Posted on 11/19/2012 10:23:05 AM PST by Ooh-Ah
(Sharona Schwartz) Beyond its military operation targeting the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, Israel is invested in an intense media campaign to make sure its side of the story is being heard overseas. But thats not always easy to do.
In an interview with Israels top envoy to the United States on Saturday, MSNBC provided yet another example of how much work Israeli officials face in their effort to pass through the filter of the mainstream media and present their side of the story.
MSNBCs Mara Schiavocampo began her interview of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren straightforwardly enough, asking What would be the trigger for a ground operation? Whats the red line here?
Oren answered, You have the equivalent of what would be about 170 million Americans under bomb shelters. If Hamas continues to escalate we will take the necessary and legitimate measures to defend our citizens.
Schiavocampos second question might be considered more controversial, positing the argument that long-range rockets carrying warheads weighing between 20 and 90 kilograms 46 to 198 pounds arent actually dangerous to human life. She asked:
Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they rarely do damage and that the response from Israelis is disproportional to the threat theyre under.
Oren answered she might want to pose that question to the three Israelis killed by a rocket in Kiryat Malachi on Thursday (see TheBlazes story here and Glenn Becks segment looking at media bias and profiling the victims here). Oren suggested Schiavocampo envisage what would happen if Hamas were bombing America. He said:
Imagine if one rocket had fallen in the United States and not now since the year 2009, our last operation, weve had something in the vicinity of 8,000 rockets fall on the State of Israel. Thats more than twice all of the German rockets that fell on London during World War II. And you saw how the British and Americans reacted to that.
Schiavocampo then posited that because the number of rocket attacks on Israel has dramatically increased since 2009, Israels policy has been a failure. By way of comparison, she did not attribute the increase in attacks to other possibilities including: Hamas feeling more emboldened since its ideological ally, the Muslim Brotherhood, took control of next-door Egypt or that its ties have only grown stronger with Iran, which provides its long-range Fajr-5 missiles. She asked Oren:
You mentioned the amount of rocket attacks that have been seen in Israel. In 2009 that number was about 200 and this year its been about 700 despite the fact that weve been down this road again that Israel has responded with military force in the past. So does this show that Israel s policy towards Gaza has been a failure?
Oren said that after 12,000 rocket attacks in the past 12 years on Israeli civilians, We have no option and nor would any other country in the world have an option but to defend our citizens by all necessary and legitimate means.
Watch the MSNBC interview with Michael Oren here:
http://politics.kfyi.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=104707&article=10583924
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news
A disproportionate response is the appropriate response.
perfect!!
Not playing teeter-totter Napoleon. The results are not supposed to be ‘balanced’. Really the species is headed for a die off.
What is wrong with these idiots?
This always reminds me of John Kerry saying that in a war we should give a proportional response. So if someone punched me in the face with 1/3 force I should also do the same with an equal response? Uh, no. If someone strikes you, you return with everything in your current arsenal. The people are unbelievable!
OK Mara, how’s about you stand at ground zero and let one of those 121mm or 140mm babies zero in on you, let’s see what’s left of your pathetic being.
To the liberal US MEdia 7 months pregnant Jewish mother killed at the breakfast table in front of her 2 and 4 yr old children was “minor damage”?
Let me get this straight Mara, if more Jews had been killed by these rockets, then it would be OK for the Jews to fight back?
Or how many more Jews need to die for you to be OK with them fighting back?
I’m sure Israel will be hiring her as deputy for proportionality
Except for the family that was killed by a rocket. Idiots. I hate MSNBC.
Please, oh please, let some group start launching rockets at MSNBC. We’ll see what those lilly-livered chicken-lipped marshmallow-brained idiots react.
I can only imagine the pile of p*ss and Obamastuff these dorks would deposit if they just heart a firecracker go off nearby.
Who listens to MSNBC except like minded loons. Nothing said on that channel should be taken seriously. It has just as responsible reporting as moveon.org. Both are as good and useful as used toilet paper.
Maria Schiavocampo - fulfills some need to the network or is another Affirmative Action Hero.
I despise “disproportional response.” It is so much new speak, pc, bs that makes me want to throw something at my computer or tv screen every time some whiny liberal mentions it.
Somehow, attacks on Christians and Jews is fine, but any response is “disproportionate.” Bull, if these heathens lob rockets at Israel, Israel should bury all of them. Get them to their supposed paradise quicker. Same in Afghanistan and Iraq. The hell with it, take the gloves off and put them down permanently.
They will be the first to the guillotine.
Obama: If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun
Our Most Omnipotent and Fearless Leader and Ardent Golfer had voiced these words many times!
If MSNBC wishes less children killed tell them to stay away from rocket launch sites.
5.56mm
Initially, I was willing to cut her a break when she asked the “what would you say to those who think...” question. There’s nothing wrong with urging the interviewee to address those concerns...
BUT...
When she proceeded to opine that the increasing number of missiles was a result of a failed Israeli policy, she broke it for me. American reporters often sit in and “report” from comfy hotel rooms. They can’t begin to identify with the experiences of those truly affected by conflict.
Rocket Mara Schiavocampo home the same amount.
According to the code of ethics I adhere to, The initiator of force, nor anyone else, gets to decide what level of force that the defender gets to use. We didn’t win world war II by a proportional response to the Japanese and the Germans. We blew the S&(t out of them until they no longer had any interest in fighting us and that is exactly what the Israelis will have to do.
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