Archive for July, 2006

Here’s the Thing About the Anti-Israel Media: They Lie – Hezbollah Hides Among Civilians Edition

Omri Ceren

Published: July 31, 2006Posted in: Anti-Israel Journalism, Lebanon and Hezbollah, Media BiasTags:

There is a world in which facts actually help to shape the directions that arguments take. That world is obviously not the world of mainstream liberal journalism, where major liberal outlets publish articles with titles like “The ‘hiding among civilians’ myth”:

Israel claims it’s justified in bombing civilians because Hezbollah mingles with them. In fact, the militant group doesn’t trust its civilians and stays as far away from them as possible.

Unbelievable! Can it really be true that Israel really is just a bully on the warpath, seeking to maximize civilian casualties? That would be awesome – the Middle East conflict would become really easy to understand, and it would be really obvious who the good guys and who the bad guys were. Israel would be caught flat out lying.

Except that Hezbollah does hid among civilians. And that someone has finally smuggled out the incontrovertible evidence that – and we’ve never let this hackneyed phrase on this blog before, but in this case it’s justified… someone has finally smuggled out the incontrovertible evidence that the liberal media doesn’t want you to see:

This is the picture that damns Hezbollah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon’s battle lines, showing that Hezbollah is waging war amid suburbia. The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.

It seems that every week, there’s another absurd, demonstrably false argument in the liberal press – and it seems that all those mistakes turn out to be ones that slander the IDF or excuse for Israel’s enemies. Last week it was the Guardian’s breathless, too-good-to-be-true “Hezbollah is not connected to Syria or Iran” contrarian wisdom qua terrorist apologism. It was too good to be true because it wasn’t true.

Now it’s this Salon “Israel is just lying about Hezbollah using human shields so they can murder civilians” garbage. And don’t email us with the usual “there is no liberal media – these are diverse outlets” nonsense. Salon provides the talking points for every leftist, self-styled sophisticate who needs something to spout as his own informed-but-contrarian wisdom at middlebrow art shows. When arguments are premised on lies, there can be no room for debate. These people have strayed very, very far off the reservation – yet they still demand (hell, they feel entitled) to make policy recommendations about things that actually matter.

Here’s the Thing About the Anti-Israel Media: They Lie – Visual Version

Omri Ceren

Published: July 31, 2006Posted in: Anti-Israel Journalism, Media BiasTags:

We all know that the anti-Israel media lies. But sometimes, it behooves us to have it demonstrated to us at length:

Whatever else, the event in Qana was a human tragedy. But the photographs do not show it honestly. Rather, they have been staged for effect, exploiting the victims in an unwholesome manner. In so doing, they are no longer news photographs – they are propaganda. And, whoever said the camera cannot lie forgot that photographers can and do. Those lies have spread throughout the world by now and will be in this morning’s newspapers, accepted as real by the millions who view them.

Thirteen pictures, pages of text, and the conclusion is the same: the anti-Israel media lies. LGF linked to this page as Pallywood in Lebanon – a Hezbollah version of the Palestinian trick whereby human rights tragedies are choreographed for international media outlets. Good to know that the Palestinians were able to contribute something to the Hezbollah war effort – it’s the least they can do for all the training, personnel, and arms that Hezbollah has donated to them.

UPI International Editor Lives in a Pathetic, Anti-Israel Fantasy World

Omri Ceren

Published: July 31, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

How could this guy ever be biased:

But much as Hezbollah and the Israelis are at the forefront of this conflict, that is not the root cause of hostilities by any length of imagination. The root cause of the conflict was, and remains, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Solve it and you solve 90 percent of the region’s problems. Ignore it and Secretary Rice and future secretaries of state will be shuttling back and forth to the Middle East for decades more to come.

It’d be nice if the Left could get their terrorist-apologist line straight. We just finished making fun of the SF Chronicle for saying that there’s absolutely no connection between Hezbollah and Hamas, and now we find ourselves having to point out that Hezbollah is unlikely to give up their declared goal of wiping out every Jew in Israel. But maybe we just underestimate their good will.

This article is such a naked, blatant hack piece that it’s almost unworthy of taking apart. But two tactics bear attention. The first is the confession by Editor Salhani that he more or less refuses to talk to people who support Israel:

In any case, it would be a one-sided conversation following the massacre of some 54 Lebanese civilians, including 37 children, in Qana Sunday by an Israeli air strike… This is not the first time the Israelis have targeted Qana.

It’s cute when journalists pretend that there’s just one side to a conflict simply because they don’t know anyone on the other side. How about this argument: this is not the first time that Lebanese civilians in Qana have suffered because Hezbollah uses their town as a military base.

Omission is bad. But it’s not as embarrassing as sheer logical contradiction.

First sentence of paragraph 12: “Israel never accepted that Hezbollah forced them out of south Lebanon, and in short, won the first hand in this new war.”

