If your only information about the current Middle East crisis came from CNN, you’d think it boiled down to a bunch of high-tech Israeli bullies running around Gaza torturing Palestinian women and children, while tossing smart bombs on hospitals and blowing up UN schools with Merkava tanks. Almost no context is given. That Israel had done virtually nothing for the three years since voluntarily withdrawing from Gaza but grin and bear it, as missiles after missile, many courtesy of Iran, flew willy-nilly into the Southern part of their country – a fusillade no nation on Earth, civilized or uncivilized, would begin to tolerate – is barely mentioned or mumbled into a half-audible mike while the video plays bloodied Palestinian infants screaming for mama.
The New York Times may be worse. Bending over backwards in a morass of cultural relativist obfuscation, the paper seems to have imbued moral equivalence with a religious fervor usually found at Lourdes.
Of course, the Israelis have the media ticked off. Remembering well the media’s role in the second Lebanon War when some, notably AP and Reuters, went so far as to try to palm off Photoshopped Hezbollah pictures as authentic photos from the front when the forgeries were so obvious bloggers caught them in minutes, this time the IDF has the media cordoned off miles from the action. This time they don’t have the chance to lens endless photos of the same “green man” popping up at one scene of “Israeli brutality” after the other.
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80 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » Gaza, the Mainstream Media, and Pajamas TV:[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:04 am 2. buddy larsen:word, dude.
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:46 am 3. buddy larsen:Who was the big chief CNN finally had to fire, after he accused, in a high profile conference in Madrid,the US military of having a secret policy of shooting journalists? Oh yes –coming back now –”Eason Jordan” just swam into mental view.
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:51 am 4. SAF:Real journalism would ask: “Why has Israel let its citizens live under the constant threat of missile attack for 3+ years? Why does Israel let an entity sworn to its destruction in word and deed continue to exist?
I, for the most part, find all these other discussions besides the point. And I find it amazing that so many Israelis have allowed their government to write off thousands of its citizen’s safety for years. Only when Hamas started killing people in major cities did they take action.
The Israeli government is guilty of neglecting its citizen’s most fundamental rights. You’ll never see that on CNN or the NY times.
Jan 7, 2009 - 6:26 am 5. ricpic:Carolyn Glick is indispensable in terms of getting the grim truth of Israel’s strategic dilemma and what Israel must do to survive.
Jan 7, 2009 - 7:08 am 6. JH Spyker:“…while the video plays bloodied Palestinian infants screaming for mama.”
Although I side with Israel here, I find this an incredibly cold-blooded thing to write, Mr. Simon.
We ought not be dismissive of suffering, no matter who it is inflicted upon.
Jan 7, 2009 - 8:10 am 7. Roger L Simon:Of course, I sympathize with them, JH. But my point is that we are being presented with the manipulation of pain, not the pain itself.
Jan 7, 2009 - 8:36 am 8. Cybergeezer:Here’s an article on daily life in Israel; And just for fun, go through the article and replace Israel and it’s towns with your own, and Netanyahu’s name with your governor or mayor.
Does that make a difference?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123128827234659279.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Jan 7, 2009 - 8:57 am 9. Michelle Malkin » The MSM, Gaza, and PJTV:[...] Read. Posted in: Uncategorized Send to a Friend Printer Friendly comments (0) trackbacks (0) [...]
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:31 am 10. Pajamas TV - Gaza Update « Zeitung für Schland:[...] schreibt Roger L. Simon, Mitgründer des amerikanischen Blog-Netzwerkes Pajamas Media. Wen das ebenso stört wie Mr. Simon, und wer sich daher fernab der Mainstream-Medien über die [...]
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:32 am 11. mojo:Now the LAT has some Hamas stooge doing op-eds. Nice.
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:34 am 12. Al:It’s also disturbing that the news in Europe is usually just filtered CNN & BBC propaganda feeds which is probably why they are so anti-semitic.
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:43 am 13. Roland:Typical stupid white guy – Israel is never wrong even though they stole this land and started a war that has lasted 60 + years.
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:45 am 14. Lightnin' Hopkins:And the video sometimes shows the same child held by many different “fathers” in order to falsely magnify said suffering, JH. I’m sure most everyone here feels sorry for the children in Gaza, especially for being raised in a culture of death and abuse not of their making. They are used as props, and ultimately weapons (once they reach adulthood, often sooner). The “leadership” uses them as they see fit — their own children are merely pawns in their game.
The journalistic malpractice on display is truly breathtaking, even for someone as jaded as myself about the subject. It’s pure propaganda. You-know-who (with the little moustache) would be duly impressed.
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:50 am 15. frank:Mr. JH Spyker. I find it incredibly nieve of you to think that being dismissive of suffering is cold blooded. What do you think war is. To hell with the Palestinian suffering. Do the Palestinians give a damm about Isreali suffering. Why don’t you ask that question to the Hamas leadership? They would laugh in your face. The sooner the Isreali’s destroy the Hamas thugs to the last man the better off the world will be.
Jan 7, 2009 - 9:57 am 16. American Glob:The misinformation being peddled by the MSM on this situation is stunning.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:03 am 17. Ralph Gizzip:I believe it was Golda Meir who said, “There will never be peace until the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel.” Truer words were never spoken and I’d expand that to include all Muslims.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:11 am 18. Robert:Roland, you need to read a little history. Israel gave, I repeat, GAVE Gaza to this made up ethnic group. And they still launch rockets into Israel.
You are a racist.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:18 am 19. Boojum:Roland;
Lots of people had land taken from them during the wars of the last century. All of them have made peace with their loss and moved on.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:40 am 20. Jimmy Z:Thank you Mr Simon. It’s a shame that more people are not able to see through the thin veil of half-truths, omissions and out-of-context quotes that spew from the MSM and their friends.
I still consider their actions in the 2008 elections to be nothing short of treasonous.
Jan 7, 2009 - 10:48 am 21. Will Sharpe:This is all well and good, but Joe the Plumber, really?
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:09 am 22. LarryD:“Have these people (the MSM) no shame?”
Narcissists lack a mature conscience. Read the traits description, lying is as natural to them as speaking. They can be embarrassed, though, by anything which exposes their self-image of superiority as false.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:11 am 23. JH Spyker:frank, I’d be more inclined to take you seriously if you could spell Israel properly.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:13 am 24. rrr:Don’t feed the troll. He’s too busy feeling morally superior to come back.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:14 am 25. SpeakEasy:Foolish Roland, the state of Israel was established by a mandate of the UN- yes, the same UN liberals are always wanting to put in charge as World Police. There has never been a Palestinian state until that idiot Carter recognized Arafat the terrorist as a head of state. The Palestinians are really just proxies of Arab states bent on destroying Jews simply for being, wait for it, Jewish. F the palestinians (small p) and their children. Cold hearted? The hatred will never die until there are no more Muslims. I know, it sucks. But they have a choice to end it and choose not to end hostilities.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:17 am 26. David Thomson:“Typical stupid white guy – Israel is never wrong even though they stole this land and started a war that has lasted 60 + years.”
Please note the emphasis on race. This is what I have been saying all along. The Palestinians are perceived by the politically correct class as dark skinned victims of white oppression. Israel is therefore an allegedly racist state. That’s why I repeatedly advise people to imagine the Palestinians possessing blond hair and blue eyes. It could make all the difference in the world.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:17 am 27. Mac:Roland; This war you speak of is much older than 60 years. King David and the Philistines aka Palestinians. Same bunch of Canaanites condemned to absolute destruction by “The Only True God”. So somewhere between 600-700ad You make up your own god (Allah) your own prophet (Muhammad) and invent your own holy scriptures (the Koran). So if my reckoning is correct, Islamics are the true infadels whose only purpose in life is the absolute and total destruction of Israel and all of there associates. Clear things up a bit?
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:17 am 28. C. Smith:Kinda hope PJTV isn’t just the sound of one hand clapping, though.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:36 am 29. Faline:By all means, show Israel in less propaganda-tinged light.
But do try to capture something of the Palestinian view, especially if there are some voices of sanity in the mix.
Robert, Israel has a right to protect itself, but israel has the Plantains locked up in Gaza and they can’t even get to work or a hospital. No self respecting people could accept that. The American media is highly pro Israel. We only get half truths from them. Regards
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:44 am 30. Blackwater:The world has an Islamic problem. That’s the real root of this conflict. Damn Muslims want to take over the whole world. Their holy books command it. And the left refuses to accept that politically incorrect reality.
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:45 am 31. Dotar Sojat:The Palestinians, who have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity, chose to be governed by Hamas. This is the result.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:08 pm 32. Faline:Sorry, I meant Palistinians, not plantains!!
The world has an Islamic problem because of Israel. A timeline history lesson here since most have forgotten, or never knew. It is not widely publicized of course::::
The misleading story often told is that “Jews declared Israel and then they were attacked.” The fact is from Nov. 1947 to May 1948 the Zionists were already on the offensive and had already attacked Arabs. In the months before Israel was declared, the Zionists had driven 300,000 non-Jews off their land.
In the months before Israel was declared, the Zionists had seized land beyond the proposed Jewish State.
After 1945 the UK became embroiled in an increasingly violent conflict with the Jews. In 1947, the British government withdrew from commitment to the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews. The newly created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing the country into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.
