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The Media’s Ferocious Reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Victory
NewsBusters ^ | March 21, 2015 | 9:08 AM EDT | Rich Noyes

Posted on 03/22/2015 3:07:47 PM PDT by Dave346

This week, the media’s reaction to the Israeli election seemed indistinguishable from the reaction of the Obama White House.

Not only were journalists surprised by Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory on Tuesday (they apparently believed pre-election surveys showing his party trailing by 2 to 4 seats; they ended up winning by 6 seats), but they seemed distressed by the result.

On Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, fill-in anchor Lester Holt predicted the results “could destroy any chance of a peace plan.” Over on CBS that night, correspondent Barry Petersen fretted that because of Netanyahu’s victory, “peace will be hard....Not a lot of optimism on this front.”

Earlier on CNN, shortly after the polls closed and it became clear Netanyahu had done better than expected, Christiane Amanpour channeled the hostility of Arab Israelis who, she said, “feel that the Likud Party and the right wing do have a, sort of, racist policy towards them and it’s very scary for them.”

Usually after an election, there’s at least a short media “honeymoon,” where journalists try and support the voters’ decision. But liberal outlets didn’t soften their criticism of Netanyahu; they torqued it up after his victory.

The alleged “news” story on the front page of the next morning’s New York Times by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren said Netanyahu’s campaign “offended many voters and alienated allies....It remained to be seen how his divisive — some said racist — campaign tactics would affect his ability to govern a fractured Israel.”

In attacking Netanyahu’s campaign tactics, some liberal journalists smeared American conservatives as well: “In what appeared to be a panicked last-ditch ploy to turn out right wing voters today, he took another page in the American playbook, resorting to demagoguery,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes announced on Tuesday night, saying of Netanyahu: “He is Israel’s George W. Bush.”

On Wednesday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg hit the same note on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports: “He kind of played the Israeli version of the Southern Strategy and basically tried to scare his base into coming out and giving their votes to him by saying, essentially, ‘the Arabs are coming.’...He used that as a scare tactic. So it’s a pretty brutal 48 hours from certain perspectives.”

Here’s what Netanyahu posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday that so offended journalists: “The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them out.”

The various Arab parties that cooperated to form a Joint List for Tuesday’s election all vehemently opposed Netanyahu for Prime Minister. So how is it wrong to point out, in essence, that “the other side seems to be getting its voters out, so we’d better, too.”?

The New York Times editorial page on Wednesday was especially apoplectic: “It is hard to know what is more depressing: that Netanyahu went for the gutter in the last few days in order to salvage his campaign — renouncing his own commitment to a two-state solution with the Palestinians and race-baiting Israeli Jews to get out and vote because, he said, too many Israeli Arabs were going to the polls — or the fact that this seemed to work,” griped columnist Tom Friedman.

Friedman was mild compared to the paper’s main editorial that day: “Mr. Netanyahu’s demagogy further incites the rage that has torn the country apart. There were other inflammatory moments in recent days....He made a subversive speech before Congress to castigate the Obama administration for seeking a nuclear deal with Iran....In his desperation, Mr. Netanyahu resorted to fear-mongering and anti-Arab attacks...”

The broadcast networks all cast Netanyahu’s victory as a setback for U.S.-Israeli ties. “The relationship with President Obama is going to be more poisonous,” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell said on Today on Wednesday. The next day, she personally confronted Netanyahu in an interview: “Why should President Obama trust you when you came to Congress to lobby against his negotiations with Iran?”

Since when is giving a speech an act of betrayal?

On MSNBC, longtime Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter spoke for most liberal journalists who had hoped the Zionist Union (mostly made up of the left-of-center Labor Party) would win. “Bibi Netanyahu won and Israel lost, because it will now become more isolated in the world....It is very harmful, I think, for the state of Israel in the medium — and definitely in the long term.”

Liberal journalists clearly had hoped, along with the White House, that Tuesday’s election would sweep out the troublesome Netanyahu and replace him with someone more likely to accept Obama’s left-wing approach to ISIS, Iran and other Middle East crises.

What they didn’t count on was that, perhaps, advertising Obama’s disapproval of Netanyahu actually helped the Prime Minister. As guest Frank Luntz said on CBS This Morning on March 18: “The Obama administration today has got to be very disappointed because they had their people over there trying to make a difference and Netanyahu pointed that out. And Israelis don’t want other people, including Americans, telling them how to vote.”


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; bomb; cnnvsisrael; demagogicparty; iran; israel; memebuilding; nbcantisemitism; nbcvsisrael; nbcvsjews; nuclear; obamaantisemitism; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; terror; war; waronterror; whitemosquevsisrael
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1 posted on 03/22/2015 3:07:47 PM PDT by Dave346
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To: Dave346

Media is the Propaganda Arm of the DNC and Obama White Mosque.No surprise here.
The bit of good news is “those who curse Israel will be cursed” So i wont need to deal with these bozos forever we ain’t on same road
Freegards
LEXX


2 posted on 03/22/2015 3:11:12 PM PDT by lexington minuteman 1775
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To: Dave346

Obama is making this out to be REAL BIG ISSUE and is throwing a Temper Tantrum over it, even though he knows it’s TOTALLY FALSE and it’s a LIE that he’s telling the American public. Obama is hoping the FOOLS in America will believe him and not Netanyahu, when Netanyahu says he STILL supports a Two-State Solution, per Bar-Ilan.

