Media Bias Of The Day: Evil NYT Photo Edition

A young palestinian stabs a 19-year-old Israeli soldier in cold blood, while the latter is sleeping next to him on a bus.

How does the NY times report it?

By leading with a headline focusing on the fact the murder (referred to as a mere “attack”) “worsens tensions” (the real tragedy here?) , along with a photo of the murderer’s upset family fawning over photos of him (the real victims deserving of our sympathy here?)

attackers family

But it gets worse (believe it or not). The report itself focuses on Israel’s “settlement” building.

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian teenager fatally stabbed a 19-year-old Israeli soldier on a bus in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to the police, shocking Israelis who have grown unused to such killings in their cities and further clouding a peace process that was already severely strained by Israeli settlement plans in the West Bank.

Infuriated by news of long-term planning for more settlement housing, the Palestinian leadership is expected to meet on Thursday to discuss the future of the American-backed negotiations, which began this summer and were supposed to continue for nine months.

The latest crisis was set off by reports on Tuesday that Israel’s housing minister, Uri Ariel, had started planning for about 20,000 new settlement homes. But some officials suggested that talk of a possible collapse of the negotiations amounted to posturing, especially after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Mr. Ariel to “reconsider” his new settlement plans, essentially putting them in suspension.

“If the Palestinians want to create an artificial crisis, that’s unfortunate,” a senior Israeli official said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the peace talks in public. Dismissing Mr. Ariel’s plans as having no legal standing or practical significance, the Israeli official said the Palestinians were “going through the motions.”

Arik Ben-Shimon, an aide to Mr. Ariel, said on Wednesday that the new settlement planning was “frozen” but not canceled. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, who offered his resignation two weeks ago, along with his fellow negotiator Muhammad Shtayyeh, in frustration over a lack of progress in the talks and the continuing settlement activity, said Mr. Ariel “needs to revoke the orders,” indicating that the issue was far from resolved.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, confirmed in an interview with Egyptian CBC television this week that the Palestinian negotiating team had resigned, though it was never clear if the resignations had been accepted. Mr. Abbas said he was trying to persuade the negotiators to continue, adding, “If they don’t accept, I will form another team.”

The interview was recorded two days before the Palestinians learned of the latest settlement plans, according to Mr. Erekat.

The stabbing of the soldier on Wednesday also prompted calls for a rethinking on the Israeli side. Right-wing Israeli politicians have demanded a re-examination of Israel’s agreement to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in four batches as part of a deal to resume peace talks. Two of the four groups have already been released.

In a post on her Facebook page, Tzipi Livni, the minister leading the negotiations for the Israeli government, wrote: “I wrote here earlier and harshly criticized the damage in announcing settlement construction, but I took the post off because the profound political debate about the future of our life here will certainly continue, but not now. Now I would like to pay my respects to the memory of the soldier and express sorrow to the family and to clarify one more thing: violence will not bring political achievements. And we will fight terrorism and extremists decisively and without compromise.”

The stabbing took place when the bus, traveling from Upper Nazareth to Tel Aviv, pulled into a station in the northern town of Afula.

The Israeli military said that the recently conscripted soldier, Eden Atias, 19, was in uniform at the time of the attack and that he had been on his way to an army base. He was stabbed several times in the upper body, according to Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police. Mr. Rosenfeld said that a 16-year-old Palestinian, who was from the Jenin area of the West Bank, was apprehended at the scene and that he told security personnel that he had acted to avenge relatives in an Israeli prison.

The Palestinian news media identified the suspect as Hussein Ghwadreh and said he had two cousins serving terms in Israeli prisons, one of them a life term, apparently for killing two Israelis.

The attack came after a string of violent episodes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in recent months that ended a period of relative calm. Since September, an Israeli soldier has been killed in Hebron, apparently by a Palestinian sniper; an off-duty soldier killed by a Palestinian acquaintance who had lured him to the West Bank; and a retired colonel bludgeoned to death outside his home in the Jordan Valley.

In the last week, an Israeli couple escaped from a burning car after it was hit by a firebomb on a West Bank road, and a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after he opened fire at a bus stop with a homemade handgun.

Israeli security officials have attributed the rise in attacks to unrelated individuals rather than an orchestrated campaign backed by militant groups. A number of Palestinians have also been killed recently in clashes with Israeli soldiers. Three were killed in one arrest raid that turned violent in August.