Jerusalem was to be designated an international city – administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status. The Jewish community did not accept the plan.
Regardless, the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, one day AFTER the expiry of the British Mandate for Palestine.
Not long after, five Arab countries – Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, although conflict between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine started earlier. After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders were established.
Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949. During the war 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, or about 80% of the previous Arab population, fled the country. The fate of the Palestinian refugees today is a major point of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel is the largest blood sucking leeching foreign aid recipients in the world. It is not aid. It is extortion. $3 Billion annually last I checked. The Jew lobby decides the amount and Bush/Congress approves. Defense budget, invested interest…whatever you call it, it is bogus.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:15 pm 33. AlanC:The historical blindness of the anti-semites here is rather amazing.
Just for those of you who haven’t been able to read history let’s recap:
In 1966 the Gaza Strip was part of Egypt.
In the 1967 (six day) war, Israel took control of the Sinai and Gaza strip from Egypt; the Golan heights from Syria and the west bank from Jordan.
In the peace agreements that followed the 1973 war Israel tried to give Gaza back to Egypt along with the Sinai, BUT EGYPT WOULDN’T TAKE IT BACK!!!!!!!
Jordan also refused to take back the west bank.
Neither Egypt nor Jordan want anything to do with so-called Palestinians. Do you want to guess why that is so? (hint: look up Black September)
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:27 pm 34. Ron Moses:@Faline: “The American media is highly pro Israel.”
You must be observing a different American media than the rest of us. I have a hard time thinking of a less pro-Israel organization in America than the MSM, apart from maybe CAIR.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:34 pm 35. Spinoneone:Faline, you need a bit of history brush-up. The 711,000 Arabs who fled the borders of what would become Israel in 1947-8 did so at the explicit orders of the Mufti of Jerusalem, the religious and political leader of the Arabs. They were promised that they would be able to return in 90 days. You then blithely ignore the 800,000+ Jews who were expelled from all Islamic States from Morocco to Iran between 1947 and 1967. Do you believe that any of those Islamic States wish to accept the Jews back? Throughout history, and look at WWII for some excellent examples, the winners get to keep the land and expel the losers. I.e., compare the borders and ethnic composition of Germany, Poland, and Beylorussia today with their territory and populations in 1925. No, the real problem here is the Islamic injunction in the Koran and Hadith that once a land is Islamic it must always remain Islamic. I do not know what the Spaniards and the EU think of that.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:41 pm 36. gsarcs:I just saw a story on Drudge about a recent demonstration/protest in Florida. At least one pro-palestinian shouted for the Jews to “go back to the ovens.” The Drudge story has a youtube link as well. In that moment, that person honestly voiced what their real agenda is all about. Perhaps Roland and Faline should just come clean and admit that is what they want as well.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:45 pm 37. JH Spyker:Roger, don’t you think it makes a mockery of Israel to send Joe the Plumber to cover the conflict?
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:46 pm 38. jr565:Roland wrote:
“Typical stupid white guy – Israel is never wrong even though they stole this land and started a war that has lasted 60 + years.”
Israel started a war that lasted 60 years? if you go back 60 years to when Israel declared its independence and say that’s the war Israel started (which is what I assume you’re referrin to) I think you’ll find that it was the various Muslim states surrounding Israel that attacked Israel not the other way around.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:46 pm 39. Pat J:I just heard Joe “the Plummer” is now going to be reporting from the front on PJTV. Is this some sort of crude joke?
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:48 pm 40. NMSC:THANK YOU DAVID THOMSON! Exactly. This is what I have been saying all along as well. American liberals are projecting their view of racism in America onto the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. When people do this, you cannot reason with them no matter how hard you try!
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:49 pm 41. BJD:In regard to pictures of Palestinians in Gaza suffering, we shouldn’t be wary of feeling horrible for little kids who are terrified. I do feel horrible for those kids.
The problem comes when we jump to who is responsible and fail to properly blame Hamas for provoking the war by shooting at Israel and then using Palestinian kids as living flak jackets.
Israel is under no obligation to allow its own kids to scream in panic as rockets come crashing in day after day and year after year just to avoid making little Palestinian kids cry.
Crush Hamas and maybe both Israeli and Gaza children will sleep in peace.
Jan 7, 2009 - 12:49 pm 42. Boojum:Faline;
The millions of European refugees created from the World Wars were resettled and they and their descendants given citizenship in new places, not kept in refugee camps for generations for propaganda purposes. You might want to ask why.
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:03 pm 43. Scott M:This proves that there is no benefit to a policy of restraint. Israel will be accused of being baby-eating monsters if they so much as break the window of a terrorist. They might as well solve the problem while they are falsely accused of war crimes. Israel and Muslims know Israel could wipe out its enemies overnight, and they don’t do it.
