Whack-A-Mole

With nearly 3,000 staffers worldwide, there are always those at Reuters who appear not to get the memo that the company has been caught out publishing false and fabricated information, employing overt propaganda, and spinning the news, maliciously, to harm national, religious and ethnic groups the agency's journalists hold in contempt.

These writers and editors continue to prepare stories incorporating false and malicious material long ago exposed as such on this website and elsewhere.

In a story appearing yesterday on the Reuters website and syndicated to perhaps hundreds of newspapers worldwide, Reuters correspondents Sebastian Moffett and Daren Butler report on the Turkish government blocking Israel from participating in an upcoming NATO summit:

(Reuters) - Turkey has refused to allow Israel to take part in a NATO summit next month because the Jewish state has not apologized for the 2010 killing of Turkish activists in a raid on a ship taking aid to Palestinians, a Turkish official said on Monday.
Relations between the regional powers deteriorated sharply after Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara aid vessel in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and killed nine Turks in clashes with activists.
Last September, Turkey expelled Israel's envoy and froze military cooperation after a U.N. report on the raid failed to prompt an apology from Israel.

Independent reports, including that of the United Nations cited by Reuters, concluded that the Mavi Marmara carried no humanitarian aid whatsoever and that passengers on board the ship, many of whom were members of the terror-linked Islamist group İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), planned and actively sought violent confrontation with Israeli forces:

There were humanitarian supplies and construction materials on board three of the vessels in the flotilla (the Defne Y, Sofia and the Gazze I). No humanitarian supplies were found on the remaining vessels. Weapons and combat equipment were found on board the Mavi Marmara, including flares, rods, axes, knives, tear gas, gas masks, protective vests and night-vision goggles.

It is thus false and willfully misleading for Moffett and Butler to characterize the Mavi Marmara as an "aid vessel", to assert that the ship was "taking aid to Palestinians" and to describe the passengers who attempted to kill Israeli marines boarding the ship with the anodyne term "activists".

To date, Reuters has published some variation of the Mavi Marmara aid ship canard in some three hundred stories. 

UPDATE APRIL 25TH, 2012: Reuters correspondents Edmund Blair and Tom Perry repeat the lie in this story, about Egypt's increasing hostility toward Israel.

He suggested Egypt could follow Turkey's example where once-close ties with Israel had worsened sharply after Israeli naval commandos killed nine Turks in May 2010 in a raid on a ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip.

Is Perry still employed at Reuters?

The word "irony" not in Reuters dictionary

In an interview with Hamas kingpin Mahmoud Al-Zahar in Cairo on the question of whether there will be a truce between Palestinian terror groups in Gaza and Israel, Reuters correspondents Edmund Blair and Tom Perry demonstrate a serious irony deficit:

Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire appeared to be stuck over a demand by the Islamic Jihad militant group that Israel first promise not to target militant leaders for future attack.

Yes sure, ceasefire efforts "appear to be stuck" because Israel will not promise to offer immunity to Palestinian terror group leaders responsible for the launching of over 200 rockets and mortars aimed at Israeli civilian communities. 

In other news, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has agreed to end the slaughter of his people just as soon as they promise to elect him President for life.

A rose by any other name

On a number of occasions, we've noted Reuters use of the propagandistic lede "Analysis" to tag its op-eds with a pseudo-scientific-sounding term and enable the agency to peddle spin as dispassionate investigation for subsequent syndication to hundreds of other media outlets.

Reuters has adopted a new propaganda mantra to disguise these type of agenda-driven stories: Insight.  So, when you come across this banner attached to a Reuters story in the future, you'll know immediately you are about to read a piece of one-sided claptrap masquerading as cool, trenchant reporting.

The Insight format is a perfect vehicle for Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry.

When we last visited Perry, he was busy lying about the Muslim Brotherhood, asserting that the group had only announced it was going to reconsider Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in response to suggestions that U.S. financial and military aid to the country might be reviewed (if Americans currently detained in Egypt are not released).  In fact, the Brotherhood has been issuing threats to reconsider the treaty since it first became clear the group was going to accede to power in Egypt.

