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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (23792)	4/7/2002 6:12:01 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Lies, damn lies and Palestinian spokesmen By Doron Kescher April 7, 2002 Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, and most especially since the outbreak of violence in September 2000, Palestinian spokespersons and the Palestinian media have launched a barrage of lies against Israel and the Israeli Army. Here is the story of one that did not fly... On March 31, 2002, I was watching one of CNN's most capable anchors, Arnand Naidoo, interview chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Jericho, and Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emanuel Nachson in the Jerusalem studio. Like a hysterical schoolchild, Saeb Erekat described the shooting and shelling of an Israeli raid being carried out on Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. Mr. Erekat repeatedly stated that he feared for Chairman Arafat's life. He further charged that a Palestinian policeman had been wounded in the gunfight and was bleeding to death as a result of the Israeli Army not allowing an ambulance to retrieve him. Arnand Naidoo naturally questioned Mr. Nachson over why Israel was attacking the compound after giving the U.S. assurances that Chairman Arafat would not be harmed. Mr. Nachson replied that to his knowledge, the Israeli Army was not attacking, and would not attack, the Ramallah compound in order to harm Chairman Arafat; the operation that Mr. Erekat was describing was not happening, and was probably part of the Palestinian disinformation campaign. Mr. Erekat became even more hysterical and vehement in his accusations (if this was possible). He again demanded that the attack be called off, that an ambulance be allowed to retrieve the wounded policeman, and in the face of Mr. Nachson's rebuttal, challenged CNN to send a camera crew to "see for themselves" the cause of the policeman's wounds. And that's where it got interesting folks... Just when it appeared that the warm air from Saeb Erekat's mouth had provided this lie with enough lift to become airborne and join the myriad other Palestinian lies in general circulation, Arnand Naidoo made a courageous decision. He crossed live to another capable CNN reporter, Michael Holmes, who was 200 meters from the Ramallah compound. Michael Holmes described exactly what was going on: nothing. There were no gun-battles. No Israeli soldiers blasting their way in. No tank shells; certainly none directed at the compound. Holmes described some Israeli soldiers calmly walking into the area of the compound already breached, and then calmly walking out again a few moments later. He could hear no gunfire, and was at pains to describe the fact that if there had been gunfire, he was certainly close enough to have heard it! He also said that although a tank shell could be heard occasionally, these tanks were in other areas of the city, and the rounds were "certainly not directed at the compound". He mentioned that some minutes earlier what he presumed to be a stun grenade had been detonated in the courtyard, but that it was not accompanied by any other activity. A commercial break promptly ended this most interesting episode. I watched CNN news for the next 2 hours to see what would unfold, and in both subsequent news bulletins, Michael Holmes described the complete inactivity at Arafat's compound. Mr. Erekat's lies were not repeated, but the ubiquitous news ticker told of "conflicting accounts" from Israeli and Palestinian sources about a raid on Yasser Arafat's compound. What are we to make of this? To those of us attuned to Middle East politics, this is just another example of professional Palestinian liars such as Nabil Shaath, Saeb Erekat, Hanan Ashrawi, Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala) and "General Yasser Arafat" himself spewing forth their baseless accusations in order to malign and discredit Israel. It is a pattern that the Western media - with the notable exception of Fox News - has been very slow to pick up on, and is even more reticent to expose. In light of the mountain of lies told by the Palestinians, it would seem reasonable to expect that Western outlets would be more thorough in their investigation of Palestinian claims. But this does not occur. I believe this is partly due to naivety, and partly due to the fact that a large proportion of the news media - especially the most esteemed BBC - are ready to believe and report the absolute worst about 'the Israelis' and similarly refuse to believe the disturbing truth about 'the oppressed Palestinians.' For them, the 'truth' has nothing to do with the facts. israelinsider.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (23792)	4/7/2002 6:17:22 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

You are quite good at blandly writing off reporting that you disagree with, eh, Nadine? Lewis is an academic, and Hersh's unnamed sources don't appear to be. Hersh's sources seem to have rather more direct experience with the INC than Lewis.