Didn't you know?

Didn't you know that the media is anti-Israel?

The oft heard gripe -- so common that it's taken in the Jewish community to be absolutely true-- is that the world press is anti-Israel. Have you heard that a few times? Have you said it?

Let me suggest an experiment to you. Go to the Israeli paper Haaretz, read the many articles about Israeli brutality towards Palestinians, and then go to any American paper or for that matter any English language news outlet worldwide and see how many of the stories are covered there. The difference is pretty shocking. (Russia Today is an exception.) Haaretz will tell you all about shootings of protestors, many of them children and many them doing nothing more than burning tires in their own broken down neighborhoods or in fields, some doing nothing violent or illegal at all, some waving flags. It will tell you about settlers beating up Palestinians as soldiers watch, about settlers burning Palestinian olive trees or smashing their solar panels or irrigation pipes. It will tell that while Palestinian Ahed Tamini, the young woman who hit (lightly) a soldier, is still under arrest and her home raided many times, an Israeli settler, Yifat Alkobi who hit a soldier after he tried to stop her from throwing rocks, an act for which she has been convicted five times, was never and has never been imprisoned, that the young Palestinian woman's teenage cousin recently had half his face blown off by an IDF projectile. They even show the horrifying picture of the boy, now horribly disfigured. It will tell you about evictions of elderly Arabs in East Jerusalem and home demolitions. The American press rarely covers any of this. I check every day and I'll say again, the American press rarely covers any of this. And if they do, they put quite a spin on it.

Here's an example of spin and cover up. And I want you to know, I didn't seek a story that showed the pro-Likud bias of the press. I just grabbed the first story in my mailbox from Haaretz and researched it.

In June 2016, a 15 year old Palestinian boy named Mahmoud Batran was shot and killed by soldiers.  I know what you are thinking, the little monster was obviously posing a danger to them, probably threw rocks at their heads.

Actually, he was riding in a car with some friends coming back from a water park after he had observed the month long religious ceremony of Ramadan. What happened? Some soldiers from the world's most human army "in civilian dress, not on duty at the time, and the officer had fallen asleep in the back seat" (Haaretz) were driving on road 443 when they saw rocks on the road, and a bus on the roadside. The soldiers shouted that stones were being thrown, and the officer in the car ordered them to turn around and drive against the traffic to where he thought the stones had been thrown from. I'll let Haaretz[1] tell the rest:

 The officer ran with a soldier to a high point with a view of the surroundings and saw a car driving a few dozen meters away, along a side road that passes beneath road 443 and connects the Palestinian villages.

 At no point did the officer see or identify the stone-throwers, but he thought that because the car was near the place, its occupants were the stone-throwers trying to flee the scene. The officer ordered the soldier with him to open fire at the car’s tires, and opened fire himself. After massive fire, the car stopped on the side of the road. Its occupants turned out to be a number of young Palestinians coming back from a swimming pool. They were wounded by the gunfire, and Mahmoud Batran, 15, from the northern West Bank village of Beit Ur e-Tahta, was killed.

 The IDF realized early on that this was a case of mistaken identity and the occupants of the car had no connection to the stone-throwers.

The army investigated and decided not charge the officer with even negligent manslaughter because his actions were understandable. The soldier will not stand trial but may be dismissed from the army. Haaretz:

 A Military Police investigation found major failures in the conduct of the officer and the soldier at the scene, and that the officer had contravened the laws of engagement by opening fire as he did. These rules state that in the West Bank, when soldiers are arresting a suspect when a vehicle is involved, if there is no danger to soldiers, they are supposed to fire in the air only, not at the tires.

The investigation found that Mahmud Badran was killed in the shooting. Hadi Badran, also 15, who was in the car and was wounded in the arm and chest, told the human rights group B’Tselem: “I was sitting in the middle seat. We came close to the passage under road 443. Suddenly we were fired at. I looked to see where the shooting was coming from and I saw a white civilian vehicle. There were two men in civilian dress who were firing at us. The bullets hit the car and smashed the windows. We were hit and we started to shout. I put my head down between the seats. The driver immediately crashed into the retaining wall of the passage.” Daud Badran, 13, who was also in the car, told B’Tselem that the bullets hit the car from the roof. “I was afraid and I covered my head with my hands and put my head between my legs.” I stood under the bridge and then I felt another bullet hit my right leg.” Daud Badran said another occupant of the car got out with him, but ran in another direction. The other occupant, named as Majed, came back and discovered that Mahmoud Badran was dead.

