Reuters still lying about Palestinian terror attacks

In a story about a military clash between the Islamic Jihad and Israel in the Gaza Strip, Reuters correspondents Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams continue to embarrass themselves with this false and utterly ridiculous assertion:

Islamic Jihad at times is allied with Gaza's Hamas rulers but the group has chafed at recent efforts by the more powerful faction to impose de facto truces across the coastal territory.

There have been over 700 rockets and mortars fired into Israeli civilian communities by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza in 2011.  Hamas openly claims responsibility for many of these attacks.

Reuters, de facto liars.

The stink-balm peddler strikes again

When we last visited Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Crispian (curly-haired) Balmer (seller of balms), he was peddling the fatuous notion that notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants a peace treaty with Israel, whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants, presumably, eternal war with the Arabs.

This week, Balmer disseminates a piece of malicious anti-Israel propaganda in the form of a tendentious "report" from the political NGO, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

First, note how Balmer deliberately structures his headline and lede to implant in the mind of the reader, the notion that claims and assertions, heavily propagandistic claims and assertions, are actually statements of fact:

Israel forcing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem - NGO

Israel is forcing Palestinians out of East Jerusalem as part of a deliberate policy that might constitute a war crime, a prominent Israeli non-governmental organisation said on Monday.

Only after the incendiary and unsupported claims are trumpeted as fact, does Balmer append them to clarify that they are merely claims from a political interest group.  And he characterizes the interest group as "prominent" to lend further credibility to the claims.

What Balmer doesn't tell readers, is that the ICAHD rejects Jewish nationalism, encourages the destruction of Israel via boycotts, sanctions and divestment, and supports Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

We think readers might find that information of value in weighing the integrity of claims made by the group.

Even on the merits however, the ICAHD claims and Balmer's reporting of them are laden with fabrications.  For example, Balmer reports:

There are some 300,000 Palestinians residents in East Jerusalem, representing about 35 percent of the city's total population, but ICAHD said that since Israel took control of largely Arab areas it had systematically prevented their development.

As our sidebar graphically illustrates, the Arab population in Jerusalem has risen by more than 300 percent since Israel liberated the city in 1967.  The notion that this could have occurred under a  government policy to deliberately prevent development is patently absurd.

Balmer then parrots, with no investigative research on his part, an oft-repeated canard, employed by the ICAHD:

ICAHD said it was virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits to house their growing families.

The fact is, the Israeli government has authorized more than 36,000 permits for new housing units in the Arab sector of Jerusalem, more than enough to meet the needs of Arab residents until 2020.  Balmer, were he an unbiased and credible journalist, could have discovered (and reported) this countervailing evidence with five minutes of internet browsing.

But then, other than perhaps Reuters, no one is suggesting the peddler of malodorous balms is an unbiased and credible journalist.

Reuters: we interrupt this propaganda to bring you... propaganda

One wonders how Reuters Jerusalem Bureau correspondents sleep at night.  They are so wound up with pathological hatred for Israel, so desperate to use their soap box as the largest news agency in the world to swing the public to their view, and so in violation of nearly every ethical tenet spelled out by their employer's corporate governance charter and handbook of journalism, it's a wonder their heads don't explode before the alarm clock chimes.

Take for example, Reuters' deeply dishonest Bureau Chief Crispian (curly-haired) Balmer (perfume peddler) who employs a combination of cherry-picked quotes from Israel's diplomatic corps and enemies alike, as well as a fabricated assertion or two, to portray Israel as bellicose and intransigent:

Egypt's new military leaders are highly unlikely to tear up the Camp David accords, which brought Cairo enhanced security stability and also gave it access to generous Western funds [not to mention return of all the land they lost in a war of annihilation, ed].

But after an uprising among a populace that is overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, the military has already shown itself to be more open to the Islamist Hamas group that governs the Gaza enclave and more assertive when it comes to dealing with Israel.
"Israel must be aware that the days when it kills our children without getting a strong, appropriate response are gone for ever," Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister and ex-Arab League chief, said on his Twitter feed.

Isn't that special?  Balmer cites an unbelievably incendiary piece of atrocity propaganda from the social network site of a former Egyptian foreign minister to portray Israel as a killer of children.  Does he balance this with comments from, say, Israeli parliamentarian Aryeh Eldad who, following the murder by Palestinians of the Fogel family in Itamar, stated:

Who the Arabs are, we have known for a hundred years. They like their murder steaming hot. Jewish blood on their blades is cause for celebrations in Gaza and Hebron. 

Er, no.  One imagines that would be just too gauche for Balmer.

