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Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (6) "Israelis Demoralized and Blaming Themselves" - Actually, No They're Not

MR's SERIES ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF BEIT HANOUN

(Intro) Beit Hanoun Meme Watch
(1) "Rage and Tears" - Apparently Theats Of Genocide Are OK If You're Really Upset
(2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It
(3) Stupid Headline Tricks - Hey Listen, Calling It A "Massacre" Is Still Bias, Even If You Think You're Being Clever By Quoting Someone
(4) "The al-Athamnah Family" - If You Make The Tragedy Seem Really Personal, Then People Will Really Get Outraged
(Interlude) Convergence of Bias - With This Simple Formula, You Too Can Produce Solid Anti-Israel Journalism
(5) "World Indifference" - We Learned About That Indifference From Every Major Newspaper On The Planet
(6) "Israelis Demoralized and Blaming Themselves" - Actually, No They're Not
(7) "Palestinian Unity (Government / Suicide Bombings / Whatever) Is Israel's Fault" - LIARS
(8) "Israeli Terrorism" - Want To Guess Who Reuters Is Willing To Label A Terrorist?
(9) "It's All About Olmert's Domestic Political Situation" - Predictable Bias Is Real Bias

ORIGINAL POST

In the least subtle version, the meme is getting spread this way:

The Israeli artillery fire that claimed 18 civilian lives in Beit Hanoun this week is the worst single attack in Gaza for six years. Whether it will prompt an end to Hamas's moratorium on suicide bombings hangs in the balance, but the attack -- said by Israeli officials to be an error -- has clearly put Israel on the moral defensive.

It's rare to actually find the entire argument all brought together in one story. More often, you can watch it getting spread around in more disjointed, fill-in-the-blanks-for-yourself form:

Israelis offering peace talks (because they know the Palestinians are going to justifiably attack them)

Israelis apologize (because it was their fault)

Israelis admit mistake (see? told you it was their fault)

Israelis will reevaluate shelling rocket-launching terrorists in Gaza (because they now know that it's wrong)

Each flavor has numerous examples.

Incidentally, it's kind of weird that it's news that Israel apologized for accidentally killing civilians who got caught in a cross-fire. Of course Israel apologized - you'd have to think that they were totally barbarians to think that they might not (rather than, say, one of the most progressive and technologically advanced countries on the planet). This helps explain why their characterizations of Israel sound like "lies". It's not that they hate Israel - it's that they're totally effing clueless about Israel. Now, they're totally clueless because they hate Israel, assume the worst, and don't bother to ever read anything that might challenge that - but that's a subtly different dynamic, now isn't it?

Anyway, the implication is that the Israelis are in a downward spiral of demoralization and self-blame, agreeing with the world's moral condemnation and getting ready to give up their fight. Except that's the opposite of true:

Israel will keep targeting Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza despite the risk of inadvertently hitting civilians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday, as tens of thousands of Palestinians buried 18 victims of an errant Israeli artillery strike.

But hey, wouldn't it be nice if Israelis were as stupid as the rest of the world, and couldn't understand that when human shields die the moral blame should go to the people who used them as human shields?

The only Israelis actually blaming Israel MORALLY for this accident are the Arab members of Israeli's parliament (that the evil apartheid regime allows to make laws, vote on budgets, and generally be lawmakers - because all apartheid regimes are like that). Anyway, yeah - the Arab MKs. They're the only ones who are really blaming Israel, since everyone else is pretty certain that this is why they beg the Palestinians not to commit war crimes by using human shields. Why don't the Israeli-Arab MKs see things the same, relatively obvious, way? Could it be because they're traitors looking for a justification for their treason? Or maybe because they're traitors and want to undermine Israel in this time of controversy? Or perhaps because they're traitors and don't care about lying? Who knows. There could be a lot of reasons. At a minimum, they're traitors and should not count as "Israelis joining the rest of the world in condemning the attack" or whatever the most popular phrase is on Google News right now.

Previously: Vulgar Palestinian Propaganda Succeeds with International Media - Again!, International Media: "But Saadat is a Grandfather!" Also, BBC Tells Demonstrable Lie About Past Kidnappings, Makes Up Conspiracy Theory, and Says "Foreigners mostly live harmoniously among the Palestinian population", Even the Funny Liberals (Implicitly) Lie About Israel

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