Mr. Netanyahu and several of his ministers have blamed incitement against Israelis and Jews in the Palestinian Authority-sponsored news media and schools for the violence. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli minister of strategic affairs, said Wednesday that the main obstacle to peace was “a culture of hatred sponsored by the government, sponsored by the Palestinian Authority.”

A Palestinian official involved in the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss them publicly, accused the Israeli government of “playing games.” The attack on the soldier was “an isolated incident by an individual,” he said.

The parts in bold represent the sections dealing with “settlement” building. And besides the mention of the stabbing in the first paragraph, the next mention is all the way down in the eighth paragraph.

The really depressing thing is I am not even surprised any more.

(hat tip: Omri)

49 thoughts on “Media Bias Of The Day: Evil NYT Photo Edition”

  1. We all know that the news coverage around the world would be drastically different if a sleeping Arab teenager was brutally stabbed to death on a bus by a Jewish teenager.

    Double standards and deep visceral bias…

  2. I’m not sure how this is controversial.

    The building of 20,000 new illegal settlements on Palestinian land is far more newsworthy then one IDF soldiers being killed. Settlements are the major roadblock for peace in one of the most contested conflicts of our time. While tragic, the IDF soldier dying simply isn’t on that level.

    Also, Palestinian civilians are killed all the time in the occupied territories, and it doesn’t exactly “make headlines” here.

    1. 1) 20,000 new “illegal” settlements? There is not room in that tiny patch of real estate for 20,000 new communities.

      2) Jews cannot “occupy” their own homeland. If the Arabs want to contest ownership of parts of the Jewish homeland, the way to do so is not by stabbing innocently sleeping teenagers. You are perverting the truth by using inaccurate loaded terms like “occupied.”

      3) It is sick to compare murder of innocent boys with building homes

      1. 1.) Its not my “opinion” that the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are illegal. That is the opinion of nearly every country in the UN (except Israel), the World Court, International Court of Justice, and Human Rights Organizations.

        2.) Its not “sick” to compare the death of one person (a soldier no less), to the destruction, confiscation, and illegal settlement of thousands of Palestinian civilians, who if they refuse, are either tortured or killed.

        There’s a reason the world considered it more newsworthy, and that’s because it is.

        1. 1) And your point? It is still your opinion. It is still their opinion. Such opinions have no basis in international law. There is no law forbidding a government from allowing voluntary movement of its citizens.

          2) Palestinians who refuse what are tortured and killed? What are you talking about?

          1. 1.) Well yes, its an opinion. However, I think we can agree that the opinion of the worlds finest Jurists (some Jews themselves), every country on Earth, International Courts, and Human Rights Organizations (Israeli ones as well), count for something.

            2.) Read the Amnesty International and Israeli B’Tselem Human Rights Reports. They extensively document IDF torturing and killing Palestinians who refuse to be shoved off their land.

            3.) And yes, there is a law preventing Israel from demolishing Palestinian homes, on Palestinian land, to build Jewish-only homes in their place.

              1. According to the World Court, International Court of Justice, and UN, the West Bank is occupied territory.

                What judicial body says that the West Bank is disputed and not occupied territory?

                1. Great to see you know how to read Wikipedia, but the situation is more complex than you make it. And the ICJ and World Court is the same thing, so you might want to be a bit more careful when copying and pasting.

                  The UN’s bias against Israel is a joke, and the ICJ issued an advisory opinion (go look up what that means). I studied international law at university and Israel’s legal arguments that it is disputed territory has merit, the central one being that since no internationally recognized country can be considered clear and rightful owner of the WB, the term “occupation” should not apply, and likewise the Geneva conventions governing occupations.

                  1. Thanks for the substantive response Dave, this is the kind of dialogue that needs to occur.

                    Sorry for the confusion, when I say World Court(s) I refer to the judicial opinions of individual nations, not a single court like the ICJ.

                    “no internationally recognized country can be considered clear and rightful owner of the WB”

                    Says who? Only Israel, and that’s the problem. Nearly every other scholarly body in the world comes to a different conclusion using International Law.

                    If you can link/quote me a direct article from International Law that definitively shows that the Palestinians can’t claim the West Bank, then that may be a different story, but until then, its the world’s opinion, against Israel’s.