The Reuters Bureau Chief goes on to assert:

As ties with regional neighbours sour, relations with some of Israel's closest allies, including the United States, are not as rosy as they once were.
Western diplomats have pinned much of the blame for stalled Palestinian peace talks on Israel, with Washington and European capitals roundly condemning a spurt of recent approvals for settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In fact, the Obama administration has put the onus for failed peace talks squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinians (from Reuters):

During the joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama added: "For the Palestinians to take the United Nations route rather than the path of sitting down and talking with the Israelis is a mistake." [...]

Obama said Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, had to recognize Israel's right to exist and abandon its strategy of violence for the peace process to succeed.
"It is very difficult for Israelis to sit across the table and negotiate with a party that is denying their right to exist and has not renounced the right to send missiles and rockets into your territory," he said.

Before Balmer suggests Israel is being isolated (wishful thinking), perhaps he ought to glance at what his London bureau is reporting.

Arab nations welsh on aid commitments to Palestinians; Reuters asserts Palestinians are being punished for statehood quest

We linked to a story last month about Arab nations welshing on their promises of financial aid to the Palestinians.  That story went unreported by Reuters but this month, correspondent Tom Perry wants readers to believe that the Arab states are reneging on their aid commitments in order to pressure the Palestinians not to apply for statehood at the United Nations:

Palestinian Authority employees, who received only half wages in July, are getting a taste of what could be in store if their leaders defy Washington and follow through on plans to take their statehood quest to the United Nations in September.
Dependent on aid from Europe, the United States and its Arab allies, some of which has not been forthcoming this year, the Palestinians are facing a financial crisis which a senior official linked directly to their decision to go on the diplomatic offensive at the United Nations General Assembly.
"It's part of the pressure on us to take the wrong decisions," Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters.
"We saw this film with Yasser Arafat several times. You either say 'yes' or you face hunger," he said, referring to the late Palestinian leader. "They will not pay you and will not let the others pay you."

Perry doesn't provide a shred of evidence for his assertion that financial aid is being withheld by donor nations due to the Palestinian statehood drive.  Nor does he mention that the Arab states have failed to meet their financial commitments to the Palestinians not just this year, but over a multitude of years.  Nor, by the way, does Perry report that the Arab League is entirely supportive of the Palestinian effort to enlist the United Nations to wrestle land away from Israeli control and should therefore, happily fund it. 

In fact, Perry's entire story is a red herring, designed to conceal the fact that the Palestinian Authority is flat broke, not due to the U.S. applying pressure to donor nations, but due to mismanagement, corruption, and the diversion of foreign aid to Hamas and the terrorists on its payroll.

Reuters: PR agency for serial killers?

Imagine for a moment, a media company in the late 19th century hired to handle public relations for Jack the Ripper.  What could the agency say to smooth over the heinous, irredeemably violent nature of the serial killer?

"His surgical style suggests he is a capable doctor and well-educated".  "He recognizes that times are changing and he must change with them".  "He has not tried to murder anyone in nearly three weeks".  "He has offered to consult with other serial killers on decisions of who is next to be butchered".  "He has agreed to limit his activities to East London".  "He is moving his office to Dubai". 

So it goes with that peddler of malodorous balms, Reuters Jerusalem Bureau Chief Crispian Balmer (curly-haired perfume peddler), in a risible piece intended to makeover the public image of the terrorist group Hamas:

(Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has felt the political winds shift across the Middle East and is bending with them, making peace with its secular rival Fatah and trying to cool its conflict with Israel.
Israel has ridiculed the idea that the Hamas leopard can ever change its spots, but analysts poring over a recent slew of interviews from the movement's senior leaders believe change is under way, wrought by upheaval across the Arab world.
Despite the fact it looks secure in its coastal stronghold, the Gaza Strip, Hamas last month reached out to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs in the West Bank, and agreed to a surprise unity deal to end years of fierce feuding.
By doing so, Hamas effectively renewed its commitment to a ceasefire with Israel. No mortars or missiles have been fired out of Gaza since the accord was announced on April 27 -- a rare period of calm on one of the region's most dangerous borders.
Hamas has also conspicuously failed to provide wholehearted support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who faces the worst civil unrest of his 11-year rule, despite the fact that he has harbored the Islamist group leadership for a decade.
The chilly relations have raised speculation that Hamas might move its main regional office out of Damascus, which would take the group further out of Shi'ite Iran's orbit. It would strengthen ties with administrations that have good relations with the West, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.
Growing signs that the Islamist group is considering moving out first originated in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab al-Hayat daily, which cited unnamed Palestinian sources for its report.
"I think Hamas is serious this time. It is taking a chance and wants to be given a chance," said political analyst Hani Habib, who lives in Hamas-controlled Gaza [...]  "Concerning bin Laden, everyone knows Hamas has differences with al Qaeda ... especially (its) operations targeting civilians," Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshaal told France 24 TV.
Meshaal has given more interviews in the past several weeks than he has done in the past several years, apparently eager to show the world exactly where Hamas stands on Middle East peace.
Although he stopped short of recognizing Israel, he repeatedly stated that he wanted to establish a Palestinian state along pre-war, 1967 borders, implicitly suggesting that Hamas was ready to accommodate the reality of Israel.
He also said that he would henceforth consult with more moderate Palestinian factions over how to confront Israel, suggesting that he would no longer attack without consensus.
Another Hamas official, Sami Abou Zuhri, told Le Monde daily that observers should not focus on Hamas's uncompromising 1988 charter, but rather judge the group on the words of its leaders. 

