Selective amnesia, Part II

In yesterday's post, we noted how Reuters' omission of essential historical detail in its "Timeline: Path to new Israel-Palestinian talks" leaves readers misinformed while facilitating the lie that in 1948, Israel was left with 78 percent of the "land [Palestine Mandate]".

Moving along the Timeline, Reuters correspondent Bernd Debusmann and Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald continue with the publication of outright falsehoods: 

1967 - In what it calls pre-emptive strikes on Arab states, Israeli forces seize rest of British-mandate Palestine, taking West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and Gaza Strip from Egypt. Israel captures Golan Heights from Syria.

Israel did not (and did not claim to) preemptively attack Jordan, Syria, nor any of the other Arab states that contributed troops and arms to the Six-Day War in 1967.  Only the Egyptian air force was initially struck by Israel following Egypt's casus belli when it closed the Straits of Tiran, expelled UN peacekeeping forces from the Sinai Peninsula, and massed 1,000 tanks and nearly 100,000 soldiers on the Israeli border.  Jordan entered the war by shelling Jewish communities in Jerusalem, and Syria did the same -- along with air raids -- in northern Israel.

Having misrepresented the relative proportion of Palestine controlled by Israel in 1948, it is a short order for Debusmann and Macdonald to assert this bald-faced lie:

[In 1967] Israeli forces seize rest of British-mandate Palestine

Of course if Israel had "seized" the rest of British-mandate Palestine, she would have controlled all of Jordan!  Apparently, neither history nor geography is Reuters strong suit.

On to the modern era tomorrow...