                2. The Bible: The land of Israel Belongs to the Jews. Its Their birthright. The Ishmaelim. Sara’s handmaid’s Son was sent away, The Arabs have NO rights to the land. They just want to KILL JEWS. Get educated fools

        2. Kane; Settlements are part of the negotiations. Most, if not all, new construction takes place INSIDE already existing communities and land swaps are an easy solution which the Palestinian negotiators already have accepted for more than a decade; what are people like YOU then talking about? How could this ever be an obstacle, let alone the *major* obstacle? How about PA tv constantly brainwashing their viewers (from kids tv on) with how evil Jews are, enemies of Allah and should be killed to bring forth Judgment Day? Mind you, all paid for with the International Communitiy’s annual billion euro donations.

          Valueing houses over life; get educated about the conflict please, stop reading European and Arabic news.

          1. Wait, so MOST illegal settlements are built on previously stolen Palestinian land? Oh, that makes it okay then.

            Settlements are a problem, when as negotiations are taking place, Israel is demolishing and building on the very land Palestine is negotiating for. Israel also refuses to cease settlement activities during negotiations.

            Land Swaps are all well and good, until you realize (as the world did in 2001) that Israel isn’t willing to give up any desirable land that is legally owned by the Palestinians (East Jerusalem).

            Nobody denies that the PA/Hamas brainwash their supporters against Israel, but the same can be said for Israel and Israelis. Why, just on this blog, people have dismissed all the evidence showing Israel’s wrongs by the UN, International Courts, and Human Rights Organizations, as they all must be “anti-semetic”.
            They don’t feel the needs to provide evidence for this radical claim, they simply BELIEVE it, because as the Israeli government has told them, any criticism of Israel is anti-semetic.

            You seem to miss that dozens of Palestinians are killed during Israeli settlement encroachment. So yes, I value dozens of lives over 1 life.

            1. The palestinians are not “negotiating for” anything if you bothered paying attention. They are making demands as preconditions for even talking to Israel.

              Saying Israel is not willing to give up any desirable land is patently dishonest and flies in the face of recent history. On the other hand, the palestinians have shown they are not flexible in this regard.

              It is also an outright lie that Israel claims any criticism of her is antisemitic. Anti-Israel people like you love to use this strawman argument to discredit the pro Israel side.

              1. 1.) Israel has preconditions as well, one of which being that the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.

                2.) What is wrong with the settlement pre-condition? How can the Palestinians negotiate for land, while at the same time that very land is being taken for Jewish only settlers?

                3.) Both Israeli public opinion polls, and the official positions of the Israeli government during the 2000/2001 negotiations, is that East Jerusalem would not be ceded to the Palestinians. This includes various settlements that Israel refused point-blank to surrender. This is an issue, considering the entire world (except Israel), defines this as Palestinian land.

                4.) Israel doesn’t “claim” that criticism is anti-Semitic, they just accuse anyone who criticizes them as being so.

                1. 1) This is an existential issue without which there can be no negotiations. If they do not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, there is nothing to negotiate.

                  2) Settlements are a red herring issue. If an agreement leads to the dismantling of settlements, Israel would do so. Israel showed it is willing to do so when it left Gaza. You cannot compare recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and houses.

                  3) There are various ways to approach negotiations and creative ways to solve seemingly intractable problems e.g. land swaps. So what is your point exactly?

                  4) Your generalization is simply way off mark

        3. Kane, you have no idea what you are talking about and what the reality really is here in the land of Israel.

          You are so full of mind-twisting Orwellian Arab propaganda code words — “illegal settlements” “Palestinian land” “torture” “expelled” “confiscation” etc., that you are incapable of honest, fair, open-minded critical thinking.

          Israellycool, I would suggest that you let Kain peddle his baseless hatred and ignorance somewhere else — like Richard Silverstein’s blog — instead of giving him a platform for deception on your fine blog.

          1. Harry, I am going to take issue with this “Arab propaganda” descriptor you used. I don’t get a single one of my points from Arabs.

            Its the opinion of the UN (every country except Israel), World Courts, and Human Rights Organizations, that the settlements of the West Bank and Gaza are illegal, that the Palestinians have been expelled from parts of their land, and are regularly tortured/brutalized under the occupation.

            I sincerely hope you aren’t one of those people who believes the entire UN, International Court of Justice (with Jews serving as judges), and Human Rights Organizations (including Israeli organizations), are involved in an anti-semetic conspiracy, to make Israel look bad.

            1. Again with the strawman “antisemitic conspiracy” argument. You are oh so predictable and, quite frankly, I am finding arguing with you rather boring and not challenging.

              1. How is it a strawman?

                I list esteemed international judicial bodies like the UN, World Court, and Human Rights Organizations.