Let's cite again, one of Balmer's assertions above to illustrate the chicanery with which Reuters goes about its public relations duties:

Although he [Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal] stopped short of recognizing Israel, he repeatedly stated that he wanted to establish a Palestinian state along pre-war, 1967 borders, implicitly suggesting that Hamas was ready to accommodate the reality of Israel.

Meshaal has not said anything in his interviews with Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, nor any other media organization which even remotely suggests that "Hamas was ready to accommodate the reality of Israel".  This is a complete figment of Balmer's imagination, or fabrication, that the Reuters Bureau Chief wishes his readership to mindlessly swallow.

Here's what Meshaal actually said (as reported by Reuters on May 8th, 2011):

Meshaal said the international community must pressure Israel to recognize the Palestinians, not the other way around.
"Israel needs pressure. It is an occupier that would not get out by conviction or through dialogue," Meshaal said, adding that Egypt was only able to enter into peace talks with the Jewish state after the 1973 Middle East war.
"What is needed today ... is to have resistance in all forms, armed and public ones," he said adding that he intends to try to persuade Fatah to adopt his approach to force Israel to end its occupation. "Any occupier in the world never retreats voluntarily ... It only retreats under pressure and force."

And at the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation shindig on May 4th, 2011:

"Our aim is to establish a free and completely sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whose capital is Jerusalem, without any settlers [Jews] and without giving up a single inch of land and without giving up on the right of return (of Palestinian refugees)," Meshaal told a ceremony in Egypt to endorse a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah movement.

The "right of return" would of course, involve the settlement of nearly 5 million Palestinian Arabs in Israel and the demographic destruction of the state.  Note also Meshaal's reference to "Jerusalem" -- not East Jerusalem, nor Arab East Jerusalem, nor any other rhetorical fiction Reuters correspondents consistently employ to conceal the fact that the Palestinians demand Israel surrender the city of Jerusalem for a Palestinian capital and ethnically cleanse all Jews from the area.  And if Israel doesn't comply?  "Resistance in all forms, armed and public ones".

Crispian Balmer: always willing to take on the task of defending the indefensible.

UPDATE MAY 15TH, 2011: In a rare example of forthcoming reporting, Balmer's colleague Douglas Hamilton grudgingly acknowledges what has long been obvious to the rest of us:

But Islamist Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and which last month sealed a surprise reconciliation pact with its bitter rival Fatah, issued a warning that Palestinians would accept nothing less than return to all lands lost in 1948.

Spokesman Taher Al-Nono praised the "crowds we have seen in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon" as evidence of "imminent victory and return to the original homes as promised by God."

In an apparent contradiction of suggestions that Hamas might ditch its rejection of Israel's right to exist, he said there was no alternative to recovering all land lost in 1948.

Palestinian reconciliation nears; Reuters goes into high-gear propaganda mode

Palestinian factions Hamas, Fatah and a host of smaller terror groups like Islamic Jihad are about to sign a reconciliation agreement in preparation for application to the UN General Assembly for statehood.  Concealing the objectives, tactics and bloody history of these groups and their leaders so as to facilitate that application is a tall order, but Reuters, with its pro-Palestinian and virulent anti-Israel agenda, is fully up to the task.  In the last 48 hours, Reuters has published, in both conventional story format and as part of its propagandistic "factbox" series, a number of pieces intended to obfuscate the implacably violent and totalitarian nature of these factions and their key players.

In a story on reaction to the killing of Osama Bin Laden by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, Reuters correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi fabricates a "good cop/bad cop" scenario, portraying the latter as supporting a non-violent, negotiated settlement with Israel:

The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority supports a negotiated peace with Israel to obtain a state in territories the Jewish state captured in a 1967 war.

No evidence is provided for this assertion and in reality, both Fatah and the Palestinian Authority remain committed to the destruction of Israel.  As we noted yesterday, the Fatah constitution calls for the total eradication of a Jewish sovereign by violent means.  The Palestinian Authority is about to bring into government, the genocidal terror group Hamas, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who has refused to accept Israel as a Jewish state or to negotiate with Israel for nearly a year, has often reminded his interviewers that the Palestinians have chosen non-violence merely as a temporary strategic option in their effort to defeat Israel.

