Jeffrey Goldberg: let foreign journalists into Gaza
Journalist and blogger Jeffrey Goldberg has an unusual perspective on the situation in Gaza, having served there as an Israeli soldier and worked there as a journalist. He has interviewed some of the top Hamas leaders and has friends there for whose safety he worries.
He writes:
For the record: I defend Israel’s right to defend itself, but I fear that Gaza will quickly become a quagmire. I fear for the lives of Israelis, obviously, but I also fear for the lives of Palestinian civilians — I have friends there, in harm’s way — in part because the Israeli army (and I say this from personal experience) can be a big, rough bulldozer of an army, and in part (large part) because Hamas terrorists unblinkingly and ostentatiously use their own civilians as human shields. I’ve seen this up-close, and it’s repulsive. One story the media isn’t telling, because it’s impossible to get this story in these circumstances (especially because Israel stupidly won’t allow foreign reporters into Gaza) is how much resentment the Hamas policy of using Palestinians as human shields causes among Gaza civilians. Early reports indicate that Hamas mortar teams were firing from the UN School. This shouldn’t surprise anyone.
One more thing, speaking of pornography — we’ve all seen endless pictures of dead Palestinian children now. It’s a terrible, ghastly, horrible thing, the deaths of children, and for the parents it doesn’t matter if they were killed by accident or by mistake. But ask yourselves this: Why are these pictures so omnipresent? I’ll tell you why, again from firsthand, and repeated, experience: Hamas (and the Aksa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, the whole bunch) prevents the burial, or even preparation of the bodies for burial, until the bodies are used as props in the Palestinian Passion Play. Once, in Khan Younis, I actually saw gunmen unwrap a shrouded body, carry it a hundred yards and position it atop a pile of rubble — and then wait a half-hour until photographers showed. It was one of the more horrible things I’ve seen in my life. And it’s typical of Hamas. If reporters would probe deeper, they’d learn the awful truth of Hamas. But Palestinian moral failings are not of great interest to many people.
Comments
| 7 January 2009, 5:40 pm |
How is unwrapping a corpse and putting it on display the most horrible thing they have ever seen on their life??????? Is Lenin now a crime against humanity?
That said the question I always ask the IDF, UK and US military personel, did you ever kill anyone?
| 7 January 2009, 5:44 pm |
Flankey you are oscene bastard. That you stick up for the pogromist Lenin comes as no surprise.
| 7 January 2009, 5:46 pm |
“If reporters would probe deeper, they’d learn the awful truth of Hamas.”
But “reporters” won’t. For they know and support the aims of Hamas.
| 7 January 2009, 5:48 pm |
There are a considerable number of foreign journalists in Gaza already, and no shortage of reporting. But they are from the Middle East, not Israel or the West.
the question I always ask the IDF, UK and US military personel, did you ever kill anyone?
Whereupon they smile sweetly, give you some toffee, and pat you on the head as you run along and play.
| 7 January 2009, 5:53 pm |
Gene, what do you make of this development? I personally think it is an overreaction…
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3652334,00.html
| 7 January 2009, 5:54 pm |
What the main stream media leaves out:
Hamas reign of terror in Gaza.
“Gazans fear clashes in Hamas-Fatah security dispute
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - A new Palestinian police force being set up in Gaza by the governing Islamist Hamas movement has raised fear of violence.
Tensions between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Fatah group have soared since Hamas swept to power in a January election.
Hamas’s Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades will be the backbone for the 3,000-member force. Fatah, which opposes its formation, has announced plans for a 2,000-strong militia of its own….”
http://www.redorbit.com/…/index.html
and this:
“Hamas moves on Fatah ‘collaborators’”
http://www.jpost.com/…/Satellite
And this:
“Gaza Arab Girl Blames Hamas For Family Members’ Death”
by Baruch Gordon
Hamas is the cause of war in Gaza it is the cause of fear. It has consolidated power and has instituted shariah law as well as executed women for adultery, union members, etc.
Hamas reign of terror in Gaza.
That people like Flankey dance to the tune of Hamas shows how ready they are to blame Israel for every aspect of the Arab Israeli conflict.
| 7 January 2009, 5:56 pm |
Gene, what do you make of this development? I personally think it is an overreaction…
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3652334,00.html
It didn’t surprise me. I posted about it here.
| 7 January 2009, 5:58 pm |
He is ignoring the issue in particular, although he did comment on Chavez applying the HP tactic of “decentism”.
| 7 January 2009, 5:58 pm |
Listen, this former IDF veteran says it all http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
| 7 January 2009, 5:59 pm |
“Whereupon they smile sweetly, give you some toffee, and pat you on the head as you run along and play.”
