Soccer Dad

The spinnin' don't stop when you leave the cradle (of civilization)

Though he mentions is in a specific context, Seraphic Secret makes an important general observation,

The article is Googled, cited and quoted, and the wretched Arab propaganda spreads like a virus.

Let's see how this happens.

My Right Word objects to a word used by Ha'aretz. But it's more than just the word it is that the story that embarrasses the IDF and Israel. (OK, here's another way of looking at it.)

Consequently the NY Times picks up the story, Israeli Soldier Is Briefly Left Behind in Gaza.

An embarrassed Israeli military confirmed Sunday that a soldier from an elite brigade was left behind by his comrades in the Gaza Strip last week, and that he was extricated only after they had returned to base.

Even worse, said the Israeli news service Ynet, which broke the story, his comrades had answered for him during a verbal head count before they returned to Israel. The soldier had fallen asleep during a rest break about 700 yards inside Gaza, as the Israelis were returning from an incursion near Khan Yunis.

When he woke, he became frightened, fired tracer bullets into the air and waved a fluorescent lightstick to identify himself. Other soldiers then went to get him.

But the events, which are likely to result in severe disciplinary measures, were particularly upsetting to Israelis, who have been trying to secure the release of an Israeli soldier captured a year ago last June in an operation led by the militant group Hamas.

Now yesterday (or recently), a story broke, that the U.S. educated economist Salam Fayyad made statements that are indistinguishable from those of Hamas. Look how many positive modifiers are in in this backgrounder.

pro-Western
U.S.-educated Fayyad initiated major reforms
rejected feelers from Hamas
enjoys international backing

But he recently said that violence against Israel was legitimate

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has said Palestinians have a legitimate right to resist Israeli occupation, even if the phrase does not appear in his new government programme.

“We are certainly an occupied people and resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people as an occupied people,” Fayyad told reporters in Cairo, where he is leading the Palestinian delegation to an Arab League meeting yesterday.

(This is at the same time that Fayyad is calling for "tolerance".

An official English-language translation, released yesterday, of the policy document said that Fayyad’s administration would build a clear-cut strategy to “enhance the status of Islam as a religion of tolerance”.

At the same time, the platform said, the government would prevent “the use of Islam to justify killings, exclusion of others and destruction”.

Allowing that violence is justified while calling for tolerance makes no sense. More on this at Israel Matzav and Yoni the Blogger.)

Given that this statement contradicts the carefully cultivated image of Fayyad one would think that it would raise a red flag among media types who are always looking for a scoop. The problem is that the scoops they are looking for are those that confirm their world view; not those that contradict it.

Or consider the Washington that, in the past, has taken great pains to show that Hamas is more interested in good governance than in destroying Israel, is now reporting the Hamas is fighting terror effectively.

Egyptian border guards have found about 75 percent fewer tunnels from the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control there, an indication of the radical Islamic group's broad success in reducing the smuggling of weapons and other contraband, a top Egyptian border official said Sunday.

Hamas forces, which took over Gaza six weeks ago, now operate new outposts and watchtowers under the Palestinian flag along the nine-mile border between the Palestinian territory and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Palestinian border guards, identified by Egyptian and U.S. officials as Hamas fighters, have shed the ski masks that Hamas fighters usually wear. They have adopted military-style short haircuts and wear dark T-shirts, changes that symbolize the group's efforts to transform itself into a security force capable of bringing order to the rougher of the two Palestinian territories.

"They want to show in front of the world that they are nice, that they are in control," Egyptian army Col. Amr Mamdouh said.

The problem is that the Post's reporter might be the only one who's reporting this. An AP story - carried by the Post - using the same Egyptian Colonel as a source, Israel wounds seven in Gaza draws a rather different picture.

Egyptian authorities have discovered six tunnels in the border town of Rafah since Hamas took over Gaza in mid-June, after days of fierce battles with Fatah fighters loyal to Abbas, Mamdouh told reporters in Rafah.

He said the military could not say whether the rate of digging tunnels _ or discovering them _ has increased since the Hamas takeover. The Egyptians have found 138 tunnels since September 2005, when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, handing it over to Palestinian control.

After the Israeli withdrawal, Egypt beefed up its presence at the border, deploying 750 guards. The smugglers responded by digging longer tunnels, penetrating past the immediate border area.

(If I've read the two stories correctly, the Post's reporter used actual numbers of tunnels that Egypt reported finding, but left out the disclaimer that Egypt could not be sure if the rate of digging tunnels has increased or decreased. In other words, it doesn't appear that the Egyptian officer is sure that not finding tunnels proves that they don't exist.)

The narrative the MSM is pushing is that Israel has a peace partner in moderates and possibly even in those termed militant. Anything that makes the Palestinians look more reasonable is reported and emphasized, even if it is of dubious validity. The same happens for anything that appears negative for Israel. Scoops going against the MSM's conventional wisdom though, are rare, as the illusion of peace seemingly must be maintained at all costs.

israel, media bias.