Every time a rocket flies, Palestinian neighborhoods ought to be flattened and complainers deported or jailed. Eventually those that remain will be cooperative. Israel, however, seems more committed to their policy of restraint than their own survival. When they sign a truce and permit internation monitors we will know the deathwish continues.
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:04 pm 44. PJF (UK):Just for info: Chris Gunness, the UN Relief Works Agency character who is 99.9% sure Hamas doesn’t fire from his schools, used to work for – the BBC. Looks like the state corporation has got its reporter in Gaza after all…
And check this from Alex Thomson at the UK’s Channel4 (another “public service broadcaster”) newsroom “blog”:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/snowmail+is+it+a+ceasefire/2899262
It’s useful that he feels so emboldened to speak out because we can see just how unhinged he really is, and how that will slant his reporting.
(from the comments at Biased BBC)
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:05 pm 45. Wednesday Linkfest! | The Anchoress:[...] on Gaza at PJM TV and all over their front [...]
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:41 pm 46. John in Dublin CA:Roger, I’ve read your blog for a number of years now, and I just wanted to thank you for being a voice of reason and sanity in this area we call The Bay. If I’m not mistaken, you’re somewhere in the San Jose area. I just wanted to let you know, and your readers, that tomorrow, Thursday, January 8, a fallen patriot and soldier, Ben Tollefson, will be arriving at Buchanan Field, in Concord, at noon. His family asks that all maintain a respectful distance, but it would be nice to see someone other than myself there with a flag and a salute to this young man who gave his life for our nation. Thank you.
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:42 pm 47. Roger L Simon:Thanks a lot, John in Dublin, but I’m not a Bay Area/Sil Valley guy, though I get up there frequently. I’m from LA>
Jan 7, 2009 - 1:44 pm 48. buddy larsen:Two items for Faline & Roland:
why start your Israel title search so far down the line? What’s sacred about the 40s? A true title search goes back to the beginning, and locates the first people to have been forcibly expelled. That would be the current occupants, right? Der Juden, ja? Und also, re starting wars (and then losing them), the Arabs as a whole aligned with the Axis in WWII, and the Grand Mufti most officially, formally, explicitly and brazenly so. Look it up. The Muslim Brotherhood hardened into a movement in 30s Berlin, in plenary sessions with Nazi specialists. The Grand Mufti had many meetings with Hitler, rode with him in parades, stood by him on reviewing stands, and raised a Muslim SS division which did extremely vile & murderous violence on captive populations –overwhelmingly Jewish –in the WWII Balkans. And then, guess what, the Grand Mufti’s side LOST the war!
Get it? On the big question of where does the title search start, if you won’t accept (1) the logical truth of “at the beginning” then (by your own word) it is because for some reason you prefer (2) the arbitrary WWII start point. But then –you STILL lose, don’t you see, because in your chosen era, WWII, winners took reparations for war crimes, and among the winners were the Jews, on the allied (that is, the ‘winning’) side, as opposed to the Grand Mufti-led Arab tribes on the Nazi (that is, the ‘losing’) side.
Say, don’t you wizards EVER “read” anything? You know, just because you don’t know something, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Those big blank spots in your brain can of course be filled up with damn near anything anybody might want to pour into them, but if the stuff is “wrong” then it is *wrong*, EVEN if you don’t know it; EVEN if you take pains to *not* know it.
Try comparing and contrasting the word “objective” vs the word “subjective”. Objective truth is always correct; subjective truth is sometimes, depending on whim & fancy, “politically” correct. There’s a world of difference –in fact the world IS the difference.
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:07 pm 49. C Kidman:Sad that internet is filled with anti-Semitism – Nothing like reasonable comments here – that sound so paranoid and hateful (e.g. death wishes, accuse the right & Jews of owning the media! Just opposite of the truth!) So like WWII propoganda. Frightening!
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:08 pm 50. buddy larsen:C kidman, i’d be happy enough if they just knew they were cherry-picking –or even just knew what cherry-picking means –that is, besides picking cherries. Maybe it’s a problem with reading. If so, here’s some pictures.
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:48 pm 51. Robert:Faline, even if the spin you put on that is true, Hamas has the right to indiscrimately lob rockets into Israel?
You need to really read your history. The Palistinians are a made up ethnic group. They take that name from the Philistines, a non Semetic people the Israelites whiped out. They took this name to claim that they have had the land longer.
Palestinians are Arabs. They were kicked out of every other Arabic country because of the fact that they were as destructive in Jordan as they are in Gaza.
Really easy. No rockets, no IDF offensive.
Your anti-Semetism is obvious in your comment of them being blood suckers and leeches.
