Arab Spring Unsettling The Region

Why is it that The World always points to Israel actions (actually

reactions) as the cause of its issues with neighbors?

Why is it that you always use biased terminology?

Today (Monday 12 September) your correspondent Derek Stoffel from

Jerusalem, talked of Egyptian anger over the death of five Egyptian

policemen (allegedly) killed by Israelis going after GUNMEN. Those

gunmen were attacking Israeli buses and civilians – and in any other

country would be called terrorists, or at the least militants. Nor is it

clear that Israeli troops were responsible for the deaths of the five

Egyptians.

Then there was his talk about a Turkish ship that “delivered aid to

Gaza”. There was little aid aboard the Avi Marmara – it was a propaganda

exercise, funded by the Turkish government, which provided the ship to

the IHH.

Why doesn’t The World mention the deaths of Israeli civilians in the

terror attacks on the Gaza border? Why does The World not mention that

those aboard the “aid ships” attacked Israeli soldiers, seriously

wounding them – and only then did Israelis fire back.

Nor is there a hint that Israeli troops were attacked and seriously

wounded before they opened fire, nor that the Turkish government

provided the ship to the IHH, and helped sponsor the propaganda exercise.

Even more damning is the failure to provide any analysis, in this and

several other recent articles, of the real core issues in the

relationship. The decline in Israeli-Turkish relations has little to do

with the Gaza flotilla.

That is a pretext, and Lisa Mullins, Anthony Shadid know that well. It

is a deliberate ploy by the Islamist AKP government to build up its

standing in the region. Turkey has staged a number of deliberate public

embarrassments of Israel long before the flotilla (including the walkout

by Turkey at Davos). It has drawn closer to Iran and Syria (the latter

until recently), its government funded TV has screened anti-semitic and

anti-Israel series punting blood libels; its officials have attended

Holocaust denial conferences.

The most cursory examination of Egyptian media during President

Mubarak’s time (see e.g. http://www.memri.org) shows that it was filled with

the most virulent anti-Israel propaganda, often anti-semitic too.

Egypt’s TV ran soaps based on blood libels. Governors of the Sinai

blamed Israel for shark attacks (and that was reported). Mubarak abused

hatred of Israel and the West, as the sole permissible political

distraction from his own oppressive policies. In addition, he kept a

very cold peace, preventing the academic, economic, and cultural ties

that were promised by the Israeli-Egypt peace accords.

That indoctrination (which built on longstanding anti-semitism that

predated the state of Israel, and the expulsion of all Jews from Egypt

between 1948 and 1967) has left a legacy, that political parties of all

shaded are abusing.

How long will it take The World to reflect that, instead of always pointing to

some Israeli action (actually a reaction) as the cause of hostility?