The tarnished halo effect

The New York Times ran a Reuters report Israel Says Flotilla Detainees Were Treated Well, yesterday. Really nothing surprising about that.

What is is surprising is this (via Daily Alert Blog):

In a TV interview, Turkish journalist Şefik Dinç, who was on the Mavi Marmara and wrote a book about it, said that no shots were fired from the Israeli helicopters and that IDF soldiers did not open fire until their lives were in danger. The interview clearly contradicts the IHH narrative.

Dinç’s testimony is important. He’s sympathetic to the flotilla. And yet for some reason the mainstream media doesn’t pick it up. Of course Israel will defend its soldiers, but when one of its enemies does, that’s real news!

And what’s true about the media is also true about NGO’s.

Based on previous examples, little attention will be paid to the political ideologies of these NGOs, as well as the funders to which they answer.

The political role of the NGO network was evident during and immediately after the flotilla incident, and continues to be highlighted in ongoing delegitimization campaigns.

Regarding the attacks on soldiers upon boarding the flotilla, B’Tselem claimed that this “information is based solely on statements of soldiers.” In actuality, the video evidence of violent extremists attacking soldiers with knives and clubs clearly supports the soldiers’ claims.

PHR-I also issued a statement referring to passengers on the flotilla as “human rights and peace activists, journalists and members of parliament.” Nowhere in the statement did it reference the connection to IHH, the main flotilla organizer and a member of Union of the Good, an umbrella of 50+ Islamic organizations that was designated by the US government as “an organization created by Hamas leadership to transfer funds to the terrorist organization.”

And Gisha used the flotilla incident as an opportunity to claim that “this incident is proof that despite claims to the contrary, Israel never ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip but rather continues to control its borders – land, air and sea,” ignoring the mass weapons smuggling from Iran and Syria that necessitate such policing.

The media and these NGO’s have been protected by a “halo effect” that protects them and their agenda from serious scrutiny. And yet they are all too often interested, not in the truth, but in attacking Israel.

Åžefik Dinç may hate Israel, but he at least has integrity. That’s more than many of these defenders of freedom can claim.

Crossposted on Yourish.