But then I ask again after eating toffee, did you kill anyone?
| 7 January 2009, 6:02 pm |
Evidently, I have missed that post somehow. That man can be such a reactionary buffoon. I was in awe of him until I visited his country for a two weeks holiday earlier this year. It was an eye opener to put it mildly.
| 7 January 2009, 6:02 pm |
‘But “reporters” won’t. For they know and support the aims of Hamas.’ - what? All of them?
I have to agree with the article. The more reporters the better.
| 7 January 2009, 6:03 pm |
Is the thinking not partly that foreign journalists rely on fixers and stringers who gain a smear of respectability?
I wonder about this cos I heard the BBC talk to Ewa Jasiewicz from the “Free Gaza Movement” on the phone. She talked about the “Israeli Occupation Forces” which is a bit of a giveaway though innit. If she’d just been the adviser for the story, and the BBC reporter was on the scene, we’d have heard exactly her viewpoint, but without the giveaway.
I also find myself actually hoping she is Jewish, cos surely a blond haired blue eyed Pole wouldn’t pursue Jews across Europe and tell them their new home is illegitimate. Meanwhile she is actually in Gaza to help so props to her elbow or something.
| 7 January 2009, 6:03 pm |
“Once, in Khan Younis, I actually saw gunmen unwrap a shrouded body, carry it a hundred yards and position it atop a pile of rubble — and then wait a half-hour until photographers showed. It was one of the more horrible things I’ve seen in my life. And it’s typical of Hamas.”
And of Hezbollah, too. Remember the ghoulish obscenities carried out by Green Helmet Guy during the 2006 Lebanon conflict?
| 7 January 2009, 6:09 pm |
I can’t agree with Jeffrey Goldberg on one count - letting foreign journalists into Gaza. That would be a tactical error of the worst magnitude. The media already uncritically report what they are receiving - how much worse would it be when the BBC etc journalists are being led around by Hamas operatives? That would allowing an even stronger propaganda campaign of lies ands distortion.
He is right about the pornography of modern journalism. Objective?My arse.
| 7 January 2009, 6:10 pm |
One story the media isn’t telling, because it’s impossible to get this story in these circumstances (especially because Israel stupidly won’t allow foreign reporters into Gaza) is how much resentment the Hamas policy of using Palestinians as human shields causes among Gaza civilians.
Another story the media doesn’t tell is Israel’s use of human shields. See, for instance:
In Shajaiyeh, troops seized control of three six-story buildings on the outskirts, climbing to rooftop gun and observation positions, Israeli defense officials said. Residents were locked in their rooms and soldiers took away their cell phones, a neighbor said, quoting a relative who called before his phone was seized.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians/print
In other words, not only Israel takes over civilian houses for military purposes (already a war crime), but it also holds its residents hostage so that the house won’t be shot at.
This is consistent with Israel’s behavior in previous wars. For instance:
An IDF force broke into Mahmoud Rajabi’s home in the Jabel Johar neighborhood in eastern Hebron at about 4 A.M. last Wednesday and forced three brothers to serve as human shields. Some 15 soldiers, armed with rifles, machine guns and observation equipment, took over the fourth-floor apartment where the 16 members of the Rajabi family live, at least half of them minors… Family members said the soldiers ordered most of them to leave, but held three of Rajabi’s sons - Nabil, 30, Raja’ai, 19 and Najah, 13 - captive in the apartment. The three were used as human shields during the soldiers’ stay, against their will…
At first, the IDF spokesman denied that the three brothers were being held against their will and said they could leave whenever they wanted. But the force’s commander told Haaretz that they were holding the three until the operation ended. Apparently unaware of the IDF’s obligation under the High Court decision not to use civilians as human shields, [force commander] Liron said it was normal procedure intended “to protect his soldiers’ lives.” He was also unaware of the IDF Spokesman’s denial that the three were being held until the end of the operation…
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=620507
Note that the Israeli commander takes Palestinian hostages to protect his soldiers’ lives. I.e., he knows that Palestinian snipers won’t shoot at the house knowing that Palestinian civilians are being held captive there.
This definitively debunks the notion that “Palestinians want to maximize their own casualties for publicity purposes.” If that were the case, they would immediately shoot at any Israeli unit that used a Palestinian as a human shield.
| 7 January 2009, 6:15 pm |
Wow how disgusting, they have tanks, planes and choppers and they still hide behind civilians…
| 7 January 2009, 6:34 pm |
With this blog’s motto I would have thought around here would have questioned Israel’s attempts to keep foreign journos out of Gaza by now (unless someone did and I missed it)
| 7 January 2009, 6:36 pm |
Goldberg fails to mention that the goulish Palestinian “Passion Play” is mainly staged for the benefit of the foreign press corps.
