Soccer Dad

He ain't a heavy, he's turkey

Here are 4 articles from the New York Times about different incidents in which Israel was quickly condemned as the bad guy. Regardless of what emerged afterwards, this was the default position of the New York Times. (If you feel that I'm exaggerating, click on the links and see if my presentation is accurate.) I attempted to find the first report in each of these cases.

January 29, 2010

Hamas Official Murdered in Dubai Hotel
Another Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya, told reporters that Mr. Mabhouh was "not the first one the Mossad's hand has reached."

"We reserve our right to respond to this crime in a suitable time and place," Mr. Hayya said. But, he added, "We in Hamas emphasize that our battlefield is the land of Palestine and our battle with the enemy is in Palestine," and not on foreign soil.

March 9, 2010

As Biden Visits, Israel Unveils Plan for New Settlements

Hours after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed unyielding American support for Israel's security here on Tuesday, Israel's Interior Ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem. Mr. Biden condemned the move as "precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now."

April 6, 2010

Debate in Israel on Gag Order in Security Leak Case

Mordechai Kremnitzer, a law professor at Hebrew University and a senior fellow of the Israel Democracy Institute, said that Israel's treatment of suspected criminal offenses in the security realm was "draconian." By isolating the suspect and preventing any public debate, he said, the authorities could more easily press the suspect to arrive at a plea bargain.

Mr. Kremnitzer also criticized the ease with which courts in Israel hand out gag orders.

May 31, 2010

Deadly Israeli Raid Draws Condemnation

Israel faced intense international condemnation and growing domestic questions on Monday after a raid by naval commandos that killed nine people, many of them Turks, on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.

Turkey, Israel's most important friend in the Muslim world, recalled its ambassador and canceled planned military exercises with Israel as the countries' already tense relations soured even further. The United Nations Security Council met in emergency session over the attack, which occurred in international waters north of Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was flying home after canceling a Tuesday meeting with President Obama.

Der Spiegel (via Daily Alert Blog and memeorandum) is reporting that German experts believe that a number of PKK terrorists were killed last year by chemical weapons deployed by Turkey.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009.

In March, the activists gave the photos to a German human rights delegation comprised of Turkey experts, journalists and politicians from the far-left Left Party, as SPIEGEL reported at the end of July. Now Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries has confirmed the authenticity of the photos, and a forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the initial suspicion, saying that it is highly probable that the eight Kurds died "due to the use of chemical substances."

Israel Matzav

I trust also that Tom Friedman will write a column in the next week accusing Turkey of operating under the Hama rules that Bashar Assad's daddy Hafez used when he gassed all those people to death in 1982.

JoshuaPundit

Now, if Israel were the accused party in something like this...well, now that would be a different matter, wouldn't it? And no evidence would even be necessary, just the wild allegations of a country like, well, Turkey.

and Gateway Pundit

Now imagine the din and uproar that the EU would raise if it was thought that Israel or the United States had used chemical weapons on anyone. Do you think they'd wait a year to five months to gin up their Euro-like outrage?

all wonder what I do. If the terrorists killed had been Israel's enemies, would the MSM have waited so long to air the suggestion that Israel had violated international law? As I show above, of course not.

This isn't about holding Israel to a higher standard. Turkey is being held to no standard whatsoever. Der Spiegel rreported that Turkey had long been suspected of using chemical weapons against the PKK, so this isn't exactly something new. And surely once Der Spiegel saw fit to report it the rest of the MSM would at least cite Der Spiegel, wouldn't they?

Turkey's not Israel, so it isn't automatically the heavy. That would seem to be a mistake.