Here's what the Brotherhood said in early January, weeks before U.S. aid became a contention:

According to Essam al-Erian, deputy head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, the accords "are under the responsibility of the people and state institutions, and it would not be right for anyone to speak on behalf of the Egyptian people."
Speaking to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, al-Erian said, "We are not in a position to give assurances."
Rashad al-Bayoumi, the Brotherhood's second in command, told Al-Hayat las week that "the Muslim Brotherhood will not recognize Israel under any circumstances and might put the peace treaty with the Jewish state up to a referendum."
The Brotherhood, he added, "did not sign the peace accords… We are allowed to ask the people or the elected parliament to express their opinion on the treaty, and (to find out) whether it compromised the people's freedom and sovereignty. We will take the proper legal steps in dealing with the peace deal. To me, it isn't binding at all. The people will express their opinion on the matter."

And here's Perry serving as mouthpiece for the Brotherhood, conveying the false message (again) that the group's threats to renege on the treaty have only arisen as a result of the U.S. aid issue:  

While saying it will respect Egypt's international obligations, including the peace deal with Israel, the group has said Cairo could review the treaty if Washington were to hold back the aid that came with the agreement.
"We don't owe anyone any favors," said Hishmat, the lawmaker on the foreign relations committee. "Even with the threat to the U.S. aid, we are not intimidated in the way the previous regime used to be," he said.

Whether packaged as "news", "analysis", or "insight", a lie remains a lie.

And whether Reuters gives Tom Perry a beat in Ramallah, Cairo, or Timbuktu, a liar remains a liar.

Tom Perry fabricating again

Reuters hardcore propagandist Tom Perry claims:

The [Egyptian] military council has repeatedly pledged to honour Egypt's international obligations, including the peace deal with Israel, a position the [Muslim] Brotherhood has shared until now.

In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has been threatening for months to "review" the 1979 Camp David Accords, i.e., the peace agreement with Israel.  That is, when the group is not praying for Israel to be wiped off the map or vowing to kill all Jews.

Perry is serving as handmaiden for the Brotherhood here, prevaricating on the group's position so as to suggest that Brotherhood threats to trash the peace treaty have only come about as a legitimate retort to the possibility that the United States may reduce military aid to Egypt.

What do they teach these guys at Reuters school?

Tom Perry on the loose

Serial liar and Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry, who clearly has an irresistible fetish for the Palestinian Arabs, rushes in to defend them from the ravages of straight talk.  And his first objective is to repudiate Newt Gingrich's proposition that the Palestinians are part and parcel of the Arab community in the Middle East, rather than a distinct people.

Thus, Perry characterizes or cites others characterizing the Palestinians as a "people" at least three times in his latest turgid piece of propaganda:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah are Palestinian rivals facing the same dilemma: how to justify their role as leaders of the Palestinian people while making little headway in achieving their national goals.  [...]

"What is required is popular action, resisting on the ground," he said. "They must take steps in this direction, or they will be left behind by the Palestinian people."  [...]

And both know good governance will not be enough to satisfy a people seeking independence.

Okay Tom, we get it.  They're a PEOPLE!

Perry then goes on to characterize the genocidal raison d'etre of that people as a "struggle", four times:

With elections overdue, questions over their legitimacy are only likely to increase unless they find a way to galvanise the Palestinians' struggle with Israel.  [...]

But in a region of fast change driven by people power, some believe Fatah and Hamas, untested at the ballot box in six years, could be left behind if they do not come up with new ideas for directing the struggle against Israel.  [...]

The groups struck a new tone at a November 24 meeting in Cairo, where both talked about "popular resistance," a term including protests, boycotts and other non-military means of struggle.  [...]

Hamas and Fatah appear to be struggling to plot a path that doesn't depend on the tools they have long employed in the struggle with Israel.  [...]

That is, when he's not defining their genocidal raison d'etre as "resistance":

While Hamas rockets still fly into Israel from Gaza, the group these days appears more interested in calm than conflict. It remains committed to armed "resistance," but has clamped down on other groups seeking to attack Israel to avoid reprisals.  [...]

"The absence of the peace process and the absence of resistance means they (Hamas and Fatah) do not have political legitimacy," said Hany al-Masri, a political commentator involved in efforts to foster reconciliation between the two.  [...]

These actions generated support for both. But the momentum is fading and having played those cards, the sides have turned to reconciliation, a phrase now heard more often from Palestinian leaders than "resistance" and "peace process."

Tom Perry: where would he be without an Arab teleprompter?

