Though it's the Passover festival here, or more likely because of it, there has been more of the usual murderous attacks by Palestinian Arabs on Israeli towns.The news reportage is about the same as usual too. Meaning confusion between cause and effect, and deliberate - or incompetent - obfuscation about the underlying reality. Bottom line: unless you're really determined to understand what's happening here, you'll fall victim to a dishonest narrative that is constantly spun by far-off news editors, local Arab 'fixers' who accompany reporters in the field, and agenda-driven reporters and photographers.
To illustrate: Reuters is reporting today that the Israelis are up to their usual kill-innocent-women-and-children "games":
"On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz authorised the army to carry out limited operations just inside Gaza against militants, despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinians in November. Some militant groups have carried on firing rockets into Israel from Gaza despite the truce, and Peretz said the Jewish state would "not allow the continued strengthening and arming" of militants in the coastal strip.""Despite a ceasefire agreement" indeed. The ceasefire agreement they mention went into effect in November 2006. Since then, about 200 Qassam rockets have been fired into Israel, or about one a day.
A rocket a day, ladies and gentlemen, the last one having been fired into Israel last Tuesday. Thank goodness, minimal damage to life and property were caused because the Israeli side is taking steps to protect the towns and people who have the misfortune of being within striking distance of the Gaza areas controlled by the PA.
The head of the Palestinian regime, Mahmoud Abbas, is also quoted today making some statements about those Pal-Arab Qassams. If you're expecting a condemnation of Qassam firings as a cold-blooded act of hatred, terror and war, then you're obviously new to the news media.
Reuters version:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on members of his presidential guard and national security forces to step up efforts to prevent the rocket fire so "that our people can lead a safe life".The Yediot Aharonot version (not quoted anywhere else in the world today as far as we can tell):
At a graduation ceremony for his presidential guard, Abbas was quoted by the official WAFA news agency as saying it was necessary that "all parties work with maximum effort, especially the presidential guard and national security forces, to spread security and safety in the homeland, end security anarchy and stop useless rockets.Why is it that the brand-name newsagencies throw out such absurdities as the suggestion that Israeli actions are coming in the face of "a ceasefire agreement" without mentioning the rocket-per-day reality that has been an integral part of that "ceasefire"?
Why are Abbas's words this morning about "useless rockets" (the only justification stated for stopping them) not reported anywhere other than by Israeli sources. Why are there are no references to the Israeli children killed by those "useless rockets"?
And why is it that blogs like this one, and some parts of the Israeli news media, are the only sources anywhere for people who want to get the other side of this story?
Try searching online now for non-Israeli reports of Qassams falling onto Israeli towns in the last week. Then ask yourself what this conspiracy of silence is really telling us.
3 comments:
It's telling us that the international media doesn't care about reporting the truth. When the next Palestinian civilian gets killed because the Palestinian "militant" groups fire rockets under civilian cover, you can bet everyone will be foaming at the mouth ready to condemn Israel, not realizing what has actually been going on since the Gaza pullout.
It's omissions like this that lead to idiots in my undergrad student newspaper writing columns praising the mothers who acted as human shields for the terrorists who were hiding in the Beit Hanoun mosque last year.
Imagine if Mexico started firing rockets at El Paso, Texas. We would never hear the end of it. But a bunch of innocent Palestinian "militants" firing rockets daily at civilians? Who cares?
I am thankful for sites like yours that call out the insanity of describing a cease-fire as "strained" after 200 rockets have been fired by one side. Keep up the good work.
It's hard to improve on what anonymous says, s/he has hit the nail on the head. But we can go further.
The lies by ommission tell us that the international media does not see Israel as a country which has the same right to defend its citizens' lives and safety as other countries. And therefore, by extension, the media does not believe that Israeli citizens have the same right to live in peace as the citizens of other countries. This, in turn, tells us that the international media do not see Israelis as legitimate citizens, that the international media do not believe in the right of the Jewish people to enjoy the protection of self-determination and self-government in one single country - a few miles wide - on the face of the earth.
I leave it to others to deduce what this tells us about the international media. I don't have the stomach to extrapolate further than that, because the anger I feel would make me unpleasant company.
To the several anonymous commenters whose notes to us included "You steal another people's land..." and "turd", thank you for your thoughtful contributions. When you stop hiding behind anonymity and contain your racist language, we'll consider publishing your input. Till then, you're invited to go play on any of the extremist, jihadist and hate-based websites that pollute the web.
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