MSNBC Anchor Scrapes The Bottom Of The Ocean

Bad puns aside, this is insane.

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Via The Blaze:

In an interview with Israel’s top envoy to the United States on Saturday, MSNBC provided yet another example of how much work Israeli officials face in their effort to pass through the filter of the mainstream media and present their side of the story.

MSNBC’s Mara Schiavocampo began her interview of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren straightforwardly enough, asking “What would be the trigger for a ground operation? What’s the red line here?”

Oren answered, “You have the equivalent of what would be about 170 million Americans under bomb shelters. If Hamas continues to escalate we will take the necessary and legitimate measures to defend our citizens.”

Schiavocampo’s second question might be considered more controversial, positing the argument that long-range rockets carrying warheads weighing between 20 and 90 kilograms — 46 to 198 pounds — aren’t actually dangerous to human life. She asked:

“Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they rarely do damage and that the response from Israelis is disproportional to the threat they’re under.”

Oren answered she might want to pose that question to the three Israelis killed by a rocket in Kiryat Malachi on Thursday..Oren suggested Schiavocampo envisage what would happen if Hamas were bombing America. He said:

“Imagine if one rocket had fallen in the United States and not now since the year 2009, our last operation, we’ve had something in the vicinity of 8,000 rockets fall on the State of Israel. That’s more than twice all of the German rockets that fell on London during World War II. And you saw how the British and Americans reacted to that.”

Schiavocampo then posited that because the number of rocket attacks on Israel has dramatically increased since 2009, Israel’s policy has been a “failure.” By way of comparison, she did not attribute the increase in attacks to other possibilities including: Hamas feeling more emboldened since its ideological ally, the Muslim Brotherhood, took control of next-door Egypt or that its ties have only grown stronger with Iran, which provides its long-range Fajr-5 missiles. She asked Oren:

“You mentioned the amount of rocket attacks that have been seen in Israel. In 2009 that number was about 200 and this year it’s been about 700 despite the fact that we’ve been down this road again that Israel has responded with military force in the past. So does this show that Israel ‘s policy towards Gaza has been a failure?”

Oren said that after 12,000 rocket attacks in the past 12 years on Israeli civilians, “We have no option and nor would any other country in the world have an option but to defend our citizens by all necessary and legitimate means.”

To conclude, Schiavocampo asked:

“The people of Gaza say they’ve been under constant siege from Israeli forces from the air and from the sea. And Gaza, as you know, is one of the most densely populated places in the world. So how does Israel justify its use of military force in such a crowded urban environment?”

Oren replied:

“Actually, Gaza is not one of the most densely populated areas of the world. It’s a conventional myth. Tel Aviv is four times more densely populated than Gaza is. But having said that we are operating in a densely populated area, That is true. And we have conducted more than 1,000 air strikes against rocket bases, rocket launching pits, arsenals, command headquarters and we have taken extraordinary, I would even say super-human measures to avoid inflicting civilian casualties there. We’ve made tens of thousands of phone calls, dropped leaflets, we’ve sent text messages to people, civilians in these areas, warning them to clear out. And as a result, we’ve been able to reduce civilian casualties to a minimum. It’s always regretful when civilians are hurt. But up to this point, three-quarters of all the people who have been hurt in Gaza have been armed terrorists.”

12 thoughts on “MSNBC Anchor Scrapes The Bottom Of The Ocean”

  1. Aside from the fact that our response has been amazingly restrained, so it’s proportional anyway, how does one answer the proportionality argument? I assume it’s one of those misunderstood legal terms. Can anyone give me a pointer? How can war possibly proportional, and why would anyone expect it to be?

    1. Ive talked to military guys before and I forget the response, but it was favorable to Israel. Somewhere else I think I read that it is as much force as is necessary to deter future attacks. If someone pokes you repeatedly, is punching them disproportionate?

    2. A female reporter asked the proportionality question of Mayor Bloomberg of New York during Operation Cast Lead and he asked her if she were being attached by one man, does that mean the NYPD should only send one police officer to stop it? She dropped the topic pretty quick.

