Last night, I was disturbed to find no less than the Washington Post, repeating the canard that had Netanyahu referring to Arabs as “wild beasts,” a slander that began with Haaretz (which some call “the Palestinian newspaper that is in Hebrew”). Brian ably wrote about the way the Guardian seized on this rumor and ran with it, HERE. But somehow, I expected better from the Washington Post.
Worse yet, when I looked for the article this morning, thinking to blog about the Post’s obvious anti-Israel bias (else, why would they run with this story without doing their due diligence?), I saw that no less than 235 media outlets were running this false story.
Had any of these 235 media outlets adhered to even the most modest standards of reporting, they would have learned the truth: that Bibi used a Hebrew phrase meaning “predators,” and that the context was completely appropriate.
Had these “journalists” done their homework, they would have learned that the far left, anti-Israel Haaretz newspaper purposely distorted the Prime Minister’s meaning to make it sound as if he had indulged in a bigoted verbal slur against Israel’s Arab neighbors, which he most assuredly did not.
Funny how journalistic standards fall by the wayside where the Jewish State is involved. Not.
UPDATE: Deebo has reminded me that this whole tempest in a teapot is Menachem Begin’s “beast on two legs” redux. Here’s his awesome piece on other famous Jewish misquotes.