The BBC its correspondants and Palestinian stringers are especially complicit in this type of faux journalism.
Anyone with the least idea of what happens in Gaza would know that the entire Alan Johnston “kidnapping” was a staged event by a Hamas front the Salahuddin Brigades - staged so that Hamas could through the good offices of orgainsations like Conflicts Forum/Forward Thinking put out personal feelers to Western Governments as part of Johnston’s “release”.
You can soon read all about this latest fictional take based Robinson Crusoe’s original.
Perhaps Israel isnt being as “stupid” as Goldberg credits it with being and Goldberg isnt being as up front as he should about the complicty of Western journalists and their Palestinian stringers to feed Western media Hamas propaganda.
| 7 January 2009, 6:37 pm |
Correct me if I am wrong, but has Hasbara Banana just posted a story from Yahoo as evidence that the media doesn’t report that kind of story?
Yes, I believe he has.
What a tool.
| 7 January 2009, 6:38 pm |
“How the U.N. Perpetuates the ‘Refugee’ Problem ”
“Nowhere on earth do terrorists get so much help from the Free World.”
By NATAN SHARANSKY
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120586642556073.html#printMode
| 7 January 2009, 6:40 pm |
“Hamas attacks Palestinian unions; TUC backs workers’ organisations”
“More on Hamas and the Unions”
http://newcentrist.wordpress.com/2007/09/08/engage-more-on-hamas-and-the-unions/
“Gazans fear clashes in Hamas-Fatah security dispute
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - A new Palestinian police force being set up in Gaza by the governing Islamist Hamas movement has raised fear of violence.
Tensions between Hamas and the rival Palestinian Fatah group have soared since Hamas swept to power in a January election.
Hamas’s Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades will be the backbone for the 3,000-member force. Fatah, which opposes its formation, has announced plans for a 2,000-strong militia of its own….”
http://www.redorbit.com/…/index.html
and this:
“Hamas moves on Fatah ‘collaborators’”
http://www.jpost.com/…/Satellite
And this:
“Gaza Arab Girl Blames Hamas For Family Members’ Death”
by Baruch Gordon
Hamas is the cause of war in Gaza it is the cause of fear. It has consolidated power and has instituted shariah law as well as executed women for adultery, union members, etc.
Flankey and his Jew hating friends have nothing to say about this.
| 7 January 2009, 6:42 pm |
Heeeeeees back, Hasbara Buster the Argentinian Pogrmochik:
This is what our Argentean pogromchik “Hasbara Buster” keeps not mentioning. He doesn’t want to talk about the Jew hatred in his own country, a hatred in which he participates:
From the BBC:
“Argentina marks 1994 bomb attack” (Note: it’s 15 years and counting)
“Argentines have been marking the anniversary of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires that left 85 people dead and about 300 injured.
Thousands of mourners gathered to honour the dead and called once again for investigations to be stepped up and those responsible brought to justice.
Nobody has ever been convicted, but the current government has said it is determined to secure justice.
A prosecutor last year blamed Hezbollah for the blast, which the group denied.
A siren sounded at the precise time the bomb exploded at 0953 (1253 GMT).
People lit candles, laid roses and held aloft photographs of the victims as the names of the 85 dead were read out.
The blast on 18 July 1994 reduced the seven-storey Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) community centre in Buenos Aires to rubble.
The scale of death and destruction left Argentina’s 200,000-strong Jewish community, Latin America’s largest, in shock.
“We were looking for justice but we found impunity,” read a large banner at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Luis Czyczewsky, whose daughter died in the blast, called for more to be done - not only for the crime to be solved but for Argentina to take a stronger stance against terrorism.
“Today we are left with a sense of impotence, with our anger,” he told the crowd.
“Once again, impunity is winning the battle.”
Unsolved
Over the years, the case has been marked by rumours of cover-ups and accusations of incompetence but little in the way of hard evidence.
Minor figures, including a policeman who sold the van used in the attack have been named, but no-one has been convicted.
Many accused previous governments of doing too little to find the perpetrators. “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5190892.stm
The current administration of President Nestor Kirchner has expressed a firm desire to produce results but so far there has been little obvious progress, says the BBC’s South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler.
Mr Kirchner’s cabinet chief, Alberto Fernandez, said that the courts would do all they could to find the attackers.
Members of the US-based World Jewish Congress (WJC) were to meet the president after the commemorations to add their voices to calls for the authorities to do more.
