Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; Psalm 69 v4

Media Coverage - biased reporting

Coverage in the news media is often heavily slanted against the Israelis, sometimes to a ludicrous extent. It is not clear whether this is due to a political viewpoint, fear of incurring violent reprisal for critical reports or plain ignorance. The beliefs of the Western media, particularly the BBC, is a complex subject but it can be observed that the middle class left wing is heavily over represented in the BBC and the "inteligensia". Disdain for Israel and Bible believers appears to be almost obligatory.

This media bias may also be due to a willingness to pass on any story without sufficiently checking its accuracy. Much of our news material is obtained in the safety of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, from Palestinian journalists. The Palestinian spokespeople are highly skilled in the emotive use of words and in adjusting history .

An example of Media bias concerning Israel.

An amazing example occurred when this picture appeared around the world at the end of September 2000.

In the London Daily Telegraph the picture appeared with the Headline "Four Palestinians killed by police at Temple Mount. The caption under the picture read "An Israeli border policeman confronts a wounded Palestinian as a car burns in the background during yesterday's clashes in Jerusalem"

The truth of the picture was very different, as explained in two letters to the Editor of the New York Times, which had carried this picture with a similar story.

Both the father and the uncle of the young man in the picture pointed out that he is not a "Palestinian" but is actually a Jewish student from Chicago. He and two of his friends were pulled from their taxi while traveling in Jerusalem by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed. The Israeli soldier was not "confronting" the injured man but saving him from the mob. The picture clearly shows the soldier confronting not the victim but the group of people which included the photographer.

Some newspapers printed small apologies when the truth was pointed out. However, Associated Press withdrew the picture from their files rather than admit their fault and correct the caption. Presumably the picture had no value in its true context.

The Palestinians' supporters even had the nerve to use this picture to promote a boycott of American companies because they support "Israeli brutality to Palestinians"!

When you watch the TV news, think; "would I try photographing or filming an angry mob of Palestinians armed with rocks, slingshots and automatic weapons who suspected that I was not representing them favourably?"

Jenin seen from Mt Gilboa after is was alleged to have been flattened

The media ran with hysterical stories of "The Jenin Massacre" . The United Nations report found the 500 dead that a senior PA official had claimed was, "a figure that has not been substantiated." This report received little media attention.

The final casualty figures were much less than a massacre, most of the Palestinian dead were combatants and a comparable number of Israeli soldiers died in the fighting.

The deaths and destruction were largely due to booby-trapping of buildings and the civilian deaths were incurred due to PA terrorists working in civilian areas

The TV footage suggested that the whole town had been razed to the ground, but aerial photographs reveal that the destruction was very localized.

The lower picture is a detail of the ringed area on the upper picture

Aerial photographs by the IDF used with permission of the Israel Ministry of Information. www.mfa.gov.il/mfa

See also www.honestreporting.com

Notice that Jenin is a town not a "refugee camp"

Did anybody else notice the BBC News on the evening the British Marines went off to Afghanistan to fight in "the war on terror" ? The commentary was the traditional "our brave boys" stuff. However, this report directly followed the item on the Israeli army going into Jenin, which was reported in most hostile language. The Israelis were in pursuit of the terrorists who attack their people - the British marines were, however justifiably, in pursuit of people who had not attacked Britain.

Moral Equivalence

It is apparent that the western media feels obliged to be "balanced" in its coverage of the conflict in Israel. Why this should apply to this particular conflict more than any other is not clear. Thus the conflict which follows the routine of terror attacks being followed by steps to prevent further attacks is presented as two equally evil acts.

Thus a "suicide" bomb attack aimed at Israeli civilians and causing around twenty deaths, including women and children, is equated with a targeted strike on the known terrorist responsible for these bombings.

Our leaders then make trite remarks about the "spiral of violence".

Notice also that the bus bomb picture which is an un-posed account of the carnage was not used in the UK, while the right hand picture which was used is of a demonstration of anger held around the burned out car of the terrorist. ( Just look carefully at how much news footage is of Palestinians performing for the cameras)

Perhaps, in an ideal world, the Israelis would not respond with violent measures, but the USA and UK do not appear to have found a better solution for use in their "war on terrorism".

There are terrorists would be alive today if they had remained locked up in the Palestinian jails where the world was assured they were.

See also Quotes

See the Honest Reporting website for guidance about the way the media distorts the truth and for advice on ways of combating the lies and misrepresentation being practiced on us. www.honestreporting.com

Those concerned about the appalling way in which the world's media have handled the conflict in Israel and desperate to see an authoritative challenge will be glad to see the Second Draft site. In the particular case of the death of Mohammed al Dura, this site presents all the video evidence so that you will be able to prove to your satisfaction that the coverage was a cynical terrorist/media fabrication. The site carries articles to help you understand the dynamics of media coverage. www.seconddraft.org

The world's media shows no sign of improving its reporting.

This Picture of a Palestinian woman weeping over the destruction of her family's olive trees by Jewish Settlers appeared around the world in the Autumn/Fall of 2005, including in the UK's Daily Telegraph.

Obviously nobody checked the photo-story they were offered.

Representatives from the KKL investigated the accusations and concluded that the trees had not been vandalised by the Settlers but pruned by their Palestinian owners. These trees will be fruitful again within a couple of years, but someone wishing to destroy them would just have just cut them off at ground level.

Not only that, but the same stunt was attempted last year.

Why do even "Quality" papers fall for such a blatant piece of photo-propaganda. It is clearly too staged to be called photo-journalism.

Updated 9/2/08

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