First sentence of paragraph 13: “Israel never forgot the feeling of humiliation the country… experienced”.

We understand: it’s tough to both celebrate the victory of genocidal thugs over the Middle East’s most civilized country (“Hezbollah gave the Palestinians living in the occupied territories hope”) and demonize Israel as responsible for all the problems in the Middle East. But surely the obligation that journalists have to their readers – not to treat their readers like total idiots – should have caused Salhani to put these two statements a little farther away from each other.

It’s Not That the Anti-Israel Media Lies, It’s Just That They Don’t Tell All The Truth

Omri Ceren

Published: July 31, 2006Posted in: Anti-Israel Journalism, Media BiasTags:

Something is missing from the SF Chronicle’s concise primer on the Middle East conflict:

Q: What is Hezbollah’s beef with Israel?

A: Israel’s military involvement in Lebanon began during Lebanon’s civil war, when Palestinian militants were using Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel. Israel withdrew most forces from Lebanon in 1985, but occupied a buffer zone in the south until 2000. Hezbollah contends that Israel continues to occupy territory that has historically belonged to Lebanon. Hezbollah has also sought the return of Lebanese being held in Israeli prisons.

What a roundabout way of stating that Israel left the buffer zone in 2000! You know what else would have been nice? Some kind of statement like “everyone on the planet – even the State Department – open;y mocks Hezbollah’s claim that Israel continues to occupy Lebanese terroritory”. And by nice, we mean true.

More Fun With the Chronicle’s “Concise Primer on the Middle East Conflict”

Omri Ceren

Published: July 31, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

This part is also kind of dishonest:

Q: Is the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict linked to fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?

A: Analysts believe Hezbollah had been planning its incursion into Israel for many weeks before the kidnapping of the Israeli troops. The operation took place, though, just weeks after Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier in Gaza. No direct link has been established between the two kidnappings, but some form of coordination can’t be ruled out. As for the groups themselves, similarities are largely superficial. In both cases, Israel is fighting militant Muslims that both Israel and the United States regard as terrorists. At the same time, Hezbollah, which based in Lebanon, and Hamas, based in Palestinian areas, are very different organizations.

This phrase reminds us of nothing so much as when Anthony Cordesman, commenting on the Axis of Evil speech, said that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were “very different countries.” How insightful!

It’s Funny Because It’s True. And By Funny, We Mean Sad.

Omri Ceren

Published: July 30, 2006Posted in: Anti-Israel Journalism, France, Lighter Side, Media Bias, StupidTags: antisemitism, France, Israel, media, Media Bias, Stupid

This is brutally accurate:

A young man was walking the streets of Paris. Suddenly he saw a Rottweiler attacking a young girl. He jumped on the dog, struggled with him and strangled it. Both he and the girl escaped with minor scratches.

Immediately, excited journalists surrounded him and said: Tell us your name! All Paris will know of you! The headlines shall be: “Parisian hero saves little girl from savage dog”

But the man said: I am not from Paris.

The journalists surged with nationalistic pride: OK, so all France will hear of you! The headlines shall be: “French hero saves little girl from savage dog”

But the man continued: I am not from France.

The journalists changed gears, and tittered with post-national excitement: Even better, we will tell all Europe about you! The headlines shall read: “European hero saves little girl from savage dog”.

Yet the man insisted: But I am not from Europe.

Now confused, the journalists demanded: Where are you from?

The man said firmly: I am from Israel.

All at once, the journalists seemed to come to a consensus: Indeed, the whole world will hear about you. The headlines will be: “Israeli murders little girl’s dog”

No seriously, it’s true. That’s precisely how it would go. If it was dog potty pads being delivered to the PA the story would be “Israelis target densely-packed Palestinian towns with wild dogs.” Of course that’s how it would go.

Breaking: Muslims Shooting Jews Still a Hate Crime in US!

Omri Ceren

Published: July 29, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

We’re thinking of starting a blog called “Oh You Think So Doctor: A Blog of Really Obvious Things”. We don’t want it to be too political, but how could you pass up something like this:

A lone gunman burst into a Jewish organization in downtown Seattle on Friday, killing one woman and wounding five others in what authorities were calling a hate crime… The gunman is a U.S. citizen, and police said initial contacts with him by phone while he was inside the building indicated that he was a Muslim… “This was a purposeful, hateful act as far as we know, by an individual acting alone,” said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels at a news conference, adding “This is a crime of hate.”

No kidding.