Very scary. Here's the boy:

Here's the car. And by the way it wasn't their car. It was a taxi.

Very sad story. If you wanted to embarrass the State of Israel, this would be a good place to start. Now let's go to the allegedly Israel hating press and search on the boy's name. We'll search on two spellings Badran and Batran because it appears both ways. Note, today is Jan. 15, 2018, a year and a half since the incident, and four days since the Haaretz article, so everybody has had plenty of time to pick up the story and to see how it plays out to make sure that the world's most humane army isn't treated unfairly. Here we go:

Los Angeles Times[2]:

They covered the story in June 2016. Here's what they said via the Associated Press:

 Israeli troops shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy early Tuesday in the West Bank and wounded four others, a Palestinian official said. 

 Wajih Ahmad, head of the Beit Ur al-Tahta local council, said the teen, Mahmoud Badran, was killed when the car he was traveling in was fired upon by an Israeli military patrol. The hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah said another Palestinian was moderately wounded and three others were lightly wounded. 

 The military said it was responding to Palestinians throwing rocks and firebombs on vehicles on a busy road in the area in which three civilians were hurt. It said Israeli forces tried to protect other vehicles and fired toward suspects. “From the initial inquiry it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit,” the military said in a statement. 

 Over the last nine months, Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks, including stabbings, shootings and car-ramming assaults, which have killed 32 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time. Israel has identified most of them as attackers while the rest died in clashes with Israeli troops. 

 The assaults were once near-daily incidents but they have become less frequent in recent weeks.

That's quite a stretch from what we learned in the end, that these soldiers were not on patrol, were not responding to anything and were in fact napping in the car, had only seen rocks on the road not rock throwing in action, and just fired on the first car they saw in contradiction to military policy (but not military attitudes). We learned in the end that "A Military Police investigation found major failures in the conduct of the officer and the soldier at the scene, and that the officer had contravened the laws of engagement by opening fire as he did."

Did the LA Times come back and tell us any of that? No, we needed Haaretz to tell us. The LA Times has precisely two articles on the topic, both on the same day, one from the AP and one from the Washington Post,[3] and those articles make it seem like brave soldiers made a mistake in the line of battle against the monstrous Palestinians who are all trying to just kill, kill, kill every second of the day. You read the LA Times article and feel bad for the Israelis, of course, as always. As Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy has noted, this may be the first military occupation in history where the occupier portrays itself as the victim.

Here's the Washington Post’s[4] telling of the events as published in the LA Times. First a screen shot to show you that this really is the Post’s article in the Times.

Now the first part of the article:

Israeli military says Palestinian teen killed by mistake after stone-throwing incident

Ruth Eglash  The Washington Post

A Palestinian teenager returning from a night out with his family at a local swimming pool was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers early Tuesday morning in what the Israeli military has now said appears to have been a mistake.

 A statement from the Israeli army said that overnight three civilians were injured and multiple cars damaged after a number of Palestinian youths hurled rocks and firebombs at people traveling on Route 443. The road, which connects Israel's main airport to Jerusalem, runs partially through the West Bank and rock throwing incidents are common.

 "Nearby forces acted to protect further civilians from being injured and pursued the suspects. From the initial inquiry, it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during this pursuit," said the army.

 Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said that an investigation into the incident had been launched.

The incident took place after more than eight months of shooting, stabbing and vehicular attacks by Palestinians against Israelis that have left 33 Israelis and four foreign nationals, including two Americans, dead. More than 180 Palestinians have also been killed, more than half carrying out attacks against Israelis and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

 While the level of violence has dropped significantly over the past two months, tensions in the region remain high. Two weeks ago, two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on civilians at a food mall in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis.

 The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the dead teenager from Tuesday's attack as Mahmoud Raafat Badran, 15, from the West Bank village of Beit Ur al-Tahta. Four other Palestinian teenagers traveling with him were injured, with one in critical condition.

 Palestinian media reported that the group had been returning from a late night swim in the village of Beit Sira when they were shot. It is currently the holy month of Ramadan and Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink during the daylight. Many of the holiday's social activities take place during night time hours.

Pretty much the same as the AP story, brave soldiers in the line of battle. If we go to the website of Washington Post, who reminds us that "Democracy dies in the darkness," we find the same story with the same reporter Ruth Eglash, dated in 2016 and no update after the investigation:

And the allegedly Israel-hating NY Times:

Palestinian, 15, Killed as Israeli Forces Sought to Halt Stone Throwing

Israeli forces opened fire at a Palestinian car in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, killing one Palestinian teenager and wounding four others, according to relatives and Palestinian officials. The teenagers appeared to be innocent bystanders who were hit while the military tried to halt Palestinians who were throwing stones and firebombs.

