Much of the criticism of Israel is based on anecdotal evidence divorced from context. This actually isn't particularly surprising, since a balanced and well informed narrative would require far more effort from the reporters, and in most cases it would be less useful for the purposes of proving how awful Israel is, because in most cases knowing the full context and story would show that Israeli isn't so bad, after all.
Another component of the anti Israel propaganda efforts, beyond simple ignorance and malicious ignorance, is the Palestinian willingness to - how to put this - embellish on reality. I'm not - NOT - saying that all Palestinians always lie, and that if a story comes from Palestinian sources it's automatically wrong or even only probably wrong. That would be far too broad a statement to make. What I am saying is that since the Palestinians have an obvious interest in portraying themselves as helpless victims of Israeli brutality, and in most reports the Israeli side isn't asked for it's version, it behooves any fair minded consumer of the reports to think about them a moment before accepting them at face value. Western publics (and their journalist representatives) often don't have the qualifications to judge the plausibility of Palestinian horror stories. I'm reminded of the young Palestinian in Jenin in April 2002 who was quoted the world over as having witnessed how an Israeli tank flattened rubble over a mass grave of gunned Palestinians: you'd have to have some acquaintance with tanks to know this story was always physically impossible, and who in the West has that experience?
Noah Pollack gives us a recent example. Mohammad Omar, a Palestinian reporter famous for his horror stories traveled to Europe to receive a prize for being so courageous, and on his way back invented another horror story which, unfortunately for him, someone checked.
And note especially comment number 5. Charlie from Colorado points out that even without the investigation into the story, the initial version proclaims its falsity. In order to be dramatic, Omar has one of his Israeli tormentors engage in some gymnastics that can't be done.
Don't expect Omar's prize to be revoked any time soon, however. More likely, the next time one of his fairy tales is quoted at length, the journalist will add that he's the recipient of a prestigious prize and therefor must be telling the truth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
FROM CAROL HERMAN
I don't know when it happens, but there comes a day when you realize the old-school journalists no longer have the ability to tear either a person, or a country, down.
That's how far we've traveled off the old "blood libel" tickets; where the Mother Church, herself, built a Jew Hating racket. Yup. People who bent their knees every Sunday; heard all about it.
As a matter of fact, "in the old days" all you could do was walk away from the churches that practiced this stuff. And, ya know what? Many people did!
Today, there's no explanations out there of why the pews are emptying. But the churches had been built at a time people were coming. Then? They stopped. In droves.
While the old fashioned hatreds don't abate all that much. But fewer people take what they hear as the gospel truth.
If you understood economics, you'd also understand why some businesses get depleted of customers. And, when you're talking about newspapers, you're talking about a business that carried a low overhead ... because the paper and ink were cheap. While the influences put many an owner in the enviable position of being feared by presidents.
We owe the changes we see to the Internet. Because you're not reading less. You're actually able to access more "stuff." And, no editor cuts between you, and what you can figure out.
The biggest horror Israel was facing, came from Bush's alliance with the Saud's. And, what Bush tried to do. But couldn't.
Bush tried to change the map of the Mideast! He tried to get the Saud's in charge of Irak. And, syria. And, he tried to plant them into this "deal" where Israel would move back, and off large portions of land.
Don't confuse this with gazoo. Gazoo was a piece that Eygpt didn't want to take back! Even though Eygpt was thrilled to get the Sinai returned!
And, Jordan didn't want the troubles that come with the arabs who live in the West Bank.
While the people who are trying to hang "values" on this stuff; haven't got much, in the way of values for themselves. However, they did buy up all the academic paper. And, it was here, in the credentialing process, that they added their weight.
Reminds me of the Marginot Line. Built by the french, at great expense after WW1. hitler just avoided it.
And, the french got caught with their pants down.
You know it's worse in Darfur than it is in gazoo. And, I'm not responsible for Darfur, either.
You'd be surprised, but most of humanity isn't attached to the stories being told by the press.
Just as a lot of people became skeptical about the "man who could walk on water." Seems someone must have skated on ice; so people stopped believing in miracles.
Could happen.
Not that I care all that much.
I do know noises in the streets once did produce terrible riots and progroms. So it's nice to see the noises, as loud as ever, in the press, not amounting to a hill of beans.
Palestinians embellish reality just like Holocaust victims embellish reality. Not -NOT- that the Palestinian experience is comparable to the Holocaust. But Palestinians can't be faulted for doing the same Jewish survivors of the Holocaust routinely do.
Remember the human soap story? It was false. Never, ever, was a Jew made into soap.
Remember when Simon Wiesenthal Center published a photo of a concentration camp where smoke could be seen billowing from the crematoria?
The smoke was fake, and the lie was exposed by the Holocaust deniers here.
So the SWC had to retract the doctored picture and publish the much less scary original one.
So the Holocaust survivors lied when they claimed that the Nazis made Jews into soap, and they lied again when they published a doctored photo of a concentration camp. But no matter how many times the survivors lie, the Holocaust was a true historical event.
And mo matter how many times the Palestinians lie, the videos that are not lies (Israel's use of Palestinian children as human shields; Israel's beating of students at checkpoints; the settler kids stoning Palestinian schoolgirls; IDF soldiers blowing up a door, wounding the woman behind it and letting her die while they tear the house apart) tell the true story of occupation.
HAT TIP to Wayback, the Internet tool that saves all pages, including those that the liars at the Simon Wiesenthal Center would like to see forever removed from the web.
It's okay, Yaacov, you can use the word 'lie' for this kind of thing that Omer did. :-) :-)
FROM CAROL HERMAN
Hey, Ibrahim, you're out of your element. That you spout? So does Pat Buchanan. SO what?
It's more telling that you consider yourself "a weaponized terrorist."
Which reminds me of a recent DRY BONES cartoon. Starts off with someone answering a suicide hot line. And, then asking "can you drive a truck?"
It takes all the sympathy for the deranged; and it puts it into perspective.
Keep it up. You are just the butt of a good joke.
Post a Comment