                The response I get from fellow posters is, “what the world says doesn’t matter, they are all anti-Semitic. ”

                Many on this forum seem to feel like there is an anti-semetic conspiracy aimed at making Israel look bad.

    2. The only time the killing of a Palestinian doesn’t exactly “make headlines” is when the killer is not an Israeli. This much is abundantly clear. A Palestinian life become very, very dear if an Israeli takes it, but is quite cheap otherwise.

      And the only reason this is “one of the most contested conflicts of our time” is because it involves Israel (ie Jews). Forgive me if I have my doubts that you would give a flying f*** about this conflict if it were Palestinians vs., say, Kazakhstan.
      If/when the Palestinians ever get their state, and when they declare it 100% Jew-free, and when they outlaw any Jewish presence within it, I do hope you’ll come back here to show your outrage at Palestinian intransigence. Because you have such a refined moral compass.

      1. I cant’ speak on Israeli news sources, but as far as American CNN/Fox, it almost never gets headlines, unless it is a large slaughter.

        I also take the issue with the idea that this conflict is so infamous simply because Jews are involved. Its infamous because it has led to war throughout the Middle East, and involves a staggering occupation by one power, over millions of refugees locked just outside their old homes.

        While it would be regrettable, it would be well within a Palestine-state’s rights to declare their country “Jew-free”, just as it would be well within Israel’s right to declare their country “Muslim-free”.

        There’s only a problem when to accomplish this goal, the ethnic minority is forcefully evicted from their homes, under pain of death (current situation). That’s when it shifts from “mean” to “genocidal”.

        1. And so, when the Arabs ethnically cleansed their lands of Jews in the 1950s, it was “regrettable, but well within their rights”, but also “mean and genocidal”, right? No doubt it sickens you to read the history of how the Arabs forcefully evicted 800,000 Jews from their homes under pain of death in the 20th century. No doubt you feel terribly repelled by that event.

          1. The Jewish exodus from Arab lands post 1948 was regrettable, but as stated earlier, it was NOT well within the Arabs rights, since the Jews were expelled.

            You are mistaken about the 800,000 number. That is roughly the number of Jews who emigrated to Israel from Arab lands, but many of these Jews weren’t “expelled”, but came willingly.

            Jordan is one of the main Arab countries who expelled Jews, and has since given Israel some compensation. What compensation has Israel given the Palestinians, other then to take even MORE land?

            But yes, of the Arab countries that expelled Jews forcefully, I find them repugnant.

            1. Actually there were zero Jews living in Jordan because when the British split the Palestinian mandate in half and gave half to the Hashemites to rule over in 1922 they banned any Jews from living there. In fact in any land captured by the Jordanians in 1948 the Jews were immediately murdered or expelled (ie.. the Jewish quarter of the old city) As for Jews moving voluntarily, do you call the exodus of the Syrian Jews after all the Jews homes in Allepo were burnt down by a howling mob in 1947 voluntary?

        2. Millions of refugees? Most of the “refugees” are literally not refugees. They never fled an area. Just because the UN calls them refugees it doesn’t mean they are.

          1. Funny how some people think that Israel engages in rampant torture and genocide, and at the same time insist that the “refugees” now number in the “millions”. Looks like Israel is gonna need some good genocide lessons! The aim of rampant murder is to decrease the population, silly Israel – not make it grow exponentially!! Not only is the Israeli Army evil, it’s also bumblingly ineffective.

          2. I am going by the UN definition. While its true that just because the world calls them refugees doesn’t make it so, I don’t see a more reputable organization who disagrees with this label, so it stands for now.

        3. the ethnic minority is forcefully evicted from their homes, under pain of death (current situation). That’s when it shifts from “mean” to “genocidal”

          Again with the lies and propaganda. It is times like these when your veneer of trying to appear even-handed disappears, and your real agenda shines through.

          Talk in facts and not palestinian propaganda points. And you make such claims on here again, and I’ll be “forcibly evicting” you from here.

          1. I don’t see how this is “propaganda”.

            Amnesty International and B’Tselem have extensively documented these cases.

            Israel gives the green-light to bulldoze Palestinian homes in the West Bank. If a Palestinian refuses to move, he is either beaten, imprisoned, or in some cases, killed.

            1. Genocide is extermination of a large group of people. You claimed Israel commits genocide in pursuit of house demolitions. I want evidence of this or – as I told you – it is nasty propaganda that won’t be tolerated on here.

