Rachel Corrie & The Bulldozer: The Photo That Falsely Fuels A Blood Libel

Shraga Simmons, an ordained rabbi who founded HonestReporting.com, is one of the foremost experts on media bias against Israel.  Of Simmons's book David and Goliath, published earlier this year, another expert, Professor Richard Landes of Boston (who incidentally coined the term "Pallywood") has written:

"Simmons has produced an invaluable book on one of the most serious problems of the 21st century, the almost perverse and pervasively wrong-headed way that our western mainstream news media (MSNM) report the Arab-Israeli conflict. Not only are the problems he so thoroughly details critical as a problem of both epistemology and journalistic ethics, but the implications for the well-being of the civic polities which create and depend on a free press are dire... This book should be required reading in Journalism 101. Alas, I'm not holding my breath."

In the wake of an Israeli court's verdict in the Rachel Corrie case, Simmons tells afresh why this photo, still being widely used in press reports (I saw it used last evening on CNN, for example, when Mark Regev was being grilled) gives the misleading impression that the bulldozer's driver had Ms Corrie in plain view when she was killed.  As Shraga Simmons explains, the photo was taken hours before the tragedy, and when the latter occurred Ms Corrie was hidden.  He also shows, as evidenced in another photo, that a different bulldozer was involved.

Incidentally, during the interview with CNN Mark Regev said that contrary to press reports Ms Corrie was not obstructing a house demolition but the clearance of shrubs and small trees used as "sniper positions".  He also pointed to the extremist nature of the International Solidarity Movement (remember this exposé?) to which she was affiliated, reminding his interviewer that the ISM believes Israel has no right to exist.

Lee Kaplan On The ISM & On The Iran Regime's Influence In America (videos)

In the first video, articulate investigative journalist Lee Kaplan (whose eye-opening revelations regarding the machinations of the International Solidarity Movement and the plight of Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner, was the subject of my last blog) warns eloquently and persuasively about the International Solidarity Movement's dire threat to Israel.  The interview took place in Israel in 2010, and Kaplan lamented the Israeli government's apathetic response to the threat.

As one commenter remarked after viewing the original download on YouTube:

"The ISM has engaged in acts of terror throughout Israel and often engage in blacks ops specifically to blame local Jews. They have killed lifestock, destroyed trees and burnt crops. The ISM is a provocation and obstacle to peace , A friend of mine volunteering from Italy was told to dress like an Orthodox Jewish girl - then they filmed her harrassing palestinian children. Evil. Just evil "

Lee Kaplan takes an in-depth here at infiltrative activities in the United States linked to Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah.

Here's a taste in two parts, consisting of an interview Kaplan gave to Zia Atabay of NITV. 

For the second part, which won't load on here, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOtxQu_47sM
Or go straight to the link in the paragraph above.

Hat tip: Hezbollah Watch

Setting Up Shalom Eisner: Undercover With The International Solidarity Movement

An ISM activist alerts terrorists to an IDF position

The story of IDF officer Lieutenant-Colonel Shalom Eisner, who struck a flytilla activist with his rifle, has received widespread publicity, and Bibi Netanyahu, through spokesman Mark Regev, has been swift to condemn the incident.

The BBC predictably basks in the incident, Yolande Knell (no stranger to readers of the splendid Biased BBC website) not bothering to reveal that the officer appears to have been assaulted first. (As the Biased BBC website has sometimes observed of the BBC: "Half the story, all of the time".)

According to investigative journalist Lee Kaplan, who has spent years undercover with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to learn its machinations, Eisner was set up.

In an absolutely rivetting, must-read article, Kaplan writes, inter alia:

'At their orientation sessions in the US and UK in which I posed as an ISM volunteer, we were  instructed that our purpose was to harass the IDF in any way possible in order to frustrate their anti-terror operations. We were informed that the ISM coordinates with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, which were constantly apprised of our locations in the villages. If we encountered armed terrorists while in the West Bank or Gaza, we were told, simply say hello to them and move on, as they were keenly aware that we were there to assist them.

In a recorded interview at the Ohio State national conference, Adam Shapiro, a co-founder of the ISM, personally told me there are plain-clothed Palestinian handlers at every ISM demonstration that direct the activities. I was also told about how ISM activists serve to draw sniper fire down on IDF soldiers when desired. Lisa Nessan, one of those ISM trainers, told me at an ISM Georgetown conference that standing as a human shield in front of an armed terrorist as he threw rocks or shot at an Israeli soldier was indeed considered “nonviolent.” Joseph Carr, a.k.a. Joseph Smith, another ISM trainer, told me in a recorded phone interview how he and Rachel Corrie retrieved the dead body of a Hamas terrorist in Gaza from a combat zone only weeks before she was killed by an IDF bulldozer. When asked whether he feared arrest by the IDF back then he blithely replied ‘no’ because he knew that Arab snipers would be there to fire at them. Rachel Corrie, who was trained by the ISM and had read their manual, also knew that Arab snipers would shoot at the IDF soldiers driving that bulldozer had they exited it to remove her.

The ISM uses a motto coined by the late Malcolm X – “By any means necessary” – in implementing what they consider to be revolutionary tactics in bringing down the Jewish state, which they see as a first step in bringing down Western democracy. Lying and media manipulation are encouraged and elevated to an art form. Talk of ‘nonviolent resistance’ is solely for media consumption, since the ISM promotes armed revolutionary ‘resistance’ against Israel by serving as human shields for terrorists.

And so, it is in this context that for two hours leading up to the two minute video of Colonel Shalom Eisner striking Danish ISM activist Andreas Ayas, the ISM used their bicycles, bodies, and even physical assaults to obstruct the IDF in a closed military zone and prevent anti-terror operations.  Earlier in the day, Colonel Eisner was struck by a stick-wielding ISM activist, leaving him with a couple of broken fingers....'

Read Kaplan's remarkable article here
(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)