Delegitimizing Israel, one sentence at a time

It’s not my imagination, it’s a real anti-Israel bias. The AP put out an update on the Israeli fires, and the overnight editor appears not to hate Israel at all. (H/T: Y from the comments.)

“Fire extinguishing planes were on their way from Britain and Cyprus as well as aid from the U.S., Russia, Egypt, Spain, Azerbaijan, Romania and Turkey — which put aside recent tensions to lend a hand”.

But when the morning update went out, it was changed to this:

Some 100 firefighters from Bulgaria arrived as well as fire extinguishing planes and crews from Greece and Britain, Israeli officials said. More aid was on its way from the United States, Russia, Egypt, Cyprus, Jordan, Spain, Azerbaijan, Romania and Turkey – which put aside tensions over Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla in May to lend a hand.

Notice that in the update, the spin is back to the AP boilerplate about the “deadly raid,” without any balance, although it’s better than the version from yesterday.

Once close allies, Israel-Turkish relations have been in a crisis since Israel’s bloody attack May 31 on a Turkish flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza.

But this shows that there is no Israel article that cannot be spun against Israel by an AP editor, even in the most minor of ways. And why am I picking out this single change in the AP updates on the Israeli fire stories? Because this is the way a nation is delegitimized—by putting constant negative portrayals out in everything you possibly can, even stories about the worst fire in Israel’s history.

Impressions count, after a while. Look at the polls in Europe that say that Israel is a greater danger to the world than Iran. They are fueled by editing like this.