Why Does The Israeli Media Always Use The Vocabulary Of The “Left”?

UPDATE: 5 pm Israel time Sunday.

This morning it was announced that the proposed merger (“reconciliation”) between the PLO/Palestinian Authority and Hamas continues apace with new meetings in Gaza tomorrow to work out a schedule for elections in the Fall.  So much for all of the concessions made to the Palestinians.

Iran also announced this morning that it is building another nuclear facility near the current Bushehr nuclear plant. The new plant will go online in 2014. What is more, Iranian officials said that “they see no reason” for anyone to inspect the Parchin facility where uranium enrichment is taking place.  So much for the dithering West.

TODAY’S BLOG:

It never ceases to amaze your humble servant how the Israeli print media buys into the “leftist” narrative and blithely engages in propaganda against Israeli citizens.  Often the media simply reprints “accounts” of incidents from biased news agencies without even the slightest editing.  Even more egregiously, the Israeli media has taken to writing “joint” articles with the same biased news agencies.

Take yesterday for example.  A Palestinian settler from Orif was apparently shot by a Jewish community member from Yizhar.

What happened is not at all clear except that according to the IDF, a Palestinian was shot and wounded. Why was he shot? Who knows . . . all we have is an account of unnamed Palestinians with no corroboration as to the events in question.

One would think that even a semblance of journalistic integrity would demand getting the perspective of the Jewish community members involved. But no, the story went to straight to press–and was picked up by every international news agency and by anti-Israel blogs all over the internet. Undoubtedly, tomorrow will bring condemnations of Israel from the European Union and the White House.  And again, based on what?

Here is the article. Imagine how differently the article might have appeared had the Jerusalem Post not bought into the vocabulary of the “Left” (words and phrases crossed out are the article’s original words and phrases):

Title: Settler Jewish community member shoots Palestinian Palestinian settler in clash near Nablus Shechem.

By Reuters, JPost.com Staff

Last Updated: 05/26/2012 18:35

“Clashes between settlers Jewish community members, Palestinians Palestinian settlers erupt after settlers set fire to wheat field in W. Bank village of Orif, Palestinians claim. Palestinians claim that Jewish community members set fire to wheat field in Samarian community of Orif. 

A man from the West Bank settlement  Samarian community of Yitzhar shot and wounded a Palestinian man Palestinian settler on Saturday in a clash that began when a group of settlers Jewish communty members set fire to fields belonging to a Palestinian village settlement, officials Palestinian settlement officials said.

Residents Palestinians said  claimed about 25 settlers Jewish community members, some of them carrying guns, set fire to wheat fields in the village of Orif, which is near the northern West Bank Samarian city of Nablus Shechem.

Villagers Palestinian settlers came out to extinguish the fire and clashed with the settlers Jewish community members, said claimed Nablus Shechem official Kassan Daglas.

During the clash, a settler Jewish community member shot and wounded one Palestinian, the IDF said, adding that security forces were sent to the scene to break up the violence.

“The Israel Defense Forces regards this incident as severe and will thoroughly investigate it,” the spokesman said.

The Palestinian man Palestinian settler was shot in the stomach and taken to the hospital, Palestinian medical officials said claimed.

The IDF is investigating a similar an apparently similar incident from last week in which a video distributed by non-governmental group B’Tselem appeared to show a settler Jewish community member shooting and wounding a Palestinian Palestinian settler during a confrontation with rock-throwing Palestinians, as soldiers stood by.”

The article as printed might as well have been written by the PLO News Agency for all of the bias it contains.  There is no excuse for Israeli media organizations not to provide more balanced reporting both in terms of information gathered and vocabulary used–especially when their biased reports are tools which are used by delegitimizers everywhere.

—

Beginning yesterday, your humble servant has begun to recognize those of you who support Israel by donating to this website. In the coming days, I will include more information about how you can do this.