Al-Mughrabi even provides public relations for Hamas by suggesting that its public statements condemning the killing of Osama Bin Laden were offered merely as a sop to other Islamist groups in Gaza:

Political analysts in the Gaza Strip said Haniyeh was attempting through his remarks to cool tensions in the territory with al Qaeda-inspired Salafi groups. They consider Hamas too moderate and waged gun battles recently with its forces.
"Haniyeh took in his consideration the situation in Gaza and the strong presence of Salafi groups. It was an attempt to reconcile with them after the fighting," said analyst Hani Habib.

We'll take a look at other Reuters propaganda efforts in coming posts.

Douglas Hamilton downplays effect of Palestinian rockets; reader sets him straight

In an op-ed masquerading as "Analysis" and laden with fatuous assertions, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton, who should have been terminated long ago for material breaches of the Reuters Trust Principles, suggests that:

Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage [on Israeli communities]

A commenter on the Reuters website sets Hamilton straight:

I take issue with the statement: “Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage.” There are hundreds of thousands of residents who are being traumatized many times every day by the threat of these missiles. And this has been going on, on and off, for years! Children are growing up under this constant threat, always having to be aware of where the nearest shelter is in case of a siren. And there have been injuries and death from these rockets in the past.
And please don’t tell me that the Gazans have it worse. All they have to do is STOP launching rockets and mortars, stop tunneling under the fence in order to attack and the Israeli army will have no reason to attack them!

Hear, hear.

Propagating propaganda

By virtue of its position as the world's largest news agency, one that sells its print stories and video content to hundreds of other news and media outlets, Reuters has enormous power to propagate the ideology and political views of the company and its correspondents -- while camouflaging this partisanship as objective news.  Doing so expressly violates the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles, a corporate governance charter which forbids reporting-bias.  Yet with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, pervasive and systematic bias supporting the Palestinian narrative and agenda is palpable in Reuters stories.

Take for example, this copy which appeared verbatim in at least three stories by different Reuters correspondents following the lethal bus bombing in Jerusalem yesterday:

Israel's three-week war in the impoverished coastal enclave in 2009 killed about 1,400 Palestinians, drawing heavy international censure. Hamas had mostly held fire since.

Having now been propagated in over one-hundred print and online publications, the first line in the paragraph is heavily biased and the second line, overtly false.  "Israel's war" was actually a war between Hamas and Israel, precipitated by the firing of thousands of rockets and mortars by Palestinian terrorists at Israeli civilian communities.  Both this fact and any reporting of the casualties, psychological trauma, and property damage suffered by these communities as a result of Palestinian attacks goes unmentioned by Reuters.

Further, the irrelevant reference to Gaza being "impoverished" and one-sided report of "international censure" of Israel (Hamas was also censured) reflect the use of the propaganda technique of appeal to pity in the former instance and a combination of card stacking and bandwagon propaganda devices in the latter.

As indicated above, the assertion that Hamas has "mostly held [its] fire since [the war ended]" is a fabrication.  Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has launched or permitted to be launched, over 500 rockets and mortars at Israeli civilian communities since the war ended in 2009.

Thus, Reuters has, with a single 25-word paragraph, successfully propagated a heavily biased and patently false narrative, in sympathy with the Palestinian Arabs and condemnatory of Israel, which will be read by a global audience of millions of consumers who believe they are being provided impartial facts consistent with the Reuters Trust Principles.

Reuters more Palestinian than the Palestinians

On today's bus bombing in Jerusalem, Reuters correspondent and propagandist Crispian Balmer cannot bring himself to state the obvious:

Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike.

Yes Crispian; it was a "terrorist attack", as even the Palestinian Prime Minister acknowledged:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad swiftly denounced the attack. "I condemn this terrorist operation in the strongest possible terms, regardless of who was behind it," he said in a statement released by his office in the West Bank.

But Balmer has absolutely no difficulty adopting Palestinian euphemisms to conceal the horror of their terror war that killed over 1,000 Israelis:

At the height of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, but which died out in recent years, militants carried out dozens of often deadly bombings in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

Nor does the Reuters correspondent have any compunction willfully understating by half, the number of Israelis killed in that terror war by slyly limiting his statistical count to suicide bombings only, while he counts Palestinians killed by any means:

Over 500 Israeli civilians died in 140 Palestinian suicide bomb attacks from 2000 to 2007. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the same period. 

Balmer then recalls for readers, the 2009 Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, citing an estimate of the number of Palestinians killed, while making no mention of the thousands of Palestinian rockets and mortars fired into Israeli civilian communities that precipitated the war.

Israel launched a three-week war on the impoverished coastal enclave in 2009, killing about 1,400 Palestinians and drawing heavy international censure.

Balmer finishes with flair by asserting, sans proof, that:

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in a 2007 coup, had mostly held fire since. 

In fact, Hamas along with other Palestinian terror groups have launched over 500 rockets and mortars into Israel since the end of the war.