FBI Wouldn’t Know Terrorism if it Walked In and Blew Itself Up

Omri Ceren

Published: July 29, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

Is an act of violence committed against civilians with the purposes of achieving political ends an act of terrorism? Not when it’s committed by Muslim fanatics against Jews:

A man claiming to be an “American Muslim” who was “angry with Israel” was arrested after six people were shot yesterday at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, authorities said. One of the victims was killed. The gunman was arrested without incident, authorities said. “We believe it’s a lone individual acting out his antagonism,” said David Gomez, who heads the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts in Seattle. “There’s nothing to indicate that it’s terrorism related,” he added. “But we’re monitoring the entire situation.”… After the shootings, the man said to call 911, according to a witness who declined to give her name.

Actually, there’s a lot to indicate that it’s terrorism related – like the fact that on that 911 call (and this is something that this report fails to pass on) , he said that he “wanted us to get our weapons out of Israel”.

This is just like the time that an Egyptian national attacked the booth of the Israeli National Airline in the city that has the most ex-pat Israelis on the planet. FBI analysis: no indication of terrorism.

Hezbollah Admits: Appeasing Violent Hatred Doesn’t Decrease Violence or Hatred

Omri Ceren

Published: July 29, 2006Posted in: Lebanon and HezbollahTags:

We missed this part of this story when it came out four days ago, but we wanted to post it so you see it and so that we have somewhere to link to when we make this obviously true but somehow controversial argument in the future. When Israel’s genocidal enemies are appeased after attacks and atrocities, they’re more likely to repeat those attacks and atrocities:

Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah’s political arm, also told The Associated Press in an interview that his group will not lay down arms… In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon to seize Hezbollah officials or briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds. He said the Shiite group had anticipated there would be negotiations on exchanging the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it did before.

He doesn’t mention that he also expected that the world would more or less quickly side with Hezbollah’s demands for negotiations because that the world had more or less quickly sided with Hamas’s identical demands for negotiations just two weeks before. Listen – Israel’s anti-Semitic Muslim enemies really do believe all the way down in their black little hearts that the world hates Jews just like they do. That’s why you get these insane letters from Ahmadinejad to Germany, saying that they should cooperate in eradicating Zionism. They really, really believe that the world would like to get rid of the Jewish problem – and that, if someone just overcomes the Jews’ control of the media and proposes genocide out loud, then eventually people all over the world will openly proclaim their support.

We don’t want to sound paranoid. But even a cursory examination of anti-Israel Leftist activism – from inexplicable zeal in fabricating imaginary Israeli human rights violations to incoherent arguments about blame and “cycles of violence” to the breathtaking venom of anti-Semitism qua anti-Zionism… even a cursory examination raises the horrible possibility that Ahmadinejad is less than completely wrong.

(hat tip: Stan Shivell)

Russia: Hamas and Hezbollah Aren’t Terrorist Organizations. We Have No Objections in Principle.

Omri Ceren

Published: July 29, 2006Posted in: Lebanon and Hezbollah, PalestiniansTags:

In Russia, terrorist organizations are only those organizations that are really unpopular. If you’re a popular terrorist organization, then you get to be a political party:

The International Terrorism top official at the FSB (ex-KGB) told reporters that Hezbollah and Hamas aren’t considered terrorist by Russia as they actively take part in their country’s politics. Indeed, Russia delivered a list of 17 groups it designates as terrorists. As the United States considers both groups as being terrorist and still puts on the pressure on the European Union to list Hezbollah as terrorist group too, Russia says the two groups aren’t a threat to the world and are no threat for Russia’s national security. Most groups listed as terrorist by Russia are Chechnya-based or operate in Central Asia… Russia has cordial relations with Hamas which leaders have met with President Putin earlier this year.

Again, we have no objection in principle to the idea that Hamas and Hezbollah represent the governments of the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon, respectively. We just insist that the logic be followed to its obvious conclusion: that the attack and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers on sovereign Israeli land constitute acts of war, and that Israel is fully within its rights to launch such war until the other side sues for peace. So no more of this nonsense about “proportionate” or “disproportionate” “retaliation”. When you’re fighting terrorists, you retaliate. When you fight a war, you attack with everything short of war crimes – and you keep attacking until the other side surrenders.

(hat tip: Esther)

If Israel Goes to War with Iran, You Can Be Quite Sure that Journalists Won’t Be Discussing the Iranian Weapons and Troops in Lebanon

Omri Ceren

Published: July 28, 2006Posted in: Iran, Lebanon and HezbollahTags:

And yet, somehow, it’s still true:

After a number of Katyusha barrages hit northern Israel over the course of the morning, five Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles landed near Afula shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday. This was the first time missiles of this type have been fired at Israel by Hizbullah. Police in the North said in an official statement that one of the missiles, which landed near Afula, contained 100 kg. of explosives – an amount that could have caused extensive damage and casualties had it struck a building.

We have Iranian proxies using Iranian weapons to attack a country that Iran is trying to wipe off the Earth. Still not enough to convince you that Iran is directly responsible (and in fact started) whatever escalation will eventually occur? How about the fact that there are actual Iranian soldiers engaged in active combat with Israel – and by “active combat with” we mean “indiscriminate bombing of”.