    3. well if it was your child stabbed to death in his sleep you would be singing a different song i only know such grief will come upon you or someone you love very soon!

    4. They are not illegal settlements and it is not Palestinian land. Not only do you not possess a heart you do not possess a brain how can you compare the murder of a young sleeping boy with building homes.

      1. The UN (every country in the world except Israel), World Courts, and Human Rights Organizations, all say the settlements are illegal, as they are on Palestinian land.

        The building of illegal settlements leads to many Palestinian deaths, I’m not simply talking about the home being built.

          1. Baloney?

            The theft of Palestinian land under pain of death radicalizes the population against the IDF. Clashes between both soldiers and settlers have often led to injuries, and in worse instances, death.

            If there were no settlements, the violence between the two groups would be significantly lessened.

            1. Have you even been here before? You really are sounding foolish.

              I have lived in a “settlement” before, and the palestinian who worked there were friendly and relations were good. Then the palestinian leadership decided to go all intifada on us, and things changed.

              Again you make the claim of “theft of Palestinian land under pain of death.” Again, I will warn you about spreading unsubstantiated propaganda.

    5. Kane, you are talking out of your ass. Your mind has been poisoned by Arab propaganda. Not only that, you are a hypocrite! If you were really.concerned about Palestinians, you would worry about the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed or left homeless because of the war in Syria. Even before the war, LIKE IN EVERY OTHER ARAB COUNTRY, Palestinians are treated as second-class and are not allowed to become citizens!!! The same is true in Lebanon and Jordan – the refugees are put into camps and pretty much left to starve. But are you protesting that? No! Are you protesting the fact that Hamas takes millions of tons of cement and builds terror tunnels while the Palestinians go begging for construction materials? No to that too! Check out how badly Palestinians are treated in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, just to name two. Palestinians are treated much better in Israel than in any Arab country!!! And for the record, the Palestinians are living on JEWISH LAND by INTERNATIONAL LAW!!! Go check what the Balfour Declaration, the San Remo Conference, and the League of Nations hane to say about who got the lands of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. (There was no “West Bank” then because Jordan named Jewish lands that name when they conquered, occupied and ethnically cleansed all the JEWS from their homes in 1948!!!) You don’t have to take my word for anything (as you obviously did for your Palestinian friends), just check any map before 1948 and you will see that the “West Bank” is NOT on it! If you can’t be bothered to check out these facts, then you have proved yourself to be nothing but a big mouth anti-Semite, Israel hater and the hell with you!

  3. btw kane
    if you repeat the extremly absurd lies you hear on cnn bbc cbs and other media companies ( some owned by arabs who have a clear anti semetic agenda) i got news for you IT WON”T MAKE IT TRUE YOU ASSHOLE people like you degrade humanity by your lies the shit you just told is less reall then disney fantasy
    1. there were never even were such a thing called palastinians until 1948
    2. israel is not on occupide terittory the arabs sold this lend to the jewes
    3. after 1948 war the arabs who didn’t escape got ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP and didn’t get killed
    4. most of the palestinians are refugees from jordan and egypt….after the six day war when israel won and occupied Sinai (wich was returned to egypt on peace agreement later on) it came with the gaza strip wich the egyptians didn’t “want” back ( ummm i wonder why??) same goes for jordan and the palestinians in the west bank
    5.Judea and Samaria aka the west bank is a holly and historicall place for jewes and contains remains and Evidence of jeweish culture dating back 3000 years!! (check your bible if you are relegious).(and NG or history channel or history books if you are not)
    6.fuck yourself and have a “nice” life you creep

    1. My sources aren’t from CNN or Arab sources, but from the United Nations (every country except Israel’s opinion), the World Courts, and Human Rights Organizations.

      1.) Palestinians have existed in “Palestine” for centuries. They were majority Muslim, minority Christian/Jewish. I’m not sure what you are talking about here.

      2.) The Palestinians NEVER sold the West Bank or Gaza to anybody. You are referring to much of the area that Israel-proper occupies today, not the occupied territories.

      3.) Many of the Arabs who weren’t driven from their homes in 1948 were later expelled pre/post 1967. While its true that some Arabs were granted citizenship, I’m not sure how that contradicts the point I was making above.

      4.) Many of the Palestinians ARE from Egypt/Jordan, but they were from Palestine before that, so yes, its no accident that the UN refers to them as Palestinian refugees.

