Kidnapped by Israel:British Media and The Invasion Of Gaza

It seems that as usual there is a lot more to the story than what the main stream media would like us to know. Looks like Israel kick started the latest troubles by kidnapping two Palestinians.

Jonathan Cook does a very interesting piece (snippet and link below) dissecting the media response. I am currently trying to dig out a link to the article he mentions in the Observer but if anyone is aware of it or comes across it please email it to me.


Few readers of a British newspaper would have noticed the story. In the Observer of 25 June, it merited a mere paragraph hidden in the “World in brief” section, revealing that the previous day a team of Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip to “detain” two Palestinians Israel claims are members of Hamas.

The significance of the mission was alluded to in a final phrase describing this as “the first arrest raid in the territory since Israel pulled out of the area a year ago”. More precisely, it was the first time the Israeli army had re-entered the Gaza Strip, directly violating Palestinian control of the territory, since it supposedly left in August last year.

As the Observer landed on doorsteps around the UK, however, another daring mission was being launched in Gaza that would attract far more attention from the British media – and prompt far more concern.

Shortly before dawn, armed Palestinians slipped past Israeli military defences to launch an attack on an army post close by Gaza called Kerem Shalom. They sneaked through a half-mile underground tunnel dug under an Israeli-built electronic fence that surrounds the Strip and threw grenades at a tank, killing two soldiers inside. Seizing another, wounded soldier the gunmen then disappeared back into Gaza.

Whereas the Israeli “arrest raid” had passed with barely a murmur, the Palestinian attack a day later received very different coverage. The BBC’s correspondent in Gaza, Alan Johnstone, started the ball rolling later the same day in broadcasts in which he referred to the Palestinian attack as “a major escalation in cross-border tensions”. (BBC World news, 10am GMT, 25 June 2006)


www.threatstodemocracy.com

Bookee

Mmm.... Very interesting. Good investigative reporting !!

nikolaitr

I would have to agree that the Media has a very heavy Israel Bias. It is very noticeable as they always seem to make terrorist attacks on Israel Massive news while shelling of Gaza hardly gets a mention despite often considerably more people being killed.

Sgt. Sensible

Deleted User wrote:

It seems that as usual there is a lot more to the story than what the main stream media would like us to know. Looks like Israel kick started the latest troubles by kidnapping two Palestinians.

Yep, I mentioned that here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=51764030&postcount=484

I doubt that there'll be much response. The people who are supporting this war have gone very quiet indeed.

Bookee

Nixmix, did you come accross that Observer article yet? Would be very interested in reading it, thanks.....!

Not yet although I did just read a letter in the Irish Times in which the writer states : 'However, after a brief trawl through the Internet I find it mentioned by - among others - the Observer, Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Agence France Presse, Associated Press, CNN and Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.'

This was in response to a letter in last Friday's edition of the IT from Berger,Chomsky,Pinter and Saramago of which I was unaware until today.

Unless I'm completely missing it the Observer site does not have an archive in which you can click on a particular date to search the articles. I'll try the others when I have time later as it would be interesting to read.

Score!

I used Electric Search which is a search engine that monitors certain media sites etc. I didnt think of using that before as ES does not monitor the Observer.

But I did cme across a report on Sky News from June the 24th titled Israel Changes Tactics

Bookee

Well done! That will do nicely

Bookee

Sgt. Sensible wrote:

Yep, I mentioned that here.

Sorry, I didn't read it before now!

Frederico

The Israeli bias is very strong in the media at the moment. Only yesterday someone somehow managed to point out that about 160 palestinian civilians had been killed in the last few weeks.

Anyone seen the photo of the Israeli kids writing on the bombs bound for Lebanon?

Bookee

Yes, that featured here a couple of pages back, maybe. Give them a couple of years and they'll be posting in that Israel Forum....!

Bookee

Also, Al Jazeera reported yesterday that the IDF were giving Palestinians 30 minutes notice to leave their homes....

A Dub in Glasgo

... then bombing them anyway

This little snippet about the abduction in Gaza before the abduction of the Israeli soldier is very revealing.

Bookee

But it seems everyone's missed, forgotton, ignored, etc. this event... And still blame Hisbollah for starting the whole thing...?

bonkey

How is it revealing? How has everyone forgotten missed ignored etc. it?

Let me clarify before you think I'm missing the obvious.

The Hizbollah captuire fo Isreali's on Israeli soil wasn't carried out by a group of gung-ho guys who rushed a defensive position from their side of the border. They didn't just saunter into Israel like normal tourists, then turn around, grab a few soldiers and saunter back.

Everything about the operation indicates that it was planned for a long time. The tunnels they used weren't dug overnight, and the mission wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing. So while one could argue that the ISraeli's triggered the actual date the event occurred on, it is farcical in the extreme to suggest that this was some simple act of retaliation, rather than a long-planned operation that may or may not have been green-lighted in response to the kidnapping the day before.

I'm also pretty sure that I've seen plenty of criticism of Israel, both in the past and during this current run of events, saying that they hardly have the moral high-ground considering that they are all-too-happy to carry out targetted executions on foreign soil on the grounds that its too dangerous to actually capture people....showing that they are not opposed in principle to the notion of sending troops into a foreign nation to seize and remove targetted personnel.

But don't let any of that stop you. Continue on with your cries of how people are overlooking the facts, whilst overlooking facts yourselves. It seems to be the in thing for all sides in this conflict.

jc

Sgt. Sensible

bonkey wrote:

The Hizbollah captuire fo Isreali's on Israeli soil wasn't carried out by a group of gung-ho guys who rushed a defensive position from their side of the border. They didn't just saunter into Israel like normal tourists, then turn around, grab a few soldiers and saunter back.

Are you sure the soldiers were captured on the Israeli side of the border. I've seen conflicting reports.

Frederico

bonkey wrote:

How is it revealing? How has everyone forgotten missed ignored etc. it?

Let me clarify before you think I'm missing the obvious.

The Hizbollah captuire fo Isreali's on Israeli soil wasn't carried out by a group of gung-ho guys who rushed a defensive position from their side of the border. They didn't just saunter into Israel like normal tourists, then turn around, grab a few soldiers and saunter back.

Yes it probably was planned for a long time, just like the Americans have a plan for Iran, for N Korea, doesnt mean its gonna happen. Do you reckon the Israelis had a plan to kidnap half the palestinian cabinet? or did they just gung-ho in. Both are military organisations, they make plans. Is there something wrong with Hizbollah digging tunnels and making plans to kidnap Israeli soldiers?

Everything about the operation indicates that it was planned for a long time. The tunnels they used weren't dug overnight, and the mission wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing. So while one could argue that the ISraeli's triggered the actual date the event occurred on, it is farcical in the extreme to suggest that this was some simple act of retaliation, rather than a long-planned operation that may or may not have been green-lighted in response to the kidnapping the day before.

They're both military organisations. They have to plan ahead. I don't think many people actually believe Israel is ADLIBING any of this, all this stuff has been planned, 100's of times over, wargamed over and over. Hizbollah would be stupid not to do the same with its limited resources.

I'm also pretty sure that I've seen plenty of criticism of Israel, both in the past and during this current run of events, saying that they hardly have the moral high-ground considering that they are all-too-happy to carry out targetted executions on foreign soil on the grounds that its too dangerous to actually capture people....showing that they are not opposed in principle to the notion of sending troops into a foreign nation to seize and remove targetted personnel.

But don't let any of that stop you. Continue on with your cries of how people are overlooking the facts, whilst overlooking facts yourselves. It seems to be the in thing for all sides in this conflict.

jc

The overlooker of the facts has been overlooked by the very facts themselves.