American Media Biased Coverage of the Crisis in Gaza

[OriZ 3,157]

[OriZ 3,157]

The London Times refused to run an ad featuring Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel speaking out against Hamas’ use of children as human shields.

The ad sponsored by The Values Network, which was founded by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, has run in The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other U.S. newspapers. The refusal was first reported by the New York Observer.

The London Times refused the ad because “the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers,” according to a statement from a representative of the newspaper, the Observer reported.

Headlined “Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it’s Hamas turn,” the ad began running last week. It reads, in part: “In my own lifetime, I have seen Jewish children thrown into the fire. And now I have seen Muslim children used as human shields, in both cases, by worshippers of death cults indistinguishable from that of the Molochites.

“What we are suffering through today is not a battle of Jew versus Arab or Israeli versus Palestinian. Rather, it is a battle between those who celebrate life and those who champion death. It is a battle of civilization versus barbarism.”

Countering the London Times statement, Boteach said in his own, “Elie Wiesel is one of the most respected human beings alive, a Nobel Peace Laureate, and is the living face of the Holocaust. No greater expert on genocide exists in the whole world. His call for the end of child sacrifice by Hamas, who use children as human shields, and a stop to their genocidal charter, which calls for the murder of Jews everywhere, could only offend the sensibilities of the most die-hard anti-Israel haters and anti-Semites.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/203581/london-times-rejects-elie-wiesel-anti-hamas-child/#ixzz39fCEi7uz

http://forward.com/articles/203581/london-times-rejects-elie-wiesel-anti-hamas-child/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That's your best post thus far on the issue.

[OriZ 3,157]

Sad.

[OriZ 3,157]

WASHINGTON - Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor spoke before the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, telling the represented nations that they could either join Israel in fighting the threat of terrorism or face the same threat on their own doorstep in the near future.

• The ambassador beseeched the international community to take greater steps in supporting Israel saying, "No nation should stand alone while its sons are kidnapped, while thousands of rockets fall on its cities and towns."

  The ambassador also condemned Israel's enemy during Operation Protective Edge."The international community must divorce itself from the romantic view of Hamas as freedom fighters." He added that "Hamas is willing to see its own children killed" for propaganda purposes.

  

  UN Ron Prosor: 'Stand with Israel and against terror before it's too late' (Photo: AP)

  Prosor then turned his attention to the fact that the terrorist organization Hamas is currently included in a Palestinian unity government with the Palestinian Authority.

  "It's like inviting ISIS to participate in the Iraqi government. Six stories below Gaza are miles of terrorist tunnels, extending like tentacles into Israel," said Prosor reiterating the threat the group poses to Israeli civilians.

  Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, accused Israel of "savagery." He said the Palestinians seek both a durable cease-fire and an end to the Israeli blockade "which has suffocated and disfigured life in Gaza for the past eight years."

  

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: Stop the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza (Photo: AP)

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also spoke Wednesday, sounding heavy condemnation for what he called, "the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza" and Israel.

  "Do we have to continue like this?" Ban asked the international community seated before him. "We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild: This must stop now."

The UN chief did not specifically criticize any one side of the conflict, but did say that, "The massive death and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world. This ceasefire has come at a price that is almost too much to bear."

Netanyahu shows Ban pictuers of Hamas' use of civilian areas to launch rockets (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

Ban particularly expressed his disappointment that UN structures had come under fire, though in several cases it has yet to been conclusively decided who was responsible for the attacks.

"Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza than the repeated shelling of UN facilities harboring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there," said Ban. "These attacks were outrageous, unacceptable, and unjustifiable.

The overall tone of Ban's words expressed his desire to reach a permanent diplomatic solution in the region to end the fighting what has been renewed every few years in Gaza over the last decade.

"The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel must end," said Ban. "They must go back to negotiating table. We must not repeat this way periodically."