Reuters Tom Perry weighs in over Gingrich remarks

In a post earlier today, we noted the mendacity with which Reuters correspondent Steve Holland responded to Newt Gingrich's remarks about the Palestinians being one with the Arab community in the Middle East.  Now it's the turn of Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry, who parrots interviews Palestinian official Saeb Erekat:

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, described his [Gingrich's] comments in an interview as "despicable." Hanan Ashrawi, another top official, said Gingrich's "very racist comments" showed he was "incapable of holding public office."
"This is the lowest point of thinking anyone can reach," Erekat, a close advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters. Such comments served only to "increase the cycle of violence," he added.
"What is the cause of violence, war in this region? Denial, denying people their religion, their existence, and now he is denying our existence," said Erekat, for years a leading figure in peace talks aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

How ironic that a man proven to be a pathological liar, one who has served under two Palestinian regimes that have systematically denied Jewish historical and religious connections to the holy land, ancient culture and relics, and sovereign rights mandated by international law, is now pontificating about the conflict being due to a denial of religious rights and recognition of the Palestinian Arabs.

Along the way, Perry demonstrates why he is Reuters #1 propagandist and a serious liability to the company's (failing) reputation for truth and accuracy in its reporting:

The 1948 war erupted after Arab states rejected a U.N. plan that would have divided British mandate-ruled Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

The 1948 war did not "erupt"; it was launched as a declared war of annihilation by five Arab states and contingents from two others against a nascent Israel.

Perry again:

While Hamas remains committed to armed "resistance" and will not recognize Israel, the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah states that only peaceful means can deliver Palestinian statehood and its security forces cooperate with Israel.

Hamas is not committed to "armed resistance"; it is committed to the liquidation of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people.  And as we demonstrated earlier, the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas is merely tactically and temporarily refraining from violence in its effort to wrestle land away from Israel.

Perry is quite adept at giving voice to Palestinian Arab howls of "racism" and "ethnic cleansing" but apparently incapable of reporting the reality of Palestinian racism and ethnic cleansing aimed at the Jews.

Islamists are "softly-spoken", "pragmatic", "conservative". So says Reuters

The extent to which the Reuters Middle East crew will go to provide public relations for, and polish the image of, the most retrograde political movement this century, is truly astonishing.  Bordering on unintended satire, Reuters correspondent Tom Perry writes about the Salafi movement, which has just won 20-30 percent of the vote in the first round of Egyptian elections:

The indications so far are heartening for Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, a Salafi planning to run for the presidency in a June election. He sees the results as "a map" of how young Egyptians going to the polls for the first time had voted.
"There's no doubt this is pleasing," said the softly-spoken lawyer-and-politician with a long, grey beard, wearing a suit and tie in an interview on Egyptian television on Thursday. 

Voters had realised the Islamists' discourse was "logical and reasonable", he said, at the same time outlining a conservative view typical of the Salafis.

He said men and women should be segregated at work and displays of public affection must stop. There must also be a halt of the sale and production of alcohol.
As in Saudi Arabia, Salafis would want to bar women and Christians from executive posts. They might also ban "un-Islamic" art and literature, as well as mixed beach bathing.  [...]

"I believe they can bring change," said Mohammed Hussein, 30, who works in commerce, explaining why he voted for the Nour Party in the city of Alexandria, where Salafi banners urge women to wear the Islamic veil. "It is a party that loves religion."
Hussein's enthusiasm for the group is the result of years of listening to Salafi clerics in the mosque. Across the Middle East, the mosque has provided Islamists with a platform for politics denied to secular parties now trying to regroup.

Political platforms like this:

Reuters whitewash of the Muslim Brotherhood continues

It's only 267 miles as the crow flies between Ramallah and Cairo, and Reuters correspondent Tom Perry, whose beat has shifted from the former to the latter, proves that's just a stone's throw away when it comes to transmitting Arab propaganda.

And with the Muslim Brotherhood on the verge of power in Egypt, Perry is busy cleaning up the image of the group for western consumption:

Headed by doctors, engineers and teachers, the Brotherhood's slogan is "Islam is the solution." Yet it talks the same language as other reformists when it comes to the need for democracy, an independent judiciary and social justice in Egypt.

Actually, the Brotherhood's slogan is, “Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Koran is our law, Jihad is our way, and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu-akbar!”.

That chilling manifesto has been carefully concealed in the run-up to elections in Egypt but remains the Islamist group's raison d'etre.

And note how Perry attempts to bring respectability to the Brotherhood by asserting it is headed by "doctors, engineers and teachers".  This is of course, irrelevant to the group's extremist agenda nor can one forget that the Nazi Party in Germany was also led by many in upstanding professions.

