Candlelight by Daylight
- 01.25.2008 - 9:40 AMIllustrating the old adage that a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on, the story of Israel cutting off power to Gaza continues to circulate. What really happened? Something very typical, alas: a collaboration between journalists and Palestinians in manufacturing anti-Israel propaganda. As Khaled Abu Toameh (among others) reports:
On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.
In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.
In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.
But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.
A bit under a third of Gaza’s electricity is supplied by a power station inside of Gaza; a tiny bit is supplied by Egypt, and the rest is supplied by Israel. It was the power station inside of Gaza that was shut down, and not shut down by Israel, but by Hamas, in order to lend credibility to its effort to generate international pressure against Israel’s blockade of the Strip. For the media, it staged candle-lit scenes and trumpeted the fiction that Israel had plunged Gaza into darkness.
The terrorists of Hamas may be brutal, but they understand how to wage war in the media far better than the Israelis do. They knew the fact that Israel had never cut the electricity to Gaza or even reduced it was entirely beside the point, and would probably not be investigated by reporters–and they understand that images of people sitting in darkness with their faces illuminated by candlelight are visually compelling and can do more to convince the world of Palestinian victimization than a hundred press releases could ever accomplish.
Yet the fact remains that the speciousness of this story is readily available to anyone with an internet connection and a basic sense of skepticism and curiosity. But that hasn’t stopped the rigorously fact-checked exemplars of the MSM from repeating it. Here is yesterday’s New York Times editorial:
We are deeply concerned about the many innocent Israelis who live along the border with Gaza and must suffer through the constant bombardment. But Israel’s response—shutting off power and other essential supplies—is a collective punishment that will only feed anger and extremism.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Times editorialists could become deeply concerned with getting their facts straight?
Here is the Washington Post’s editorial:
Israel closed its border with the territory and disrupted power supplies over the weekend in response to a massive escalation of Palestinian rocket launches from Gaza at nearby Israeli towns.
And for the greatest hilarity, check out this photograph in TIME magazine, which is captioned: “The Palestinian Parliament was forced to meet by candlelight on Tuesday night.” Now look at the window in the upper left corner of the picture: The curtain blocking it has a rather curiously bright, luminous border around it, doesn’t it? Tuesday night? Do TIME’s editors know how gullible they look?
The New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME magazine: When it comes to Israel, the lies often find themselves traveling first class. I doubt corrections will be forthcoming.
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January 25th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
This brings to mind the classic story from the Wise Men of Chelm, the one where they decide that the Moon is more important than the Sun because the Moon lights a path in the dark of night whereas the Sun only shines in the day… “which is exactly when we don’t need it.” Of course there is nothing foolish about Hamas’s propaganda tricks. Quite the opposite. But there is certainly something foolish (if also malevolent) about the reporters who fall for them.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:26 PM
No one seems to have considered what the Palestinians’ carbon footprint may be, and whether it would shrink if they would just get a job, and stop staging pageants designed to embarrass Israel for the media.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:26 PM
And you’re surprised for what reason?
January 25th, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Mr. Cohen: Reporters don’t “fall” for Hamas propaganda. First, they self-select for a Gaza assignment—anyone accepting a stint on the Strip knows up-front that he/she is not there to provide an objective, or even a mildly critical assessment of Hamas’ management. If they do report such things, the consequences range from losing their press credentials to their freedom or even their life. Thus, the directing the videos and writing the stories out of Gaza are, by conviction or cravenness, already persuaded.
This, by itself, would not explain the fraud and faux-tography. The remaining piece is simple conviction. By the “ethics” of so-called Public Journalism, one merely matches what the covered subject wants to do against what the reporter believes is necessary. Where these correlate, voila! Images beamed of two grumpy mass murderers looking dour and serious as a heart attack by candlelight. A weekend talking point for the Eurotrash.
January 26th, 2008 at 2:55 PM
So who is telling the truth?
http://www.totalcatholic.com/pages/news_pages/2401gazablockade.html
January 26th, 2008 at 4:19 PM
…must be the dhimmi Catholic priest telling the truth. After all, the Muslims fully respect and honor the few remaining Christians in the Strip…when they’re not intimidating or killing them.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:23 PM
g is 100% correct.
Have a look at this report on the topic:
http://www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm