by
P.S. Sahni
Netanyahu:
Now that a temporary truce is on, brief me about developments at the media
front.
War Cabinet Member
(WCM): Sir, our hit rate is 100% successful. Till
23.11.2023 we managed to kill 53 journalists and media workers (46
Palestinians, 3 Lebanese and 4 Israelis); 11 injured; 3 missing and 18
Palestinian journalists arrested by us. As a policy we are not letting journalists
near the war zone. The US experience even with embedded journalists in the war
against Iraq taught us not to trust even an embedded journalist. Legend has it
that at the height of the Iraq war a prominent journalist embedded with the US
army switched sides to join another channel (non-embedded) which offered to pay
him three times the salary he was otherwise getting. As a precaution we pay
‘consideration money’ in crypto-currency apart from the usual salary they
receive. We hand over press-statements to members of the corporate press
covering on the spot war from the safe confines of the five-star hotel about
fifty miles from the war front. Journalists insist that they be outside the
range of rockets fired by Hamas. The hotel staff has assured journalists that
no questions would be asked of any comfort-girl accompanying them to the hotel
during daytime as also the night hours. Next morning papers in US and EU
countries dutifully carry exclusive interviews with high-ups based on the same
press-release. Editorials in the corporate press follow our line of projecting
Hamas as a terror group though the UN has still not done it. Thorough gentlemen
as they are, the American and European editors never mention about damage to
IDF warfare viz tanks etc. They know it is a taboo subject. In the lavishly
hosted press-conferences we encourage journalists to ask no questions about the
utter failure of the Israeli government and its defence/security apparatus for
the 7th October fiasco. Cover-up of potentially damaging stories is
provided by our mentors at the speed of light. For example when we bombed a
hospital in Gaza killing about 600 to 700 patients the US intelligence chipped
in the lie about their satellite images suggesting that a malfunctioning Hamas
rocket fired from Gaza side was the culprit. The truth is – so it be told –
that it was the US satellite which was malfunctioning! Major media houses
worldwide directly or indirectly under control of the Jewish lobby are able to
‘manage’ any errant papers or idealist journalists.
N:
Any obstacle?
WCM:
Just a sec.
(Signals
an assistant to ask the intern to bring the file codenamed CC. The intern
breezes in the meeting room smiling at N
and puts the hard copy on the table and walks back. From the corner of his eyes
Netanyahu stared hard at her lower back. But for the moment Netanyahu turned
his attention to the issue at hand.)
WCM:
The PRO department has complained that half its energies get consumed by
analyzing the vitriolic pieces appearing in a web based news portal going by
the name of Countercurrents.org. We would have missed it Sir, but for a tip-off
provided by the Guinness Book of Record which is planning to acknowledge CC for
carrying the largest number of pro-Palestine articles on its site on a daily
basis – at times all articles within a 12 hour period would be on the same
issue. For the record the editor of CC is one Binu Mathew.
N:
A Christian name. A church goer?
WCM:
Nopes. Last seen walking disinterestedly towards a non-decrepit church
somewhere in Kerala, South India along with his son during the second decade of
this century. No satellite images/local intelligence inputs available about any
subsequent visit of his to any church. Except when his mother had died in 2023.
But in all fairness he lets his son and wife fulfill their religious
obligations as per dictates of their conscience.
N:
Since most funders to NGOs etc. are western countries our allies could be
signaled to get CC to feel the economic crunch.
WCM:
No way, Sir. The journal is non-funded. What is worse, it does accept any
advertisements.
N:
Try getting the writers/authors working for this journal to agitate for better
emoluments.
WCM:
you are off the track. Everyone writes here for free and voluntarily. The core
group members running the news-portal are convinced that revolution has to be
non-funded. Mostly they follow the principles of journalism as enunciated by
George Orwell – that journalism is writing what is not palatable to the rulers;
all else is PROship. This principle is followed to the hilt.
N:
How about trying to get CC blacklisted?
WCM:
Was tried in December 2016. CC and others were put on the Odious list of 200
and the news was dutifully carried by a major national daily published from New
York. When the Editor, CC shared this bit of what ought to have been seen as
demoralizing development you know the reaction Sir, there was all around
jubilation amongst the authors-forum. A cynic amongst the authors-forum even
went to the ludicrous length of sending a thank you note to the then incumbent
in the Oval office! That is the stuff of which these characters are made up of.
N:
O.K. I get it, but at least we could put in a word to our ally in the US to
keep their lawmakers at a safe distance from the out-pourings of this
proletarian journal.
WCM:
Your sagacious advice is a bit too late. As early as the year 2016 the US Library
of Congress had decided to archive the articles appearing in CC. About a
generation of US lawmakers have had their minds poisoned with pro-people,
anti-establishment pieces. We are late Sir. All is lost by now.
N:
Just an academic question. How did CC get access to the US Library of Congress?
WCM:
The usual trick Sir. A mole – a solitary wolf if you please, waited like a
sleeper cell; this mole was an offspring of an erstwhile comrade who had
managed to survive the McCarthy era policy of filtering out communists from Federal
service. The father had indoctrinated the son. Rest is history.
N:
A cowardly editor, this Binu?
WCM:
Quite the contrary. During the height of a fascist campaign in India, wherein
those seen to be consuming cattle flesh were being lynched openly and in public
this Editor published in CC his very own photograph along with his son’s eating
flesh of an animal I dare not name it but belonged broadly to the cattle
family. You know Hindu Rashtra is in the offing.
N:
(In sheer exasperation) Perhaps we could arrange to get him an award carrying
huge amounts of money?
WCM:
Sir, Editor CC is content with bringing out the journal on a daily basis. You
know in India you have ascetics detached from worldly wealth. That’s what he
is. Regarding awards the CC team is content with the ‘Solidarity Media Award’
conferred by the Solidarity Youth Movement in Kerala. The award carried Rs.
10,000/- ($ 125) and a plaque.
N:
Let’s bump him off. Mossad is anyway running a parallel intelligence network in
India.
WCM:
We will have to get clearance from the boss, Joe Biden. Right now Biden has had
a case filed against the agents of the Indian government for attempting to
murder an American Sikh citizen. This has come close on the heels of an earlier
murder of a Canadian Sikh citizen ostensibly again by agents of the Indian
government. The heat is on your friend, Modi. Let’s not burden him further.
Besides, even if Mossad were to do the job all alone there would be
repercussions in Israel. You have by now bombed off all hospitals in Gaza
Strip, West Bank etc. Bumping of BM would lead to nationwide strikes in
hospitals in Israel – you know a big chunk of staff nurses in your hospitals
are Christians and hail from Kerala. God forbid Sir, if you fall ill then you
won’t have anyone to care for. The worst thing to befall you would be to die
uncared. Hamas, then would have the last laugh.
[P.S. Sahni
is a qualified orthopaedic surgeon. He has worked extensively with the victims
of Sikh Genocide in 1984; amongst victims of 1992 anti-Muslim violence in Delhi;
and at the India-Bangladesh border during the Bangladesh Liberation War
resulting in 1971 Bangladesh Genocide of Bengali Hindus. He is a member of PIL
Watch Group & ABVA.
Blog:
https://pilwatchgroup.blogspot.com/ ]
