We shouldn’t be surprised, but once again The New York Times has twisted itself into a pretzel as a means to defame Israel.
Of the recent tire-burning Hamas riot at Israel’s border, the Times editorializes that Israel purposely targeted Yasser Murtaja, who was shot and killed while supposedly serving as a Palestinian Arab journalist. The Times is outraged that this should have happened – while, in the same breath, admitting that Hamas is a “ruthless” organization, which “has drawn tens of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s border with Israel.”
In that case, what have we got? We’ve got “the fog of war.” This means there’s no telling what really happened.
There’s even a chance that this journalist was downed by purposeful “friendly fire.” Hamas and the other Islamist terrorists do it all the time.
They did it when they staged the Mohammad al-Dura incident, which prompted the bloody Second Intifada, which we recorded on page 147 of “The Bathsheba Deadline,” where we also recorded Daniel Seaman, Israel’s press secretary at the time, who found that media manipulation is the rule between Palestinians and journalists.
Quote from the BBC Gaza correspondent Fayad Abu Shamala at a Hamas rally in Gaza –
“Journalists are waging the campaign shoulder to shoulder together with the Palestinian people.”
Plus in this instance, “fog of war” has a double meaning, demonstrably so. Hamas burned those tires to blind the IDF. That was the plan.
Thus – who should be held responsible if mistakes did happen? As black smoke filled the air exactly as Hamas had it orchestrated, somehow, according to the Times, in all that chaotic darkness, it fell on Israel’s security forces to distinguish between a camera and a Molotov cocktail. Hamas? The terrorists? Blameless.
Next, we reach total absurdity when the Times editorialists do say that there was rock-throwing, border-breaching with perhaps weapons and explosives.
Oh? But besides that, besides the violence, “the protest was peaceful.” So says the Times with a straight face.
Harmless terrorism – do you understand? Peaceful violence – is that clear to you from the Style Book of The New York Times?
More than peaceful, it is positively 1960s kumbaya-time as whistled by Hamas and as danced in rhythm by The New York Times.
So we read that “many of the demonstrators stayed far back from the heavily fortified fence to PICNIC and hold a tent camp sit-in.” How is that for a doozy?
Yes, come join Hamas at its next picnic…bring the kids, and don’t forget your swastika banners.
Listen to the Times and what you get is Joan Baez and the bygone “flower children” instead of a terror group, Hamas, whose existence rests only upon its desire to murder all Jews.
Willful nonsense like that is staggering.
The Times doesn’t even know its own business, writing thus about combat journalism -- “Normally, that wouldn’t be a life-threatening career.”
That statement is insane.
On page 48 of our book, we note that “as of last count, over the past year, more than 100 Western journalists have been killed covering the Middle East and parts nearby and afar.”
Then to the question as to whether this latest casualty was really a journalist. In Israel, there is doubt. He may well have been a member of Hamas.
The Israelis have begun an investigation to find the answer at this writing, but for editorialists at The New York Times that won’t be necessary. They already have all the answers.
New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.
Just released is his augmented HOLLYWOOD EDITION of “News Anchor Sweetheart.” Engelhard wrote the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and the inside-journalism thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com