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 [...]
The Tide Turns For Israel
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The tide of public relations is slowly turning in Israel’s favor, as more and more people are learning the details of the Mavi Marmara incident, seeing the videos put out by Israel, and starting to question the Turkish government’s involvement, as well as that of the Turkish terrorist-affiliated group, IHH (İnsani Yardım Vakfı).
For starters, the United States—admittedly usually favorable to Israel (Obama notwithstanding)—seems to have a large disparity in favor of Israel between the two sides in this particular incident. Rasmussen polls show that 49% of U.S. voters believe that pro-Palestinian “activists” on the Gaza-bound aid ships raided by Israeli forces are to blame for the resulting deaths, while only 19% think that Israel is to blame. 32% are not sure.
Throughout the rest of the world, though, this seems to be trending, as well (with growing divisiveness over the incident even in Turkey, as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal). The Guardian, in a report laden with anti-Israel bias and innuendo, admits that, “the Israeli PR machine succeeded in getting the major news outlets to focus on its version of events and to use the Israeli authorities’ discourse for a crucial 48 hours.”
I’m going off on a tangent, here, but note that this admission by the anti-Semitic Guardian was hardly made out of admiration, but rather almost as an accusation of some large-scale underhanded conspiracy, like when they refer to all the video as “confiscated by the Israelis and subsequently edited and made available through Israeli sources”, almost as though removing several hours of inactive footage changes the clear damning evidence.
Who are you gonna believe: me or your lyin’ eyes?!
Or, like when they refer to how “the Israeli PR machine [—yes, they actually call it that] succeeded in getting the major news outlets to focus on its version of events and to use the Israeli authorities’ discourse for a crucial 48 hours. (One example of how this was being done is a leaked, sophisticated briefing paper with key talking points, compiled using official government sources and pro-government Israeli media, issued through the World Zionist Organisation on 1 June.)”
Ahhh, so this is a World Zionist conspiracy. Were the “Elders” discussing any “Protocols”, while they were at it?
But, I digress…
Even in Turkey, as I briefly mentioned, there is a growing rift over Turkey’s involvement in and reaction to the raid. The Wall Street Journal reports that:
Turkey, united in its reaction to last week’s events when Turkish citizens on a Gaza-bound ship were killed by Israeli defense forces, is dividing over the government’s handling of the affair and the role of the Islamist charity that organized the aid convoy.
Opposition politicians and some newspaper columnists have expressed concern that the government has been riding public anger at Israel’s actions. That, they say, puts at risk Turkey’s delicate balance between East and West…
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party… demanded the government release communications with Israel prior to the incident, suggesting it let the flotilla proceed despite knowing that violence was likely.
…Skepticism concerning the IHH version of events on the Mavi Marmara appears to have accelerated as a result of unexpected criticism of the IHH’s actions from influential Turkish spiritual leader Fethullah Gülen, in an interview last week with The Wall Street Journal. Analysts saw the intervention by a figure venerated by many in the government as a warning that the storm of anti-Israeli feeling risked getting out of hand.
“People will understand very soon that the IHH is harming Turkey,” wrote Cuneyt Ulsever, a columnist in the daily Hurriet, on Sunday, saying the effect of the crisis would be to persuade the West that Turkey is aligning itself with the likes of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Two major dailies, Hurriyet and Haberturk have now published on their front pages photographs of the bloodied Israeli soldiers captured during the initial fighting.
The religious conservative daily Vakit last week published on its front page the names and photographs of eight newspaper columnists who criticized the government’s handling of the flotilla case. The headline: “Spin doctors who shoot bullets at the aid ship.” A journalist whose photograph Vakit printed in similar circumstances in 1999 was assassinated.
al-Jazeera Flotilla Footage Found! Latma’s BEST Ever!…
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