"We must spare no effort to turn the current calm into a durable cease-fire that addresses the underlying issues of the conflict: Ending rocket fire from Gaza, weapons smuggling, opening the (Gaza) crossings, lifting the blockade and bringing Gaza back under one Palestinian government that accepts and adheres to the PLO commitments," he said.

Those commitments include the right of the state of Israel to exist which Hamas has refused to recognize.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay told the assembly that "any attacks in violation of these principles, on civilians, homes, schools and hospitals, must be condemned, and may amount to war crimes."

She told the assembly by videoconference that the casualty toll in this conflict - nearly 1,900 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, and 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians - has superseded Israeli military operations in 2008-2009.

Pillay stressed that there has been no accountability for the conflicts in 2008-2009 and in 2012, but she said the Commission of Inquiry established last month by the UN Human Rights Council "will help to establish clarity regarding acts committed by all parties, thus beginning to address accountability issues related to the current hostilities in Gaza, as well as to the West Ban including East Jerusalem."

Its report will be presented in March 2015 and "should be carefully considered and followed with appropriate action," she said.

A senior source from within the Foreign Ministry

In 2009 the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the Goldstone inquiries and the source in the Foreign Ministry told Ynet that the purpose of doing so is to reduce political damage to Israel as much as possible.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4555754,00.html

[OriZ 3,157]

WASHINGTON - Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor spoke before the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, telling the represented nations that they could either join Israel in fighting the threat of terrorism or face the same threat on their own doorstep in the near future.

• The ambassador beseeched the international community to take greater steps in supporting Israel saying, "No nation should stand alone while its sons are kidnapped, while thousands of rockets fall on its cities and towns."

  The ambassador also condemned Israel's enemy during Operation Protective Edge."The international community must divorce itself from the romantic view of Hamas as freedom fighters." He added that "Hamas is willing to see its own children killed" for propaganda purposes.

  

  UN Ron Prosor: 'Stand with Israel and against terror before it's too late' (Photo: AP)

  Prosor then turned his attention to the fact that the terrorist organization Hamas is currently included in a Palestinian unity government with the Palestinian Authority.

  "It's like inviting ISIS to participate in the Iraqi government. Six stories below Gaza are miles of terrorist tunnels, extending like tentacles into Israel," said Prosor reiterating the threat the group poses to Israeli civilians.

  Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, accused Israel of "savagery." He said the Palestinians seek both a durable cease-fire and an end to the Israeli blockade "which has suffocated and disfigured life in Gaza for the past eight years."

  

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: Stop the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza (Photo: AP)

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also spoke Wednesday, sounding heavy condemnation for what he called, "the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza" and Israel.

  "Do we have to continue like this?" Ban asked the international community seated before him. "We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild: This must stop now."

The UN chief did not specifically criticize any one side of the conflict, but did say that, "The massive death and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world. This ceasefire has come at a price that is almost too much to bear."

Netanyahu shows Ban pictuers of Hamas' use of civilian areas to launch rockets (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

Ban particularly expressed his disappointment that UN structures had come under fire, though in several cases it has yet to been conclusively decided who was responsible for the attacks.

"Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza than the repeated shelling of UN facilities harboring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there," said Ban. "These attacks were outrageous, unacceptable, and unjustifiable.

The overall tone of Ban's words expressed his desire to reach a permanent diplomatic solution in the region to end the fighting what has been renewed every few years in Gaza over the last decade.

"The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel must end," said Ban. "They must go back to negotiating table. We must not repeat this way periodically."

"We must spare no effort to turn the current calm into a durable cease-fire that addresses the underlying issues of the conflict: Ending rocket fire from Gaza, weapons smuggling, opening the (Gaza) crossings, lifting the blockade and bringing Gaza back under one Palestinian government that accepts and adheres to the PLO commitments," he said.

Those commitments include the right of the state of Israel to exist which Hamas has refused to recognize.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay told the assembly that "any attacks in violation of these principles, on civilians, homes, schools and hospitals, must be condemned, and may amount to war crimes."

She told the assembly by videoconference that the casualty toll in this conflict - nearly 1,900 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, and 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians - has superseded Israeli military operations in 2008-2009.

