Tuesday, July 04, 2023

Media Bias Takes a Holiday

Prime Minister Netanyahu at a security briefing about Jenin (TOI)
I’m not sure what to make of this. But in two separate mainstream reports. (one by PBS and the other by CBS – video below) about the current IDF operation in Jenin, I found them to be more or less balanced. For a change.

I don’t know if they had a change of heart, or are showing sympathy for the Israeli families that have recently lost loved ones to Palestinian terrorism. Or are just responding to the frequent accusations of anti Israel bias. But I’m happy to see a report that doesn’t somehow characterize Israel as a bunch of baby killers. 

For those not up on the least news, here is what’s happening in  the terrorist hotbed of Jenin on the West Bank. From JTA:

The Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale raid on suspected terrorists in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.

An Israeli soldier was wounded in Monday’s operation but has returned to the fighting.

The raid is the most extensive in Jenin since the second intifada, which also saw intense fighting in the city, according to the Jerusalem Post. Jenin has been the site of multiple deadly raids this year by the Israeli military, which says the city is a locus of Palestinian terror groups that have killed dozens of Israelis this year.

The raid is an effort to stem that violence, which has escalated in recent months in the West Bank…

“The Jenin Camp is a terrorist stronghold,” the IDF said in a statement early Monday morning, referencing the city’s refugee camp. “We will not standby idle while terrorists continue to harm civilians using Jenin Camp as a hideout.”

I am happy that Israel is finally doing something big in response to all the recent murders of innocent civilians by terrorist Palestinians operating out of Jenin. - doing what’s necessary to destroy the infrastructure of terrorism in that town. 

In the past casualties had often been reported as unnecessary and avoidable innocent victims of an overly-zealous IDF. But they have not been reported that way this time. Without saying so directly, this time the media actually seemed to imply the victims were the unfortunate but unavoidable consequences of a necessary defensive action. 

Jenin’s resident Palestinians, on the other hand, see only the here and now devastation .Thus understandably blaming Israel for their pain and suffering. They do not recognize or perhaps don’t even know about the connection this invasion has to the terrorism of their fellow Jenin citizens

 Palestinian officials are calling it a war crime and pointing at 8 Palestiians killed by the IDF duing thks operation. But even if they were right (they are not) - where was their condemnation by condemnation of the Pallestiian terrorists that recently killed so many innocent Jews? 

Never mind. I’ll tell you. They do not condemn them. They reward their families with cash payments and consider their terrorists to be martyrs. 

This has always been the case. But the mainstream media has rarely if ever had the kind of harsh words for these terrorists as they did for Israel.  Same thing organizations like  the UN Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. Whenever there is conflict, they blame Israel. And see the plight of Palestinians completely out of its legitimate context. A context of a country taking reluctant  but necessary security measures. 

Israel has no interest in ‘torturing’ Palestinians with their harsh security measures. But if they want to protect their public, they have no choice. To the best of my knowledge, none of those organizations are willing to acknowldge that context. They see Israel as an oppressive military occupier of an indigenous innocent Palestinian people. And they condemn her for that. 

But the truth is that Israel has always been sensitive to human life in any defensive action they took. Attacking a terrorist nest in a city where they live and from which they plan and execute their terrorist activities is clearly a defensive act. Palestinian officials can cry ’war crimes’ all day long. Doesn’t make it so.

 I’m not sure what the Biden adminstartion reaction to this is. Haven’t herad anything. Hopefully they are backing. But at least it’s nice to see the mainstream media  be more evenjanded that at any time in the recent past. Will this be permanent? Who knows?!