The names change but the game is the same

There's a new name appearing in the byline of a story put out by Reuters Jerusalem Bureau but as one can easily note, the endemic anti-Israel bias remains a fixture of the agency's reporting.  Writing about the seizure of a ship carrying Iranian arms destined for Egypt and ultimately, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, Reuters fresh-face Ron Tzabar and veteran propagandist Ori Lewis advise:

Israel displayed on Wednesday advanced arms that it said had been found aboard a cargo ship seized in the Mediterranean Sea, and pointed to the haul as proof of the need to blockade the Gaza Strip.

Tzabar and Lewis apparently have every reason to seed doubt in the minds of readers that the arms were in fact, found aboard the cargo ship.  After all, the two reporters didn't actually see the arms being unloaded and one can never be quite certain that -- er, the Israeli government is telling the truth.

On the other hand, note that the two Reuters correspondents have absolutely no problem asserting as fact:

Since the devastating 2009 Gaza war, Hamas has signaled a desire for a truce and has tried to prevent smaller Palestinian factions from attacking Israel. Some Israeli media speculated that the shipment was intended for groups other than Hamas.

Not a shred of evidence is provided for the ludicrous notion that Hamas is trying to prevent other Palestinian terrorist groups from attacking Israel.  Apparently, Tzabar and Lewis are taking this on faith -- or perhaps on assurances from Hamas which -- er, never lies.

In fact, given the hundreds of rockets and mortars launched by Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and Hamas, at Israeli civilian communities since the end of that "devastating" war, we would suggest the evidence is significantly stacked against Tzabar and Lewis.

Carry on, Reuters.  Carry on.

Conjuring up the jinn

In a story appearing on Reuters' Alernet website, which provides free and unfettered publishing rights for "human rights" racketeers like Human Rights Watch, correspondent Nidal al-Mughrabi employs the logical fallacies appeal to pity, assertion, the red herring and non sequitur, as well as violating the Reuters Handbook of Journalism by failing to "take no side/tell all sides" when he writes that exorcisms and religious charlatans are flourishing in Gaza due to "war and poverty":

There are a lot of demons to chase in this poverty-riddled Palestinian enclave, say a growing number of Koranic exorcists who have set up shop in Gaza, offering to end the torments of their sometimes highly disturbed patients.

The growth of exorcist clinics is seen by some as a sign of rising religious fervor among ordinary Palestinians. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that runs Gaza, however, is increasingly concerned that many exorcists are simply charlatans [...]

The idea of demonic possession exists in many religions, and belief in the existence of demons and spirits, known as jinns, is widespread among Muslims, but many mainstream clerics doubt they can possess the human body, and disapprove of the work of the so-called Koranic clinics [...]

Sheikh Ahmed Nemir, a Hamas leader and well-known Muslim cleric, believes in the power of possession, unlike some of his peers. He says economic hardship and psychological traumas have encouraged evil spirits.
The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on earth, with more than 1.5 million people crammed into the 360-square-kilometer, or 140-square-mile, territory, shut off from the rest of the world by Israeli and Egyptian security barriers.
Sheikh Nemir said Muslims with weak faith and values were vulnerable to possession by jinns acting as the agents of hostile religions.
"The spirits are Jewish and Christians," the white-bearded cleric said.
"Spirits who claim to be Muslims are collaborators because they obey the Jewish and Christians masters." Medical experts say Gaza's jinns are what most doctors would diagnose as symptoms of psychological illness [...]

Recent studies have shown that up to 12 percent of people in Gaza suffer from psychological trauma caused by the conflict with Israel, economic troubles and isolation.

Al-Mughrabi's premise here is that the incidence of mental illness in Gaza is due to intensely crowded and impoverished living conditions aggravated by the conflict with Israel.  Reuters has been attempting for years to make the case that Gaza is "one of the most densely populated places on earth" so let's begin there.

A population of 1.5 million people in Gaza over 360 square kilometers represents a density of 4,167 people per square kilometer.  In a comparison with other urban areas around the world, there are fifty-three cities or city-states more crowded than Gaza -- including Taipei, Singapore, and Tel Aviv.

Note also that anxiety disorders, like post traumatic stress disorder, are as prevalent in France and more prevalent in the US than the 12 percent psychological trauma rate for Gaza reported by al-Mughrabi.

On the economic front, many countries with a GDP per capita lower than that in Gaza also have lower reported rates of mental illness.  While as noted, many wealthy societies suffer relatively high rates of mental illness.

Which leaves us with the effects of the military conflict with Israel.  While we have no doubt that this has taken its toll on the civilian population in Gaza, al-Mughrabi is strangely silent on the comparable effects on Israelis who have suffered years of rocket attacks by Palestinian terror groups.  As we noted here, in border communities like Sderot, 45 percent of Israeli children under the age of six, 41 percent of mothers, and 33 percent of fathers suffer from PTSD.

Yet, we haven't read of a boom in exorcism clinics opening in Sderot to purge Israeli patients of Muslim demons and jinns.

Perhaps al-Mughrabi ought to consider the possibility that the Palestinian culture in Gaza encourages this type of irrational thinking.

The fine art

Writing about the arrest of four Palestinians for the murder of an American woman and the attempted murder of her Israeli companion, Reuters correspondent Maayan Lubell asserts:

Palestinian attacks on Israeli citizens in and around the West Bank have become rare in the past few years. Stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have raised concern in the Jewish state that such attacks would increase.

Negotiations broke down last year over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to impose new curbs on settlement building in the West Bank, part of the territories where the Palestinians seek to establish a state.

Palestinian attacks have become "rare" perhaps relative to the heady days of the Palestinian intifada when over 1,000 Israelis were killed.  Still, scores of Israelis have been the victims of shootings, stabbings, and Palestinian bulldozer rage over the last few years.  The only thing preventing many more of these attacks has been the return to the territory by Israeli security forces.

Lubell doesn't explain any this of course, but does suggest that Palestinian violence may increase as a result of the fact that negotiations "broke down", which Lubell implies is Israel's fault.  That the Palestinians have doggedly refused to enter into peace talks with Israel absent further unilateral concessions by Netanyahu goes unmentioned.

We sometimes wonder whether there is a second Reuters Handbook, hitherto unknown and specifically authored for the agency's Jerusalem Bureau, which guides correspondents in the fine art of bullshit.

Independent news agency or dishonest political advocate?

Reuters' many stories disparaging the current Israeli government reflect nothing less than the agency's contempt for democracy as the Jewish people seek to protect their lives, land, traditions, and national rights in the face of a relentless effort to drive them from the Middle East.  Reuters is not merely engaged in political advocacy in this regard but in crafty chicanery as well. 

Note how in the following story, correspondent Dan Williams slyly leads his audience from what would be a straightforward report on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu being interrupted by bereaved relatives during a memorial speech, to innuendo suggesting, falsely, that the Netanyahu government has been subject to regular public censure, to an entirely unrelated and specious reference asserting that major powers have rebuked Netanyahu for the collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians:

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's memorial speech for those killed in Israel's worst-ever wildfire was disrupted on Wednesday when bereaved relatives shouted for his interior minister's ouster.
Bodyguards briefly sheltered Netanyahu as a few dozen hecklers surged toward him and others stormed out of the event at Beit Oren, a kibbutz at the epicentre of last month's Carmel forest blaze in which 44 people, mostly rescue personnel, died.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who as the official responsible for Israel's fire services bore the brunt of public outrage at the disaster, left the hall after the first outbursts against him. Netanyahu then resumed his speech.
"My heart is with you," he said. "I understand the pain."
The upset was a fresh public rebuke for Netanyahu's rightist coalition government, in which Yishai's Shas, a party run by rabbis, is junior partner. Many secular Israelis have long opposed Shas policies on welfare and other core social issues.
But the broad-based government has weathered such domestic censure as well as criticism from world powers trying to break a deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that followed Netanyahu's refusal to renew a freeze on West Bank settlements.

Indeed, despite an approval rating of about 38 percent, the latest poll shows the Israeli public supporting the Netanyahu government by nearly two-to-one over opposition leader Tzipi Livni and her Kadima party.  And although Interior Minister Eli Yishai is not popular, the same poll found that if Aryeh Deri headed Shas, the party would win 15 seats in the Israeli parliament, compared to the current 11.

Williams goes on to provide not a shred of evidence for his assertion that "world powers" have criticized Netanyahu for his stance on the settlement freeze.  In fact, following numerous failed attempts to persuade the Palestinians to continue in direct peace talks, the US formally dropped its request for an extension of the freeze stating that "[we] have determined a moratorium extension at this time will not provide the best basis for direct negotiations".

Though Williams and Reuters work tirelessly, with deceit and malice, to demonize the Israeli government and its policies, the Israeli public apparently takes a somewhat different view.  And this includes a recognition of who, precisely, is to blame for the "deadlock" in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Obfuscation

As we have previously noted, Reuters documents the Middle East conflict as if it were a one-sided tennis match.  The Palestinian Arabs launch a rocket or mortar attack on an Israeli village and Reuters frequently fails to cover the story unless and until Israeli forces retaliate.  When the latter occurs, you can be sure that Reuters will be the first wire service out of the gate with full coverage and an unambiguous headline akin to:

Israel bombs Gaza tunnel near Egypt

Now compare the above with the following headline appearing in a story written by Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton about a Palestinian rocket exploding within 30 feet of an Israeli kindergarten and nursery schools causing injury to a teenage girl:

Kindergarten near-miss highlights Gaza risks

Note how Hamilton willfully obfuscates the facts, failing to cite either the nature of the incident (a rocket attack) or the perpetrator (Palestinians).  It's not until the 8th paragraph down in his story that Hamilton finally gets around to informing readers that the attack was claimed by the Palestinian group Army of Islam, although even here, Hamilton refuses to use the word "Palestinian".  Indeed, Hamilton immediately follows this apparently inconsequential piece of information identifying the perpetrator with the unsupported and ridiculous assertion that:

Hamas leaders have tried to curb rocket fire at Israel from Gaza in recent years, but smaller groups continue to carry out attacks.

