Blame Israel first. Then seek the facts. That is how it works among reporters covering the Middle East. Better yet, forget the facts. Appeal to the emotions. This means, play it up for the cameras. So believe this -- without the cameras there would be no riots, other than the usual Arab anger about everything worldwide.
The rioters know when it’s Showtime. Lights, camera, action – and now let the stampede begin. Ready whenever you are, Mr. DeMille.
To get the latest from overseas, America switched to CNN where, on the heels of what is alleged to be a revenge murder that offered pretext to Arab unrest, we found reporter Ben Wedeman thrilling his viewers to the next gotcha image -- of a Palestinian Arab taking a beating from what appear to be Israelis, emphasis on “appear to be.”
Ben Wedeman got what he wanted. The world got what it wanted. That picture is now playing to the same delighted crowds that bought the al-Dura hoax.
Ordinarily, people would say that in war stuff happens. But as the world trembles at the encroachment of one violent strain of Jihad worse than another, Israel gets no currency, no respect, no leniency for taking up the same fight inside its own borders. Make no mistake. ISIS is coming and it has arrived inside the Jewish State.
This is ISIS that’s behind the locust-like Arab rioting that stops at nothing and devours everything in its path.
Perhaps it’s time for a new sheriff in town, or Bibi better get wise quick.
ISIS is ready for its close-up.
As for me, I trust none of this coverage and none of these images. I trust nothing that comes from journalists covering the Middle East and when it comes to locusts, the Land of Israel swarms with hundreds of reporters who await their moments of dubious glory – while virtually none, zero, nil, are to be found anywhere in the Arab world.
Against Israel news is packaged, pre-planned, coordinated, calculated and manipulated. See how quickly the three kidnapped and murdered Israeli teens vanished from the headlines…to be replaced by a narrative far more satisfying to correspondents who arrive in Israel with a grudge and stay with a grudge.
They spy the Land to bring back false reports.
I saw how it works. Journalists from America and from around the world are trained to behave and to serve the Arab cause.
They are urged to report Israeli wrongdoing but must never reveal a single Arab atrocity. Hamas and Fatah “editors” see to this with guns. Palestinian Arab fixers are always on the prowl at the American Colony Hotel where reporters are told when the next riot will begin – and it won’t begin until the cameras are in place to prove the justification for Arab Rage.
The trick of the trade is to deceive. Even when they tell the truth it is still a lie.
I saw reporters asking for “another take” when an Arab woman wasn’t weeping properly. I saw reporters “directing” the mobs for the perfect shot.
I saw a kid who was supposed to be dead from Israeli bullets get up and walk after the filming stopped, so do not blame me if I believe in nothing.
I know that Hamas and Fatah school reporters on how best to present the “cause” and how readily those reporters comply. Here’s BBC reporter Fayad Abu Shamala speaking at a Hamas rally: “Journalists and media organizations are waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people.” (I have all this documented in the novel “The Bathsheba Deadline,” regrettably out of print for the moment.)
It’s an open and shut case:
In Israel, terrorists and journalists work as a team. I will go so far a to say that therefore many of these journalists are themselves terrorists.
Anything that comes from them ought to be peppered with skepticism and suspicion. Their motives are impure.
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com