Surely you remember back in March, there was quite an uproar about Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead. A story in Ha’aretz, followed by one in the New York Times told of abuses committed by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians.
But in the end the allegations didn’t exactly pan out. Even the head of the academy where the allegations were made, excoriated the press for making too much out of them.
Still that didn’t stop McClatchy’s execrable Dion Nissenbaum from trying to keep the allegations alive. He dismissed the IDF’s investigation of the charges that found no wrongdoing and didn’t bother to report that the charges were found to be hearsay.
So it should come as no surprise when similar unsubstantiated charges from anonymous soliders surfaced this week, Nissenbaum trumpeted them on his blog.
But wait, something different happened this time. The group responsible for the charges this time was trying to get an exclusive from Ha’aretz. But Ha’aretz, burnt in March, was shy this time. Amir Mizroch of the Jerusalem Post writes:
Several days before all this, Breaking The Silence gave out their report to a wide array of foreign media, and not to the IDF to probe into itself, with the caveat that they observe the embargo until after Ha’aretz published the report first. All of which shows their original intent was to get as much uncritical worldwide publicity for their report. Legitimate, sure. Fair? Not so sure.
(It turns out that Breaking the Silence is being bankrolled by the EU and the British and Dutch embassies. Given that the EU is part of the “Quartet” doesn’t that mean that the Quartet’s objectivity is suspect?)
Breaking the Silence wanted uncritical attention and Nissenbaum, so swept up in his contempt for Israel, played his role faithfully. He treated the allegations as convictions because they fit his own prejudices. Truth really wasn’t important. (Actually truth is important to Nissenbaum, if it has to do with a movie. He’s not just biased, he’s also frivolous.)
On the other hand a number of Israeli soldiers have been willing to speak out publicly, and not anonymously, to testify that they saw professional and moral behavior from their fellow soldiers. I wouldn’t expect Nissenbaum to report that. Nor will he report that Human Rights Watch has been found to be ethically compromised.
For Nissenbaum, Israel employs force arbitrarily and disproportionately, Anything that confirms his view is news; anything that doesn’t is ignored. Really he should be drawing a second paycheck from the PA as he is doing its work.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad
