SarahLynn
Veteran Member
A Canadian MSM perspective on the Gaza situation.
Ceasefires and body counts from terrorists are suspect
By Licia CorbellaJanuary 3, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinio...ts+from+terrorists+suspect/1137993/story.html
Just this past Nov. 21, I flew rather close to the Gaza Strip in a helicopter. I asked my guide if we could fly right over it, as I wanted to see from the air this thin piece of land in this tiny country that has been at the centre of so much strife.
Eli Ovits, director of communications for the Israel Project, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that provides "intellicopter tours" to journalists and politicians to help them better understand the security issues facing Israel, shook his head and said it wouldn't be safe even though technically Hamas was still under a ceasefire agreement with Israel that started June 19 and officially ended this past Dec. 19.
If you just said, "huh?" then you're not alone. After all, shouldn't a ceasefire mean a cessation of firing rockets, mortars--everything?Well, ordinarily, but when it comes to Hamas leaders and their ilk, their signatures on a piece of paper are about as valuable as, well, the paper it's writ-ten on. Those old sayings of a man's word being his bond, are apparently not something aspired to by the Palestinian leadership.
In fact, during the six-month ceasefire, more than 540 rockets and mortars were fired from Hamas-ruled Gaza into Israeli territory, or an average of about three a day. Just enough to prevent Israeli children living near Gaza borders from playing in a park, or going for a leisurely walk. Just enough to keep all nearby Israelis on their toes, unable to lock their doors in case they need to dash back inside to duck under the stairs. For Israelis living near Gaza, their hope was that after Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, the shelling would stop. After all, the Palestinian leadership said the reason for the near-constant shelling was Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip. But the shelling continued even after the pullout. So, for Israelis, the terror continues. They must plan every outing to the grocery store to figure out where the nearest bomb shelter is, should they hear the 15-second warning of an incoming missile.
In 2008 alone, Hamas fired more than 3,200 rockets and mortars into Israel. When you consider that six months of 2008 was officially considered a ceasefire, it's an astonishing number.
Many critics of Israel point to the fact that "just" 28 Israelis living on the border with Gaza have died and 1,000 have been injured in the past seven years somehow means that these rockets and mortars aren't very serious. But why should Israel be criticized for protecting its citizens?Many schools are essentially bomb shelters. Hamas, in contrast, uses its Palestinian citizens as human shields, firing its missiles from densely populated apartment buildings, knowing that Israel will hesitate to retaliate, as it had until Dec. 27, when it had clearly had enough.
Now we're being told by Palestinian sources that Israel's bombing campaign of Gaza has killed more than 400 people. But just how credible is that? If you can't believe their word when it comes to a ceasefire, then why believe their body count numbers? Besides, remember Jenin?
Remember how WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, dubbed the Jenin battle "the massacre of the 21st century," claiming that as many as 5,000 "martyrs" were slaughtered by the bloodthirsty Israeli army in the spring of 2002?
Once the fighting had stopped, the United Nations, which had put out some pretty strong condemnatory statements against Israel at the time, conducted an investigation into the Jenin massacre, headed by Kofi Annan, who's not exactly considered friendly with the state of Israel.
So, what did Annan find in the crowded West Bank refugee camp? Annan wrote in his UN report that from April 3 to April 18, 2002, when the Israeli Defense Force lifted the curfew and left the area, a total of 52 Palestinians had been killed "of whom up to half may have been civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead."
In other words, about 26 Palestinian civilians may have lost their lives in "the massacre of the 21st century," one that critics from around the world declared "a war crime."
From 5,000 to 52. Actually, Human Rights Watch did its own investigation and determined that only 22 Palestinians were killed in the Jenin battle.
Of course, the killing of any innocent person is a tragedy, but what's curious is how the world didn't seem to care why Israel went into Jenin or why it's bombing Gaza.
Surprisingly, Annan felt it necessary to put that into his report.
"From the beginning of March until 7 May (2002), Israel endured approximately 16 bombings, the large majority of which were suicide attacks. More than 100 persons were killed and scores more wounded."
The most striking thing I saw from the air as I flew over Israel was just how close Palestinian West Bank communities are to the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv --just 9 1/2 kilometres away.
