A short primer on Israeli propaganda for media dummies

You are talking bollox, Mr Regev

By Stuart Littlewood

9 June 2010

Stuart Littlewood deconstructs the Israeli propaganda that has been flooding the airwaves following Israel’s murder of humanitarian activists aboard the Gaza-bound international aid flotilla, most notably from the orifice of the Israeli prime minister’s spokesman, Australian-born Mark Regev, and debunks the propaganda manual used by Israeli officials and stooges to hoodwink Westerners.

What were Israel’s excuses for hijacking the Free Gaza ships in international waters and imprisoning their passengers after gunning down nine of them and wounding several more?

* There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and
* Israel already allows sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza so the flotilla was “an armada of hate and violence”, said Israel’s deputy foreign minister.

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Thank you for your service, Helen Thomas

Thomas, centre, has covered every US president since John F Kennedy (Reuters)

Veteran US press corp reporter Helen Thomas has announced her resignation in the wake of recent off-the-cuff comments she made to a roving rabbi with a camcorder. Add me to the list of those who are far more saddened by the overblown fallout surrounding her remarks than about the remark itself, only part of which was inflammatory. To recap, in the video clip she is asked whether she has any comments about Israel, to which she replies:

Tell them to get the get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people [the Palestinians] are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not Germany, it’s not Poland.” [Where should they go?] “They should go home, to Poland, Germany and America.”

Not surprisingly, the part about the occupation gets buried in the brouhaha. My reading was that because she said Palestine she referred to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) — including East Jerusalem — and in that case the illegal settlers, for many of us, should indeed move back to Russia, Poland, Israel ‘proper’ (internationally recognized 1967 borders) and the US. Part of the problem is the ambiguity: was she referring to Palestine as the whole of Israel? She might have but I doubt hers was the maximalist position. Even those who still advocate a two state solution as tenable should give her the benefit of the doubt unless she indicates otherwise.

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Huckabee piles on Thomas, even after demanding Palestinians leave

By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, June 7th, 2010 — 9:15 pm

There’s a saying about how people who live in glass houses should take care to avoid throwing stones.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee appears to be ignoring that age-old advice, taking several moments during a recent Fox News broadcast to attack veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas over her opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict — in spite of his own remarkably similar comments on Palestinians.

Thomas had remarked to a Rabbi that Palestine is “occupied” by Israel, which should “get the hell out.”

“[Jews] can go home, Poland, Germany, and America and everywhere else,” she said, sparking a swell of criticism, both from her colleagues and critics.

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians,” she later said on her Web site. “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”
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Israel’s media blackout, doctored Flotilla recording condemned

Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 8 June 2010

Flotilla activists being deported from Ben Gurion airport. (Mel Frykberg/IPS)

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) – Although Israel successfully controlled news of its deadly commando raid on the Freedom Flotilla during the first crucial 48 hours of media coverage, emerging evidence from witnesses and survivors is challenging the Israeli government’s version of events.

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