Yesterday, the AP reported that Iran was behind the attempted terrorist attacks on Israelis in Thailand. They even headlined the article that way.
Thailand: Iranians’ Targets Were Israeli Diplomats
The lead tries to fudge just a little bit by using the words “Israel has strongly accused Iran,” but this is a pretty solid, they-did-it story.
Three Iranians detained after accidentally setting off explosives in Bangkok were planning to attack Israeli diplomats, Thailand’s top policeman said Thursday in the first confirmation by local officials that the group was plotting attacks in Thailand.
Israel has strongly accused Iran of being behind the botched plot, a bombing in India and an attempted bombing in the former Soviet republic of Georgia this week, which Iran has denied.
Citing the similarity of bombs used in New Delhi and Tbilisi, national police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong said that Thai authorities now “know for certain that (the target) was Israeli diplomats.”
“This issue was about individuals and the targets were specific,” he said. “This was something personal.”
They even state, farther down in the article, that one suspect has “partially confessed” to the plots. So what’s the story today? The AP doesn’t know who the “assailants” were.
Earlier this week, assailants planted a bomb on an Israeli embassy car in India, critically injuring a diplomat’s wife, and carried out two botched bombing attempts against Israeli diplomats in Georgia and Thailand.
Israel has blamed Iran for all three incidents and there has been speculation that Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, carried them out on behalf of its Iranian patron.
Iran and Hezbollah have denied involvement in all three attacks.
I swear, there are people at the AP whose sole job is to whitewash all attacks against Israel and magnify all Israeli defense actions against its enemies. I’ve detailed countless times the way headlines change to a more pro-Palestinian tilt as the day goes by–particularly after a terror attack in Israel–but it just stuns me that the AP keeps on doing it, day after day, month after month, year after year.
If only I hadn’t attended that workshop on anti-Israel media bias the first year I taught Hebrew school in Richmond. Maybe I’d still be blissfully unaware of the Israel-haters within the media.
Poof! There went that fantasy, ended as soon as I typed it.
And here’s your proof: In the time it took me to write this post, the AP updated its article. They’ve eliminated even that paragraph above and changed it to the following:
Israel already has accused Iran of being behind three attacks this week on Israeli targets — a botched bomb plot in Thailand, a bombing in India that wounded an Israeli diplomat’s wife, and an attempted bombing in the former Soviet republic of Georgia this week.
Once again, I’d like to point out that the AP itself ran an article stating that the Thailand investigation says unequivocally that Iranians are behind the plot. Not that it matters to the AP. Apparently, blaming Israel first is the standard boilerplate.