I woke up at 4am and watched BBC and CNN International coverage of the war in Gaza. I saw Benjamin Netanyahu destroy a female BBC anchor by turning her moral equivalency back at her. Netanyahu basically told her that blaming Israel for civilian causalities is morally wrong because it is Hamas that is using civilians in the Gaza Strip as “human shields” by placing its people and weapons in heavily populated areas. He said the sole purpose of Hamas is to inflict such civilian casualties on Israeli’s every day via rocket attacks. They celebrate civilian deaths while Israel regrets them and does all it can to avoid them. It was great television.
Netanyahu said something similar later in the morning to Reuters, another media audience who needs to hear it,
“I think the international community is right to be concerned about the death of civilians. This is precisely the point. The Hamas is deliberately targeting civilians, deliberately hiding behind civilians. That’s a double war crime in itself, and very different from us. We have tried to minimise civilian casualties. When they fire into Ashdod, one of our biggest seaport cities, or into Ashkelon, another city, they hope to get civilian casualties, they hope to get a kindergarten, they hope to get a school. When we go after the terrorists themselves, we hope not to have any incidental civilian casualties.”
I was reminded of something we did on Pundit Review Radio two and a half years ago when the international media bias against Israel was once again on full display. Rob put a montage together of anti-Israel bias from the BBC and CNN International and tied it together with a riveting live report by blogger and photojournalist Dave Bender. Dave joined us to discuss this incident and you can listen to that here.
I said at the time, “As Dave and the residents of Haifa know, Israeli citizens are under attack. Too bad the BBC and CNN can’t come to term with this. This is a great piece of citizen journalism by Dave Bender, and when put side-by-side with the international media’s work, it is really telling.â€
From what I could tell watching TV this morning, nothing much has changed.
One of our favorite guests on Pundit Review Radio is retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. He had a great column in the New York Post yesterday,
DAMNED IF THEY DO BUT ISRAEL’S DEAD IF THEY DON’T
DEAD Jews aren’t news, but killing terrorists outrages global activists. On Saturday, Israel struck back powerfully against its tormentors. Now Israel’s the villain. Again.
How long will it be until the UN General Assembly passes a resolution creating an international Holocaust Appreciation Day?
… We may sympathize with the average Palestinian family, exploited by generations of corrupt leaders and now caught in yet another round of violence. But let us never forget that Israel hasn’t fired thousands of blind rockets into Palestinian cities, that Israeli suicide bombers don’t attack Arab restaurants and bus stops, and that Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians – while Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as possible.
In a world where there are no good answers, Israel just answered as best it could. The world’s response? “How dare Jews defend themselves.”
Humanity doesn’t progress. It just changes clothes.
Read the whole piece.
Some really cool video from Gaza at the Israeli Defense Forces You Tube channel. Yes, the IDF has a You Tube channel.
UPDATE: Seems like You Tube is screwing with the IDF account already. Shocker, I know. Noah Pollack at Commentary has more, and he is asking the right questions,
The rank double-standard that YouTube has applied to Israel is disturbing. YouTube hosts all manner of similar footage — much of it far more gory than the grainy infrared images posted by the IDF — of U.S. air strikes. Why is YouTube capitulating to those who do not wish for Israel to be able to tell its side of the story?
This is not the first time we have mentioned You Tube censorship, remember F-You Tube?