I previously posted about the latest rash of scandalous photos coming out of Afghanistan showing U.S. military atrocities under Obama’s command, and wondering if the media would pick up on it the way they did when it was Bush’s army… Well, here’s a twist I wasn’t expecting: yes, one of the U.S. media, Rolling Stone, [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic, cast a spotlight on yet another disgustingly overt example of pure bias in the mainstream media, particularly at the anti-Semitic Reuters newswire. He points to a Reuters news item which contains the following despicable sentences: Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian [...]
In the [sparse] reporting of the Palestinians’ massacre of the Fogel family, several newspapers stand out with their distorted sense of “balance”, i.e., where they feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable describing the barbarity of the Palestinians without at least taking a swipe or two at the Israelis, no matter how patently irrelevant or disgustingly disrespectful it comes [...]
Sweden Churns Out Yet More Anti-Semitism
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I recently posted regarding Sweden’s new twist on the old blood libel, where the top Swedish newspaper, the left-leaning Aftonbladet, has published a two-page spread, headlined “They Plunder The Organs Of Our Sons”, accusing Israeli soldiers of kidnapping Palestinians to harvest their organs, and then returning their dead bodies to the families with the organs missing. This understandably caused quite a ruckus in Israel and, after some prodding, elicited a sharp rebuke of the story by the Swedish government.
It looks, though, like this new libel is only just getting started. According to YNet, that same newspaper, Aftonbladet, has now published an entirely new story, this time by different authors, making the same accusations against Israel (based on the same hearsay fabrications by those pathological liars, the Palestinians).
After the first slap in the face, Israel was pretty diplomatic about it: firm, but apparently calm. This time, it looks like they’re finally getting visibly upset in their response—and rightly so. Here is part of the YNet report:
The Israeli government declared Sunday morning that it expects the Swedish government to officially condemn the first Aftonbladet report.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We do not want the Swedish government to apologize, we want it to issue a condemnation.”
On Thursday Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed the Swedish Foreign Ministry for saying that Swedish Ambassador to Israel Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier’s condemnation of the report does not represent the Swedish government’s stance.
“It’s a shame that the Swedish Foreign Ministry fails to intervene in a case of blood libels against Jews. This is reminiscent of Sweden’s stand during World War II, when had failed to intervene as well,” Lieberman said.
The Rubin Report has a great write-up of this ongoing incident here, discussing the blurring boundaries between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism (which is increasingly often just a flimsy mask for anti-Semitism). Here’s an excerpt of some choice paragraphs:
What does this incident tell us? One thing is that there is no limit to the insanity of how Israel is treated nowadays in so many supposedly responsible, left-wing, and intellectual circles.
It also tells us that anyone of decency and good intentions should start re-examining right now their credulity in accepting anti-Israel slanders, nonsensical media or academic claims, or irresponsibly inaccurate “human rights” group reports…
The time has come to realize that antisemitism, anti-Zionism, absurd misrepresentation of Israel and the effort to wipe it off the map are all tightly intertwined.
We have seen the rise of a systematic industry in wild anti-Israel claims by Palestinians which are repeated without evidence by the Western news media and others…
The recipe is simple: Palestinians make up charges, tell them to sympathetic reporters or academics or “human rights’” officials who don’t demand evidence, and then are widely spread through other willing executioners of truth whose low degree of professionalism and high level of politicization make them conducive to becoming collaborators in the enterprise.
Before Israeli officials can investigate and present a detailed response–largely ignored by the media–they are all off to the next lurid accusation.
The fact that none of these accusations is ever ultimately proven correct seems to have no effect on the industry.
One additional point that Rubin Report raises that is very interesting is regarding the defense of free speech that the Swedish ambassador originally choice to highlight in his partial apology. The Rubin Report points out that:
What is provoking outrage in Sweden is not the article itself but the statement of Sweden’s ambassador in Israel who expressed a partial apology, while defending free speech in Sweden. Where were all these people during the Danish cartoon controversy when Sweden’s government went far out of its way to grovel and even try to repress those who published the cartoons?
[...] on the “human rights council”, a prejudiced judge is hardly [...]Read full post »Sweden Churns Out Yet More Anti-SemitismAugust 24, 2009I recently posted regarding Sweden’s new twist on the old blood libel, where [...]