[OriZ 3,157]

WASHINGTON - Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor spoke before the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, telling the represented nations that they could either join Israel in fighting the threat of terrorism or face the same threat on their own doorstep in the near future.

• The ambassador beseeched the international community to take greater steps in supporting Israel saying, "No nation should stand alone while its sons are kidnapped, while thousands of rockets fall on its cities and towns."

  The ambassador also condemned Israel's enemy during Operation Protective Edge."The international community must divorce itself from the romantic view of Hamas as freedom fighters." He added that "Hamas is willing to see its own children killed" for propaganda purposes.

  

  UN Ron Prosor: 'Stand with Israel and against terror before it's too late' (Photo: AP)

  Prosor then turned his attention to the fact that the terrorist organization Hamas is currently included in a Palestinian unity government with the Palestinian Authority.

  "It's like inviting ISIS to participate in the Iraqi government. Six stories below Gaza are miles of terrorist tunnels, extending like tentacles into Israel," said Prosor reiterating the threat the group poses to Israeli civilians.

  Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, accused Israel of "savagery." He said the Palestinians seek both a durable cease-fire and an end to the Israeli blockade "which has suffocated and disfigured life in Gaza for the past eight years."

  

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: Stop the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza (Photo: AP)

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also spoke Wednesday, sounding heavy condemnation for what he called, "the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza" and Israel.

  "Do we have to continue like this?" Ban asked the international community seated before him. "We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild: This must stop now."

The UN chief did not specifically criticize any one side of the conflict, but did say that, "The massive death and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world. This ceasefire has come at a price that is almost too much to bear."

%

WASHINGTON - Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor spoke before the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, telling the represented nations that they could either join Israel in fighting the threat of terrorism or face the same threat on their own doorstep in the near future.

• The ambassador beseeched the international community to take greater steps in supporting Israel saying, "No nation should stand alone while its sons are kidnapped, while thousands of rockets fall on its cities and towns."

  The ambassador also condemned Israel's enemy during Operation Protective Edge."The international community must divorce itself from the romantic view of Hamas as freedom fighters." He added that "Hamas is willing to see its own children killed" for propaganda purposes.

  

  UN Ron Prosor: 'Stand with Israel and against terror before it's too late' (Photo: AP)

  Prosor then turned his attention to the fact that the terrorist organization Hamas is currently included in a Palestinian unity government with the Palestinian Authority.

  "It's like inviting ISIS to participate in the Iraqi government. Six stories below Gaza are miles of terrorist tunnels, extending like tentacles into Israel," said Prosor reiterating the threat the group poses to Israeli civilians.

  Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, accused Israel of "savagery." He said the Palestinians seek both a durable cease-fire and an end to the Israeli blockade "which has suffocated and disfigured life in Gaza for the past eight years."

  

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: Stop the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza (Photo: AP)

  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also spoke Wednesday, sounding heavy condemnation for what he called, "the senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza" and Israel.

  "Do we have to continue like this?" Ban asked the international community seated before him. "We will build again, but this must be the last time to rebuild: This must stop now."

The UN chief did not specifically criticize any one side of the conflict, but did say that, "The massive death and destruction in Gaza have shocked and shamed the world. This ceasefire has come at a price that is almost too much to bear."

Netanyahu shows Ban pictuers of Hamas' use of civilian areas to launch rockets (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

Ban particularly expressed his disappointment that UN structures had come under fire, though in several cases it has yet to been conclusively decided who was responsible for the attacks.

"Perhaps nothing symbolized more the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza than the repeated shelling of UN facilities harboring civilians who had been explicitly told to seek a safe haven there," said Ban. "These attacks were outrageous, unacceptable, and unjustifiable.

The overall tone of Ban's words expressed his desire to reach a permanent diplomatic solution in the region to end the fighting what has been renewed every few years in Gaza over the last decade.

"The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel must end," said Ban. "They must go back to negotiating table. We must not repeat this way periodically."