The military said its soldiers had been pursuing several Palestinians who were trying to hit Israeli cars on Route 443, a highway that cuts through the West Bank as it connects Jerusalem with Israel’s densely populated coastal plain, injuring three civilians, including a pregnant woman.

Palestinian officials identified the dead teenager as Mahmoud Rafat Badran, 15, from the village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, west of Ramallah, and said that two of his brothers, ages 16 and 17, were among those injured.

“Nearby forces acted in order to protect additional passing vehicles from immediate danger and fired toward suspects,” the military said. “From the initial inquiry, it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit.”

A military spokeswoman said later Tuesday that the military police investigation unit was examining all aspects of the episode, presumably including whether the soldiers involved had opened fire according to protocol. The shooting comes as an Israeli sergeant, Elor Azaria, is standing trial in a military court on a manslaughter charge after he fatally shot a wounded and disarmed Palestinian assailant in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Same story, brave soldiers in hot pursuit make an innocent mistake. The Times even manages to work up your emotions by mentioning the pregnant woman.

Did the one and only NY Times manage to update this story with the result of the investigation? Let's do a search with newest stories first.

Nothing. Searching on the other spelling produced stories from 2010 and 2005 about other topics involving people with similar names but not this dead child.

So here we have the LA Times, Washington Post, and the NY Times all taking the tragic story of an innocent teenager that the IDF itself concluded involved an improper action enough to dismiss the soldier from the military and portraying the story in a way that you feel bad for the Israelis. None of them update us on the findings and leave us only with the usual propaganda about the IDF soldiers with the impossible task of corralling these monstrous Arabs. Now if these papers, the last two supposedly firmly anti-Israel, were really anti-Israel, couldn't they have approached the matter as Haaretz did? Even if you want to propose that Haaretz is biased, they still are a very professional and well-regarded paper. The American press could have approached it as Haaretz did if they wanted to. So if they were anti-Israel, they missed a big chance. And if they were professional, couldn't they at least update us and tell us the finding of the military that the soldiers' actions were improper?

And now the Chicago Tribune:

Hmmm, seems to be using the Washington Post article[5] by Ruth Eglash. Interesting. And nothing since then. 

Who is this Ruth Eglash. Let's see. Here's the Washington Post's bio on her:

Ruth Eglash has worked as a correspondent for The Washington Post in Israel and the West Bank since 2013. During that time, she has intensely covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel’s elections and a wide range of other political and social topics. Originally from Britain, Ruth previously worked as a senior editor and reporter for The Jerusalem Post. 

Ah she’s from the Jerusalem Post, the Likud's very own newspaper. That's who the Washington Post, that supposedly liberal newspaper, hired to take us out of the darkness. And the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune, both big city papers with big budgets, rely on the Washington Post’s reporter who comes from the Jerusalem Post. You think you are getting different perspectives from big-time papers on opposite sides of the country and it turns out that they all feed from the same troth.

Ruth, you think maybe you should report on the follow-up to the story, show people how it played out? Wouldn't that be an act of a professional and objective journalist? Or are you an Israeli propagandist?

Let's try the Daily News. It's got many Jewish readers who are interested in matters concerning Israel. Millions of Jews live in New York.

Nothing, no mention of anything! I guess the editors have determined that the Jews of Metropolitan New York City only want to hear when Israel is the victim. (Note, if you search on only the last name Badran or Batran, you also get no reference to the story at all.)

Let's try CNN, that notoriously “anti-Israel” outlet

 

Once again, precisely one story[6] from June of that year and no update. And this one is a real doozy:

Israel says Palestinian teen killed by mistake in West Bank

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager early Tuesday in the West Bank, mistakenly believing he was involved in an earlier stone-throwing incident, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Mahmoud Raafat Badran, 15, was on his way home from a swimming pool when the car he was traveling in came under Israeli military fire, Abdul Kareem Qassem, the head of the Beit Ur al-Tahta village council, told CNN.

The boy lived in Beit Ur al-Tahta and had been to a pool in the neighboring village of Tira, both west of Ramallah in the West Bank.

Six other Palestinians in the car were injured, including two who remain in serious condition from gunshot wounds, Qassem said.