Hamilton has been conducting PR on behalf of the Palestinians for years and here he does the same for the genocidal Hamas.

Finally, note the embedded photo which depicts not the subject of the story, the Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli kindergarten, but the damage resulting from the retaliatory Israeli strike in Gaza.

All in a day's work for the propagandists at Reuters.

Reuters correspondents lie, cheat and steal: report

That's how Reuters correspondents typically promote a defamatory allegation about Israelis in their stories.  Take for example, this story by Ori Lewis:

Israeli interrogators abused Palestinians: report

(Reuters) - Israeli Shin Bet undercover agents have abused Palestinians during questioning at a detention center, some detainees have alleged in a report published on Tuesday by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

Note how Lewis fires off a maligning accusation in the first part of both his headline and lede, asserting the abuse as fact, tacking on mitigating qualifiers only at the end of each sentence.  The objective and psychological effect of this rhetorical device is to initially hammer the reader into accepting an unproven assertion and only later to clarify that the assertion is merely a disputed claim. A claim, by the way, issued by an NGO with an anti-Israel agenda and a dubious record for veracity.

Christmas comes early this year

One of Reuters favorite fallacious memes designed to demonize Israeli Jews is the notion that Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") is the leading cause of Arab Christian emigration from the territory.  Reuters typically runs these stories around the Christmas holidays as part of an effort to suggest that Israel's security measures are spoiling the Christmas cheer.

With 70+ journalists packing the Reuters Jerusalem Bureau, each desperate for a story on a daily basis, Christmas has come early this year as correspondent and serial liar Tom Perry blames -- who else? -- Israel for the declining Christian population in the territories:

Today, Christians make up just 1 percent of the mainly Muslim population of the Palestinian territories, said Hanna Eissa, who is in charge of Christian affairs in the Palestinian Authority's religious affairs ministry.

In 1920, they were a tenth of the population of Palestine -- land where today Israel exists alongside the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians remain stateless.

Decades of conflict, shifting borders and occupation are the root causes of the poor economic situation that is forcing Christians to seek better lives abroad, Eissa said.

Rising Muslim fundamentalism, a trend across the Middle East, concerns some. But most cite Israeli occupation as the prime cause of emigration and the decline of their community.

Perry of course, does not cite a single survey or study to support his assertion that "most" (presumably Arab Christians) blame Israel for the shrinking community, so readers are expected to accept this notion sans evidence save a single interview with one Abu al-Zulaf:

He holds Israel responsible for the departure of Christians. "The occupation is menacing everyone's existence," he said.

In reality however, al-Zulaf is an agnostic with respect to who is to blame for the status quo:

"I am not optimistic because I don't think things are going to change. I don't trust the leadership on either side."

And as we have previously noted, there is another side to this story which Perry dares not tell.

Prove it.

That's our reply to Reuters latest iteration of this unproven assertion:

The [Jewish] settlements are deemed illegal under international law

appearing in over one-hundred stories on the agency's website.

As we've noted nearly as many times as Reuters has repeated the lie, Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") are entirely legal as per League of Nations and United Nations resolutions, the pinnacle of international law.

An unsupported assertion is a propaganda technique and a violation of professional journalistic ethics.

How's that ceasefire going, Tom?

Four Israelis, two men and two women, one pregnant, were murdered today in a Palestinian terror attack outside the city of Hebron.  Hamas claimed responsibility:

A rally in Gaza to celebrate the attack drew about 3,000 people. At the gathering, Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press: "The Qassam Brigades announces its full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron."

This is what Reuters correspondent Tom Perry wrote yesterday:

The group [Hamas] has said it will not use force to derail the negotiations set to begin in Washington Thursday -- a tactic it employed in the 1990s when, less powerful, it frequently interrupted U.S.-backed peace talks with suicide attacks.

Yesterday, we demonstrated Perry's assertion was false with Hamas' own words.  Today, Hamas has demonstrated Perry's assertion was false with its actions.

Thomson Reuters: "The world's leading source of intelligent [dis]information".

Reuters backpedaling on border incident

As other bloggers have noted, Reuters ran with a photo and caption following the border clash this morning that suggested Israel had violated the Blue Line with Lebanon.  The photo showed an Israeli soldier on a crane which the Reuters caption stated was in Lebanese territory.