Local Jewish groups have long said the bombing bore the hallmarks of Iranian-backed Islamic militants.
Iran has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement in the attack.
Last November, an Argentine prosecutor said a member of the Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, was behind the attack and had been identified in a joint effort by Argentine intelligence and the FBI.
But Hezbollah said that the man, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, had died in southern Lebanon while fighting Israel.
The 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, also remains unsolved.”
Don’t talk to me about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, fuck head, talk about Argentinean attacks on Jews.
| 7 January 2009, 6:43 pm |
Has Professor Avi Slime counted the number of rogue states in the UN? Apparently not. I can’t recall Slime’s rage whilst Grozny was being pounded back to the stone-age, nor his rage at the continued mass murder by African Nazis in the Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Uganda, Darfur and ad-obscene-infinitum. Professor Slime makes himself ludicrously irrelevant. Supremely irrelevant and brings shame to the Left.
| 7 January 2009, 6:51 pm |
From the prof’s article;
“In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces.”
This makes no sense. Either Israel unilaterally withdrew or they were driven out. Which was it?
| 7 January 2009, 6:54 pm |
Err both? when you unilaterally withdraw (aka retreat) it tends to happen that you were driven out.
| 7 January 2009, 6:58 pm |
Flanker
“Err both? when you unilaterally withdraw (aka retreat) it tends to happen that you were driven out.”
So when the US withdrew from France in 1946 or from Germany in the 50’s it was because they were driven out.
| 7 January 2009, 7:12 pm |
“So when the US withdrew from France in 1946 or from Germany in the 50’s it was because they were driven out.”
Pay attention, this statement:
“This makes no sense. Either Israel unilaterally withdrew or they were driven out. Which was it?”
Posits that both actions are mutually exclusive, a statement I disproved.
| 7 January 2009, 7:19 pm |
Somehow i don’t recall the Germans calling a daily 3-hour truce to allow supplies into the Warsaw ghetto.
| 7 January 2009, 7:25 pm |
Just read a report that five - yes five - ‘Free, free Palestine’ jihadis held a demonstration in Taiwan yesterday. Don’t scoff! Everythng has to start somewhere. Remember the day when there were only five in the UK, before our Government decided we needed to import far, far more? The Tawaini acorn only needs a bit of TLC. Job for Flanker perhaps?
| 7 January 2009, 7:25 pm |
It wouldn’t make any difference. Most of the press supports Hamas. They report what they are told to report. Can you imagine Christiane Amanpour, with an $800 Hermes scarf on her head giving the Israeli perspective on all of this from inside Gaza? Yeah, no one can. But the upside is that the more insane ‘reporters’ are bound to get killed. Of course their superiors will claim they were assassinated, that they are martyrs and such, but so what? If they stub their toe they blame the Jews anyhow. I say let them in, they’re just going to lie like they always do, but some of them might get shot.
| 7 January 2009, 7:27 pm |
Perhaps Jeff Goldberg might pause to reflect is that the reason Israel isn’t letting foreign journalists into Gaza is that the reality is somewhat different to that which he imagines.
| 7 January 2009, 7:34 pm |
“Just read a report that five - yes five - ‘Free, free Palestine’ jihadis held a demonstration in Taiwan yesterday. Don’t scoff! Everythng has to start somewhere. Remember the day when there were only five in the UK, before our Government decided we needed to import far, far more? The Tawaini acorn only needs a bit of TLC. Job for Flanker perhaps?”
Peace protesters outnumber Israeli protestors 100-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reaction_to_the_2008-2009_Israel-Gaza_conflict
PS this is a nice graph, orange pro-peace, blue pro-Israel.
| 7 January 2009, 7:46 pm |
when it comes to reporters, as with most other things, it’s not quantity but quality that matters. Send in a whole lot of Orla Guerins, Alan Johnsons, Charles Enderlins or Barbara Pletts and you’ll get garbage out.
As for non-foreign journalists already in there covering the story, I gather there should be as much concern about what Hamas (or Fatah, where they rule) allows them to say as there is about an inherent pro-Hamas bias.
One certain thing about Israel keeping foreign journalists out, they don’t have to worry about getting drubbed in the media if one of them gets killed while being used as a human shield.
| 7 January 2009, 7:47 pm |
Wouldn’t it be a great idea if Hamas or PA asked to evacuate the children of Gaza into Israel for safety to be moved from the theatre of war in Gaza. I’d make special camps for them not to far from Gaza in places like Sderot and Ashkelon where they can make friends with the local people and learn that Israelis aren’t demons.
