Israel's Sock Puppet at the ABC

A more blatant display of Israeli propaganda than last night's 7.30 Report's Gaza conflict - one year on would be hard to find:

"The aim of the attacks was to end the rocket attacks being made on Israel by Islamic militants." (from the introduction on the website)

"The aim was to end the barrage of crude rockets being being constantly fired by Islamic militants towards Israeli towns." (from presenter Chris Uhlmann)

"Operation Cast Lead was launched to put a stop to years of Hamas rockets on Israel's southern towns and cities." (from ABC Middle East correspondent Ben Knight)

That's our (Zionised) ABC for you, folks. It doesn't get much more mantra-like than that.

Well, why did Israel attack Gaza? Quite simply, to get its mojo (aka deterrence capability) back after losing it to Hezbollah in 2006. Don't believe me? Well, just listen to the war criminals behind the Gaza Holocaust:

"The recent military operation in the Gaza Strip against Hamas has restored Israel's deterrence among its enemies and in the perception of the whole world, Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert said." (PM: Gaza op restored Israel's deterrence, Etgar Lefkovits, Jerusalem Post, 26/1/09)

"Hamas was dealt a blow that created 'the deterrence that is now enabling calm'." (Barak says deterrence enabled calm, Hanan Greeberg, ynetnews.com, 19/1/09)

"[Tzipi Livni] said the Gaza offensive had restored Israel's 'deterrence' against militant factions seeking to attack it... Hamas now understands that Israel will act 'wildly' to any attacks against it, she said regarding the 'deterrence'." (Livni: Only Israel will decide when to end Gaza offensive, Deutsche Presse-Argentur, jewishfederations.org)

No, it wasn't about rockets, rockets, rockets - that was just the fiction decided on by the warmongers to sell Israel's wilding to the world - it was about deterrence, deterrence, deterrence.

Then there's this gobsmacking exchange where Ben Knight throws all pretense of journalistic objectivity to the winds and becomes a mere sock puppet for the Israelis:

"Yohanan Plessner, Knesset EU Relations Committee: The laws that govern warfare today are in many ways not so relevant to security challenges.

Yohanan Plessner is a former Israeli army commando who now maintains Israel's relations with Europe.

Yohanan Plessner: In the new kind of warfare today, civilians are more likely to get hurt as long as terrorist organisations and their sponsors are... situating the centre of gravity of their forces within the civilian population.

Ben Knight: That's exactly what Hamas did in Gaza, so did Hezbollah in South Lebanon a few years ago."

And, incredibly, he does it again:

Ben Knight: Israel's problem is not just where it fought in Gaza, but how. White phosphorus burns down to the bone. It's not supposed to be used in built-up civilian areas. Jumaa Al Najar was one of those hit with a white phosphorus shell.

Jumaa Al Najar, Victim: All over my legs, it felt like I was on fire.

Ben Knight: Before the war, Jumaa Al Najar was a textile salesman. He can now barely walk and his right hand is paralysed and he can't get out of Gaza for treatment.

Jumaa Al Najar: Before I was wounded I was the breadwinner in my home. Now I sit at home wondering how to support my family.

Ben Knight: Israel knows it's not the only nation faced with the problem of fighting enemies who operate in civilian zones.

Knight seems blissfully unaware that reports by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Dugard Committee and the Goldstone Report have found no evidence to back Israel's claim that Hamas is using human shields. Nor does he appear aware that such claims were retracted by the Israeli military when they were first used to cover its crimes in Lebanon in 2006. Israeli newspaper Haaretz, for example, had this to say on Israel's massacre of dozens of Lebanese civilians at Qana in south Lebanon: "As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident. It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time. The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday." (Livni: Qana attack led to turning point in support for Israel, Yoav Stern, 1/8/06)

And back when Israel was "punishing, humiliating and terrorising" (to borrow Justice Goldstone's exact words) the people of Gaza, Ben Knight was blithely reporting - I kid you not - on how Arab television was punishing Israel with footage from Gaza. (See my 14/1/09 post Choking on My Falafel) And before that, in September 2008, Knight was busy parroting the argot of the Jewish cowboys who rule the range in the Wild West Bank. (See my 6/10/08 post The Media is the Message)

No wonder the local Israel lobby's given the tick to Knight and his equally clueless ABC colleague Matt Brown*: "On the ABC, both radio and television, the standard of Israel coverage has... depended on the quality of the correspondents. Early in the decade, with Tim Palmer and then Jane Hutcheon, the coverage was at times deplorable. More recently, however, correspondents such as Matt Brown and Ben Knight have delivered more thoughtful and even-handed reporting on the whole." (Bias & Balance in the noughties, Jamie Hyam, The Australian Jewish News, 18/12/09) [*See my posts Sleepless in Sderot, Legless in Gaza (16/1/09) & The Beat-Up Goes On (27/7/08)]