Posted on 04/18/2002 7:42:02 PM PDT by Democrats are liars
"Eating my words," Winston Churchill once said, "has never given me indigestion." Nor, he might have added, did it detract from his reputation, something that the wartime British prime minister was famous for cultivating. Modern-day journalists would do well to consider Churchill's words, particularly when it comes to their coverage of the Middle East. For, ever since the start of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, the self- appointed guardians of truth have been all too quick to report fantasy as fact, but far less swift to correct the errors they have helped to spread.
Take the recent hard-fought battle for control of Jenin between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen. Though the Palestinians failed militarily, Jenin proved to be a propaganda bonanza, as they succeeded in spreading the word that "an Israeli massacre" had taken place while the IDF kept the news media at bay. Foreign journalists were all too willing to accept the Palestinian accounts as credible, leaving it to their unsuspecting audiences to decide between Israeli assertions of a furious gun battle and Palestinian charges of brutality and butchery. For days, the competing claims were broadcast worldwide, damaging Israel's image and provoking cries of outrage throughout much of the Western world.
The evidence that's come to light, however, has thus far failed to corroborate Palestinian allegations. According to both the IDF and independent aid groups, the total number of Palestinian dead found in the town is 40 - a far cry from the 500 casualties which Palestinian spokesmen had asserted at one point - and nearly all of them are male combatants bearing ammunition belts or other signs of having engaged in combat with Israeli forces. As The Washington Post noted the other day, "No evidence has surfaced to support allegations by Palestinian groups and aid organizations of large-scale massacres or executions by Israeli troops."
Yes, the scenes from Jenin have not been pretty. Like any site of extensive urban warfare, the destruction is concentrated and severe. But that is the unfortunate nature of war, especially one in which gunmen hole themselves up in the heart of a civilian population. As Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said, without much exaggeration, "There wasn't a house that wasn't booby- trapped."
Indeed, Israel took every possible measure to minimize harm to the Palestinian civilian population of Jenin. Soldiers, at great peril to themselves, conducted house- to-house searches for weapons and suspects, a tactic that no doubt contributed to the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers in one day in the city. Israel could quite easily have unleashed its air power on the Palestinian fighters, turning Jenin into a parking lot much in the way that the United States appears to have leveled villages in Afghanistan. But as Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz pointed out in an Independence Day interview with this newspaper, such an approach would have meant large numbers of civilian casualties, something the IDF has sought at all costs to avoid.
This makes for a stark contrast with the way in which the Palestinian Authority has conducted itself. Throughout the current intifada, the pattern of PA prevarication has been both brazen and consistent. After the January capture of the Karine A, laden with weapons destined for Gaza, Arafat denied any connection with it, even though the evidence linking him to the purchase of the ship's cargo from Iran was incontrovertible. He even sought to portray the affair as an Israeli plot designed to undermine his credibility in the West. More recently, Arafat's denials of his involvement in terror were proved false, when Israel released numerous Palestinian documents showing he had personally approved granting funds to sponsor terrorist activity. Despite consistently playing loose with the truth, the Palestinians still enjoy the confidence and trust of the bulk of the foreign media here in Israel.
All this does little to inspire much confidence in the quality of journalism and those who practice it. Objectivity and even-handedness are about more than just airing both sides of a story. When one side is caught in a lie, it is the duty of responsible media to say so. So far, too much of the Western media have failed in that most basic task.
No, how about terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.
Also worth mentioning is the lie that the P.A. told about Israel shooting and killing a priest who turned out to be alive and well. The foreign press was all over that, but I saw next to no retractions or word-eating after it turned out to be a lie, a P.R. tactic by Arafat. I'd like to see some lawsuits against the individuals in the media who are acting so irresponsibly...their dishonorable behavior costs lives.
None of them will be confronted with their lies or 86ed from TV...just like Begala, Carville, Lanny Davis and all the other Democrat liars who protected Clinton for eight years. It never ends.
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