The world continuously calls on Israel to pull out of all West Bank communities. After seeing what happened after pulling out of Gaza, it is an outrageous request.
*****************************
Truth about conflict will redeem israel
By Susan MartinukJanuary 2, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/Truth+about+conflict+will+redeem+israel/1132982/story.html
"Israel's Merciless Reputation." "Israel thrives on Creating Crisis." "Israel has left the Peace Process."
Recent headlines are making it difficult for Canadians to believe that Israel is a reasonable, democratic nation that is fighting against terrorists for the survival of its nation and its people.
Several years ago, I was quite shocked when a bright, educated older couple that travelled the world told me they would absolutely never go to Israel because of Palestine. Today, as the battle between Israel and Palestine accelerates, many Canadians likely share that view. They see Israel as the neighbourhood bully--an oppressor of the Palestinian people and a military aggressor intent on nothing less than their full subjugation.
Outside of Canada, three worldwide surveys show people think Israel is the nation that has the most negative influence on the world, the least liked in a list of 35 nations and, most succinctly, the most hated country in the world.
Oy vey! How is it that an educated, progressive country like Israel (that doesn't target civilians) can lose the PR war to comparatively uneducated terrorists whose PR strategy includes a TV video claiming "Hamas Celebrates Targeting Israeli Civilians" over an image of blood dripping from skulls?
It should be a no-brainer. So why is everyone so quick to condemn--or outright hate --Israel? It's obviously a common topic of discussion since Googling "Why does everyone hate Israel?" produces 507,000 responses.
The biggest reason is misinformation from the media. People tend to form their opinions on the basis of sensational headlines (as above), horrific pictures and minute-long news clips that are geared more to getting a visceral reaction than conveying information.
The most obvious example of this is the 2002 "massacre" at Jenin. The first news reports from Palestine suggested that "5,000 innocents" had been "slaughtered." Images showed a city reduced to rubble and suggested large-scale and indiscriminate destruction by Israel.
But the media's cry of "genocide" diminished as that number dropped to 3,000, then 500 and finally 54. When it was revealed that most of the 54 were armed terrorists, the media suddenly produced photos that put the battle into proper context. An entire city wasn't devastated; only an area of 100 sq. meters. All the photos and video showed the same city block--and nobody bothered to clarify that important fact.
Similarly, most media cover-age of today's battle has focused on blood-stained images of Palestinians.
Lost in the fine print is the fact that Hamas deliberately called off its six-month truce with Israel on Dec. 19 and promptly flooded its border settlements with hundreds of missiles. (Why don't they show photos of Israeli families and children who have spent much of the past two weeks in bomb shelters?) Israel only responded on Dec. 27 after its repeated warnings to cease fire were ignored by Hamas.
Another lost fact is that a majority (75-80 per cent) of Palestinians killed have been terrorists, not civilians. Hamas' courageous strategy in confronting Israel is to disguise themselves as civilians and hide their headquarters in populated neighbourhoods. So who is indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians?
Israel--who is selectively targeting terrorists and their weapons stores?Or Hamas --who is using the Palestinians as human shields?Also under-reported is that while Israel is allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, Hamas is preventing its own wounded from crossing into Egypt for medical care. That fact alone seems worthy of a headline or two.
Izzy Asper, the late founder of Canwest Publishing, believed that media bias against Israel is rooted in dishonest reporting. Journalists perpetuate the lies that the conflict is about land and Palestinian statehood --and that all would be fine if Israel would concede such claims. But the truth--as it should be reported--is that Palestine's goal is the absolute destruction of Israel and its people. All the land in the world won't change that.
Yasser Arafat, a terrorist and former leader of Palestine, proved this when Israel offered him 97 per cent of the land and concessions he asked for in the 2000 peace talks at Camp David. Rather than choosing peace and security, Arafat walked away and started another violent campaign against Israel.
These are the facts that can change public opinion about Israel. But Canadians have to be willing to read beyond the headlines and look past the images to get them. It's utterly naive to hope for peace in the Middle East if we choose to ignore the facts and the real issues.
