A Rare Point of Agreement

[Valin]

Steyn Online:

Mark Steyn

Jul 16, 2014

 

In recent days, Israel has been hit not only from the Gaza end of the Fatah-Hamas pantomime horse but also from Lebanon and Syria. It's under attack not merely from a terrorist squat but from two sovereign states, all of whom are clients to one degree or another of a third, Iran. Had not General Sisi overthrown Mohammed Morsi and tossed him in jail, there might have been a fourth country happy to make mischief. Meanwhile, across the Allenby Bridge in Jordan, Israel's least insane neighbor has seen its population swollen by 25 per cent from Syria refugees, and at its western frontier now borders the new caliphate of jihadist head-hackers. In the Sunni/Shia regional showdown between ISIS and Teheran's various subsidiaries, the two warring parties agree on little except that dead Jews brighten everyone's day.

 

Oh, well. The Middle East. It's all very complicated, isn't it? Fatah, Hamas, Hizb'Allah, the Muslim Brothers, ISIS, Alawites... Who can keep track? And why worry your pretty little head about it all when the easy and cool thing to do is blame the Jews? Brendan O'Neill writes:

 

Why are Western liberals always more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It's extraordinary. France can invade Mali and there won't be loud, rowdy protests by peaceniks in Paris. David Cameron, backed by a whopping 557 members of parliament, can order airstrikes on Libya and British leftists won't give over their Twitterfeeds to publishing gruesome pics of the Libyan civilians killed as a consequence. President Obama can resume his drone attacks in Pakistan, killing 13 people in one strike last month, and Washington won't be besieged by angry anti-war folk demanding 'Hands off Pakistan'. But the minute Israel fires a rocket into Gaza, the second Israeli politicians say they're at war again with Hamas, radicals in all these Western nations will take to the streets, wave hyperbolic placards, fulminate on Twitter, publish pictures of dead Palestinian children, publish the names and ages of everyone 'MURDERED BY ISRAEL', and generally scream about Israeli 'bloodletting'. (When the West bombs another country, it's 'war'; when Israel does it, it's 'bloodletting'.)

 

Anyone possessed of a critical faculty must at some point have wondered why there's such a double standard in relation to Israeli militarism, why missiles fired by the Jewish State are apparently more worthy of condemnation than missiles fired by Washington, London, Paris, the Turks, Assad, or just about anyone else on Earth. Parisians who have generally given a Gallic shrug as French troops have basically retaken Francophone Africa, stamping their boots everywhere from the Central African Republic to Mali to Cote d'Ivoire over the past two years, turned out in their thousands at the weekend to condemn Israeli imperialism and barbarism. Americans who didn't create much fuss last month when the Obama administration announced the resumption of its drone attacks in Pakistan gathered at the Israeli Embassy in Washington to yell about Israeli murder. (Incredibly, they did this just a day after a US drone attack, the 375th such attack in 10 years, killed at least six people in Pakistan. But hey, Obama-led militarism isn't as bad as Israeli militarism, and dead Pakistanis, unlike dead Palestinians, don't deserve to have their photos, names and ages published by the concerned liberals of Twitter.)

By the way, I'm in favor of French intervention in francophone Africa: low-key military action in support of explicit national interests outside the ineffectual transnationalist kindergarten-cop racket is something more western powers should be doing. But, that aside, Mr O'Neill is right to be struck by the unique virulence of today's "anti-Zionism" in Europe.

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

Vox’s Motto Should Be ‘Explaining The News Incorrectly, Repeatedly’

JULY 17, 2014 By Mollie Hemingway

I recently published an article about how “Media Ignorance Is Becoming A Serious Problem.” My better half wrote this week on “The Death of Explanatory Journalism.”

 

It was impossible for either of us to ignore, in our discussions of journalists’ arrogance in spite of ignorance, the problems erupting out of Vox.com, a site that claims to explain the news.

 

But even for Vox, what happened yesterday in Zack Beauchamp’s “11 crucial facts to understand the Israel-Gaza crisis” was pretty Voxy.

 

Vox has corrected a portion of what it got wrong on the first crucial fact in its listing, but here’s a screencap:

http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/17/voxs-motto-should-be-explaining-the-news-incorrectly-repeatedly/

[Valin]

Vox’s Motto Should Be ‘Explaining The News Incorrectly, Repeatedly’

JULY 17, 2014 By Mollie Hemingway

I recently published an article about how “Media Ignorance Is Becoming A Serious Problem.” My better half wrote this week on “The Death of Explanatory Journalism.”

 

 

"5) Hamas was democratically elected by Palestinians"

 

As I recall there were two reasons why they were elected 1. the PA was/is incredibly corrupt 2. Vote for HAMAS or get shot.

 

 

"6) Hamas isn't the only militant group in the Gaza strip, and they've all shot rockets into Israel"

 

If you get anywhere near a point, please let me know. Yes there are other terrorist groups Like ISIS, and they have almost enough authority to go to the bathroom.

 

"7) Israel blockades Gaza, which creates a humanitarian crisis" the technical term for this is Bull S**T

 

8) Israel and Hamas have fought multiple wars over Gaza

 

"much as the current crisis was triggered by the kidnapping and murder in the West Bank of three Israeli students." See the above technical term