Jan 7, 2009 - 2:50 pm 52. Jim Baker:Whenever Israel decides to push these Arabs back, all the same media people ask the same people the same questions and get the same answers which get published as if we are hearing it all for the very first time. It is like a broken record. I don’t even pay attention anymore. But I do hope Israel wins every time.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:04 pm 53. Still Bill:Thanks, Pajamas Media.
Hamas is a genocidal network of Nazi scum, bankrolled and controlled by Iranian government Nazi scum and Syrian government Nazi scum. The Palestinian people elected these Nazi scum to govern them. In the USA, unlike Europe which tolerates Nazi scum, we have a saying which applies to the Palestinian people. “You made your bed, now sleep in it.”
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:14 pm 54. Alan Kellogg:In 1809 the American frontier was the scene of almost constant warfare. Raids and counter raids, women and children raped, abducted, murered.
In 1909 the American Indian was a broken people. They didn’t dare breathe hard lest they be slaughtered, and they lived very quiet lives. Mainstream America was afraid the Indian would be extinct in a few generations.
It is now 2009. American Indians are largely fierce and proud Americans. Many tribes have pulled themselves out of poverty, and are working hard to make life better for themselves and their neighbors. As with other Americans they have their disagreements with the government, but unlike the past they see Washington, good and ill, as theirs. Their senators, their congressmen, their President. U.S. law is their law.
What happened? The Indians were broken, crushed in the years between 1809 and 2009. Battered, beaten, stripped of their sovereignty and pride. When President Jackson ordered the Cherokee exiled to Oklahoma he did so because the Cherokee refused to live as Americans under American law. They wanted to remain independent, under their own laws, an arrangement that threatened the security of the United States. It could not be tolerated.
Those families and clans who posed no threat to the United States, who learned to, and how to use American law and American courts instead of violence to defend their rights got to stay. The rest had to move.
Early Islam had a situation much like this. In Mohammed’s time there were Jews in the Nation of Islam. Along side Muslims, Jews. Jews in good standing, Jews in the armies, Jews in the government. Jews practicing their faith openly, without restriction.
Until one Jewish tribe decided that now was the time to destroy an ancient enemy. An enemy that had joined the Nation of Islam alongside them. An enemy they had made peace with, as they had promised Mohammed.
Islam was founded in large part to end the feuds, vendettas, and tribal wars. To make of the Arabs a people, a force in the world. This one tribe through their selfishness and greed imperiled that dream. That they were Jews is incidental; they could’ve been Muslims, Christians, even pagans. But they were Jews and by their acts they damaged relations between Muslims and Jews beyond repair. Islam changed because of their crime, and the world was changed as well.
Now the Palestinians refuse to adapt, to adjust to the situation, much as the American Indian and a Jewish tribe in Arabia refused to adapt. They let their pride guide their actions, seeking revenge on an enemy who is ready for peace with them.
Where are Palestinian men being kept from their jobs in Israel, from land in Israel they still legally own? Because Israel can’t trust them. Because those poor oppressed souls have not only voiced support of terrorist attacks, but have gone so far as to say they would carry such attacks out.
In the 7th century AD an Arab Jewish tribe died because they would not surrender a now meaningless feud. In the 19th century American Indians suffered brutal war because they would not live in peace with their neighbors as citizens of a new nation. Today we are seeing the death of a people who have just come to be, because they refuse to accept what cannot be denied.
The Palestinians could have peace. They could have freedom of movement, freedom of association. They could own land wherever they wish, worship freely wherever they wish. Raise families, do business, go into politics freely and openly anywhere in the land of Israel if only they did one thing, accepted the Jews and lived in peace with them. But they would rather have war, they’d rather have death.
Golda Meir almost got it right. The Palestinians would not have peace when they learn to love their children more than they hate the Jew. No, the Palestinians will have peace when they learn to love their children more than they hate themselves.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:23 pm 55. Kurt:“Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post, our own Middle East Editor Allison Kaplan Sommer (a Tel Aviv resident), Richard Landes of Boston University and a part-time Jerusalem resident and Nitsana Leitner of the Israeli Law Center”
Plus Joe the Plumber! Woohoo! I’m sure his future colleagues at PJTV are simply thrilled that such a seasoned, astute, experienced observer of Middle East affairs is joining their ranks.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:39 pm 56. Roderick Reilly:Even if Roland were “correct” in his simplistic rendering of the conflict, there are very commonsensical reasons why any proper thinking, civilized, decent, reasonable person should support Israel, and not this “Palestine”:
Israel has made contributions to world science, technology and culture out of all proportion to its size and population. Israel has a representative government, an independent judiciary, and a free press.
Not one of Israel’s neighbors have made any such contributions for many hundreds of years, and not one of them has the institutions which virtually every poster here take for granted.