"We must spare no effort to turn the current calm into a durable cease-fire that addresses the underlying issues of the conflict: Ending rocket fire from Gaza, weapons smuggling, opening the (Gaza) crossings, lifting the blockade and bringing Gaza back under one Palestinian government that accepts and adheres to the PLO commitments," he said.

Those commitments include the right of the state of Israel to exist which Hamas has refused to recognize.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay told the assembly that "any attacks in violation of these principles, on civilians, homes, schools and hospitals, must be condemned, and may amount to war crimes."

She told the assembly by videoconference that the casualty toll in this conflict - nearly 1,900 Palestinians, the vast majority civilians, and 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians - has superseded Israeli military operations in 2008-2009.

Pillay stressed that there has been no accountability for the conflicts in 2008-2009 and in 2012, but she said the Commission of Inquiry established last month by the UN Human Rights Council "will help to establish clarity regarding acts committed by all parties, thus beginning to address accountability issues related to the current hostilities in Gaza, as well as to the West Ban including East Jerusalem."

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Three times? Seriously?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Three times? Seriously?

Desperation makes people do the oddest things.

[OriZ 3,157]

I have already said, I was having internet trouble. Was only meant to be once.

Edited August 7, 2014 by OriZ

[Hei Guizi 21]

I have already said, I was having internet trouble. Was only meant to be once.

Pay no never mind to the forum bullies.

[floridadave 195]

"Jaffa was ethnically cleansed of Palestinians by the Jewish terrorist group Irgun in an operation begun on May 13, 1948, the day before Israel declared statehood: most of the Arab population was driven from the city, and many were murdered in the streets, their homes looted. In another reprise of Clio’s wicked sense of irony, the 4,000 remaining Arabs were forced into officially-designated ghettoes – and the city was repopulated by Jews, who were granted "legal" title to what was formerly Palestinian property.”

Justin Raimondo: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/08/03/israel-genocide-and-the-logic-of-zionism/

__________________________

“Why does al-Qaeda target civilians, including children? Why do the Syrian rebels? Because as a military doctrine terrorism works: it can cow a people into submission, it can cause them to give up and flee their homes – which is precisely what the Israelis want to accomplish in Gaza. Even now as I write they are invading Gaza City with ground forces after warning the populace to evacuate. Their goal is to solve the Palestinian Problem once and for all, or at least the Gaza Problem – by reoccupying it as a prelude to annexing most of the West Bank. The dream of Greater Israel – the key plank in the ruling Likud party platform – is about to be realized.”

Justin Raimondo:

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/07/17/israel-kills-for-the-fun-of-it/

_________________________

Israeli official calls for concentration camps in Gaza and 'the conquest of the entire Gaza Strip, and annihilation of all fighting forces and their supporters'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2715466/Israeli-official-calls-concentration-camps-Gaza-conquest-entire-Gaza-Strip-annihilation-fighting-forces-supporters.html

[OriZ 3,157]

It has been said that when the cannons are heard, the muses are silent. In the case of foreign reporters in the Gaza Strip, their silence stemmed mostly from fear.

A day after Operation Protective Edge ended, a truer picture slowly began emerging: foreign reporters leaving the Gaza Strip revealed what Israel has claimed all along – that Hamas is firing out of population hubs and near UN facilities.

Why didn't they report those facts during the ongoing fighting? According to the reporters, they feared for their lives. "We saw the Hamas men," a Spanish reporter admitted. "But had we dared point the cameras at them, they would have opened fire at us and killed us."

Now that they're out of the Gaza Strip, the reporters are revealing what Hamas tried to prevent the world from seeing. An Indian reporter, for example, documented how Hamas militants launched rockets from a post right outside the window of the hotel where he was staying in the Gaza Strip, shortly before the ceasefire came into effect. The video aired only after the reporter left Gaza. When asked about it, he replied: "There's a conspiracy of silence rooted in fear – no one want to report in real-time".