Perry then parrots the Brotherhood's feigned rejection of violence:

Though the Brotherhood disavowed violence in Egypt in the 1970s, state suspicions lingered over its goals. 

Perhaps the reason "state suspicions lingered over its goals" is because the Brotherhood was implicated in the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and the terrorist attack in 1997 which killed 62 tourists in Luxor.

To soothe western fears over what the Brotherhood has in mind for Egypt, Perry interviews one of its members:

Ali Khafagi, a 28-year-old Brotherhood activist, says fears about the group are overblown. A member since high school, he describes the Brotherhood as "very moderate and open minded."
"The Brotherhood's goal is to end corruption and start reform and economic development and that is what attracted many of its supporters to join it including myself," he said.
Khafagi dismissed talk about the Brotherhood banning alcohol or forcing women to wear headscarves if it came to power.
"That could only be done by a mad group and the Brotherhood is not a mad group, but a decent logical group with a good understanding of the Egyptian people and Islam," he added.

A good understanding of Islam.  Indeed.

The "Freedom & Justice" Party unmasked

Elder of Ziyon calls our attention to the written election platform of the Muslim Brotherhood -- er, the "Freedom and Justice" party in Egypt which includes:

Affirming the right of the Palestinian people to liberate their land, and highlighting the duty of governments and peoples of Arab and Muslim countries, especially Egypt, to aid and support the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist usurpers of their homeland.

There's that dang euphemism for bus bombings again.

Reuters on the other hand, continues to assert that the Brotherhood has renounced violence.

Tom Perry lifts his pen; count the lies

It's another day and another deceit for Reuters propagandist Tom Perry who offers us his unique brand of "analysis" on the current state of Middle East peacemaking as orchestrated by the Quartet (Russia, the EU, the UN, and the US).  So, let's see where Perry seeks to mislead his audience this time:

The immediate obstacle [in the way of negotiations] is the standoff over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements on the land where the Palestinians aim to found an independent state. World powers view the settlement as illegal under international law.

Er, no.  The immediate obstacle is the utter refusal of the Palestinians to engage in good faith peace talks without dictating the outcome of those talks by obtaining in advance of them, extraordinary unilateral concessions from Israel in the form of, 1) a termination of Jewish settlements on land promised to the Jews in resolutions adopted by the League of Nations and United Nations, and 2) a commitment by Israel to accept a Judenrein Palestinian Arab state on all land, including Jerusalem, liberated by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

And "world powers", like the United States, emphatically do not view Jewish settlements on this land as illegal in international law.  Indeed, as noted above, Jewish settlements in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") are entirely legal in international law.

In Israel, there has been a swing to the political right, a shift helped by the last Palestinian uprising. Add to that the fact that half a million Israelis have now settled in the would-be Palestine, and hopes for a deal seem far fetched.

Ah yes, that euphemistic and nebulous Palestinian "uprising", aka the Palestinian terror war, that killed over 1,000 Israelis in suicide bombings and shootings.  A bit more journalistic transparency in this respect might enable readers to better apprehend the reasons behind that "swing to the political right" in Israel.

Perry's reference to "would-be Palestine" includes the city of Jerusalem, a city built by the Jews over three-thousand years ago and only ever sovereign to the Jewish nation.  Jerusalem, a city where Jews maintained a community despite successive waves of invasion, conquest and occupation until 1967 when it was finally liberated from Arab colonization that had sought to obliterate any Jewish connection to the land and its holy sites.

The deal [to exchange Israeli Gilad Shalit for over 1,000 Hamas terrorists] disheartened Palestinian leaders in the West Bank who, unlike Hamas, oppose armed conflict with Israel and believe peace talks are the way to end the conflict.

This is a double bald-faced lie from Perry.  First, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas celebrated the release of the Hamas prisoners by paying them stipends.  Secondly, as we've noted dozens of times, Abbas, his Fatah party, and the PLO remain committed in word and deed to the destruction of Israel via armed violence.

A [Jewish] settlement freeze was a requirement of a 2003 peace plan, drawn up by the Quartet and known as the road map for peace.
"If the Quartet is going to play any credible role, it must really be able to enforce the terms of reference, and the compliance with these terms of reference, particularly those that have led to an agreed text, like the road map," said Nabil Shaath, a veteran Palestinian official.

No mention by either Shaath or Perry of Palestinian obligations under the Road Map, like disarming and dismantling all terrorist infrastructure, something the Palestinians have completely failed to do.

