Dear Friend of FLAME:

I got a lot of flack when, beginning three years ago, I accused the New York Times of treason for its reportage on what I call World War IV, and what President Bush calls the war against terrorism. But as events continue to unfold, the NY Times, its subsidiaries (like the International Herald Tribune), and various smaller papers to which it feeds much of its coverage, continue to prove themselves worthy of the charge.

Political columnist Melanie Phillips' article below is for those who are skeptical that much of mainstream Western media is in collusion with Islamofascism against Israel. Mainstream newspapers and TV news programs report as though the events in Gaza were being driven by Israeli aggression, instead of reflecting unprecedented Israeli restraint in the face of relentless Hamas terror attacks.

Most news reports focus on Palestinian civilians killed accidentally, in large part because Hamas intentionally stations its Qassam rocket teams inside of civilian areas.  These same reports often condemn Israel for the deaths as though the intentional murder of Israelis from Qassam attacks were irrelevant, and as though Hamas had not declared war on Israel two decades ago and has been waging that war ceaselessly since then.

These same news reports consistently ignore the scores of Qassams that rain down on Israel, and especially on Sderot, daily, killing about a dozen since the “cease-fire” last year, wounding scores, and causing immense damage and life-altering trauma to innocent Israelis. These reports mention only briefly the Palestinian civil war in the Gaza Strip, and when they do, it is with dry reportage of facts and none of the condemnatory innuendo that they reserve for Israel alone.

Perhaps even worse for U.S. interests, Western journalists invariably ignore the role of Iran in attacks against Israel. No editorial, no analytical journalism, no backgrounder piece, no investigative journalism---we see virtually nothing to expose Iran’s role as the key perpetrator of terrorism in the Middle East, keeping the violence going as a cover for its development of WMDs and attempted domination of the Persian Gulf.

Our mainstream Western media's selectivity in news reporting, news analysis, and news editorializing all seem to uncritically and even enthusiastically repeat a script that favors Iran and our country's worst terrorist enemies and directly aids them in their anti-West and anti-Israel mission.

Melanie Phillips is a veteran British journalist who writes a regular column for the UK’s Daily News.I think you’ll enjoy her perspective on the British press, since it so closely resembles the phenomenon I describe in the U.S.A.

David Meir-Levi
Contributing Editor, FLAME

P.S.

I hope you will seriously consider joining us in Israel next year on our May 3-13, 2008 mission---which we’re calling “Truth in the Promised Land”---and during which we will meet many fascinating experts and get the facts on the ground about what we can only read about here in the U.S.  See the box at the top of this email, and send us your contact information if you’d like to receive more details as they become available.  I hope also you’ll continue to support FLAME financially. As you know, FLAME works valiantly to fight the media bias documented in this very Hotline . . . by publishing fact-based messages in mass media that reach 5 million homes every month.  (Review a list of our ads and positions at http://www.factsandlogic.org/ads_and_positions.html. You’re welcome to print any of them out for friends and colleagues.)   But as you know, publishing the truth about Israel and her enemies in mass media is costly.  Please remember that all our support---every penny---comes from individuals like you, who care about Israel’s survival.  Please help us now as you are able: A donation of $18, $36, $50, $100 or $500 helps us keep the flame alive---helps us support Israel’s struggle on the front lines of the war against Islamist terror (and against distorted media reporting).  Remember, too, that your donation to FLAME is tax deductible. To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html.  Thanks for your continued support.

The war against the free world
by Melanie Phillips, MelaniePhillips.com, May 22, 2007

Dozens of people are thought to have been killed in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon—at least seventy in two days—as the Lebanese army goes all out to destroy the al Qaeda affiliate Fatah al Islam, which is apparently embedded in the camp. A refugee camp under heavy bombardment; civilians being killed along with the terrorists who are hunkered down among them; military authorities talking of having terrorists 'hermetically sealed' and that they will be removed one way or another because they pose a threat to the country that simply cannot be tolerated; ambulances prevented from reaching the injured and even being fired upon. Can you imagine the reaction if Israel were to be doing this?

But just look at the British media. Where are the virulent denunciations of the Lebanese government? Where are the editorials condemning it for dangerous over-reaction? Where are the columnists screaming war crimes?  Where are the politicians and the bishops condemning the Lebanese for a disproportionate response and demanding a cease-fire now? Funny, that—I seem to have missed them.

And now look at the British media's coverage of the bombardment of Israel by Hamas, and its belated military response. That response has been reported as if Israel is driving events. The bombardment has scarcely been mentioned—except in passing in the stories about Israel's response, which is thus presented as the driving force.

The fact that [approximately] two hundred rockets have been fired by the Palestinians at Sderot in the past two days has been virtually ignored. The fact that yesterday a 35 year-old woman was killed by one of these rockets has been all but ignored by journalists who usually preface any reference to the Kassams as 'home-made', to give the impression that this is a Gazan Dad's Army up against the Israeli military behemoth.

The fact that—according to Israel's deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh—Iran is behind the Hamas rocket bombardment in order to distract attention from its nuclear programme is virtually ignored. The rationale is presumably to force Israel to do what it is now doing by attacking Hamas in Gaza; because Iran and Hamas know very well that the attention of the West will instantly be drawn to Israel like a moth to a flame. The pressure on Iran to abandon its goal of nuclear genocide will thus be transferred to Israel, the prime target of the nuclear genocide. Sure enough, it's working like a charm.

The Israelis are worried, and with good reason, that Iran/Hamas will now extend their bombardment beyond Sderot to cities such as Ashkelon or  Beersheba. As the Jerusalem Post reports:

“High-ranking defense officials told the Post terrorists had smuggled long-range rockets into Gaza from the Sinai through tunnels underneath the Philadelphi Corridor. Islamic Jihad is known to have a limited number of outdated Grad-model Katyusha rockets, but has yet to fire them at their maximum range of 25 km.”

To prevent this, Israel may well now have to escalate its attacks on Hamas in Gaza. We can all write the Western media script that will follow. Who needs al Qaeda when the enemies of the free world have got the Western media on their side?