Surely this would be a great humanitarian gesture.
| 7 January 2009, 7:48 pm |
Jews are used to being a tiny minority. And the world does not with Jews well. Nothing new there.
| 7 January 2009, 7:50 pm |
of course I meant “does not wish Jews well.”
| 7 January 2009, 7:51 pm |
“Jews are used to being a tiny minority. And the world does not with Jews well. Nothing new there.”
Paranoia.
| 7 January 2009, 7:53 pm |
RE: How is unwrapping a corpse and putting it on display the most horrible thing they have ever seen on their life??????? Is Lenin now a crime against humanity?
Im sure if the Israelis did it you woul call it a crime against humanity in no time.
| 7 January 2009, 7:54 pm |
Err no, I would call it propaganda, but not “the worst thing I have seen in my life”.
| 7 January 2009, 7:55 pm |
Paranoia, right. 2000 years of Jewish history backs it up, and fuckwad calls it paranoia.
And remember: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
| 7 January 2009, 7:59 pm |
Maybe the Israelis remember the 2006 Lebanon war. All the correspondents who were inside Lebanon were controlled by Hezbollah, and dutifully reported what they were told to. Almost none got near any alternative perspectives– which is why Michael Totten’s reporting from Lebanon outside the war zone was always so much better. And reading the English correspondents like the appallingly biased Tim Butcher, I can’t see them ever produce anything which would take a stance less biased against Israel. On the contrary, I think they’d love to be running even more graphic Palestinians as innocent victims stories. Hamas would be only too delighted to give them the photo ops and the sound bites.
| 7 January 2009, 8:39 pm |
it was Ibn Taymiyya who elevated jihad to a kind-of sixth pillar of Islam
This is a popular misconception. Both Muhammad al-Shawkaany and Ibn Nahaas ad-Dimashqi in the 8th century, long before Ibn Taymiyyah’s time, both wrote at length on the subject of Jihad and its merits.
One could also postulate that sections of the Qur’an and authentic Muhammadan traditions mapped out the importance of Jihad in relation to Islamic theosophy.
Worth a read are Abdullah Azzam’s recollections of the Afghan insurgency,آيات الرحمن في جهاد الأفغان (Signs of ar-Rahman in the Jihad of Afghan) and Ibn Taymiyyah’s early legal treatise on Jihad, السياسة الشرعية في إصلاح الراعي والرعية (The Religious And Moral Doctrine Of Jihad).
| 7 January 2009, 8:41 pm |
“Paranoia, right. 2000 years of Jewish history backs it up, and fuckwad calls it paranoia.”
Uhh yes, you need somebody to give you logic lessons.
“And remember: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”
But a paranoid person behaves ilogically, and lashes out disproportionately. Somebody follows them and they think they are being ambushed, and gods knows what they do next.
| 7 January 2009, 8:41 pm |
Hamas would be only too delighted to give them the photo ops and the sound bites.
I have to agree.
There are some principled journalists but most want a story and if that means splashing the blood and gore of civilians into TV watcher’s homes, so be it.
Jeffrey may or may not be principled.
I would keep them outside and do what Israel has been doing successfully up until now - using good English speakers to quietly put across the message that Hamas is mainly responsible for civilian casualties. Either by purposefully firing their rockets near concentrations of women and children and by using the resources that they had to buy weapons and none for civilian protection.
The biased UN personnel should be expelled from Israel now and others, without a political agenda, sent to replace them.
The limited cease fire for three hours today was a great move and, I feel that many Gazans will appreciate it.
| 7 January 2009, 8:48 pm |
“In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces.”
This makes no sense. Either Israel unilaterally withdrew or they were driven out. Which was it?
Sharon was actually quite careful: He didn’t announce a withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas had been pummelled to a standstill (albeit not a permanent one, sadly) and the IAF had cremated both Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi. This did not stop Hamas claiming that they had driven Israel out, and it didn’t (and doesn’t) stop the gullible, forgetful and mendacious from parroting the same thing.
| 7 January 2009, 9:00 pm |
Well, with the history of kidnapping of journalists in Gaza, I’d also hazzard a guess that the Israelis don’t want the hassle of having to deal with kidnapped BBC hacks while trying to fight in already difficult circumstances.
| 7 January 2009, 9:06 pm |
The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence [sic] Forces.”
This makes no sense. Either Israel unilaterally withdrew or they were driven out. Which was it?
Both.
Israel as a nation withdrew without any agreement from Hamas, who was lobbing rockets into Gush Katif and parts of Israel proper they could reach.
Individuals within the nation were driven out, partly because it was the will of the government, and accepted by the majority, and partly because they had been set up for years as a demon population who due to their stubborn nationalism prevented peace in the region.