Tom Perry still peddling lie that Mahmoud Abbas committed to peace

Serial liar and Reuters propagandist Tom Perry still wants his readers to believe that, unlike Hamas, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is committed to peace with Israel:

Abbas strongly opposes any form of violence by the Palestinians and his security forces in the West Bank cooperate with Israeli security forces.

This is a running propaganda mantra appearing in scores of Perry's stories, one that is completely uncoupled from reality.  Here's Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to the Jordanian paper, al-Dustur, three years ago:

“At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different.”

And here's Abbas offering Palestinian support for an Arab declaration of war against Israel just a few months ago:

"I have said more than once that if the Arabs want war - we are with them."

Having lied about Palestinian tactical goals, Perry then lies about Palestinian strategic goals:

But peace talks with Israel have, by his [Abbas] own admission, hit a dead end while Jewish settlements continue to expand in the West Bank, consuming territory seen by Palestinians as central to their goal of a viable state.

First, Jewish settlements have definitively not continued to expand in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), "consuming territory".  Other than a handful of tiny outposts disclaimed and frequently destroyed by the Israeli government, settlements have not expanded laterally in many years.

Secondly, the Palestinian goal, often admitted in Arabic and occasionally in English, is not a "viable state" but a Judenrein one (ethnically cleansed of Jews), as a stepping stone to the demographic conquest (destruction) of Israel.

Perry further misleads readers with the notion that Abbas' attempt to wrestle away Israeli-won land, including the city of Jerusalem, by breaching the Oslo Peace Accords and applying for statehood to the UN reflects a "peaceful" approach to settling the conflict:

"Abbas made the most peaceful move you can imagine: going to the United Nations. And yet he got this brutal political response by Israel and the United States," the Palestinian official said. "That's also a negative message to the public about the productivity of this peaceful approach."

Then, there's the obligatory propaganda on the 2008-09 Gaza War between Hamas and Israel:

That war had a lopsided outcome in favor of Israel. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed while 13 Israelis lost their lives.

So, approximately 1,400 Palestinians (over 700 of which were Hamas terrorists) were "killed", while 13 Israelis "lost their lives" -- undoubtedly due to tripping over their shoelaces while running toward shelters to escape the thousands of Hamas rockets raining down on them.

Perry finishes up by citing, uncritically, an official employing the Palestinian euphemism for the eradication of Israel:

"I think the prisoner swap comes at a good time. It reaffirms the power of resistance at a time when all Palestinian groups are adopting non-violent resistance," he said.

Sure, all Palestinian groups are adopting non-violent resistance.

Perry really ought to cut down on the Arab Kool-Aid.

Tom Perry gloats with his brothers in arms

Reuters propagandist Tom Perry writes about Hamas "stealing the thunder" from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for successfully blackmailing negotiating the release of over 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Israeli Gilad Shalit.  Here's how Perry describes these Palestinian prisoners:

Though lacking Saadat and Barghouti, the swap will resonate with Palestinians, who regard the 6,000 or more prisoners held by Israel as national heroes and freedom fighters.
From a domestic perspective, the timing comes at a good moment for Hamas. A hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners whose demands include an end to solitary confinement is making daily headlines in the Palestinian media.

Not once in his 700+ word piece does Perry balance his parroting of Palestinian rhetoric with a mention of the crimes committed by these prisoners, including the 400 serving life sentences for murder.  This is a blatant violation of both the Reuters Trust Principles and the agency's Handbook of Journalism:

As Reuters journalists, we never identify with any side in an issue, a conflict or a dispute. Our text and visual stories need to reflect all sides, not just one [...]  Similarly in a political dispute or military conflict, there are always at least two sides to consider and we risk being perceived as biased if we fail to give adequate space to the various parties.

Perry suggests Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike to demand an end to solitary confinement but in fact, there are only about 20 Palestinians in solitary -- those convicted of the most heinous crimes.  The rest are demanding they be able to take university courses and receive Arab TV channels.

Perry then rehashes his insipid lies about

1) Mahmoud Abbas:

But credibility matters to both. Abbas, 76, a believer in peace negotiations despite a deadlock that has lasted over a year, has enhanced his standing in recent months, showing a more defiant approach toward Israel and the United States.

Sure, the man who refuses to negotiate is a "believer in peace negotiations".

2) The raison d'etre of Hamas:

Hamas' critics, meanwhile, say the movement has been facing a credibility crisis, struggling to reconcile its commitment to armed struggle against Israel with the responsibilities of governing Gaza, where it seized power from Abbas in 2007.