Report by Indian journalist showing assembly, firing of rocket in Gaza.

The report by Indian journalist Sreenivasan Jain for Hindi language news channel NDTV went as follows: "It began with a mysterious tent with a blue canopy that bobbed up yesterday (August 4) at 6:30 am in an open patch of land next to our window. We saw three men making a multitude of journeys in and out of the tent, sometimes with wires.

"An hour later, they emerged, dismantled the tent, changed their clothes and walked away."

The journalist stressed that it is "important to report on how Hamas places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones."

FRANCE 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick aired a report showing rockets being launched just 50 meters away from the hotel where foreign journalists were staying and 100 meters away from a UN facility.

This France 24 report shows children surrounding a rocket launch site.

“The Israeli army has repeatedly accused the Palestinian militants of shooting from within densely populated civilian areas and that is precisely the type of setup we have here. Rockets set up right next to buildings with a lot of residents in them," he reported after leaving.

Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati also told the truth about Hamas once he left the Strip, no longer under their threat. In a tweet, Barbati said: “Out of #Gaza far from #Hamasretaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday (yesterday) in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.” He added: “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communique released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it.”

Another foreign reporter said that it is an open secret that Hamas uses Al-Shifa hospital as its command center, but that reporters in Gaza would not report that out of fear that it would endanger them.

However, not only foreign reporters were afraid of Hamas' potential revenge. Palestinian reporters also suffered threats when they attempted to criticize the terrorist organization and give truthful reports.

Local Palestinian reporter Radjaa Abu Dagga, for example, reported that he was summoned for questioning at Al-Shifa hospital, where armed Hamas militants attempted to determine whether he writes for an Israeli newspaper. Abu Dagga said that his passport was taken from him, and he was prohibited from leaving the Gaza Strip. Later he published an article in French newspaper Libération, but was forced to remove it after receiving threats.

Reporters in Gaza were subject not only to threats but also to Hamas' manipulations. The Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan detailed how the organization's men staged the IDF attack scenes: he said that he was taken to photograph a mosque that had been bombed, and discovered that someone had "prepared" the scene and placed a prayer mat and burnt Quran pages.

He later reported that it was obvious that someone had put them there to create empathy for the Palestinian struggle.

The CBN news website said that apart from mosques, Hamas is also using church compounds to launch attacks. In his report, journalist George Thomas said that Gaza's most prominent Christian leader, Archbishop Alexios, "took CBN News to the roof terrace outside his office to show how Islamists used the church compound to launch rockets into Israel."

The Archbishop explained that "Islam is the rule of this place and whatever Hamas says we must obey or face consequences," Thomas added.

Hamas' control of the foreign journalists' coverage during the days of fighting in Gaza was not very sophisticated, but very effective.

First, Hamas determined that the organization's spokesmen could be interviewed only in the the courtyard of Al-Shifa hospital. As a result, long lines of reporters waiting for an interview were created, and during their wait, they witnessed wounded people who arrived to receive treatment. This created the impression Hamas was seeking to convey: a state of immediate emergency and humanitarian disaster.

Secondly, Hamas has never allowed foreign reporters access to military sites attacked by Israel, whether they are bases, rocket-launching sites or other Hamas targets. The dead and wounded of the organization were not captured on film as well, and hence from a media perspective they didn't even exist. All this served Hamas' purpose in creating an impression that all the victims were civilians.

Thirdly, it was clear that Hamas was launching rockets out of populated civilian areas, but the organization demanded that the press photographers not document that, so as to not expose their tactic, nor disclose the location of the launchers

The reporter requested that his name not be used.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4556016,00.html

[OriZ 3,157]

Hamas posted this Facebook message urging Gazans to stop publishing photos of terrorists killed in battle. The goal? 1) To hide Hamas’ losses and claim that civilian deaths are higher than they actually are. 2) To prevent the world from seeing where these terrorists fight: In urban areas filled with civilians.

Edited August 8, 2014 by OriZ

[OriZ 3,157]

It goes to English at 00:50.