Israellycool

Palestinian former-prisoner Sonia al-Rai smiles surrounded by friends and family at the Jalama checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jenin on October 26, 2008, after being released from an Israeli jail after 11 years. Sonia al-Rai, 40, held longer than any other female inmate in an Israeli jail, was released today and met by friends and relatives amid celebrations at the Jalama checkpoint near Jenin. Rai was arrested in 1997 after she attempted to attack an Israeli soldier.

Leaving aside the fact this woman looks constipated, what is interesting is the caption. You’d be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Israel was being a bit harsh. 11 years for attempting to attack a soldier? What did she do anyway? Throw rocks at them?

The answer is found on the website of the PFLP, the terrorist organization to which she belongs.

She carried out a military operation on the ninth anniversary of the martyrdom of her brother, shooting Israeli occupation soldiers and border guards at the Al-Karama crossing (Allenby Bridge). Comrade Souna noted that since a young age she was committed to the promise of undertaking a military operation in honor of her brother and in retaliation against the occupation for its ongoing crimes against our people. She spoke to the ability and the heritage of Palestinian women’s participation in all forms of struggle, noting the Palestinian women heroes and martyrs - comrade Leila Khaled, Dalal al-Mughrabi, Shadia abu Ghazalah, and many other heroes, martyrs and prisoners.

In other words, this was not some spontaneous, lashing out against some soldier. This was an orchestrated terrorist attack designed to kill.

Update: The palestinian Ramattan News Agency does not even mention an attack, instead stating that she was arrested “for her activities in the Intifada and membership of the PFLP.”

Update: AP actually gets it right with this caption.

Released Palestinian prisoner Sonia Al Rai, 40, is carried by family and supporters after crossing the Israeli army’s Jalameh Checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jenin, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. Al Rai was released at the end of a 12-year sentence for attempting to kill an Israeli soldier on the Allenby Bridge border crossing that connects Jordan to the West Bank. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

More anti-Israel bias from Reuters, from a couple of days ago:

Filet mignon menu brightens fearsome West Bank wall

It might be a while before some future U.S. president prevails on Israel to “tear down this wall,” so Palestinian restaurateur Joseph Hazboon printed his menu on it instead…in waterproof colors.When Israel ran a towering concrete “security barrier” past the window of the Hazboon family’s Bethlehem property a few years ago, it seemed liked the kiss of death commercially.

But Hazboon, 35, hit on the idea of transforming what was now a highly undesirable location into a lucrative attraction.

He renamed the place “The Wall Lounge” and, judging by the results, the setting is surprisingly popular with tourists.

…The barrier is made of razor wire-tipped fences, walls of the sort that block the sound from motorways, and mightier sections of concrete panels similar to those that East Germany once used to seal off the West, complete with watchtowers.

…Like the Berlin Wall, which Ronald Reagan famously demanded be torn down, the Israeli barrier has attracted artists, poets, spraypaint taggers and jokers, whose colorful works take some of the menace out of its hard gray concrete slabs.

Reuters again downplays Israeli reasons for building the fence, putting “security barrier” in scare quotes as if that could hardly be the reason Israel built the wall.

And taking its cue from the worst Israel bashers, Reuters explicitly compares the barrier to the Berlin Wall, when it is the exact opposite. The Berlin Wall was built by communist East Germany to stop East Germans from defecting to the West; the people it was meant to stop were the people seeking freedom. The people that Israel’s barrier is meant to stop are terrorists. The barrier, over 90% of which is a fence, is meant to keep bad people out, not good people in. The sections that are concrete also help stop Palestinian Arab snipers from targeting Israeli citizens.

The comparison to the Berlin Wall is odious and obscene, and the positive results of the barrier are undeniable. In the three years before and while Israel started building the fence (2001-2003) about 450 Israelis were murdered in suicide bombing attacks alone; in the three years from 2005-2007 the number went down to 41. In 2002 alone the number of suicide bomb victims was 220; if it wasn’t for the barrier and other Israeli countermeasures that are also roundly criticized there is no reason to think that we wouldn’t be seeing hundreds such deaths every year.

As usual, the wire service trivializes Israeli security concerns - and real-life examples of the hundreds of lives that have been saved - and emphasizes the undeniable but comparatively minimal inconvenience to Palestinian Arabs that the barrier brings. (It also happens to be inconvenient to many Israelis, as are the checkpoints that Israelis have to endure in their daily lives when going to malls and other popular bombing targets, but that will never be reported.)

It would have been possible for Reuters to report on Joseph Hazboon’s restaurant and his use of the wall in an accurate, fair and entertaining manner without its clear bias against legitimate Israeli security concerns. But why would Reuters want to do that?

Gulfnews reports on yesterday’s terror attack in Jerusalem, peddling the “car accident” angle.

But notice anything strange about the story?

Israelis ‘killed driver who lost control of car’

Reuters
Published: September 23, 2008, 20:34

Occupied Jerusalem: The family of a Palestinian shot dead after his car ploughed into pedestrians in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday challenged Israeli police allegations that he had carried out a deliberate attack.

More than a dozen soldiers, on a late-night excursion to occupied Jerusalem ahead of the Jewish New Year next week, were injured in Monday’s incident. No Palestinian group has made a credible claim of responsibility.

Police called it a “terrorist” attack, the third of its kind using vehicles against Israelis in the city since July and involving Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem and its environs who live on Israeli-annexed land and have wide freedom of movement.

Police identified the driver of the black BMW as Qassem Mughrabi, 19, of Jabal Mukhabar, a village in the occupied West Bank.

Mahmoud Mughrabi, 49, his father, said his son did not have a driving licence and apparently lost control of the car.

“My son was murdered, they killed him. He did not carry out a terrorist attack. This was a car accident,” Mughrabi, owner of a trucking business, said.

Shmuel Ben-Ruby, a police spokesman, said the incident was still being treated as an intentional attack and information suggested disappointment over a failed romance might have been the motive.

Reuters has a series of photos published this morning that depict a Ramadan play being performed in Iran:

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard perform in a play at their military base in northeastern Tehran, September 8, 2008. The play tells the story of the history of human creation till the time of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) and Palestinian-Israeli conflict. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN)

As of this writing, there is no accompanying news story, so we cannot see too many details about this clearly important cultural event that has Reuters sending out no fewer than nine separate photos of the play over their wires.

Guess what? This play seems to have a special obsession with Jews. Reuters, using the identical caption as above, shows us another scene:

But perish the thought that Reuters should use the word “anti-semitic” in their description of the play. No, it’s just a factual play that shows an accurate depiction of world history, crammed into a couple of hours. And if the Star of David happens to be equated with the swastika, well, isn’t that history in Reutersville?

I wonder if the Spanish Inquisition is a song-and-dance number?

As I posted yesterday, the foreign press photographers are portraying child-murderer Samir Kuntar as anything but the monster he is, taking photo after photo of small children holding up his picture.

Today, we have this stark example of the lengths they will go to.

A Palestinian boy (L) holds a picture depicting Lebanese prisoner Samir Qantar during a protest in Gaza City calling for the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails July 7, 2008. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

Despite the fact the picture contains many people holding up pictures of different prisoners terrorists, somehow the caption refers only to the palestinian boy who is holding up the picture of Kuntar. The absurdity of this is amplified by the fact the caption writer has to note the child’s location, given he is but one of a crowd of people.

Reuters, could you get any more obvious?