Hamas stated commitment is to genocide of the Jews.  Can't allow that unattractive reality out of the bag, eh Tom?

3) The risible notion that Hamas has been trying to prevent violent attacks on Israelis:

They [Hamas critics] have pointed to a contradiction between Hamas' words and deeds as it has sought to rein in militants whose rocket attacks into Israel have drawn punishing reprisals.

Several hundred Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks have originated from the Gaza Strip in 2011 alone.  There is absolutely no "contradiction between Hamas' words and deeds".

But then, you knew that; didn't ya' Tom?

Palestinans seek "National Heritage" status for Jewish, Christian Holy sites; Tom Perry fails to see irony

Reuters correspondent Tom Perry, who took a much-deserved holiday after penning a series of arduous Palestinian love fests and anti-Israel polemics in the run-up to the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN, returns to tell us:

The Palestinians will seek World Heritage status for the birthplace of Jesus once the U.N. cultural agency admits them as a full member, and will then nominate other sites on Israeli-occupied land for the same standing, an official said.

Perry is apparently oblivious to the supreme irony associated with present-day Palestinian Arabs nominating as their own historical treasure, the birthplace of Jesus, a Jewish rabbi who lived in Roman-occupied Judea two-thousand years ago, a time when there were no Palestinian Arabs.

Reuters journalist circulates email calling for Palestinian state

From the "oops!" department, Reuters journalist Svebor Kranjc responded to an email issued by the European Jewish Congress (EJC) opposing the Palestinian statehood bid with an email of his own:

“I am going to support it!... You have your state but you don't want others to have their state. So sad...”

The Jerusalem Post story doesn't indicate how many recipients were on Kranjc's email list.

The EJC responded by complaining to Reuters:

“We call upon Reuters, one of the oldest news agencies in the world and one that has a reputation for fair and balanced news, to remove employees who bring a political agenda into their work in journalism and media, and in their professional relations."

Apparently, the EJC hasn't visited our website -- nor read any of Tom Perry's stories.

Reuters Tom Perry hearts the Palestinians

Reuters correspondent Tom Perry, who appears to be moving through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' seven stages of grief over the impending death of the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations, has graduated from anger and depression on to hope and acceptance:

(Reuters) - Palestinians expressed a mix of pride and wary anticipation on Friday as their president prepared to present an application for United Nations membership for the state of Palestine in the face of fierce opposition from the United States and Israel.  Flags and portraits of the late Yasser Arafat and President Mahmoud Abbas draped buildings in a central Ramallah square where Palestinians awaited the live broadcast of a speech by Abbas [...]

President Barack Obama has warned the United States would exercise its U.N. veto power to prevent a Palestinian state being declared by the 15-member Security Council.
Backing Israel's insistence the two sides must resume suspended negotiations, Obama this week said there can be "no shortcut" to a Middle East peace that attempts to circumvent a treaty between the Palestinians and Israel.

Perry has so completely lost his integrity (not to mention his mind) as an independent reporter, he adopts the loaded Palestinian term for the Israel Defense Forces:   

There was no sign of organised Palestinian violence in the West Bank as feared by some Israelis, worried Israel's opposition to the biggest Palestinian diplomatic initiative in years could trigger clashes with occupation security forces.

He then parrots Palestinian canards:

Palestinians say they have been patient during 20 years of peace talks that have yielded nothing, while Israel's occupation continues and Jewish settlements grow on West Bank land.

Yielded nothing but a concession by various Israeli governments, including the present one, to accept a second Palestinian state on land promised to the Jews if the Palestinian Arabs will only accept a Jewish state on the land that remains and agree to live in peace.  A condition apparently beyond Perry's "patient" Palestinians.

And there has been absolutely no lateral growth of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") in years.  Israel continues to suppress Jewish building in the territories in the hope, perhaps futile, that the Palestinians will ultimately come to demonstrate the same fervor for co-existence they currently display for terror and lawfare.

Perry follows with puff piece on Palestinian President; forgets a few items

Following his angry screed on behalf of the Palestinians (see our post below), Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry delivers a puff piece on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that lauds him as a man of peace:

HOSTILE TO VIOLENCE

Abbas is a refugee from a town in what is now Israel, but his vision for ending the conflict is built around the idea of establishing of an independent Palestine in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem alongside Israel.
His opposition to the use of violence has bordered on outright disdain. That has fed his rivalry with the Hamas Islamist group, which wrestled control of Gaza from him in 2007.
He has described as "futile" the firing of rockets into Israel by militants in Gaza, and the security forces he has built up in the West Bank are trained to cooperate with Israel rather than fight it.