The IDF, many of whom agreed with the settlers were forced to do a distasteful, humiliating police action. It was contrary to a soldier’s basic duty to defend his countryman.
| 7 January 2009, 9:07 pm |
It seems from this this report in the Jerusalem Post that there are both military and political reasons for the exclusion of journalists. One is that during the Lebanon war, foreign journos were picking up Israeli command and field transmissions plus reporting too much about the troop movements–helping Hezbollah. And the second is what I previously suggested. See the comments of the Israeli press officer:
“This is the result of what happened in the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah,” said Nachman Shai, a former army spokesman who is writing a doctoral dissertation on Israel’s public diplomacy. “Then, the media were everywhere. Their cameras and tapes picked up discussions between commanders. People talked on live television. It helped the enemy and confused and destabilized the home front. Today, Israel is trying to control the information much more closely.”
The government-commissioned investigation into the war with Hezbollah reported that the army had found that when reporters were allowed on the battlefield in Lebanon, they got in the way of military operations by posing risks and asking questions.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said, “If a journalist gets injured or killed, then it is Central Command’s responsibility.” She said the government was trying to protect Israel from rocket fire and “not deal with the media.”
Beyond such tactical considerations, there is a political one. Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, said, “Any journalist who enters Gaza becomes a fig leaf and front for the Hamas terror organization, and I see no reason why we should help that.”
And by the way, an Iranian reporter was already expelled from the Gaza press corps because he was caught transmitting information to the other side.
Hardly surprising. After all, MI6 has used reporter status in war zones as a cover for its agents for donkeys’ years.
| 7 January 2009, 9:12 pm |
Israel withdrew from Gaza not because they were driven out by Hamas but because it was no longer tenable to waste resources protecting the settlers there.
In the first sentence the author claims they withdrew, which for most implies it was done on their terms, then they were driven out. Which is it?
Why didn’t the author start out be stating that the brave Hamas warriors dealt the vicious zio-nazis such a horrendous blow that they were forced to retreat?
Besides the leaving scorched ground exaggeration, did not a group of business men buy and leave for the Palestinians greenhouses which they promptly destroyed?
After reading this blog for a few months I have come to realize that no matter what Israel does it is wrong according to Flunky, The Erie, etc.
| 7 January 2009, 9:17 pm |
Flanker - “But a paranoid person behaves ilogically, and lashes out disproportionately. Somebody follows them and they think they are being ambushed, and gods knows what they do next.”
How does “appropriately cautious” work, since you have issue with “paranoid”? And when was the last time you acted completely logically. Perhaps you are really a Vulcan, for I know no human who does.
| 7 January 2009, 9:29 pm |
I completely agree with Richard (7 January 2009, 6:09 pm). Under no circumstances should Israel allow journalists into Gaza, to act as willing megaphones for Palestinian propaganda.
| 7 January 2009, 9:46 pm |
People on here call themselves semites,but haven’t got a “sticky glue”what they’re talking about.Arise the Khazarian empire.The evil Of these Zionist Fascist Scumbags have NO END!this is coming from a true Semite.ME!
| 7 January 2009, 10:27 pm |
Err no, I would call it propaganda, but not “the worst thing I have seen in my life”.
If you’ve seen worse than taking the body of a loved one when they are about to be buried away from their family, undraping them and throwing them onto rubble so that the world can be beamed pictures of their dead body then I’d like to know where you’ve been and what you’ve done with your life.
| 7 January 2009, 10:32 pm |
I think one or two alumni of the Flanker school of truth [remember Bush's Reichstag?] didn’t quite understand my point. These utterly wierd Jihadi demos in London, Dublin and other points in Eurabia are put on mainly by jihadis only here by courtesy of our recent cretinous governments. Without them the usual shameless local born cheerleaders would look awfully thin on the ground - as they do at the moment in Taiwan. But once let the government there take advise from the Flanker alumni and they’ll live to bloodily regret it
| 7 January 2009, 11:58 pm |
Flanker @ 7 January 2009, 5:40 pm
“How is unwrapping a corpse and putting it on display the most horrible thing they have ever seen on their life??????? Is Lenin now a crime against humanity?”
I’d say since 1905 or earlier.
| 8 January 2009, 12:06 am |
Doktor Wer, busting the Hasbara Buster,
Hasbara ‘I’m a proven liar’ Buster was exposed a few days ago as a complete liar, and still he keeps posting. Not so much as a word of apology for lying so blatantly. No wonder he shills for the lying terrorists, even if it means fabricating stories and defending the indefensible.
| 8 January 2009, 12:13 am |
Colin, I am inclined to agree with you. Having let them all take refuge here and then promptly lost them from surveillance, the government is too terrified of a backlash to stop them from being as offensive as they can be to kufr.