Susan Martinuk is a freelance journalist. Her column appears every Friday.
Ceasefires and body counts from terrorists are suspect
By Licia CorbellaJanuary 3, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinio...ts+from+terrorists+suspect/1137993/story.html
Just this past Nov. 21, I flew rather close to the Gaza Strip in a helicopter. I asked my guide if we could fly right over it, as I wanted to see from the air this thin piece of land in this tiny country that has been at the centre of so much strife.
Eli Ovits, director of communications for the Israel Project, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that provides "intellicopter tours" to journalists and politicians to help them better understand the security issues facing Israel, shook his head and said it wouldn't be safe even though technically Hamas was still under a ceasefire agreement with Israel that started June 19 and officially ended this past Dec. 19.
If you just said, "huh?" then you're not alone. After all, shouldn't a ceasefire mean a cessation of firing rockets, mortars--everything?Well, ordinarily, but when it comes to Hamas leaders and their ilk, their signatures on a piece of paper are about as valuable as, well, the paper it's writ-ten on. Those old sayings of a man's word being his bond, are apparently not something aspired to by the Palestinian leadership.
In fact, during the six-month ceasefire, more than 540 rockets and mortars were fired from Hamas-ruled Gaza into Israeli territory, or an average of about three a day. Just enough to prevent Israeli children living near Gaza borders from playing in a park, or going for a leisurely walk. Just enough to keep all nearby Israelis on their toes, unable to lock their doors in case they need to dash back inside to duck under the stairs. For Israelis living near Gaza, their hope was that after Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, the shelling would stop. After all, the Palestinian leadership said the reason for the near-constant shelling was Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip. But the shelling continued even after the pullout. So, for Israelis, the terror continues. They must plan every outing to the grocery store to figure out where the nearest bomb shelter is, should they hear the 15-second warning of an incoming missile.
In 2008 alone, Hamas fired more than 3,200 rockets and mortars into Israel. When you consider that six months of 2008 was officially considered a ceasefire, it's an astonishing number.
Many critics of Israel point to the fact that "just" 28 Israelis living on the border with Gaza have died and 1,000 have been injured in the past seven years somehow means that these rockets and mortars aren't very serious. But why should Israel be criticized for protecting its citizens?Many schools are essentially bomb shelters. Hamas, in contrast, uses its Palestinian citizens as human shields, firing its missiles from densely populated apartment buildings, knowing that Israel will hesitate to retaliate, as it had until Dec. 27, when it had clearly had enough.
Now we're being told by Palestinian sources that Israel's bombing campaign of Gaza has killed more than 400 people. But just how credible is that? If you can't believe their word when it comes to a ceasefire, then why believe their body count numbers? Besides, remember Jenin?
Remember how WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, dubbed the Jenin battle "the massacre of the 21st century," claiming that as many as 5,000 "martyrs" were slaughtered by the bloodthirsty Israeli army in the spring of 2002?
Once the fighting had stopped, the United Nations, which had put out some pretty strong condemnatory statements against Israel at the time, conducted an investigation into the Jenin massacre, headed by Kofi Annan, who's not exactly considered friendly with the state of Israel.
So, what did Annan find in the crowded West Bank refugee camp? Annan wrote in his UN report that from April 3 to April 18, 2002, when the Israeli Defense Force lifted the curfew and left the area, a total of 52 Palestinians had been killed "of whom up to half may have been civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead."
In other words, about 26 Palestinian civilians may have lost their lives in "the massacre of the 21st century," one that critics from around the world declared "a war crime."
From 5,000 to 52. Actually, Human Rights Watch did its own investigation and determined that only 22 Palestinians were killed in the Jenin battle.
Of course, the killing of any innocent person is a tragedy, but what's curious is how the world didn't seem to care why Israel went into Jenin or why it's bombing Gaza.
Surprisingly, Annan felt it necessary to put that into his report.
"From the beginning of March until 7 May (2002), Israel endured approximately 16 bombings, the large majority of which were suicide attacks. More than 100 persons were killed and scores more wounded."
The most striking thing I saw from the air as I flew over Israel was just how close Palestinian West Bank communities are to the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv --just 9 1/2 kilometres away.
