Israel intercepted a ship carrying advanced Iranian arms to Syria. Here’s the lead of the latest story. Note the words in bold.
Israeli officials are displaying thousands of bullets, mortar shells and anti-ship missiles they say were seized from a cargo ship delivering the arms to Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The Israeli navy intercepted the ship on Tuesday. Israel says the ship was carrying weapons sent by Iran via Syria.
Next to the captured ship, officials Wednesday showed off what they said were roughly 2,500 mortar shells, nearly 75,000 bullets and six C-704 anti-ship missiles.
Let us compare this with the story about Israel bombing Hamas rocketeers in Gaza. Note that there is no doubt at all as to the events that happened:
Israeli fighter jets pummeled a Hamas facility in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing two militants and injuring four, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli army confirmed the airstrike, saying warplanes bombed the facility after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into southern Israel. No Israeli injuries were reported.
Pretty strong stuff on the Palestinian side, huh? The AP gets definite when it comes to dead terrorists, but it lays doubt in the minds of its readers, ever so subtlely, but putting “Israel says” and “what Israel says” in front of factual evidence. How strong is the evidence? Well, Ynet reports:
Officials believe the Victoria was sent by Tehran because of the sophisticated surface-to-sea missiles found on board together with Farsi-language manuals, which are attired with the emblem of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
In addition, a Nasr-1 cruise missile was found to have a serial number close to that with which Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was pictured in January 2010, when Iran began producing the missile originally made by China.
Make no mistake, the IDF made this information available to all of the news services. Israel is launching a huge PR offensive to counter the anti-Israel slant of the news media. The release of the photos of the slain Fogel family (who have still not been named in a single AP news article about their deaths or funeral) was one step forward. And Israel needs to keep pushing, because here’s the final graf in the early AP piece about the weapons seizure:
In January 2002, Israeli forces stormed the Karine A freighter on the Red Sea, and confiscated what the military said was 50 tons of missiles, mortars, rifles and ammunition headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
It’s endemic. The Associated Press can’t seem to be sure about anything Israel says. But it’s absolutely sure about the Palestinians. Witness:
Hamas security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the warplanes struck a Hamas security facility south of Gaza City. They said two members of the Hamas’ militant wing were killed.
Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmiya said four others were wounded.
The anti-Israel bias, exposed.
Your title is wrong. The bias is not really subtle.
We see the same thing in the NYTimes and WaPo.
Both articles are sprinkled with qualifications about Israeli charges. Remember that when Palestinians claimed that a woman had died of tear gas inhalation in an open environment they took that at face value. Press skepticism is applied unevenly. I guess that’s the nicest way to say it.
Only two killed, four wounded? The IASF needs to work on its aim.