BBC: Fake But Accurate

(Via Michelle Malkin)

In the face of many scandals in the last few years involving major media outlets using false information to run stories popular with people of a certain political persuasion (CBS's Rathergate and The New Republic's Scott Beauchamp debacle come to mind), the BBC is often touted as the ideal news agency. Au contraire:

On Friday, March 7, 2008, the BBC’s World News with Jonathan Charles (seen in the U.S. on PBS stations as part of BBC America) aired footage purporting to show the demolition and burning of a house that belongs to the family of Ala Abu Dheim, the terrorist who murdered eight students and wounded nine others in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva (Rabbinical Seminary) .

Against footage of a bulldozer destroying a burning home, BBC reporter Nick Miles was heard in voiceover proclaiming:

In the hours after the attack, Israeli bulldozers destroyed his [the terrorist’s] family home. Later, his mourners set up Hamas and Islamic Jihad banners nearby.

But the BBC allegation was patently false.

In fact, the film clip selected by BBC staff could not possibly have been of the terrorist’s family home, as it is still standing (as of March 12) and, together with the nearby public mourning tent erected by the family, serves as a shrine dedicated to the "martyred" terrorist. That such a shrine is still allowed to remain in place has, in fact, prompted public outrage among Israelis and members of Knesset across the political spectrum. On Monday, March 10 – three days after the report aired – Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik (Labor) petitioned the Attorney General to order the demolition of the public tent and the terrorist’s family home.

The fact that this deceptive reporting targets Israel is not much of a surprise. Many of the examples of false news reporting, photoshopping, and mythologizing (think Jenin "massacre") are merely instances of media activism against Israel designed to inspire sympathy with Palestinian murderers. The BBC itself has a notorious recent history of anti-Semitism, or at the very least hatred of the state of Israel.

Notice, for example, the headline of this story: "Israelis kill four in West Bank." The article makes it sound like cold-blooded murder, but the "four" are members of the violent Islamic Jihad and were carrying assault rifles. The Israelis were a commando team. The next section describes Islamic Jihad's claim that the Israeli raid undermines any chance of a ceasefire, and the subheading reads, "'Ceasefire undermined.'" This is a ridiculous accusation from an organization dedicated to destroying Israel by any means necessary, especially in light of the constant rocket attacks launched against Israel daily and the repeated violations of negotiated ceasefires by Palestinian groups, but that's what gets the headline. The only background information in the article is the recent violence in Gaza; no mention of the yeshiva students ruthlessly gunned down days ago.

The Politically Incorrect Guide To What I'm Really Thinking

(Via Powerline)

Apparently all it takes to be a "moderate" in the Middle East is not to say that you want to kill Jews and destroy Israel in English. It's the soft bigotry of low expectations all over again! Anyway, Mahmoud Abbas said some fairly nasty things about Israel. TW2 doesn't know what they were, but they seem to involve violence, not recognizing the Zionist state, stuff like that. What I do know is that he said it in Arabic, just like MOST of the Palestinian leaders do when they want to reassure their constituents that all that stuff about getting rid of NAFTA--check that, cooperating with Israel--is just a ruse. (It's kind of like the Navajo wind talkers, except we actually know Arabic. So...it's a like a secret code for use against willfully ignorant people. Your tax dollars at work! Seriously, as you'll see.) But Abbas actually got caught, thanks to the Palestinian Media Watch.

President Bush, zealously following Clinton's traditional Presidential Roadmap to Peace (TM)--where the rest stops have two lanes, one marked "American Officials" that leads to a place with vending machines and bathrooms and one marked "Israeli People" that leads out into oncoming traffic on Intifada Route 3--has asked for millions of your dollars to go to the Palestinian Authority, Abbas's outfit. If you can't trust an organization with a history of using aid ambulances to hide terrorists, whom can you trust?

In all seriousness, it is imperative that we stop negotiating with people who have no intention of coming to a real compromise. Our history of mediation between Israeli officials willing to agree to enormously sacrificial deals and Palestinians who reject them outright or accept them only to break their agreement the following week has been a fiasco for long enough. No more Nobel Prizes for murderers like Arafat and Abbas; only isolation and defeat.

Israeli Oppression of Suicide Bombers Continues Apace

(Via PowerLine)

An Israeli soldier continued his nation's long, horrific history of barbarism and oppression when he shot to death a second suicide bomber found among the victims of the Dimona bombing. HotAir has the video.

The two bombers, who were friends, represented Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, closely associated with Hamas. Wait, no...not Hamas, that other organization. Fatah. You know the guys. The ones led by the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas, who recently declared three days of mourning for the dead murderer George Habash.

With moderates like Abbas, who needs extremists? By the way, if history is any indication, Abbas is likely well on his way to a Nobel Peace Prize.

After the Oslo Accords disaster, you would think that American politicians would learn. But George W. Bush has continued Clinton's failed strategy, and the next president will probably do the same. The "Roadmap To Peace" is useless unless both sides are negotiating in good faith; I can think of one side that isn't.