Additionally, the “Palestinians” are one of the most depraved societies on the face of the Earth.
I have no problem whatsoever chosing Israel’s side. I do have a problem understanding how anyone can keep feeling sympathy for the “Palestinians.”
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:40 pm 57. Roderick Reilly:“Muslin vs. Jew, Jew vs. Muslim,” is the historical narrative being spouted here. may I add a correction?
Prior to the rise of Islam, it was Christianity that dominated the region (why do you think there were Crusades?), and, as recently as the creation of the state of Israel, a whole lot of “Palestinians” were Christian. The religious and cultural mosaic of the region is more complex than it is being portrayed.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:54 pm 58. Kevin Keeney:Thank you for this. It’s nice to see Pajamas Media finally stop pretending to have any sort of journalistic integrity at all.
Jan 7, 2009 - 3:56 pm 59. al:Roland, Keeney and others will have a rude awakening someday when they realize Israel was establish by the Creator of the universe Himself and gave it to Abraham and his promised heir. This happened 1000’s of years ago Roland (it wasn’t stolen) but the glitch is Ismael wasn’t the promised heir, Issac was and the two brothers have been fighting over it ever since. If the land is stolen Roland why are there temple stones from Israel dating back before Christ? You must have had a liberal education, as did Keeney and others so sadly educationally challenged.
Jan 7, 2009 - 5:13 pm 60. PJF (UK):Joe the Plumber strikes me as an intelligent and reasonable layman. If his contribution is in that context it will likely be more useful than that of a “seasoned, astute, experienced observer of Middle East affairs” such as Robert Fisk. Journalistically, a sensible person looking to ask questions can have more value than an evangelist looking to broadcast answers.
Jan 7, 2009 - 5:30 pm 61. buddy larsen:Well, i’m a 32nd Cherokee, and i want my white 31/32’s ass off the property NOW.
Jan 7, 2009 - 5:33 pm 62. Journalistic Malpractice, or is it a Lie? « Truth, Lies and In Between:[...] The MSM, Gaza and Pajamas TV [...]
Jan 7, 2009 - 5:56 pm 63. Skeej:Thanks, finally some hard facts from someone other than some guy named Mohammed or Abdul from AP or Al Rueters
Jan 7, 2009 - 6:27 pm 64. buddy larsen:Jeez, Keeney, that’s some devastating litotes. On top of all your integrity you must be really intelligent too!
Jan 7, 2009 - 11:29 pm 65. Al Reasin:Maybe it is just me, but those pictures of supposedly dead Gaza children seem to lack bloodied clothes and bodies. Maybe I watch too much CSI, but every time I go out into my farm’s pasture to engage in an attack the briars, I return with streams of blood running down my arms and bloodied shirts. Having been in the military, I would imagine that shrapnel wounds would do worse.
Jan 8, 2009 - 5:13 am 66. misanthropicus:The absurdity and partisanship of the international media/”public opinion” (in the case I’ll discuss, European), has crossed the line into self-destruction’s realm – in Europe there is much more fretting about the Gaza situation than about Russia’s mercyless encroaching on their well-being and soveraignity by “gas attack”.
What hierachy of priorities is this?:
Concerns about the Gaza situation – understandable.
To stare at, and vociferate about Gaza while your back yard is burning – sorry, freezing – is at best comical.
Russia is clearly demonstrating their willingness to use their gas feed on which Europe relies in order advance their interests, which are not exactly matching Europe’s – and to have this grave situation which anticipates further errosions of Europe’s well-being and independence replaced on the frontpage with the Gaza story where Israel is just defending itself, is selfdestructive.
Jan 8, 2009 - 7:51 am 67. Anita Hope:Roland & Faline
Jan 8, 2009 - 8:55 am 68. Andrew Ian Dodge:You need or maybe you are connected to the same wave length. It is your preaching of “Hate” etc. that keeps our world from becoming a “Peaceful ” one.
Can you give evidence of what your people have done to better the world or even your people in yesterday and todays world? You teach your most precious children to hate and send them out to kill or be killed, not to school to learn peaceful creative ways to improve society, their society & yours. The
“Book”, your teachings come from should be one of choice not command of “Live by or Dye by” , and if your senior population selects to use your youth
as killer’s, don’t blame the “Jews” for your lack of really caring about your young. Gaza was left as a thrieving piece of land that without the distruction your people did would have created a beautiful peaceful and productive country ideal for tourism and financial prosperity, but instead because of the hate you continue to teach you distroy and kill. People of different skin colors & religious beliefs seem to get along fine when left to respecting and educating their young in peaceful invirorments. These children grow and create , not kill & destroy. We still have a long way to go and improve our world, however, hate offers no solution and you are not helping your views only destroying yourselves as a people. History has prooven that brutality is a means to an end. Children in Israel are educated and they are all not of the jewish faith, they go on to colleges, grow up to further their lives and those of their families and people of the country, not grow to kill. Help yourselves and the youth that is your future by reducation, it is a much nicer world when you can hug those children rather than send them to their death and never see that face again. We can not change the ughliness of the past, but we can today and tomorrow, you can stop your hate and destruction, even Egypt keeps it’s borders closed only because they to do not want the hate. Get smart and join the peace movement here on PJM and make it grow, I promise you will feel better seeing young children growing and smiling rather than crying & dying. Have a good and enjoyable weekend.