      The Egyptians are not the Palestinians, and were not negotiating on behalf of them. Just because it was OK with Egypt, does not make it okay (or legal). Same with Jordan/West Bank, except there was never a formal treaty giving all of the West Bank to Israel.

      5.) Irrelevant. So if my ancestors lived somewhere around your house thousands of years ago, you wouldn’t mind if I kicked you and your family out? After all, it is my “ancestral homeland”, by that logic.

      1. 1) No people called “palestinians” existed in the area of “Palestine” for centuries. I suggest you read my post here for your education:

        http://www.israellycool.com/2013/11/06/young-palestinians-post-the-real-truth-about-palestine-in-response-to-danny-ayalon/

        2) The palestinians were not in control of the “West Bank” and “Gaza” prior to Israel capturing them in the 1967 war of self-defence. That would be Jordan and Egypt, yet the palestinians never complained. The above link explains this as well, including the relevant provision of the Palestine National Charter.

        3) Please provide a credible source, including numbers

        4) Who says they were from “Palestine” before that. Credible source please.

        And by the way, the UN definition of a palestinian refugee is unbelievably broad, and includes those who lived in “Palestine” a minimum of only two years preceding 1948, as well as descendants of these “refugees.” This is why the number of registered palestinian refugees is now well over 4 million.

        http://www.israellycool.com/2007/08/28/the-refugee-issue-examined/

        5) Why is that irrelevant? Our ancestors were kicked out first. And the Arabs had a chance to accept the UN participation plan, but instead rejected it, launched a war against us and lost.

      2. Palestinian murders Israeli is what the headline should read. The New York Times won’t publish headlines that say “Palestinians kill..” or “Palestinian murders Israeli”. To do so would destroy their false narrative of the Palestinian victim and Israeli aggressor. The NYT has been working long and hard to sweep Arab crimes under the rug. In 1978 Palestinians poisoned Israeli oranges which sickened Dutch children. Years later they would falsely accuse Israel of doing this. Between 1920-1946 more than 500,000 Arabs illegally migrated into modern-day Israel. Decades later the Arabs called themselves Palestinians and accused Jews of doing the same thing. See the pattern again?

        Everything they accuse the Jews / Israelis / Zionists / Americans of doing to them is something they have already done to us.

      3. So the Palestinians ARE from Egypt/Jordan but were from Palestine before that? Huh? You sound like John Kerry. Arafat was born in Egypt in 1929. Please explain Kane.

        You’re right about one thing: “The Palestinians never sold the West Bank or Gaza to anybody.”

        Because there weren’t “Palestinian Arabs” back then. There were Arabs with the surnames Nusseibeh, Degani and Husseini and they DID sell land to Jews and others for exorbitant prices. Land deeds don’t lie.

  4. Murder and random violence are bad enough, but this one definitely has a political motive to it. Seems to happen far too often among the Palestinians in the West Bank. It might be better for Israelis if they could separate themselves even more from the Palestinian population for safety sake.

    1. No, I think it is great to answer his lies. This is the only reason I have allowed his comments to remain. I find them to be “easy pickings” and a great way to show the dishonesty and desperation inherent in the arguments of Israel haters like him.

  5. The issue of settlements (legal or illegal), land swaps, negotiations and history is irrelevant here in my opinion.

    The point is, several months ago a British soldier was murdered in broad daylight in the street by a Muslim man and the media absolutely blew up in outrage – and at least in this case the soldier was awake. In this case, the outrage was even more pronounced BECAUSE the victim was a brave soldier fighting for our rights, values and safety, not in spite of it.

    But when a Palestinian man murders a young, sleeping Israeli soldier he is largely justified in the media because he is a soldier. It’s the absurd, double standards in the media throughout the world that absolutely sickens me.

    The British media never for a second considered that the attacker of the British soldier may have been justifiably reacting to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – that maybe he was acting out of frustration at the, what he believes to be, unjustified attacks against his people. When it comes to a British soldier, that argument has no grounds because the West is right and everybody else is wrong.

    But if the soldier is Israeli and a Jew, well, that’s an entirely different story. Of course their actions in protecting their people and their values is wrong, over the top and should be internationally condemned. After all, the world doesn’t take too kindly to Jews protecting themselves. Why allow them to protect themselves in the only tiny strip of land (no bigger than Wales) that they can call their own, when you can systematically gas them all in concentration camps?

    Of course in some way the Palestinian was justified for his actions. Because the people of Palestine matter so much more than the people of Iraq or Afghanistan because they’re arguing with Jews and the others are not.

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