Back in 2006 I wrote about the comments to this blog, the ones filled with hatred and vitriol and the ones filled with nothing but Palestinian propaganda and misinformation, which I don't publish. I've received some like that in response to my post about the extreme anti-Israel bias in CBS News broadcasts, comparing it to the relatively good coverage we've seen from most other mainstream media in the United States. One of those comments from an anonymous coward started and ended with two words, all in caps: "You're heartless". What makes me heartless? I'm going to handle his or her points in reverse order.
Those 2,000 Hamas rockets fired into Israel in this conflict, and the 12,000 fired from Gaza in total, "might as well be flare guns". One equally deluded person on Facebook called them "firecrackers". Take a look at the Syrian-made M-302 rockets Hamas is using and tell me that nonsense again. Yes, it's true Israel has a defense in Iron Dome that works 90% of the time. No other nation would tolerate the rocket fire that can and does kill people. Why on earth would Israel? Oh, and yes, Israelis have died from the rocket fire. All it would take would be a rocket landing on a school, busy shopping mall or a "peace" demonstration in Tel Aviv and the death toll would suddenly be a lot less uneven. 90% effective isn't 100%, is it?
Look, every civilian death is a tragedy. Hamas is responsible for most Palestinian deaths. A higher body count is better PR in their twisted calculations. They are deliberately using their own people as human shields, firing from in or near hospitals, schools, mosques and densely populated neighborhoods. If they had stopped firing when Egypt twice proposed cease fires before the ground offensive began there would have been no Israeli incursion. None. Israel accepted those cease fire proposals and Hamas did not. Now that Israeli troop are in Gaza it became clear that the thread from Hamas was far greater than previously believed.
Every nation has a responsibility to protect it's citizens. Why is Israel denied that by the left? I believe the answer has been shown over and over again in the demonstrations in Europe, with their calls to "gas the Jews" and "Jews to the ovens". So, no, anonymous cowards, I am not heartless. In part 2 I will show how this particular bleeding heart actually favors genocide, so long as the victims are Jews.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
When Was CBS Sold to Hamas?
During the current conflict between Israel and Hamas I’ve been watching, listening to and reading a wide variety of media. Mostly it’s been a pleasant surprise this time around. The BBC did a remarkable piece about all the false images claiming to show the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Media outlets around the world picked up the story which highlighted the lies and propaganda in places that never report on it. France 24 showed IDF footage taken from one of Israel’s planes which showed a pilot calling off an airstrike because Hamas has put children on the roof to act as human shields which, once again, got a surprising amount of coverage in places where I least expected to see it. (Shown here with English subtitles.)
Just last night on CNN’s Crossfire former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pronounced the calls for Israeli restraint in the face of relentless rocket fire from Hamas his “outrage of the day”. He pointed out: "If the United States had 1,000 rockets fired at us, would we show any restraint? Of course not. We would annihilate whoever did it." Paul Begala, the left wing commentator who normally debates Gingrich, first three words in response: “You're exactly right.” That is not what CNN viewers are used to seeing on Israel.
CBS has been as bad as the far left fringe outlets. Watching Holly Williams report on Gaza from Sderot I learned the most amazing things. For example, most Gazans were displaced from their homeland in 1948. Considering that the median age in Gaza is just 15 most Gazans have never seen Israel. They are the granchildren and great grandchildren of the actual refugees, but Ms. Williams clearly believes in inherited refugee status. Her main theme was that “Israel claims” it’s targeting terrorists but it’s really aiming for poor, innocent Palestinian women and children. Her reports show children going to hospital (some with no obvious injuries), wailing and screaming women, and rubble which supposedly was their homes. There usually is no mention of Hamas using human shields except for last night, when she had a Hamas spokesman on to claim that is a lie. No Israeli was included in any of her reports I've seen during the conflict.
If Ms. Williams does mention Hamas rockets briefly at the end of her report she makes sure to tell us that no Israelis have died and that Palestinians don’t have anything like Iron Dome to protect them. (One Israeli was killed today.) She apparently believes that rocket fire into Israel should be ignored. No mention of injuries and property damage gets into her reports. She needs to use all her time to convince us to pity the poor Palestinians.
If that Hamas spokesman had been given editorial control of the CBS News report he couldn’t have written more favorable propaganda. When I was young the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was the most respected and trusted television newscast in America. That is no longer the case. Sadly journalistic standards and fairness have been entirely abandoned by CBS. Nowadays they are combatants in a media war against Israel, even when many mainstream left-leaning media outlets have decided they cannot participate this time around.
Just last night on CNN’s Crossfire former US Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pronounced the calls for Israeli restraint in the face of relentless rocket fire from Hamas his “outrage of the day”. He pointed out: "If the United States had 1,000 rockets fired at us, would we show any restraint? Of course not. We would annihilate whoever did it." Paul Begala, the left wing commentator who normally debates Gingrich, first three words in response: “You're exactly right.” That is not what CNN viewers are used to seeing on Israel.
CBS has been as bad as the far left fringe outlets. Watching Holly Williams report on Gaza from Sderot I learned the most amazing things. For example, most Gazans were displaced from their homeland in 1948. Considering that the median age in Gaza is just 15 most Gazans have never seen Israel. They are the granchildren and great grandchildren of the actual refugees, but Ms. Williams clearly believes in inherited refugee status. Her main theme was that “Israel claims” it’s targeting terrorists but it’s really aiming for poor, innocent Palestinian women and children. Her reports show children going to hospital (some with no obvious injuries), wailing and screaming women, and rubble which supposedly was their homes. There usually is no mention of Hamas using human shields except for last night, when she had a Hamas spokesman on to claim that is a lie. No Israeli was included in any of her reports I've seen during the conflict.
If Ms. Williams does mention Hamas rockets briefly at the end of her report she makes sure to tell us that no Israelis have died and that Palestinians don’t have anything like Iron Dome to protect them. (One Israeli was killed today.) She apparently believes that rocket fire into Israel should be ignored. No mention of injuries and property damage gets into her reports. She needs to use all her time to convince us to pity the poor Palestinians.
If that Hamas spokesman had been given editorial control of the CBS News report he couldn’t have written more favorable propaganda. When I was young the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite was the most respected and trusted television newscast in America. That is no longer the case. Sadly journalistic standards and fairness have been entirely abandoned by CBS. Nowadays they are combatants in a media war against Israel, even when many mainstream left-leaning media outlets have decided they cannot participate this time around.
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