VDH On International Diplomacy and Israel

Omri Ceren

Published: July 28, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

It really makes you wonder why the rest of us even bother writing anything at all:

“Collateral damage” refers mostly to casualties among Hezbollah’s human shields; it can never be used to describe civilian deaths inside Israel, because everything there is by intent a target…

“Disproportionate” means that the Hezbollah aggressors whose primitive rockets can’t kill very many Israeli civilians are losing, while the Israelis’ sophisticated response is deadly against the combatants themselves. See “excessive.”

Anytime you hear the adjective “excessive,” Hezbollah is losing. Anytime you don’t, it isn’t.

Go read the whole thing. Obviously.

MR Gets Threatened By a Canadian

Omri Ceren

Published: July 27, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

A commenter calling herself lebanesechica, with an IP resolving to Laval, Quebec, left this more or less incoherent contribution in response to our most recent IsraPundit post.

Oh shut the [deleted] up will you?… honey im lebanese and We all know the activity that hizbullah does in the region so stop with ur stupid propaganda!!!!! Kofi anna made that statement because UN peacekeepers spoke your stupid army 12 times u morron… Why don’t u stop ur lies and propaganda cuz u will regret it!!!!!!!!

Besides the less conventional double-r spelling of moron, the rest is largely a rant about free speech. If you click through, look for the similarly less conventional ‘w’ spelling of ‘hole’.

Speech Given to Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion Company by Captain Ori Lavie

Omri Ceren

Published: July 27, 2006Posted in: NewsTags:

As reported in this morning’s Ha’aretz:

“It’s our turn now… It’s our turn to protect the border. And we’ll carry out any mission we need to, against any force, in the best way possible. If we don’t, we have no right to exist.”

“We will not lose this war… We did not start it, but it’s our duty to protect the Jewish nation and see to it that the residents of Metula and Haifa can live in peace. If we don’t do it, no one will. We waited 2,000 years for our own state, and we won’t fold because a group of terrorists think that they can scare us.”

“Someone who cannot protect his freedom does not deserve it… When missiles and rockets land on all the northern cities and reach Haifa, and when two of our soldiers have been kidnapped and ten have been killed and dozens have been wounded – this is no time to talk, it’s time to fight. From the moment we cross the border, you must be super alert, super sharp. We are threatened from every side. Each of you is responsible for his comrades.”

Eight soldiers from a different Golani Battalion (the 51st), lost their lives on Wednesday, protecting Israelis from the openly genocidal intentions of Hezbollah.

UN Peacekeepers Begged Hezbollah to Stop Using Them As Human Shields. UN, LA Times Blame Israel Anyway.

Omri Ceren

Published: July 27, 2006Posted in: Anti-Israel Journalism, Lebanon II, Lebanon and Hezbollah, United NationsTags: hezbollah, human shields, Israel, lebanon, Lebanon II, unifil, United Nations

The Los Angeles Times’s coverage of Israel is, as always, shrill with hand-wringing hysteria:

Under Fire for 6 Hours, U.N. Peacekeepers Pleaded for Help Before Being Killed, U.N. Says

The United Nations post where four peacekeepers were killed by Israeli fire Tuesday was hit at least 16 times over six hours, including five direct hits on the base as its unarmed staff repeatedly notified Israeli liaison officers and begged for help, U.N. officials said Wednesday. On Tuesday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the airstrike that hit the post in southern Lebanon was “apparently deliberate.”

Actually this story – again, almost as always with the Los Angeles – is incomplete to the point of arguably being an outright lie. The UN post did indeed plead for help, but not just for six hours. Rather, they had been pleading for help for more than a week. And they weren’t pleading for protection from Israeli aircraft. Quite the opposite – they were begging Hezbollah to stop using them as human shields:

Annan’s… UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been warning for days about what almost certainly caused this tragedy. Hezbollah fighters, who have already been firing behind screens of women and children, have also been shooting from behind and next to the UN positions, presumably hoping Israel will not dare shoot back and risk exactly this kind of propaganda disaster… the UNIFIL press releases [states] that Hezbollah has not just shot at and seriously wounded UNIFIL observers… [but] that UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli shelling and bombing near UNIFIL outposts because Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them .
Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July:

Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire)…

Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie says he recently received emails from the Canadian peacekeeper killed at the UN post who’d told him that Hezbollah was using his post as cover.

The closest that this Los Angeles Times piece gets to being not a lie is “the nearest known Hezbollah activity was more than three miles away, although in the past there have been Hezbollah weapons caches in the area, a senior U.N. official said.”. Which is like saying “According to official UN press releases, Hezbollah had been using those peacekeepers as human shields for days” – except the latter statement is true.