Israel’s Comptroller’s office has determined that Israel’s response to the Marvelous Marmalade incident sucked. And here’s the all-important conclusion to the report:
Lindenstrauss concluded this part of his report by recommending a comprehensive plan to improve Israel’s public diplomacy under the prime minister’s guidance.
Gee, you think they’ve learned a bit by now? Yes, they have. But there is also the fact that world media has an anti-Israel bias, which I’ve been blogging about more than a decade. At least the AP no longer calls East Jerusalem “Arab East Jerusalem”–after repeated emails to them pointing out that the Jewish Quarter is in East Jerusalem. But they still talk about how it is “Palestinian land.” It’s an uphill battle, and Israel needs to fight it as if her life depends on it. Because it does.
Here’s the AP description of what happened in an article about the same report. It’s in the fourth parargraph of an 18-paragraph story.
Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed on May 31, 2010, after the commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, which had set out from Turkey at the head of a six-vessel flotilla trying to breach Israel’s Gaza blockade.
And here’s where they finally explain that the IDF acted in self-defense. It’s paragraph 12.
The flotilla led by the Mavi Marmara tried to break through the blockade despite Israeli warnings that it would not be allowed to sail to Gaza. When commandos stormed the ship, they were attacked with clubs and metal rods, and opened fire in response.
This is the battle I’m talking about. The one the media is making sure Israel will lose. The one that is one of the reasons the world hates Israel–because the truth is not reported honestly. Need more proof? Let’s take a look at the CBS report. The lead:
An Israeli government report has sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the commando raid on an aid flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip two years ago that left nine Turkish activists dead.
The fifth paragraph finally explains Israel’s side of the story:
Israel was caught off guard when naval commandos raided the biggest ship, the Mavi Marmara, and were confronted by Turkish militants wielding knives and iron bars. The report charges that Netanyahu, “did not internalize that the forcible stopping of the flotilla was liable to spark a violent confrontation on the decks of the Mavi Marmara.”
Funny how that didn’t make it to the lead paragraph, isn’t it? Why, you’d think the media were trying to slant the news against Israel or something. But no, they wouldn’t do that.
The flotilla, which sailed from Turkey with hundreds of people on board, sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, which activists described as illegal and immoral. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent weapons from reaching the Palestinian militant group Hamas that rules Gaza.
And to round off the report, here’s the Reuters description of IDF commandos being lowered to a deck of waiting terrorists, armed with knifes, clubs, and guns:
Israeli marines killed nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey during fierce brawls aboard the converted cruise ship, which, along with five other vessels, tried to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a coastal enclave run by Hamas Islamists.
But don’t worry, that was all the way down in the fifth paragraph. Here’s the lead:
A state report on Wednesday criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision-making in a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship in 2010, casting a shadow over the prime minister as he weighs action against Iran.
That doesn’t make it seem like Israel just up and attacked a ship heading to Gaza from Turkey at all, does it? Nope. Not at all.
Yes, Netanyahu and the IDF blew it on the Mavi Marvara media response. But look how the media treats the incident even now, when they have video and photographic evidence that the terrorists were armed and waiting for the IDF soldiers, and that the IDF soldiers fired in self-defense.
The good news is that the IDF has learned from this and responds quickly with evidence proving that Israel’s enemies are lying. The bad news is that Israel’s enemies also include much of the world media.
I am so tired of doing this, day in, day out, year in, year out. The anti-Israel media bias just doesn’t stop.