IDF soldiers were responding to an earlier incident near the village after stones and Molotov cocktails had been thrown close to a road that links Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and cuts through the West Bank. Three civilians were injured, the IDF said, including tourists from Britain and Belgium.

"Nearby forces acted in order to protect additional passing vehicles from immediate danger and fired towards suspects," an IDF statement said.

The Israeli military said it had detained two suspects in the incident, adding they were not among the injured.

Saeb Erakat, PLO secretary general, condemned the fatal shooting and called on the U.N. special rapporteur to open an investigation into what he described as "extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, particularly children."

Talk about a spin, they believed he was involved in an earlier incident. That's the last that the allegedly anti-Israel CNN has to say about this. If they were so anti-Israel, wouldn't they tell us that in fact we learned that the boy was simply riding in a car, that the soldiers had no information of him being involved in anything. There were no photographs and no witnesses as you might find in a normal country, a normal democracy with an actual justice system. In the end we learn he just happened to be in a car that was passing by as these soldiers woke up from their nap. Is that a mistake? Is firing at a random car a mistake or the result of a mentality that the IDF is above the law, that a soldier can just fire a gun at people when the mood strikes him, that Palestinians are not entitled to legal rights, that their lives are considered expendable?

Shall we continue? I think we get the point. Let's just try the Likud Post, I mean the Jerusalem Post. I have learned to expect the worst from them, but I have to give it a try in the spirit of fairness:

All we get is an article from 2016 where a Post editor gets into a bizarre, lost in his own navel, very neurotic exploration of whether another article, one by Max Shindler that was allegedly something of a eulogy for the boy, was appropriate given Israeli suffering. I can't give you the details on Shindler's article because it no longer appears on the JPost website or shows up in a search there. I guess they got complaints and removed it.

So that's the press which my neighbors insist is so anti-Israel.

Wait, let's try the BBC[7]. 

Israeli troops 'mistakenly kill Palestinian bystander'

21 June 2016

 Israeli troops have accidentally shot dead a Palestinian bystander and wounded several others in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military says.

 A statement said the soldiers were responding after Palestinians threw stones and petrol bombs at vehicles on a main road, injuring three civilians.

 Uninvolved bystanders were "mistakenly hit during the pursuit", it added.

Palestinians said the person killed was a 15-year old boy who had been inside a car when it came under fire.

 An earlier statement issued by the Israeli military had identified him as an assailant.

 The Israeli military said an investigation had been opened into Tuesday's incident, which happened near the Palestinian village of Beit Sira, outside Jerusalem.

 It began with two foreigners and one Israeli being lightly injured when their car was hit by stones on Route 443, a busy road that connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.

 The Israeli military's initial statement said that "nearby forces acted in order to protect the additional passenger vehicles from immediate danger and fired towards the assailants".

 "Forces confirmed hits resulting in the death of one of the attackers," it added.
Two suspects were also arrested, according to the statement.

 Later, the Israeli military revised its account, saying that "after an initial inquiry, it appears that uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit".

 The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and the mayor of the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta identified the bystander who was killed as Mahmoud Badran.

The mayor, Abdul Karim Kassem, told the Reuters news agency that Mahmoud had been in a car with other passengers "returning from a pool in a village near us when they came under fire".

 A hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah told the Associated Press that another Palestinian was moderately wounded and three others lightly wounded.
The incident comes amid a months-long wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank.

 Thirty-three Israelis have been killed in knife, gun and car-ramming attacks since October. More than 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period.

 The assailants who have been killed have been shot either by their victims or by security forces as they carried out attacks. Some attackers have been arrested.

Other Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

Evidently, they believe there was a pursuit, rather than soldiers out of uniform napping in a car who upon waking up decided to fire at the only car they saw. And they call the kid a bystander, one who must have been standing around watching the violence, likely involved in it but just not at that moment. That’s the impression they leave you with. No, he was in a car coming back from a pool. He wasn’t a bystander.

You have to love the phrase “mostly attackers” have been killed by the IDF. Mostly. So how many innocents did they kill? And still we insist that we have the world’s most humane army that does everything it can to prevent harm. The audacity is amazing.

That was in 2016, relying obviously on an IDF spokesman. What has the BBC learned since?

Evidently, the BBC has learned nothing about the either the incident nor about objective and through journalism.  That’s the mighty BBC with their suit and tie wearing journalists with those impressive British accents who aren’t as rational or neutral as they sound.

Now, so we can see how a news organization can do a followup on this matter, we turn to the MiddleEast Monitor which picked up the Haaretz story about the soldier being exonerated.

