You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Pro-Israeli Bias’ tag.
Media lens is currently calling another Independent reporter on their uncritical treatment of Tony Blair and his sentiments toward the Palestinians. Go to the Media Lens website for the entire deconstruction.
A snippet from John Pilger caught my attention, I will repost it here:
In similar vein, Macintyre made a cryptic reference in his article to the “tragically abortive peace talks at Camp David in 2000”. This “tragic” episode is “Israel’s most important contemporary myth”, John Pilger writes. The myth states that Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians the return of “90 per cent” of the Occupied Territories and that Yasser Arafat turned him down. Arafat’s alleged rejection of this “unprecedented act of generosity”, to quote the myth once again, became the launch pad for renewed abuse of the Palestinians, including the building of an apartheid wall.
Pilger writes of the peace talks in 2000:
“There was no ’90 per cent’ offer. At Camp David, Barak promised a token military withdrawal from no more than 12 per cent of the Occupied Territories. He also made it clear that Israel had no intention of giving back any part of Greater Jerusalem, which covers some of the best Palestinian land and is the administrative and cultural heart of Palestine. Most of the illegal settlements, which controlled 42 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza, would stay, leaving the Palestinians with fragments of their original homeland, or 15 per cent of pre-Israel Palestine.” (John Pilger, Freedom Next Time, Bantam Press, London, 2006, pp. 107-108)
“In practice,” wrote Barak’s chief negotiator at Camp David, Shlomo Ben-Ami, before taking up his negotiator’s role, “the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever.” (Quoted, Pilger, ibid.)
It is nice to see we are giving the Palestinians a fair shake with our obvious generosity.
Glenn Greenwald over at Salon.com has a great take down of the swirling pool of Israeli propaganda and lies that have engulfed the media coverage of the Gaza Convoy debacle.
Gems include:
“This campaign of suppression and propaganda worked to shape American media coverage (as state propaganda campaigns virtually always work on the gullible, authority-revering American media). The edited IDF video was shown over and over on American television without question or challenge. Israeli officials and Israel-devoted commentators appeared all over television — almost always unaccompanied by any Turkish, Palestinian or Muslim critics of the raid — to spout the Israeli version without opposition. Israel-centric pundits in America claimed, based on the edited IDF video, that anyone was lying who even reported on the statements of the passengers that Israeli fired first. In sum, that the Israelis used force only after the passengers attacked the commandos became Unquestioned Truth in American discourse.”
and…
Nobody’s claims are entitled to an automatic assumption of truth, including these passengers. But as Mackey argues, all of this compellingly underscores the need for an independent — not an Israeli-led — investigation. Mackey quotes Israeli journalist and blogger Noam Sheifaz:
Israel has confiscated some of the most important material for the investigation, namely the films, audio and photos taken by the passengers [and] journalists on board and the Mavi Marmara’s security cameras. Since yesterday, Israel has been editing these films and using them for its own PR campaign. In other words, Israel has already confiscated most of the evidence, held it from the world and tampered with it. No court in the world would [trust] it to be the one examining it.
Just as is true for the U.S. on so many occasions, Israel has made unmistakably clear that it is interested only in propagandizing and obfuscating. The very idea that they can be trusted to reveal what actually happened is ludicrous on its face […]
I recommend going to Salon.com to read the full article, it is both lobe blowing and informative.
Update( 19/06/2010): I recommend going to Fillibluster to see how Canadian politicians will twist and turn trying to avoid the ire of the Jewish lobby. Libby Davies is the most recent victim of daring to hold dangerous opinion that there are human rights violations being perpetrated in Gaza.
From the fat file of addressing effects rather than causes in the Middle East:
“Barack Obama, the US president, has asked Congress for $205m to help Israel speed up construction of a new short-range anti-missile defence system, White House aides have said.
Another 'pillar' of the Peace Process
The so-called “Iron Dome” project is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells from the Gaza Strip and neighbouring Lebanon.”
Rather than addressing the root causes of why Israel needs a missile shield, lets just build a slapdash system give it a sexy name and throw a couple billion into developing and deploying it. The amount of US peaceable hand-waving in the Middle East is increasing as of late as well as the threat of military action.
“As the president has repeatedly said, our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakable and our defence relationship is stronger than ever,” Vietor said.”
An equitable two state solution would solidify Israel’s security concerns without lining the pockets of the defense industries.
“A senior department of defence official tells me that recently, US officials saw a test of the project and were very impressed by it, and decided to give the money to help speed up production.”
The move comes after ties between Israel and the US were strained by an announcement of more illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem made during a visit to Israel by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.”
Oh well; it is kiss and make up time as the frothy pro-Israeli lobby in the US once again dictates foreign policy. “Oh hey, don’t worry about breaking international law and the whole illegal settlement thing. Here is a couple million for your troubles we caused you by daring to call you on your anti-Palestinian colonization program.”
“According to the US state department, US military aid to Israel in 2009 totalled $2.55bn. This will increase to $3bn in 2012, and will total $3.15bn a year from 2013 to 2018.”