“@Faline: “The American media is highly pro Israel.”
You must be observing a different American media than the rest of us. I have a hard time thinking of a less pro-Israel organization in America than the MSM, apart from maybe CAIR.”
Sorry you don’t understand what “pro-Israel” means to Faline et al. To them if you think Israel has a right to exist at all that means you are pro-Israel/Zionist stooge.
Jan 8, 2009 - 9:11 am 69. War in Gaza Update #11.5 « Random Thoughts- Do They Have Meaning?:[...] Roger Simon writes in his post about the drawbacks of relying solely upon traditional media and why the blogosphere is important in The MSM, Gaza and Pajamas TV. [...]
Jan 8, 2009 - 9:45 am 70. Ask Me: Xav - Page 154 - CodeCall Programming Forum:[...] Posted by WingedPanther What do you think of these articles? MSM, gaza and pajamas-tv Michelle Malkin
Jan 8, 2009 - 1:50 pm 71. Unrequired Reading {8.1.09}:[...] The MSM, Gaza and Pajamas TV | Roger L. Simon – The New Journalism: "Who could blame the Israel government for having had enough of the propaganda wiles of the MSM? So that brings us to Pajamas TV. We have decided to help right this imbalance in our small way by emphasizing coverage from Israel as long as this crisis is going on. We have a live camera in Jerusalem and we are going to feature the following talent there, among others: Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post, our own Middle East Editor Allison Kaplan Sommer (a Tel Aviv resident), Richard Landes of Boston University and a part-time Jerusalem resident and Nitsana Leitner of the Israeli Law Center. We admit we are biased in favor of Israel, in favor of the side we view as the good guys in a moral struggle. So bear that in mind when you tune in, but tune in every day for our Gaza Update." [...]
Jan 8, 2009 - 9:00 pm 72. JOHN:Journalism is now the lowest of low professions. Even lower than usedcar salesman, lower than politition, even lower than John Edwards and lawyers. Journalism is now lower than slug slime. If a out of work journalist came looking for work at my door, I would spit on him,her and call them traitors and slam the door on their foot.
Jan 9, 2009 - 7:42 am 73. Paul - Indianapolis:Re. Post 13. Roland, the UN [read Useless Nations] defined the state of Israel and also a Palestinian state at the same time. The Pals wouldn’t accept it, but now they want the same UN to protect their sorry butts. The Pals also voted in Hamas as their ‘leaders’
Jan 9, 2009 - 2:19 pm 74. Pete:Faline, as usual, you and your anti-Israel supporters have your facts all wrong. Or perhaps you just choose to lie.
“The fact is from Nov. 1947 to May 1948 the Zionists were already on the offensive and had already attacked Arabs”
The Civil War in Palestine from 1947-48 was started by the Arabs who were unhappy about the acceptance of the UN Partition Plan. Also, you forgot to mention the Arab pogroms against the Jews in Palestine in the 1920’s and 1930’s where many Jews were killed.
“In the months before Israel was declared, the Zionists had seized land beyond the proposed Jewish State”
Source??? And was the land really “seized” or legally bought?
“During the war 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, or about 80% of the previous Arab population, fled the country. The fate of the Palestinian refugees today is a major point of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
The Arabs left because they were encouraged to leave by the surrounding Arab countries or because they were fleeing a war which they had started. In any case, why didn’t their Arab brothers in the 20+ Arab countries in the region not resettle them? Perhaps they didn’t care about them and instead decided to use them as cannon fodder in their ongoing war with Israel?
“Israel is the largest blood sucking leeching foreign aid recipients in the world. It is not aid. It is extortion. $3 Billion annually last I checked”
Here’s some info for you from the US Aid website:
US aid to Egypt totals $28 billion over three decades.
US aid to Jordan: Over $44 billion since 1952
US aid to Lebanon: $339 million last year alone.
Check it yourself.
Jan 10, 2009 - 8:50 am 75. peacebunny:I will trust you Pete. The average is $3 Billion from 1998 to 2007 so I guess you agree that Israel is the largest blood sucking leeching foreign aid recipients in the world (sic)?
