Will AP Stop at Nothing to Push for War on Iran?

Will AP Stop at Nothing to Push for War on Iran?

DetainThis
Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:34 UTC

The Associated Press Lies and Deceives While Defaming Islam and Christianity, in Its Latest Apologia for Israel's Massacre on Gaza

On December 28 - the day after the Israeli carpet-bombing of the 1.5 million impoverished and imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza began - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree stating that those who die while defending Palestinians against Israeli aggression in Gaza will be considered martyrs.

Since then, thousands have reportedly volunteered, and on December 30, the Iranian daily, Payvand News, released a news brief titled "Students ready to launch 'Esteshhadi' operations in Gaza," reporting thus:

A large number of students from various universities of Iran on Tuesday voiced their readiness to launch Esteshhadi (martyrdom-seeking) operations in Gaza.

In separate phone calls to IRNA, students from universities of Tehran, Mashhad and Kerman announced their readiness to undertake operations in defense of the people of Gaza.

So according to a Persian source, the Persian term those students are using - Esteshhadi - translates to "martyrdom-seeking." And their actions are reportedly "in defense of the people of Gaza."

AP, on the other hand, translates it only slightly differently. This morning's AP headline on the story is titled "Volunteer suicide bombers seek to attack Israel" [1]; its lede goes thus:

Hard-line Iranian student groups have appealed to the government to authorize volunteer suicide bombers to leave Iran and fight against Israel in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. . . .

Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched a registration drive on Monday, seeking volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against Israel.

Now, that is how you get people's attention, from the headline to the lede, and if you're a really good compiler-editor, your readers will be salivating for the juicy bits in the ensuing dialogue:

"Volunteer student suicide groups ... are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities in order to pave the way for such action," the students advised Ahmadinejad in an open letter, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

(Yes. They were "made available," and no doubt subsequently translated to the liking of AP's settler-editors at the W. Jerusalem bureau, as well as the IDF and the Hasbaranik groups that practically edit for them.)

Now let's recap.

- Ayatollah Khamenei called the missions voluntary defense of the people of Gaza against Israeli aggression; the reward upon death being martyrdom.

- Payvand News gave us the actual term (Esteshhadi) students are using to describe the act of dying while defending Palestinians against Israeli aggression, along with the correct translation according to Muslim faith: martyrdom-seeking.

- AP calls it by its typical war-on-terror name: suicide bombings (and "attacks" on "Israel"), even though, as far as both AP's and Payvand's readers know, the students said NOTHING about bombs or particular acts of violence. And of course, those students are "hard-line": a designation given by AP to practically anyone (but especially a Muslim or an Arab), who staunchly opposes Israeli and U.S. policies in the region. (Perhaps Ghandi and Mother Teresa are "hard-line" too.)

This is ridiculous enough, what with the obvious sensationalism typically employed by "the world's most trusted source of news and information"; but consider the following.

ANY mission wherein an Arab or Persian Muslim - or really, anyone - goes into Gaza, seeking to defend Palestinians against practically indomitable Israeli aggression, will have about a 1-in-100 chance of coming out alive. AP can very well refer to this as "suicide"; but the fact is, even in Christian tradition, when someone dies in the service of God - and particularly, in defense of the weak, defenseless, and oppressed - it is NOT considered SUICIDE. It is MARTYRDOM. There is honor and holiness in martyrdom, while there is shame and blasphemy in suicide.

AP's selective, sensationalistic, and obviously agenda-inspired use of the "translation" - suicide bombing - is no better than referring to the Israeli Army's practice of putting Druze and Christian soldiers on the frontlines as blood libel. In the very least, it shows a lack of professionalism, honesty, and objectivity on AP's part; at most, it is a disgusting, politically-motivated, collectivist attack on several billion humans of the world and their faith.

