say.

It would, of  course, help Israel if the U.S. would make it

clear to all in the Middle East, especially Hamas and Iran,

that they support Israel and will assist Israel as much as it

can just short of direct military involvement; they can move

a battleship or two and a maybe a few aircraft carriers to

the Eastern Mediterranean to demonstrate their willingness

to place themselves in a position to make such involvement

if circumstances call for it. And it was such a great surprise 

to hear our heretofore feckless president Joe Biden denounce

the invasion of Israel and the ensuing slaughter of innocent

civilians, calling it "Sheer evil" (!!!). Let's hope and pray that

Biden will have the resoluteness to have the appropriate 

actions accompany his words! These actions should reflect 

that American power need only be demonstrated in order to 

deter another war in that region. Another benefit of such action

would be that it would shut down Hamas and their allies,

as well as to shut up anti-Israel loudmouths in the West.

MEM

The Social Club for Hustlers, Rogues, and Their Apologists

Founded on the heels of WWII, the United Nations was billed

as the world's best hope for preventing any further world wars

and many smaller ones, as well as a place where discussion,

negotiation, and diplomacy would resolve disputes between 

various groups of people including large nations. In the years

since its founding the U.N.'s record in regards to the afore-

mentioned has been spotty at best. 

How's the U.N. doing of late? With an emerging world order led

by rogue regimes and their equally repulsive friends and allies,

one wonders what is the use of having the U.N. at all? 

Recently the U.N. hosted a gathering of dignitaries, functionaries,

and a few heads of state for the United Nations General Assembly,

and our (heaven help us) President Biden was among the throng.

Biden made his annual speech to those assembled, the Presidents

of Russia, China, and France didn't bother to attend, nor did the 
U.K.'s Prime Minister, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave a 

speech dedicated to taking a pot shot at the United States. 

By the by, Raisi gave his squalid little presentation just one day

after Iran expelled the U.N.'s top nuclear weapons inspectors.

In addition, the U.N. has stood cravenly by as North Korea

ignores Security Council resolutions and sanctions to expand its

nuclear program. On the Ukranian conflict with Russia? 

The U.N. has been even more pitiful. Russia's veto in the Security 

Council coupled with China's backing had blocked any meaningful

response to Russia's mayhem. Ukrainian President Volodymyr 

Zelensky made a rare visit to the U.N. to state the case for support

against Russia's invasion. The U.S. and its allies will determine 

whether Ukraine ultimately defeats the Russians in their war.

U.N.-style multilateralism is flimsy and ineffective as China and 

their fellow rogues show off their power, with no one to rein them

in. The left-wing internationalists in Biden's State Department 

fantasize about groups of nations meeting at the U.N. to settle 

their spats in peace, but all they are doing is dreaming pipe dreams

while the present wars grind on, grinding people and their 

countries into rubble, leaving Biden's ivory-tower dwellers 

wondering why. 

MEM