The reason why Obama is making this out to be a big issue, is that he wants to “use it” to abandon Israel in the United Nations (by refusing to block UN Security Council Resolutions against Israel) and in the future by implementing sanctions against Israel.

As Obama knows very well, and as Netanyahu has made clear repeatedly after the election ... Netanyahu has not abandoned his Bar-Ilan policy speech regarding his support for the Two-State Solution.

Obama is trying to take a misunderstood campaign blurb and turn into a major policy reversal. It’s no such thing and Obama knows it!

This is what I said regarding what the Liberal press and Obama are doing ...

— — —

This a FALSE statement from the press and from Obama. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has REPEATEDLY sought to correct the mistaken impression that he does not support a TWO-STATE SOLUTION.

He does support it and he says that he has maintained that same support ... going back to his Bar-Ilan speech, when Obama first got into office. He says his position in support of the Two-State Solution has not changed since then.

What it is ... is that the liberal press and Obama want to hammer on Netanyahu no matter what ... and they’ve picked up on a LIE that Netanyahu does not support the Two-State Solution.

Here’s Netanyahu’s support for a Two-State Solution from what he has been referring to in the last several days to COUNTER THIS LIE!

Address by PM Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University [Relates to Netanyahu’s Re-election]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3270248/posts


3 posted on 03/22/2015 3:17:18 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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To: Dave346

Odd how the all-powerful MSM seems to be and more on the losing side, despite all their efforts...


4 posted on 03/22/2015 3:22:01 PM PDT by Rennes Templar
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To: Dave346

Journalistic standards have evolved since 2008.

The standard used to be: how closely does our story conform to the DNC party line.

Now it is: how much will Barak like me for what I say and write.

They are boot-lickers.


5 posted on 03/22/2015 3:24:06 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: Dave346
Usually after an Democrat victory election, there’s at least a short media “honeymoon,” where journalists try and support the voters’ decision.

Fixed it.

6 posted on 03/22/2015 3:37:35 PM PDT by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Dave346

If you want to witness another “ferocious reaction” by the media, just stay tuned over the next few days as they react to Cruz’s Presidential announcement.


7 posted on 03/22/2015 3:44:27 PM PDT by rhinohunter (Freepers aren't booing -- they're yelling "Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz")
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To: Dave346

Lester Holt ... Lester Holt...

Why in HELL should I care what he reads off his teleprompter?


8 posted on 03/22/2015 3:46:55 PM PDT by Walrus (I love the America that used to be ---I hate the America that now IS!)
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To: Dave346

the central media work for the same anti-American string-pullers as does O

Pravda West. Spew the IslamoNazi line 24/7 and to Hell with doing any objective reporting. (PS: The mass media is one of only a few industries where a large number of relatively poorly-qualified people can get paid some big $$$....all they have to do is parrot the scripts they’re given... ha! its not all that different from reading TOTUS scripts as if they were your own ‘presidential addresses’ and speeches.... ha ha!)


9 posted on 03/22/2015 3:52:58 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (Foolish people ... have eyes and see not)
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To: Dave346

what’s important is not what the media say or print, but who is providing the media these scripts what to say or print...

(same comment for TOTUS)


10 posted on 03/22/2015 3:53:43 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (Foolish people ... have eyes and see not)
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To: Dave346

“pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain..”


11 posted on 03/22/2015 3:54:01 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (Foolish people ... have eyes and see not)
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To: Dave346

The Feds and the LSM are anti-Semitic.


12 posted on 03/22/2015 3:56:03 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Yes.

God, please protect Netanyahu and Israel.

In Jesus’ Holy Name,

Amen


13 posted on 03/22/2015 4:03:05 PM PDT by combat_boots (The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spiritui Sancto!)
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To: Dave346

Palestinians do not want peace; they want the Jews dead.


14 posted on 03/22/2015 4:41:59 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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To: Dave346
Netanyahu's victory was an insult to their Prophet.


15 posted on 03/22/2015 5:17:51 PM PDT by Iron Munro
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To: samtheman
They are boot-lickers.


16 posted on 03/22/2015 5:37:51 PM PDT by Iron Munro
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To: Star Traveler
“Why should President Obama trust you when you came to Congress to lobby against his negotiations with Iran?”

Answer: The real question should be, ‘why should I trust Obama when he is hellbent on destroying my country and my people? A better question would be why the F*** did the American people re-elect a man who is demonstrably hellbent on destroying their country?’

17 posted on 03/22/2015 7:15:00 PM PDT by nhbob1
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To: Dave346

Shocking. /s

The media is anti-Semitic.


18 posted on 03/22/2015 7:17:24 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Dave346
peace will be hard

No sh*t Sherlock....It's especially hard when one side (the one the media favors) doesn't want peace, in fact has turned it down every time it's been offered. Nobody hates Jews quite like satan and his muzzies - there will be no peace until Jesus comes back and every last muzzie is either saved or dead.

19 posted on 03/22/2015 7:27:35 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: nhbob1

It was a combination of Liberal Jews, virtually all the blacks, liberal Amercans, low-information voters, welfare addicts and idiots ... all combining to make a majority of the voters. Why did they “do it again”? Well, it takes that group more than four years to figure it out!


20 posted on 03/22/2015 7:38:49 PM PDT by Star Traveler (Remember to keep the Messiah of Israel in the One-World Government that we look forward to coming)
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