Now, if that wasn't enough deception and collectivist defamation to get the war drums pounding, don't worry: the editor threw in a nasty use of scare quotes, as well as AP's favorite and most-prolific bald-faced, anti-Iranian lie:

In a speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad called for the trial of Israeli leaders on charges of massacring Palestinians in Gaza. His comments come a day after Iran's judiciary set up a court to try Israeli leaders for such "crimes." [Using double quotes on only the word crimes is done for no other reason than for the AP editor to tell us, "Crimes? Ah ha ha ha ha!" -dt]

Iran considers Israel its archenemy and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." [See the accurate translation of Ahmadinejad's statement, here, and proof of AP's intention to keep lying about it, here. -dt] Iran also is Hamas' main backer, though Tehran denies sending weapons to the Islamic militant Palestinian group that took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

And of course, just in case we forget whom the bad guys are, the Israeli military-state is just "Israel"; while its Palestinian counterparts are always modified with several adjectives and adverbs because, after all, it's bad to be Muslim and violently defend yourself, your people, and others against the wanton aggression of the Almighty States.

When a Prince Matters More than a Murdered Child

Two articles exemplify the indifference of the world to the slaughter in Gaza. The first is the reality. The second is and unforgivable breach of all that journalism is supposed to stand for. A spoiled princeling's thwarted war game trumps the daily murder of tens of infants and children. Where else but SOTT will you find the truth?

Blue Ibis
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Jews and the Gaza holocaust

Khalid Amayreh
The Palestinian Information Center
Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:30 EST

©Unknown

Funeral of the four boys killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike while playing outside their homes

In June, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of the Nazi commander Reinhard Heydrich, the Germans carried out a murderous rampage of murder and terror throughout Czechoslovakia. The small Czech village of Lidice bore the brunt of the German revenge, with the SS killing all the men, deported all women and children and razed the village to the ground.

Similarly, in March 1944, thirty-three German soldiers were killed when members of an Italian resistance group set off a bomb close to a column of German troops who were marching on via Rasella in Rome . Adolph Hitler got furious and ordered that within 24 hours, ten Italians were to be shot for each German soldier that had been killed. Herbert Kappler, the local German commander, quickly compiled a list of 320 civilians who were to be assassinated as vengeance. On March 24, the victims were transported to the Ardeatine caves where they were summarily executed by the SS.

Numerous other 'pacification operations' were carried out by the Nazi armies against civilians throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, in which men, women and children were brutally killed to avenge the death of German occupation soldiers by local resistance fighters.

Now what is the difference between these Nazi atrocities and what Israel, the "only democracy in the Middle East" is doing in the Gaza Strip, where "the most moral army in the world" is slaughtering babies as young as six-months' old? I know that many Jews, especially Zionist Jews, have developed almost instinctive knee- jerk defensive reactions to any comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. However, the truth must be proclaimed aloud, irrespective of how many Zionists will get angry.

Israel claims that it doesn't murder innocent civilians deliberately. But this is a big, obscene lie, of which even most Israelis aware. Mistakes happen a few times, but when the wanton slaughter of children occurs each day and every day of the year, it means it is policy.

In addition, when the number of victims, especially innocent victims, as in Gaza, even intent itself becomes irrelevant.

In the final analysis, murdering knowingly is murdering deliberately, regardless of the prevarication and the verbal juggling.

Hence, Jews around the world, especially those who support Israel, should be willing to bring themselves to recognizing that what their wonderful state is doing to these helpless Palestinians is a virtual holocaust or at least a holocaust in the making.

How else can any honest person relate to these phantasmagoric images that keep coming from Gaza, haunting the conscience of every human being?

True, Israel had not introduced gas chambers in Beit Hanun and Khan Younis or Rafah. But we have F-16s raining down bombs and death on sleeping children and women and innocent civilians.

If Jews who support this satanic entity are not willing to call the spade a spade and recognize a holocaust as a holocaust, then they should be viewed as active accomplices in this wanton rampage of murder and terror.

This is not a war. Calling the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza a war is like fornicating with words. Wars occur between armies and states.

What is happening in Gaza is actually a merciless and brutal rampage of murder and terror waged by a Wehrmacht-like army against a blockaded, beleaguered and starved people who want to survive and be free, very much like Jews did under the Nazi occupation of Europe.

Indeed, when Israel murders a hundred Palestinian, mostly innocent civilians, for every Israeli killed, there is a name for that, it is massacre.