  2. I have to admit I really don’t see what’s so wrong with this interview. The MSNBC weekend host was positing questions many others are asking and gave Amb. Oren an opportunity to answer without interruption. He did a great job I might add. But all I could really think was “what’s up with his hair?” It looked kind of, I don’t know, poofed up or something. That look Hillary Clinton sometimes presents when she apparently is telling the world “I just don’t care anymore.” And Dave, careful, the pun police will be on your ass for that last pun.

    1. Yes, what’s wrong with Hilary? Her hairstyle always made some sort of statement. I mean she represents the United States; shouldn’t she be looking dignified?

  3. “…yet another example of how much work Israeli officials face in their effort to pass through the filter of the mainstream media and present their side of the story.”

    There’s only “much work” in Israel’s “effort” for the same reason Israel’s campaigns to fend off Arab imperialist aggression take so much hard work and effort and end up bringing nothing but temporary truces to boot. The reason is squeamishness, a misplaced humanism that goes against Jewish values (which hold that we must not seek wars but when they happen on us we must fight them with no holds barred), excessive fear of mere human beings and excessive seeking of the non-Jewish world’s love.

    Encouraged by Eric R.’s excellent comment (and glad to see it’s still there), I present a plan that solves the problem with comparatively little work and effort:

    Officials from the Jewish State, with badges, certificates and all, shall visit the offices of the media outlets and tell those in charge, “You’re going to stop all your subtle and not-so-subtle anti-Israel shtick and publish what we tell you to.” They will answer, “Why should we do that?” The Jewish State officials shall reply, “Because you don’t have excess money to spend on office renovation. And yes, that’s a threat. It’s also a promise.” Of course, the Jewish State will have to follow up on the threats to enforce compliance. However, given that the media lackeys of Islamic imperialism are cowards—as evidenced from their lack of extensive coverage of really dangerous places like Syria or North Korea—this won’t have to be done a lot of times before they get the message and fall in line.

    “Thug tactics,” say our enemies? Whatevs. This is a ruthless world, and survival demands self-defense without artificial, self-imposed constraints. Since the media are evidently taking an integral part of the war effort on behalf of Islamic imperialist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, it is only fitting that they be treated accordingly.

  4. I have never had the stomach for the “disproportionate response argument”. Is israel supposed to wait till there are casualties, then fire, bring careful to kill the same number of people? Should Israel not use the iron dome in order to ensure greater number of casualties faster? What is this insanity? Do these ifiots imagine this is a gentlemans’ code or a chess game? Maybe as well as food and medical supplies coming in from Israel, they should also supply better rockets to Gaza, to, you know, ensure a more level playing field? Geez.

  5. E Pluribus Beagle

    Keeping in mind that MSNBC is the closest thing we have in the US to a state owned media operation functioning as an official White House Department of Information/Political Propaganda.

    I mean that quite literally. There is little that issues forth from MSNBC that doesn’t first pass muster with the White House or visa versa. For instance they used the same slogans verbatim during the election campaign and all of their talking points were and are 100% interchangeable. Moreover, their chief propagandist, Chris Matthews has repeatedly said on air he’s angry at Israel for quote ‘attempting to control our elections’ unquote.

    1. Chris Matthews says a lot of stupid stuff on a lot of subjects, but he happens to be largely right this time (although inartfully said). And if you have any allegiance to the concept of truth in advertising, could you please change your handle to “Hyperbole Beagle?” Keep the adorable avatar, though (makes some of your statements a little less harsh, somehow).

      1. E Pluribus Beagle

        Three days before the election Obama stopped using the slogan “Forward” and switched to MSNBC’s “Lean Forward”. It seems trivial but it’s not, nor is is accidental.

        I’m sorry you feel that US law is in error as it permits expats the freedom to vote in US elections. Maybe Obama’s one party state mandate can change all of that, at least for the Jews, uh I mean Zionists, of course.

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