As usual, Perry omits a few pertinent items from Abbas' bio.  Like the fact that the Palestinian President's dissertation denied the scope of the Holocaust and claimed it was a Zionist plot.  Or the fact that Abbas financed the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.  Or that in 2007, the man Perry claims is "hostile to violence":

urged a throng of 50,000 Palestinians to re-aim their guns at the “occupation” (i.e., Israel) instead of turning them on each other: “Fatah,” he promised, “will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation.... We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation....”

And in 2008, Abbas revealed that:

his current feint at negotiations with Israel is — like his mentor Arafat’s similar tactics — a strategic pause at best. He explained to a Jordanian newspaper that he was not pursuing “the armed struggle” at “this present juncture” only “because we can’t succeed in it.” He was quick to add, though, that “maybe in the future things will be different.”

As Perry's lede suggests: "Abbas presses Palestinian case with new defiance".

Indeed.

Tom Perry hysterical over Obama's decision to block Palestinian statehood bid

Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry, who hasn't written a straight story on the Middle East conflict since he joined the agency's Jerusalem/Ramallah bureaus in 2009, rants and raves about President Obama's decision to block the Palestinian application for statehood at the United Nations:

Frustration with U.S. policy is one of the main reasons behind Abbas' U.N. initiative. Palestinian officials have presented it as an attempt to break the U.S. monopoly over Middle East peace diplomacy by involving other powers.
U.S. policy toward the Middle East conflict has long appeared pro-Israel to Palestinians. By far the weaker party in the negotiations, the Palestinians were always dependent on Washington's help to get their own state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
President George H.W. Bush is remembered as the last U.S. leader to exert serious pressure on Israel when he temporarily withheld loan guarantees to press the Israelis for a freeze on settlement building. But that was 20 years ago, at the very outset of a peace process now widely seen as a failure.
Exasperation with Obama is compounded by the high hopes Palestinians harbored early on in his presidency that he too was ready to get tough on Israel.
He initially called on Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to smooth peace negotiations. But he then backed off, leaving Abbas in the lurch.

Perry and his pet Palestinians are "frustrated" with U.S. policy.  They want to "involve other powers".  They see the U.S. as "pro-Israel".  They are the "weaker party" and "dependent".  They want only "the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and 'East' Jerusalem" for their state.  They are "exasperated" with Obama who left Palestinian President Abbas "in the lurch" and want Obama to "get tough" with Israel.

Every word in Perry's screed postures for the Palestinians.  Almost every assertion is myopically-focused on Palestinian demands at the expense of legitimate Israeli concerns.  Many of Perry's claims are pure fabrications.  And the Reuters "journalist" deliberately withholds any excerpts from Obama's speech at the United Nations where the President suggested (oh, the humanity!) that the parties actually negotiate an equitable settlement and peace deal that will result in the state the Palestinians purportedly wail for.

We don't usually lobby for or predict internal changes at Reuters.  We simply report on their correspondents' many errors, systematic bias, and use of propaganda devices to unethically influence their readers.  However, we will make a forecast here: within 12 months, Tom Perry will no longer be working for Reuters Jerusalem/Ramallah bureaus.  He will have either followed in the footsteps of former Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald, who was sent packing to a desk job in London as a result of a doctored photo scandal under his watch, or he will be hitting the streets in Ramallah, soliciting the various Palestinian papers for a columnist position.

We're sure he'll do well.

The one-state solution

In a story about Palestinians rallying support for a Palestinian state, Reuters kingpin propagandist Tom Perry cites Palestinian disappointment with U.S. support for Israel and President Obama's pledge to veto the Palestinian attempt to circumvent negotiations:

Washington's pledge to veto the bid for U.N. membership has added to deep Palestinian disappointment in Obama. The Palestinians have long complained of what they see as Washington's support for Israel at their expense.
"America talks about human rights. They support South Sudan. Why don't they support us?" said Tamer Milham, a 26-year-old computer engineer, referring to the new state of South Sudan which was admitted to the United Nations in July.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that South Sudan is not seeking to eradicate Sudan.

h/t: EoZ

Fisking Tom Perry (part III)

Continuing with our "Fisk" of Perry's propaganda:

Israel says the [security] barrier was aimed at stopping suicide bombings and other militant attacks and says it is working.   
But Palestinians say it is aimed at seizing control of land. The section that has cut Nabi Samuel off from the rest of the West Bank for example, also loops around nearby Jewish settlements deemed illegal by the world court, anchoring them to Israel.