It is conscionable that honest people around the world, including many conscientious Jews who can't bear watching the heinous crimes Israel is committing in their collective name, must call the spade a spade. A holocaust, after all, doesn't become lesser or less evil when perpetrated by Jews. There is no such a thing as a kosher holocaust or kosher massacres.

Vilnai

Now, once again, human decency is being affronted and insulted by this reptile terrorist Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defense minister, who has gone as far as threatening the thoroughly tormented Gazans with a holocaust.

Speaking to the Israeli army radio Friday morning, 29 February, Vilnai said "the more Qassam rockets fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, the Palestinians will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our power to defend ourselves."

Well, if Israel thinks that carrying out a holocaust against its victims in Gaza and Rafah and Khan Younis can be justified, then why blame Hitler for effecting a holocaust against his own respective enemies? Is Vilnai vindicating the holocaust?

I think Jews should realize that this criminal state, with its manifestly intransigence and bellicosity, is forcing them to make a moral judgment. In the face of evil, and Israel is a clear embodiment of evil, one can't be neutral. It is either one stands with evil or stands against it.

Today, people around the world, including millions of Jews, are watching the pornographic slaughter in Gaza live on their TV screens. And no amount of spin, lie, or hasbara will make the images of mutilated babies look innocuous.

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Gaza Holocaust in 'Free' Media

Haitham
Sabbah Blog
Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:40 EST

It is disgusting. Hardly anything was mentioned in the "free-press" of the democratic West. In fact the coverage in some cases equals to partner-in-crime.

Here is some examples (click on image to enlarge. Highlights in blue):

USA media - newspapers:

New York Times: Not a single word!

©Unknown

LA Times: Not a single word!

©Unknown

USA media - online news:

New York Times: Under "More News" a very small line: "Israel Takes Gaza Fight to Next Level in a Day of Strikes"

©Unknown

The Washington Post: Hardly seen one line, "60 Gazans Killed in Incursion By Israeli Forces"

©Unknown

CNN: "Israeli airstrike hits Hamas premier office."

Not mentioning the civilian house, babes, children and civilians killed. Misleading the mass that Israel is attacking Hamas only. Nothing new!

©Unknown

LA Times: Hardly seen five words (marked in blue), "Israel launches offensive into Gaza."

©Unknown

Fox news: "54 killed in attack on Militant."

Doh... they have a discount on the numbers (at the time of their report, more than 78 were killed).

©Unknown

At least two dozen Palestinian civilians, including a baby, were among those killed, and militants said 25 fighters died. Health officials said about 200 people were wounded, 14 of them critically.

Although more than 1/3 of the 78 killed were babies and children, Fox says only ONE baby was killed!!!

UK media - online:

BBC website:

Second headline from left (marked in blue): "UN Chief condemns Gaza violence."

Violence ha? No mention of babies, children and civilians killed!!!

©Unknown

UK - Newspapers:

The Daily Telegraph: Nota a single word!

©Unknown

The Guardian: Not a single word!

©Unknown

The Herald: Not a single word!

©Unknown

IHT: very small paragraph on the left side of the frontpage.

©Unknown

Germany - online news:

Spiegel: Hardly seen line at the bottom of the website

Gaza on Spiegel

Welcome to the blind/deaf world of "human rights" and "freedom of press"!!!

Equal Opportunity Oppression - "Tis the Season"

Why confine the fun to just the Palestinian muslims?

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Israeli occupation creates hell on earth, even for Christians
The Palestinian Information Center
Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:36 EST

©Unknown

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah arrives at the IOF checkpoint outside Bethlehem

From Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem

Christmas is a season of good will. However, for Israel and its notoriously mendacious propaganda machine, Christmas is also a hasbara opportunity for spreading lies and disseminating disinformation and half truths about Christians in the Holy Land.

The usual seasonal dosage of lies includes such claims that Christians in the Holy Land suffer more from Muslim persecution than from the Israeli and apartheid, and that Christian emigration is not really attributed to Israel's Nazi-like repression of the Palestinian people but rather to Palestinian "Muslim" intolerance and violence.

