The following comes from "Honest Reporting", a website I follow. I also write to the media outlets when I feel a particularly egregious bias is evident. David Cohen
"Today's headlines include the LA Times's "Gaza dark amid Israeli blockade" and The Guardian's "Gaza plunged into darkness as Israeli fuel blockade takes effect". Similar headlines appear in many media outlets. You could be forgiven for thinking that Israel has cut off the entire electricity supply to the Gaza Strip.
Despite ongoing Qassam attacks from the territory, Israel has not switched off the electricity. In fact, Hamas itself shut down Gaza's only power station after inviting the media to watch it do so.
The mainstream media ultimately assisted Hamas in creating the impression of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The fact is Israel has restricted fuel supplies in response to the terrorism emanating from Gaza but continues to provide the Palestinians with electricity.
The Times of London omits this vital fact altogether in a story headlined "Darkness falls on Gaza as Israel takes revenge for rocket attacks". AFP, while quoting Israeli officials, also omitted the facts leaving readers with the impression that Israel is simply denying responsibility.
While Gazans are undoubtedly suffering, the dark picture painted by the mainstream media is different from the reality. As the Israel's Foreign Ministry notes, the supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israel and the Egyptian power grids (124 Megawatts and 17 Megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 Megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza's electricity needs.
Israel Electric Company workers' committee chairman Miko Zarfati goes further:
"This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped the supply of electricity to the Strip," Zarfati told Ynet. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Qassam rockets falling in the area.
The Gaza power plant only produces 30% of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest.
"It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said....
"The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply them electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israeli residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under threat from Qassam rockets," Zarfati railed.
Ha'aretz also reports that despite the blackout in Gaza City, southern and central Gaza - which receive electricity from Israel and Egypt directly - were not affected by the shutdown.
Hamas manipulation of the media is evident in an AP story that reported "Children marched through dark streets holding candles, an angry Hamas TV announcer shouted at the camera "We are being killed, we are starving!"
Once again, the mainstream media has wittingly or unwittingly fallen into the Hamas trap. By plunging Gaza into darkness, the terrorist organization has managed to shift the story away from its own responsibility for the Qassams and terror on Sderot. Instead, Israel's image is taking a beating for a perceived humanitarian crisis of Hamas's own making.
Please correct the stories from The Times and AFP by writing to letters@thetimes.co.uk and http://www.afp.com/english/afp/?pid=contact respectively.
Also write to your local media outlets if you feel that they are not giving sufficient context and information to this story. Full contact details for many media can be found on HonestReporting's website."
1 comment:
I appreciate you posting this article, Rabbi. Unfortunately, Jihadist manipulation of the media has long been a part of their playbook. And the usual suspects are typically playing right along. As Honest Reporting points out, the media is only too happy to carry water for Hamas. The UN Security Council is holding the obligatory hearing to pillory Israel. EU ministers are falling over each other in the rush to condemnation. Our glorious Secretary of State, to whom the President has abdicated foreign policy, comments that “Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there.” As P. David Hornik commented in his article in FrontPage magazine today: "She didn’t explain why, in her numerous visits to Israel in recent years, she has never perceived a humanitarian crisis in Sderot or any need to relieve its residents’ suffering." I guess that's not surprising, considering her recent comments comparing Fatah terrorist leader Mahmoud Abbas to Martin Luther King, and Israel to racists in the Jim Crow South.
So here we have the world condemning Israel for reducing (not even cutting off) fuel that is being used by its enemy to attack it. Can you imagine Britain in WWII shipping food, fuel and electricity to the Nazis while they were bombed nightly by them!? Who are these "innocent" Gazans that Rice is shedding tears for - the same ones who voted in a band of murderers; the same ones who dance for joy when Israeli children are slaughtered? At what point will the world expect the Palestinains to take responsibility for their self-inflicted suffering? And what is Israel doing providing Gaza with any supplies at all!?
Okay, quiz time. Who is the subject of the following article published today (the individual's name and other identifying information have been deleted for the purposes of this quiz):
______ said Israeli retaliation actions in the Gaza Strip "did not constitute war crimes."
Speaking to Israeli reporters on Tuesday in the course of his visit in Israel, he declared: "We have to take into account that the Gaza Strip has become a base from where rockets are launched every day against innocent people in Israel… Ultimately, Hamas was responsible for the conditions under which Gazans lived."
In a speech at the Herzliya Conference, _____ said: "For too long, we ignored Israel’s fears and legitimate concerns about terror, fanaticism and the refusal of key groups in the Arab camp to come to terms with Israel’s existence, let alone its legitimacy."
Okay, who is this mystery person?
a) John Bolton
b) Dick Cheney
c) John Howard
d) Rudy Giuliani
e) John McCain
f) Margaret Thatcher
g) None of the above
If you answered "g," you are correct! The individual who made these statements was a man named Franco Frattini who is - hold on to your hats......European Commission Vice-President! The European Commission is the executive branch of the EU. Who says that pigs can't fly!? This man will definitely be excommunicated from the EU. On a serious note, it is encouraging to see that there might be a whiff of integrity within the moral vacuum that is the EU.
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