AFP Shows Yet Again its Anti-Israel Bias

This is not unusual but it is a textbook case of how media bias works.

Check out this AFP headline:

Gaza violence lull ends with Israeli strikes, rockets

In normal English this means that Israel ended the “lull” in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes and Israeli rockets.

The first paragraph is slightly more accurate but no less biased:

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip Thursday after militants rattled the Jewish state with rocket fire, ending a five-day lull and threatening efforts to strike a more permanent truce.

Notice that it is Israeli “warplanes” that threaten truce efforts, not the rockets, and that Israel “hits” while 15 Qassam rockets merely “rattle.”

The article goes on to say:

The violence flared within hours of an Israeli operation on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem where undercover special forces killed four Palestinian gunmen, including two senior commanders.

The use of the word “gunmen” as a synonym for “terrorists” is bad enough, but using it to describe terror leaders is absurd. “Gunmen” imply petty criminals, not people who meticulously plan attacks on civilians and direct others to do it.

In a rare harshly-worded statement, the Palestinian presidency accused Israel of “barbaric crimes.”

“These barbaric crimes reveal the truce [sic] face of Israel, which speaks loudly about peace and security all the while committing murders and executions against our people,” it said.

AFP doesn’t bother to emphasize that the supposedly moderate Abbas had no such harsh words for the slaughter of 8 students last week, but the killing of wanted terrorists – in territory that he supposedly controls and allows them to walk free, who had automatic weapons and grenades in their car – is considered “barbaric.” Neither does it notice that Mahmoud Abbas considers Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa terrorists to be “his people.”

AFP doesn’t mention that one of the terrorists killed was a member of Mahmoud Abbas’ own Fatah party, showing collusion between Fatah and Islamic Jihad.

The article likewise doesn’t mention the Mercaz Harav massacre at all as it goes through background information.

And look at what picture AFP chose to illustrate the article:

Palestinian animal owners protest in Gaza City against the Israeli blockade and air raids ©AFP/File – Mehdi Fedouach

In an article dripping with bias against Israel, it is not surprising that they choose a picture shows Israel as being responsible for destroying peace, not to mention one that evokes the Zionism=Nazism calumny.(cross-posted at Elder of Ziyon.)

15 thoughts on “AFP Shows Yet Again its Anti-Israel Bias”

  1. I must say the anti-Israeli bias in the MSM is staggering. The BBC webiste here in UK has the headline ‘Israeli jets strike Northenr Gaza’ and whilst they do mention the rocket attacks the pictures in the article are of the terrorists car and some ‘mourning’ Palestinian women.

    The love affair with the Palestinian cause by the loony left is inexplicable, the propoganda put out by the Islamic fundies is so blatant as to be laughable, yet the Media here, and around the globe, continue to promote it.

    Best wishes to you and your country from the UK.

  2. It’s interesting that the MSM is talking about a five day lull in the fighting completely ignoring that on March 11 the Palestinians fired a grad into Ashkelon shortly after Olmert’s visit there, thereby ending the “lull”.

  3. You have a good site. Don’t know if this means anything to anyone, I’m just a Patagonian, but why doesn’t Israel destroy her enemies and live then in peace? You have the means. Have you really decided to commit collective suicide? Have the leftists and the feminists really succeeded in so emasculating the Israeli society that people don’t want to live anymore? You guys used to be the envy of the world. Now people look at Israel like a dying animal with some pity, maybe, but no respect. What’s the matter with you, guys? Are you going to let a filthy arab do what the germans couldn’t?

  4. Jorge, I was with you until the “filthy arab” racist remark, and since it’s probably the sabbath already in Israel time now (not sure), even if the blogowner wanted to clarify the obvious, that racist remarks on his blog aren’t his own, I don’t know that he’d respond on the sabbath, so I, as a reader, will make the objection.

    There’s been what seems to be a trend lately of people going on to websites leaving inflammatory comments and then Muslim groups pointing fingers at the blogowners (!) to make them look bad, even though only a commenter said something outrageous. Not saying you’re like that, just that it’s easy to overgeneralize the terrorists with all Arabs, or to confuse contempt for the anti-Jewish ideology of Islam with contempt for all Muslims (some of whom don’t even know what their ideology teaches).
    ER

  5. Israel is destroying her enemies and will live in peace.

    I think many people have a problem with the fact that it seems to be taking so long. However, the Torah states that the ancient Israelites (who were to displace the Canaanites in a bloody invasion) would do so slowly and over several hundred years. I don’t mention this to make a religious argument, but just to say that even modern Israel’s ancestors understood that a gradual dispossession with periods of intermittent peace was preferable to a non-stop campaign to destroy each Canaanite or Philistine kingdom. Back then, this might have been due to the fact that the tribes had not grown enough in numbers to properly settle the land, though there are alternate theories. Today, I believe it is because we live in a civilized world and as a general rule, ethnic cleansing is wrong. Behaviour suggestive of it results in condemnation – which I think touches on the main point of this post. This condemnation is potentially justifiable – not because Israel commits war crimes (they do not) but rather because the civilized nations of the world are terrified of the consequences of genocidal aggression and therefore are quick to condemn even something that reminds them of genocide (even if it’s not).

    But who really cares? Over time Israel will win. The “ethnic cleansing” required to give Israel her peace will take place, but it will take place over time, with compassion, and aside from the constant barrage of anti-semitic media outpouring, it will be more or less unoticeable. I think this is a much more palatable paradigm than that of the vast majority of Israel’s supporters, who cling to the “the sky is constantly falling” worldview.

    So, Hazak ve-ematz!

  6. For the record, I DON’T oppose the filthy Arab remark any more that I would have opposed a filthy German remarks 60-70 years ago and you will find documented many such remarks against Germans at the time and no civilized being bat an eyelid about it.

    However, I would oppose a filthy German remark today because times have changed and so have Germans. When the Arabs change, call me.

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