As regards Goldberg’s column, it’s very interesting, but most people I know are wise to the Islamist’s easy inclination to overdramatise. In that they are a bigger turn off and we should leave them to it.
We were watching the news the other day with some friends who noted how allegedly seriously wounded children were being manhandled and heaved about by paramedics. And there is of course the infamous record of the complaint by the Palestinian TV crew man that mourners at a Gazan hospital were being abused by the media, see
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2008/12/gaza_mourners_exploited.html
Having said all this, from this evening’s news I believe that IDF may have found the answer. We got the first pictures from a foreign cameraman - they didn’t say from which TV station - who was embedded with the Givati brigade. That should be interesting for all concerned, I think.
| 8 January 2009, 12:20 am |
The Guardian claim thats it photographer, Sean Smith, saw the two ambulances in situ, and supported claims that they were deliberately hit by IDF targeted missiles. This claim was used by AI and HRW to accuse the IDF of war-crimes.
I asked the Guardian to show the potentially award winning photographs taken by their leading war photographer.
They refused.
I asked them to have Sean Smith personally, in print, affirm that their reports were correct and that he saw the two ambulances outside the Qana Memorial.
They refused.
I asked the Public Editor to investigate.
He refused and told me I should try the PCC; but as I am not involved they will not investigate.
The majority of the Western Press in the ME appear to work for Hezbollah or HAMAS.
| 8 January 2009, 12:26 am |
“..I have come to realize that no matter what Israel does it is wrong according to Flunky, The Erie, etc…..”
Why should you care? It’s not as if they are important, is it?
| 8 January 2009, 12:32 am |
One story the media isn’t telling, because it’s impossible to get this story in these circumstances (especially because Israel stupidly won’t allow foreign reporters into Gaza) is how much resentment the Hamas policy of using Palestinians as human shields causes among Gaza civilians.
This is scarcely a new story - Tom Gross and Richard Landes have been telling this for years. And Richard Landes explains why the MSM will never tell the whole truth from inside Gaza, whether they be the “guests” of Hamas or embeds with the IDF.
The MSM’s gravy train is in Gaza, for any agency to piss off Hamas would cut it off at the mains; there is, of course, raw intimidation; inability to comprehend the dark side of the Arab mind (”they don’t really mean that”); and the Pallywood industry - most film clips are supplied by Hamas in staged incidents, fake bodies, repeat use of dead children (i.e all the Damien Day tricks and then some).
| 8 January 2009, 1:46 am |
Hemmingway had problems with ambulances in the line of fire, way back when.
| 8 January 2009, 1:50 am |
No matter what her book says people like Kate Adie, and Boyle in Darkest Africa with a BBC expense account, never travel far without their Doxycycline and Boots 2 in 1 shampoo.
| 8 January 2009, 1:58 am |
Why are these pictures so omnipresent? I’ll tell you why, again from firsthand, and repeated, experience: Hamas (and the Aksa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, the whole bunch) prevents the burial, or even preparation of the bodies for burial, until the bodies are used as props in the Palestinian Passion Play.
The pictures are prominent because people are dying. That’s real. I don’t regard that as a “Palestinian Passion Play”. A passion play is a representation. What a disgraceful attitude to a real humanitarian crisis.
| 8 January 2009, 1:58 am |
“How is unwrapping a corpse and putting it on display the most horrible thing they have ever seen on their life???????”
If you had any notion of the sacredness of the dead body in Judaism, then maybe you’d understand. But as you’re clearly a Jew-hating prat, such knowledge would be wasted on you.
| 8 January 2009, 1:59 am |
I finally read a piece that outlines a semi-feasible strategic aim for Isreal - weaken Hamas militarily so that Fatah has a better chance on the next round of the Palestinian Civil. The timing has to do with the end of Bush’s term.
| 8 January 2009, 2:00 am |
Civil war that is
| 8 January 2009, 2:20 am |
It is probably true that Hamas make sure dead children are photographed before burial. The real issue is that they are dead and the Israeli military killed them. Shocking that one needs to point out the obvious. But I suppose par for the course on HP.
| 8 January 2009, 3:07 am |
“How is unwrapping a corpse and putting it on display the most horrible thing they have ever seen on their life???????”
If you had any notion of the sacredness of the dead body in Judaism, then maybe you’d understand. But as you’re clearly a Jew-hating prat, such knowledge would be wasted on you.
And why on earth should Hamas act according to Jewish beliefs??