The world continuously calls on Israel to pull out of all West Bank communities. After seeing what happened after pulling out of Gaza, it is an outrageous request.
*****************************
Truth about conflict will redeem israel
By Susan MartinukJanuary 2, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/Truth+about+conflict+will+redeem+israel/1132982/story.html
"Israel's Merciless Reputation." "Israel thrives on Creating Crisis." "Israel has left the Peace Process."
Recent headlines are making it difficult for Canadians to believe that Israel is a reasonable, democratic nation that is fighting against terrorists for the survival of its nation and its people.
Several years ago, I was quite shocked when a bright, educated older couple that travelled the world told me they would absolutely never go to Israel because of Palestine. Today, as the battle between Israel and Palestine accelerates, many Canadians likely share that view. They see Israel as the neighbourhood bully--an oppressor of the Palestinian people and a military aggressor intent on nothing less than their full subjugation.
Outside of Canada, three worldwide surveys show people think Israel is the nation that has the most negative influence on the world, the least liked in a list of 35 nations and, most succinctly, the most hated country in the world.
Oy vey! How is it that an educated, progressive country like Israel (that doesn't target civilians) can lose the PR war to comparatively uneducated terrorists whose PR strategy includes a TV video claiming "Hamas Celebrates Targeting Israeli Civilians" over an image of blood dripping from skulls?
It should be a no-brainer. So why is everyone so quick to condemn--or outright hate --Israel? It's obviously a common topic of discussion since Googling "Why does everyone hate Israel?" produces 507,000 responses.
The biggest reason is misinformation from the media. People tend to form their opinions on the basis of sensational headlines (as above), horrific pictures and minute-long news clips that are geared more to getting a visceral reaction than conveying information.
The most obvious example of this is the 2002 "massacre" at Jenin. The first news reports from Palestine suggested that "5,000 innocents" had been "slaughtered." Images showed a city reduced to rubble and suggested large-scale and indiscriminate destruction by Israel.
But the media's cry of "genocide" diminished as that number dropped to 3,000, then 500 and finally 54. When it was revealed that most of the 54 were armed terrorists, the media suddenly produced photos that put the battle into proper context. An entire city wasn't devastated; only an area of 100 sq. meters. All the photos and video showed the same city block--and nobody bothered to clarify that important fact.
Similarly, most media cover-age of today's battle has focused on blood-stained images of Palestinians.
Lost in the fine print is the fact that Hamas deliberately called off its six-month truce with Israel on Dec. 19 and promptly flooded its border settlements with hundreds of missiles. (Why don't they show photos of Israeli families and children who have spent much of the past two weeks in bomb shelters?) Israel only responded on Dec. 27 after its repeated warnings to cease fire were ignored by Hamas.
Another lost fact is that a majority (75-80 per cent) of Palestinians killed have been terrorists, not civilians. Hamas' courageous strategy in confronting Israel is to disguise themselves as civilians and hide their headquarters in populated neighbourhoods. So who is indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians?
Israel--who is selectively targeting terrorists and their weapons stores?Or Hamas --who is using the Palestinians as human shields?Also under-reported is that while Israel is allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, Hamas is preventing its own wounded from crossing into Egypt for medical care. That fact alone seems worthy of a headline or two.
Izzy Asper, the late founder of Canwest Publishing, believed that media bias against Israel is rooted in dishonest reporting. Journalists perpetuate the lies that the conflict is about land and Palestinian statehood --and that all would be fine if Israel would concede such claims. But the truth--as it should be reported--is that Palestine's goal is the absolute destruction of Israel and its people. All the land in the world won't change that.
Yasser Arafat, a terrorist and former leader of Palestine, proved this when Israel offered him 97 per cent of the land and concessions he asked for in the 2000 peace talks at Camp David. Rather than choosing peace and security, Arafat walked away and started another violent campaign against Israel.
These are the facts that can change public opinion about Israel. But Canadians have to be willing to read beyond the headlines and look past the images to get them. It's utterly naive to hope for peace in the Middle East if we choose to ignore the facts and the real issues.
Susan Martinuk is a freelance journalist. Her column appears every Friday.