Will there be peace in the Middle East? I have 3.15 billion reasons to think that the answer for the foreseeable future will be ‘No’.
Update: Watch the Pro-Israeli Flak machine in action at Think Progress, sickening.
I never write posts during the week, but I saw this and had to get it up it is Robert Fowler’s speech to the Canada 150 conference. What he says is what most people want to have happen in the middle east; at least until politics happens
Robert Fowler’s speech to the Canada 150 conference.
MediaLens is keeping an eye on the bias of Western newspapers reporting in the Middle East. Shorter version: Israeli dead are much more important than Palestinian dead.
MEDIA ALERT: WHEN FACTS AND PROPAGANDA COLLIDE – THE BBC BENDS OVER BACKWARDS TO ACCOMMODATE ISRAELI CLAIMS
When a Thai kibbutz worker was killed in Israel by a rocket launched from Gaza last week, BBC News online gave the incident headline coverage flagged up on its home page. (BBC news online, ‘Rocket fire from Gaza kills man in southern Israel’, 23:42 GMT, Thursday, 18 March 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8574138.stm)
By contrast, the killing of two Palestinian teenagers, Mohammad Qadus and Osaid Qadus, by Israeli soldiers on Saturday was buried at the end of a short news report on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Middle East visit. Even worse, the BBC’s footnote simply echoed Israeli propaganda that “no live bullets were fired, only tear gas and rubber bullets”, despite ample evidence to the contrary. (BBC news online, ‘UN chief says Gaza suffering under Israeli blockade’, 11:26 GMT, Sunday, 21 March 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8578611.stm)
Yesterday morning, we joined with a number of media activists in sending complaints to the BBC. We emailed Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen. We asked Bowen why BBC News so often channels the Israeli version of events without proper scrutiny. We pointed out that, in contrast to the BBC, other news media had given the tragic killings of Mohammad Qadus and Osaid Qadus significant prominence, while also providing strong evidence that directly contradicted Israeli claims. For example, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported that the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem had obtained an X-ray of Osaid Qadus’s body that refuted the Israeli army’s assertion that “no live bullets were fired”. B‘Tselem commented:
“Rubber-coated steel bullets will not enter and exit the body in that way. It’s very clear these injuries would not have been caused by any kind of crowd-control measure. The army’s explanation is simply impossible and not consistent with the evidence.” (Ma’an news agency, ‘Army explanation “simply impossible”’, 22 March, 2010; http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=270326)
Likewise, the Guardian challenged Israeli claims on the use of live ammunition, reporting that “a hospital x-ray of Osaid Qadus, seen by the Guardian, showed a bullet lodged in his brain.” The Guardian added:
“Ahmed Hamad, a doctor at the hospital who treated the two, said the x-ray showed a ‘classic, pure metallic bullet’. He said both boys had injuries with small entry wounds.” (Rory McCarthy, ‘Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops near Nablus. Two teenagers killed day after boys, 15 and 17, shot in village’, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 March 2010 14.22 GMT; http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/21/palestinians-shot-dead-isreal-nablus)
The Independent was also able to verify that a conventional bullet was “lodged in the brain of Osaid Qadus”. (Donald Macintyre, ‘Two more Palestinian youths shot dead by Israelis in bloody weekend. X-rays show deaths were caused by conventional bullets but military claim only rubber rounds were fired’, Independent, 22 March 2010; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/two-more-palestinian-youths-shot-dead-by-israelis-in-bloody-weekend-1925044.html)
We concluded our challenge to Bowen:
“Why, by contrast, has the BBC provided an echo chamber for Israeli propaganda on the army killings of these two Palestinian boys? Why were their deaths buried at the end of a report on Ban Ki-Moon’s visit? Why not give headline coverage, as you did when rocket fire from Gaza killed a man in Israel?”
This story will not make very many people happy. If you happen to believe in left-wing media bias and that Israel is an undeserving oppressed nation (and other farcical notions), please stop reading now. Things will only get worse for you the farther you read into the article.
The story of the Canadian NGO Rights and Democracy has recently received media attention for the firing of three new appointees to the board of directors. As the CBC says:
“Three senior managers at the federal government’s human rights agency who were suspended for publicly declaring their lack of confidence in three Conservative appointees to their organization’s board of directors earlier this year have been fired.”
To understand the how and why this is so particularly egregious requires a fair amount of back story.
“Rights & Democracy, created under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government to encourage democracy and monitor human rights around the world, has been in turmoil since the Harper government appointed new board members [the ones mentioned in the first quote] last year.
The new members challenged grants being made to three human rights organizations known to be critical of Israel’s human rights record.”
One of things that you do NOT do is criticize Israel (despite the country’s atrocious human rights record), especially if you are in a government funded organization. It appears that these firings stem from this defacto political axiom. Furthermore, if you do have the temerity to question Israeli policy you may be hounded into an early grave:
“Federal opposition politicians and the family of former president Rémy Beauregard, who died in January, are calling for an independent inquiry into the organization. […] Beauregard bore the brunt of the new board members’ outrage over the grants. He died of a heart attack after a stormy board meeting.”
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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