Well, such lies are not new. Israel itself is a state based on lies and lying has always been and continues to be Israel's policy and modus operandi. In fact, it is very hard for one to be Zionist and not to be a liar. In truth, Zionism and mendacity are two sides of the same coin.

Didn't Zionism claim that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land?

Didn't Zionism claim that Palestinian refugees fled their homes and towns willingly and that Israel was in no way responsible for their flight?

Didn't Israel tell the world that the Israeli occupation army was the most moral army in the world, and that Israeli soldiers didn't knowingly and deliberately kill Palestinian children and civilians, and that the numerous acts of murder and maiming by the Israeli army were merely regrettable accidents?

And even now, and despite Israel's nakedness before the peoples of the world, this shameless state and its professional liars and spin doctors continue to claim ad nauseam that Israel is a democratic state where the rule of law is supreme.

Well, do democratic states act and behave the way Israel is acting and behaving? Do democratic states classify citizens and subjects into Ubermensch and untermensch?

I know for sure that our Christian-Palestinian brothers and sisters shall never allow Israel to use them as hasbara pawns in the service of oppression, racism and ethnic cleansing.

The Christians of Palestine, who have received their share of suffering and oppression at the hands of Zionism know more than anybody else that the wickedness of the occupation doesn't distinguish between them and their Muslim compatriots.

In November, 1948, the Hagana terrorists overran the two Christian villages of Ikrit and Birim in the upper Galilee, expelling inhabitants at gunpoint. The pogrom-like expulsion was carried out without the Israeli government approval. However, the democratic Israeli state never allowed the Christian inhabitants to return, despite several rulings to the contrary by the Israeli High Court.

Since 1967, Israel, has been trying to play all kinds of dirty tactics to tamper with Palestinian national unity, especially by playing Muslim against Christian and vice versa.

A few years ago, the Israeli Intelligence instructed its agents to throw stones and Molotov cocktails on several churches in the northern and central parts of the West Bank, apparently in order to use the incidents as hasbara ammunition in North America where public opinion was already overcharged against anything Arab or Islamic.

Meanwhile, the Israeli media, especially right-wing newspapers such as the Jerusalem Post, was concocting and inventing stories about Christian girls being raped and murdered by Palestinians in Bethlehem.

Such fabrications would be readily inflated, spun out of proportions and then widely disseminated especially among evangelical fundamentalists. Eventually, this would be translated into political support for Israeli colonialism and ethnic cleansing against both Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land.

Of course, many innocent and often naïve Americans and Canadians have no idea what kind of treatment is being meted out to Christians in the West Bank at the hands of Israeli occupiers.

They don't know that Israel is systematically stealing, at gunpoint, Church property and real estate in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahur and Jerusalem.

They don't know that Israel routinely bars Christians, laymen and clergy, from accessing their holy places in Jerusalem, e.g. the Church of the Sepulcher.

They don't know that Israeli Jewish youths routinely harass, even spit on clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem, often in full view of policemen who in most cases remain passive.

They don't know that Christian commuters are routinely humiliated at roadblocks manned by trigger-happy soldiers, which make their daily lives an unending nightmare?

They don't know that Israel has already morphed Bethlehem into a ghetto thanks to this Wall of Shame which Israel calls "separation wall" when in reality it is designed to grab and steal as much Palestinian land as possible.

Well, just come to Bethlehem and see for yourself. It is a nightmare, it is hell on earth, and it is done by a people who claim to be a light upon the nations.

If Christians in North America knew how Israel is acting and behaving toward their fellow Christian coreligionists and, of course, toward other Palestinians, they probably would start to change their views.

That is why it is imperative that Christians, especially in North America, make some serious efforts to know the truth about Israel and its crimes.

This can be done through third-party sources such as human rights organizations and western groups operating in the West Bank such as the Christian Peace Making Team and the International Solidarity Movement.

In short, Israeli and pro-Israeli media wouldn't tell the truth about Israeli crimes against Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike. So try to find alternative sources of news to know the truth about what is really happening in the Holy Land.

Don't allow yourself to be duped and enslaved by Zionist lies.