Perry cites contentious Palestinian claims and then attempts to support those claims with a spurious example and symbolic fiction he wants readers to believe is authoritative and relevant, though the world court's advisory opinion is neither.  At the same time, the Reuters reporter is apparently at a complete loss to verify the simple fact that the Israeli security barrier has indeed reduced, by 99 percent, the number of Palestinian terror attacks in the country.  

Critics say the PA has focused too much attention on the city [Ramallah], turning it into a de facto capital that is taking the place of East Jerusalem, now beyond the West Bank barrier and part of what Israel calls its indivisible capital.

There's that fictional "East Jerusalem" again, which Perry (and his anonymous "critics") lament is being forgotten as aspired-to capital of an aspired-to Palestinian state.  

The [Palestinian] authority points at two major differences between the institutions it has built and a similar project led by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the 1990s.
Now, there is a transparent system of financial management which has trimmed its reliance on donor support.
The World Bank, in a report published this month, said PA public institutions now compared favorably to other countries in the region and beyond -- another reason Palestinian officials say they are ready to lead a real country.

In actual fact, the World Bank confirmed in its most recent report that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is as dependent as ever on the dole, making the Palestinians the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world.

In the last three months, the PA has twice failed to pay its 150,000 employees their salaries on time and in full, damaging its public standing.

Though the PA has not been remiss in meeting its salary commitments to those Palestinians responsible for the murder of Israelis.

The PA's critics say its strategy of negotiating peace with Israel has been a complete failure.

A complete failure because the Palestinian Authority refuses to enter into negotiations with Israel.

In Gaza, Hamas faces its own dilemma as it tries to reconcile its stated commitment to armed struggle against Israel with its responsibilities as a government eager to avoid punishing Israeli reprisals.

In violation of the Reuters Trust Principles and Handbook of Journalism, Perry employs yet another euphemism ("armed struggle") to conceal the Hamas commitment to genocide of the Jews.

Many argue that the time for a two-state solution has passed. Perhaps. But the Arab Spring might provide new momentum. If Arab governments begin to reflect popular sympathy with the Palestinian cause, then Israel could come under more pressure than ever.

The "Palestinian cause", indeed.

Fisking Tom Perry (part II)

Continuing with our "Fisk" of Perry's propaganda:

The Palestinian leaders behind the U.N. move argue it will buttress their claims to the West Bank along the border with Jordan, the separate Gaza Strip on the coast and East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as their capital.  They say the step is a result of the failure of the U.S.-backed peace process to deliver Palestinian independence on land occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.

The Palestinians are not satisfied with a fictitious city Reuters cunningly refers to as “East Jerusalem”, but openly acknowledge their demand for the holy city of Jerusalem, a city which has only ever been capital to the Jewish sovereigns and where, beneath its streets and earth mounds, lies three-thousand years of archeological relics attesting to that Jewish history.  Perry's memory is notoriously short, extending back a mere 44 years to the liberation of Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and Samaria, land that had actually been occupied by the Arabs of Jordan between 1949 and 1967.

At least 120 countries have already recognized Palestine, including Russia and emerging powers such as Brazil.

While those countries may recognize a nominal "Palestine", they do not recognize its borders or its claim to Jerusalem and have no "state-to-state" relations.

While Israel has removed some of the West Bank checkpoints put up during the last Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, which erupted in 2000 and had mostly fizzled out by 2005, its overall control of the territory appears as firm as ever.

Referring to it with the cheerful euphemism "uprising", Perry sanitizes the Palestinian terror war launched against Israeli civilians, a war where Palestinians murdered over 1,000 people and maimed several times that number before it "fizzled out" in 2005.  Which might explain why...

Israel has created walls, fences, earth barriers, checkpoints, military firing zones, and army bases, all necessary, it says, for the security of the state.

Indeed.

This has left Israel in full control of 60 percent of the West Bank's territory, effectively governing the lives of 150,000 of its 2.5 million Palestinian residents and dominating land seen as crucial to the establishment of a viable Palestine.

Perry and Reuters frequently peddle the canard that a "viable" Palestine somehow requires land that has been ethnically cleansed of all its Jewish inhabitants.  Curious that this same standard is never  applied to the over 1 million Palestinian Arabs living as full citizens within the viable state of Israel.