Distortion and Deception Consistent Tools Against Israel

8/18/10 Flotilla fight still festering? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The world's nations and their media won't let it lie. Now, weeks after after the Turkish flotilla's attempt to break up Israel's blockade of ships bound for Gaza, the world media are still condemning Israel for killing nine so-called “peace activists” on board a ship supposedly bringing “humanitarian aid.”

It seems to be no problem to the world that these media accounts are a purposeful distortion of reality. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, it seems easy for the world to believe a lie. Distortion and deception are consistent tools and, sadly, effective tools, in the hands of the international media who always seem to champion the Palestinian cause. Not surprisingly, the world media again rushed to their biased judgment about the Gaza flotilla fight — blaming Israel but saying nothing about the hostile actions of the Turkish terrorists.

Here is an interesting sampling of world reactions. The New York Times wrote, “There can be no excuse for the way that Israel completely mishandled the flotilla incident.” South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel “to show our strongest condemnation of the attack.”

China’s Foreign Ministry declared, “We were shocked by the Israeli attack, which led to severe casualties, and we condemn it.” The Swedish Port Workers Union said, “Our workers will now refuse to handle Israeli goods and ships.”

Amnesty International stated: "It begs credibility that the level of lethal force used by Israeli troops could have been justified. It appears to have been out of all proportion to any threat posed." Apparently, the Israel naval inspectors should have allowed themselves to be beaten to death, rather than defend themselves.

Obviously, the Turkish flotilla was a pre-planned fight. The group of six ships were headed to Gaza to supposedly bring humanitarian aid” to relieve the effects of the blockade imposed by Israel on the Hamas-led population of 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs. The Turks certainly knew that Israeli naval inspectors have been boarding ships bound for Gaza for four years now, inspecting them for military weapons and equipment before letting them dock and unload other cargo. In this case, the naval forces inspected five of the six ships in the flotilla with no trouble. But when they boarded the sixth ship, they were assaulted by a group of some 60 armed Turkish terrorists. The battle resulted in nine terrorists killed. Twelve Israelis were wounded, several of them seriously.

Video released later by both Israeli and Turkish sources showed the Turkish activists wearing protective gear and carrying clubs and knives to confront the naval forces who came aboard the ship. When the Israelis came on deck, they were attacked and severely beaten. The terrorists snatched the guns from many of them and attacked them with their knives. The photos showed some bleeding Israelis being taken by a mob into the belly of the ship. So the Israeli troops opened fire on the terrorists to free their captive comrades.

The international media accounts of the conflict brought widespread condemnation of Israel, as already indicated. Of course, those harmed Israel’s already-battered image around the world. And wasn’t that the obvious intent?

Israelis do not want conflict with their neighbors. They simply want to live in freedom, peace, and security, just like people from other free and civilized nations. But this Gaza flotilla fiasco painfully illustrates once again that Israel is held to a strange and different standard by the nations of the world — a number of them obviously anti-Semitic. We ask: What would the United States do, or what would any other nation do, if they faced such terrorist attacks? Frankly, I don’t think any nation would act any differently if it was faced with the same kinds of threats.

I want to remind everyone that it is because of G-d, and not the Gentile nations of the world, that the Jewish people have returned to their ancient homeland and that their biblical nation has been re-established. It is also because of G-d that Israel has continued to exist and thrive for 62 years now, despite the numerous efforts by enemy neighbors and others to destroy the Jewish nation and people. God Himself has said in the Bible that this tiny little piece of the earth’s vast land belongs to the Jewish people “forever.”

But the nations do not pay attention to what the Bible says about Israel. To them, Israel is simply the big trouble maker in the Middle East, and the great obstacle to peace. According to all reason and truth, the world has it backward when they paint anti-Israel terrorists as peace activists and Israeli troops as murderers.

In the weekly radio news broadcast I co-host called “Front Page Jerusalem,” we will continue to tell the story of Israel from a biblical perspective, seeking to tell the truth and expose the lies and deceit of Israel’s enemies.

Earl Cox - Israel Always Blog