These Freudian slips are very telling. Some commenters here, just because their superstitions forbid the exposure of dead bodies, think all others should be outraged when a corpse is shown.
To the rational portion of mankind, however, a dead body is a collection of organs that have ceased to function, and using them, either for organ transplant or as evidence of the effects of war, is not in itself wrong.
| 8 January 2009, 4:43 am |
RE: After reading this blog for a few months I have come to realize that no matter what Israel does it is wrong according to Flunky, The Erie, etc.
it took you a few MONTHS???
| 8 January 2009, 6:02 am |
“And why on earth should Hamas act according to Jewish beliefs?? ”
The fact that you can’t tell why is another indication of your rabid Jew hatred.
| 8 January 2009, 6:46 am |
One moment we can have a flat denial by Livni of any humanitarian crisis, and in her next breath she waxes lyrical about “Israel’s values”. I have no doubt Israel has good values, but to whom do they apply? While no doubt having good values, Israel has been robbing or destroying Palestinian property, land and livelihood for years, as well as killing them in considerable numbers. These are the facts, and its not about Jews per se. In fact, its about the ultimate disavowal of antisemitism. Its just confirmation that any religion, race, creed, colour, tint or hue can be colonisers and exploiters, can carry out human rights abuses, for their own nationalistic interests, given the right circumstances - including Jews. Considering the history of that sort of thing across the ages, its confirmation that Jews are neither more virtuous, nor more malign, than anyone else.
| 8 January 2009, 7:17 am |
And why on earth should Hamas act according to Jewish beliefs??
Because most of the religious component of Islam was taken (incompetently) by Moe from Judaism. Moe hated Jews because they laughed at his pathetic religious concoction, particularly the bits he got wrong.
| 8 January 2009, 7:40 am |
“Netanyahu established Hamas, gave it life, freed Sheikh Yassin and gave him the opportunity to blossom”
Ehud Olmert
| 8 January 2009, 8:14 am |
“Netanyahu established Hamas, gave it life, freed Sheikh Yassin and gave him the opportunity to blossom”
Ehud Olmert
as pouted by benjy quoting ” Honest Abe ” Ehud Olmert
Some other guys say it was Rabin who planted Hamas, although at that time the license was for social and charitable works - after all what could a fucking paraplegic do. I predict that years from now the ” Hamas was an Israeli job ” meme will become staple fare for benyj’s descendents. It standard MO for the likes of benjy to hoard any and all things Israelis might say and use the same later, without any context to smear the Jews.
Hey David if you are reading this; how come you told me to shut up some time ago when you allow bastards like Flanker a free rein?
| 8 January 2009, 10:42 am |
I have been watching some of the Press TV and been horrified to see in the Gaza hospital footage that some “doctors” literally rip off the bandages of children’s wounds so that the cameras can film them close up. The children recoil in shock and pain. They have also been trying to ressucitate children for the cameras that are obviously already dead. Images of dead children are heartbreaking enough but this takes it into a whole new realm of ghastliness. This morning on CNN they also showed some footage of what was supposed to be a Gaza camerman filming the tragic death of his twelve year old brother by a deliberate Israeli strike. Whether this is true or not who knows, but again the footage in the hospital looks completely staged to an Orwellian degree and yet we are talking about CNN! I’d be interested in the views of this footage on either side of the debate.
| 8 January 2009, 11:12 am |
Hasbara ‘I’m a proven liar’ Buster, not only are you a liar but you are ignorant too.
“Some commenters here, just because their superstitions forbid the exposure of dead bodies, think all others should be outraged when a corpse is shown.”
Arab culture absolutely forbids such disrespect to a body. If anyone else had used a body for ulterior motives, in the despicable way mentioned here, they would be the first to jump up to express their precious ‘anger’.
| 8 January 2009, 11:31 am |
Keeping the journalists out is for their own safety … otherwise Fisk, McGreal, Orr and so forth would get into bloody fistfights over who gets to stand and sneer for the camera next to the rubble and the injured.
| 8 January 2009, 2:45 pm |
Speaking of shills, could any objective observer of the coverage of this war still think that the UN and in particular UNRWA, especially the emotive Gunn, have not taken sides in the I-P conflict?
| 8 January 2009, 10:49 pm |
I knew the Hamas were a bunch of cowards when they kidnapped Alan Johnston - they didn’t dare kidnap Orla Guerlin who had the job before him did they?
Ha’aretz reported on tuesday (hebrew version at least) that Hamas leaders were holding press conferences in the maternity ward of the hospital in Gaza and that they were hiding in both Red Cross and UN buildings.
For a really good picture of how the foreign press operates in Israel read ” The Other War” by Stephanie Gutman.
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