No charges for Israel soldier who killed Palestinian child returning from swimming
January 12, 2018 

An Israeli army officer who opened fire on a car of Palestinian civilians, killing a 15-year-old boy, will not be prosecuted, it was reported today.

Mahmoud Badran was killed, and four friends wounded, after returning from a swimming pool on the night of 21 June 2016.

At the time, the Israeli military claimed the forces responsible believed the car of youngsters were responsible for throwing stones at Route 443 in the occupied West Bank.

An investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID) has now concluded that the “mistake” was a reasonable one to make in the circumstances, despite the fact that the officer opened fire in violation of the regulations.

According to Haaretz, the officer in question is a platoon commander in the Kfir Brigade, which is based in the occupied West Bank. He, and two colleagues, were driving towards Jerusalem in plain clothes when they noticed stones and an oil patch on the road, and a bus parked up on the side.

After driving to where they believed the stones had been thrown from, the officer and soldiers got out and opened fire on a car driving on a road under Route 443. Open-fire regulations in the West Bank state that when a vehicle does not endanger the soldiers, shots must be fired in the air.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, “massive fire” was directed at the vehicle of Palestinian youngsters, despite the fact that there was zero indication its occupants were responsible for the stone-throwing (and even if there had been, lethal force was unjustified).

The MPCID investigation similarly concluded that the officer had not seen the stone throwers, and targeted the car purely due to its proximity to the site. Despite such findings, no indictment will be filed against the officer, not even for causing death by negligence.

According to Haaretz, the officer faces dismissal for his conduct during the incident. The army spokesperson told the paper that the findings were still being examined by the Military Advocate General’s office ahead of a final decision.

At the time, B’Tselem predicted that the investigation would produce no results, slamming “the military law enforcement system” as “a whitewashing mechanism”.

plfpakistan.com also picked up the story on the same day that Haaretz published it. So certainly the NY Times, NY Daily News, Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and all others could have done the same.

Can I tell what I really think is going on? The press covers for Israel. And by telling you that the press is anti-Israel, then you don't believe them even when they publish something that is slightly critical of Israel, something so bad even they couldn't hide it, even though they likely try to spin it -- the assault on Gaza for example. The notion that the press is anti-Israel is Likud propaganda just like the coverage or lack of it itself is Likud propaganda.

Every day I feel more and more embarrassed to be a Jew, i.e., when I watch the actions of Zionist Jews, which sadly is the great majority in our times. Have we completely lost our morality, our sense of justice and compassion, our commitment to truth? I think we have.

“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini

Jews today will do anything for the state because the state has replaced religion.

I have to remind myself of what religious anti-Zionists like Satmar and the Neturei Karta, and non-religious ones like Mikko Peled so bravely remind us, despite the abuse they take, Zionism is not Judaism. It’s a lunacy that has taken hold of the Jewish people.

JNN

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[1] Yaniv Kubovich, ”Israeli Officer Opened Fire Against Regulations, Killed a Palestinian Boy - but Won't Be Prosecuted,” Jan 12, 2018 11:36 AM, Haaretz, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.834488

[2] Associated Press, “Israeli troops fatally shoot Palestinian boy, 14, officials say,” June 21, 2016,  LA Times, http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israeli-troops-palestinian-boy-20160621-snap-story.html/.

[3] Ruth Eglash, “Palestinian teen killed by Israeli military in apparent mistake,” June 21, 2016, The Washington Post,  http://www.latimes.com/nation/ct-israel-kills-palestinian-teen-by-mistake-20160621-story.html

[4] Ruth Eglash, “Palestinian teen killed by Israeli military in apparent mistake,” June 21, 2016, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israeli-military-says-palestinian-teen-killed-by-mistake-after-stone-throwing-incident/2016/06/21/9a3158fe-72ad-4b5d-a7b9-c6cdcc04ae8c_story.html?utm_term=.ac6924b29f92.

[5] Ruth Eglash, “Israeli military says Palestinian teen killed by mistake after stone-throwing incident,”The Washington Post, June 21, 2016, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-israel-kills-palestinian-teen-by-mistake-20160621-story.html.

[6] Oren Liebermann, Abeer Salman and Michael Schwartz, (CNN), “Israel says Palestinian teen killed by mistake in West Bank,” June 21, 2016 , http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/21/middleeast/israel-palestinians-west-bank-shooting/index.html.

[7] “Israeli troops 'mistakenly kill Palestinian bystander'”, BBC, 21 June 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36587423.