 

Reuters is now backpedaling:

REFILE - CLARIFYING DISPUTED LOCATION OF BORDER WHERE LEBANESE AND ISRAELI ARMIES GIVE DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR COMMON BORDER. An Israeli soldier is seen on a crane along a border fence with Lebanon near Adaisseh village, southern Lebanon, August 3, 2010. Israeli artillery shelled the Lebanese village on Tuesday, wounding two people, after Lebanese Army troops fired warning shots at Israeli soldiers along the usually quiet but tense frontier, witnesses said. REUTERS/Stringer (CIVIL UNREST POLITICS)

But notice that the agency still asserts that the Lebanese army only fired "warning shots" at Israeli soldiers.  And the evidence for this is _________?

We can only hope that once Reuters is finished "clarifying" the location of the border, the arm of the crane in the photo is not extended out a few meters.

UPDATE 6:39 PM: UNIFIL has confirmed Israel's version of events; Israel did not enter Lebanese territory.  Reuters is still clarifying.

Palestinian public relations

If Reuters correspondents Douglas Hamilton and Ali Sawafta are not already being paid to handle PR for the Palestinian Arabs, PA President Mahmoud Abbas should seriously consider signing them up for the role.

In a pure public relations play laden with errors of commission, errors of omission, outright falsehoods, and the parroting of Palestinian positions and propaganda, Hamilton and Sawafta apologize for Palestinian rejectionism on peace talks -- a tactic employed by Reuters since Israel first offered direct negotiations shortly after Benjamin Netanyahu took power in 2009.  At the time, Reuters ran dozens of stories arguing that peace talks "could not proceed" (as if it were an immutable law of physics) until Israel was coerced to halt all construction in Judea and Samaria, aka the "West Bank".  The truth of course, was that the Palestinians simply refused to enter into talks.  But Reuters correspondents could not bring themselves to report that reality.

Now, following eight months during which time Israel has suspended building in all disputed areas including a de facto freeze on new residential construction for Jews in Jerusalem, the Palestinians continue to reject peace talks with Israel and Reuters continues to apologize for them:

U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want direct talks soon on a Middle East peace treaty, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is wary of walking into a trap.

Note that the Palestinian President is not being quoted here, nor even paraphrased; Hamilton and Sawafta are actually representing and doing the talking for Abbas.  And keep in mind that this story isn't identified as an op-ed or "Analysis" (as Reuters opinion pieces are by policy, deceptively labeled); rather, the material is astonishingly presented as straight news.

Further details of Palestinian recalcitrance and further Reuters' apologies for that recalcitrance follow:

The Palestinians note they have had a "peace process" for the best part of 17 years, yet remain under Israeli occupation.

They say they have cooperated with three U.S. presidents with differing levels of commitment to the process, but with the same result. So they are wary of being pushed into a negotiation where they can be made to look like rejectionists.

No, they wouldn't want to look like rejectionists, particularly after they have rejected every offer of nationhood facilitated by those three US presidencies including the most recent package presented by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert consisting of a Palestinian state with all of Gaza, 97 percent of the West Bank, Arab neighborhoods in the eastern part of Jerusalem, and a nominal "right of return" for Palestinian refugees.  It was Abbas' rejection of this near capitulatory offer as well as unrequited Palestinian demands for further concessions from both Israel and the Quartet that led to the de facto end of negotiations in 2008 -- not the Gaza war as Reuters' correspondents now suggest.

Next, Hamilton and Sawafta blatantly misrepresent the data appearing in a report issued by B'Tselem:

A report this week by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says more than 300,000 Israelis now live on 42 percent of the West Bank land where the Palestinians want to establish their future country in a "two-state solution" with Israel.

This is false.  The study acknowledges that Jewish communities reside upon only 1 percent of land in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank").  There is an allegation that due to the classification of territory in the West Bank as state land, 42 percent of it is controlled by Jewish councils.  But even this claim has been rejected by the Chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities who puts the figure at 9 percent.

Hamilton and Sawafta then quote? paraphrase? parrot? fabricate? an assertion by Abbas' aide Nabil Abu Rdainah:

In talks mediated by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the Israelis acknowledged that occupied land means the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Arab East Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley, Abu Rdainah said.

Note the absence of quotation marks with the attribution only tacked on at the end, so as to give the assertion greater authority.  Hamilton frequently deploys these type of rhetorical tricks to empower Palestinian claims.  And the assertion is actually false.  Israel does not consider Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), any part of Jerusalem or Gaza "occupied".  And only the racists at Reuters and the Arabs themselves refer to the eastern part of Jerusalem as "Arab East Jerusalem".

Hamilton and Sawafta really should consider giving up their day jobs at Reuters and joining Nabil Abu Rdainah as official spokesmen for the Palestinian Authority.  They would be infinitely more suited to the role.