Jan 10, 2009 - 7:11 pm 76. BrianNY:Having recently witnessed over a month’s worth of traumatic activity in an ER and a ICU facility, I was struck by the behavior of the two doctors in this latest Palestinian video about a child killed by an Israeli bomb while at play on a rooftop . Perhaps doctors in Gaza do things differently than doctors at Yale/New Haven Hospital here in the US, but the following caught my eye:
1. :08 into one of the Youtube videos, what kind of card or paperwork could the Norwegian doctor be bothering to move or “straighten up” while the Palestinian doctor is furiously tickling the patient’s chest? In my experience, anything that wasn’t priority during a trauma situation was summarily tossed on the floor and dealt with later.
2. What are those clear IV fluids shown running into the patients left arm? Are any of them as vital as plasma? Is plasma usually run into the arm, or into a larger vein/artery? My experience showed that prepping an IV line was a needle insertion process that took a couple of critical minutes. Would there have been time to prepare an IV process for clear fluids before a CPR process was even concluded?
3. Sound and visuals indicate that the EKG monitoring system was on and functioning, however at :20 into one of the Youtube videos, the Norwegian doctor appears to then be applying some EKG stickers to the patient’s chest. Is this consistent or out of sequence in regards to EKG procedure?
4. :16 into one of the Youtube videos, the Palestinian doctor, still applying the tickling method to the patient’s chest, appears to ask the Norwegian doctor a question, to which the Norwegian doctor prominently points to the EKG screen to explain something. In a month’s time of witnessing doctors in an ER and an ICU environment, I never once saw a doctor point to and explain monitor information to another doctor. Information that was visual was simply available and understood by all. (To me this would be like a professional NASCAR driver pointing to his speedometer to explain to another professional NASCAR driver how fast he is going.) Between professionals, isn’t vital information simply understood?
5. Why is there blood on the orderly’s gloves, but none on the Norwegian doctor’s gloves, nor on the Palestinian doctor’s gloves who is actually touching the patient?
I observe and mention these five points because, in totality, they give me the impression that this footage is street theater rather than a professional ER environment.
Jan 11, 2009 - 9:19 am 77. Adrian:Ah the search efforts here are shabby to say the least. The aid figures posted, btw, are way off. It exceeds 4.4 Billion to Jordan since ‘52, but not 44 Bil., and 40 Million to Lebanon, not 339 Mil. http://www.usaid.gov/lb/ and so on.
Okay back to the search engines:::::
Officially, its about 4-5 billion a year to israel. But. If you add in loans that are “forgiven” by Congress, loaning of military equipment, (also never paid for), US State, Fed and local gov investments in israeli bonds with workers retirement funds etc… It’s more like 20 billion!! And now that we must borrow from China to keep the US economy afloat, does this really make sense??
The Civil War in Palestine from 1947-48 was started by the Arabs who were unhappy about the acceptance of the UN Partition Plan.
The israelis never accepted the 1948 UN partition either. When israel declared themselves a new nation in 1948, they refused to define there borders. Why? Because they were already in the process of taking more land from the Palestinians.
Also, if you go back to numerous speeches made by Mehachum Begin and David ben-Gurien in the 1930’s and 40’s, you would see that they made it very clear there would be no sharing of the land with the Palestinians.
Black September?
Israel was trying to stick Egypt and Jordan with a refugee problem of Israel’s making. The Arabs fled because of systematic terrorizing of the the Palestinians. Then the israeli gov passed a law which said you could not be an absentee land owner and promptly confiscated the land from the refugees.
Winners get to keep land and expel losers???
So when Hitler took Poland and France in 1940 did the rest of the world say he won this land in a war and so it’s justified?? You can’t take away a people’s country and say its OK because it was won in a war!! Is justice just a matter of might makes right??
The old standby! If someone criticizes the israeli gov they must be anti-semitic. I also criticize the Chinese government. Would you assume that I secretly hate all Chinese people???? Please. Get over the paranoia. You can’t abuse the Palestinians for 60 years and then hide behind the cloak of anti-semitism when there is legitimate criticism.
I want to see Arabs and Jews living in peace. By addressing the needs of both sides, this can be accomplished. The “flatten the neighborhood” mentality here has not solved anything in the last 60 years and only created more hatred and violence.
Peace all*
Jan 12, 2009 - 3:56 pm 78. Adrian:I meant Menachem Begin & David Ben-Gurion. BTW, Obama will destroy us.
Jan 13, 2009 - 10:10 am 79. Sami:Hi.
Jan 15, 2009 - 7:41 pm 80. Sami:Here’s my opinion, in an entertaining form.
link for the above comment:
Jan 15, 2009 - 7:42 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL5ZsfbMYkU&feature=channel_page