Flotilla 2: NY Times Sinks the Truth
May 15, 2011 16:09 by Simon Plosker
According to a New York Times report, a second flotilla of vessels led by the Turkish Mavi Marmara is due to sail for Gaza within the next few months. Last time, the real motives and agenda of those involved in the flotilla only became clear after Israeli commandos were attacked by extremists brandishing weapons.
Last time, the flotilla organizers were allowed to sell a false narrative of so-called “peace activists” delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans suffering a humanitarian crisis as a result of an Israeli blockade.
This time, there is no excuse for the media not to question the agenda behind a second flotilla and to include the relevant context. The New York Times, however, has published such a shoddy piece of journalism that it is difficult to believe how such an article was allowed in the newspaper of record.
Where is the context?
According to the NY Times:
Almost a year ago, Israeli naval commandos stormed a previous flotilla sailing to Gaza, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists on the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships in the fleet.
Only this January, The Turkel Commisssion of inquiry into the events surrounding the May 31, 2010 Gaza flotilla concluded that Israeli soldiers only took action in self-defense after being violently attacked by the ship’s passengers and their actions complied with international law.
Having adopted the simple narrative over the events of May 2010, the article continues by describing the owners of the Mavi Marmara as the “Humanitarian Relief Foundation“, a “Turkish nongovernmental organization“.
Why does the NY Times use such a benign description, particularly when the organization is best known by its acronym the IHH, which the article does not refer to? It is no secret that the IHH has a radical Islamic anti-Western orientation, supports radical Islamic networks, including Hamas, and at least in the past, even global jihad elements.
Having interviewed someone from the IHH, did Susanne Gusten, the NY Times journalist not consider this background information on the IHH to be relevant to the story?
Where is the Israeli view?
Nowhere in the article are any Israelis interviewed by Gusten. Instead, for a counter-view, she relies heavily on a Turkish academic. However, this only puts the framework of the story within a solely Turkish context. Why did she not interview an Israeli government or military representative or academic?
This is particularly unprofessional given that Gusten presents the flotilla as a purely bilateral issue between Turkey and Israel. In fact, Israel has been in constant contact with many other states whose citizens intend to sail with the latest flotilla. Members of the US Congress have urged Turkey to prevent the flotilla. France has warned its citizens not to join the flotilla, which has also come in for criticism from Members of the European Parliament as well as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton who said: “I don’t consider a flotilla to be the right response.”
Gusten also quotes a UN Human Rights Council report on the flotilla, which criticizes Israel. This is the same UNHRC that includes such pillars of virtue and human rights as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Pakistan, China, Qatar, Russia and, until recently Libya. Why then is this discredited UN organ deemed more credible than the detailed results of Israel’s Turkel Commission?
HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams said the New York Times article failed the test of proper journalism. “The ABC’s of good journalism demand equal reference and citations for all sides of any story,” he said. “In the process, the New York Times is fueling a false narrative that cheapens the concept of true humanitarian aid.”
A blatant provocation
Those behind the flotilla claim that it is transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza. However, even the deputy director of the Red Cross in Gaza has stated that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” adding: “If you go to the supermarket, there are products. There are restaurants and a nice beach.”
Life in Gaza is by no means easy. However, Gazans are certainly not starving and Israel constantly facilitates thousands of tonnes of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
There is no other reason for this latest flotilla other than to provoke yet another confrontation with Israel and the IDF with the express intent of creating similar headlines and political problems for Israel as the first Mavi Marmara flotilla provided.
Why should Israel prevent the flotilla from reaching Gaza unchecked?
Over the past decade, there have been numerous attempts to smuggle weaponry by sea to terrorists groups in Gaza. As recently as March 15, 2011, the Israeli Navy seized an Iranian arms shipment bound for Gazan terror groups. On board the Victoria were some 50 tonnes of weapons. Missiles of increasing range continue to be fired against Israeli cities while, in April, Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus, killing a 16 year old Israeli.
Given this, it is obvious why Israel considers it vital to check the cargo of any vessels heading for Gaza – something it is entitled to do under international law. Israel has also made it clear that it is fully prepared to transfer humanitarian aid once it has undergone security checks.
Please send your considered comments to the New York Times and keep an eye out for any further coverage in the media that fails to present the reality behind the latest flotilla – letters@nytimes.com. Remember – letters for publication should be no longer than 150 words and must include the writer’s address and phone numbers.
» Flotilla 2: NY Times Sinks the Truth Freedom Alert!: Defending American Freedom by exposing Radical Islam, Socialist, Liberals, and all the Enemies of Freedom, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!
4:46 pm
May 15, 2011
[...] article can be viewed at Flotilla 2: NY Times Sinks the Truth on [...]
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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sid
5:55 pm
May 15, 2011
it is hard to believe that the new york times has become a tool of the the terrorist groups. i will not pick up a times paper again unless they go back to thier past way of reporting honestly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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RICHARD
7:06 pm
May 15, 2011
I’d like to know how US News and World Report and Newsweek report this upcoming flotilla.Maybe it’s time for a new magazine?
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ali Murat Ba?kent
10:57 am
May 17, 2011
do you want that to be killed of unarmed people on ships while nobody learns about it?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Maura Collins.
3:23 pm
May 17, 2011
No, in fact what I want to see is these rather dim witted publicity hounds stay out of a situation they have little actual knowledge of other than an obscene political agenda. I suspect you don’t hail from the West, but we rather prefer those we employ as public servants, IE Prime Ministers, Presidents, State Departments etc to sally forth and work for a living and sideline these nit wits for what they are: freaks. If they choose to fling themselves on to a ship under the cloak of ‘humanity’, then they must prepare for the consequences if any violence erupts and the opposing side does not view their efforts in quite the same light. Your pals certainly showed their true and violent colors during the last flotilla. But, as we forever hear them chant about their cult of death surely the result wasn’t unexpected and you got all the martyrs your heart desired? I would like very much to recommend you start to read a little history, but I fear such a recommendation would fall on tin ears.
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evy
7:18 pm
May 15, 2011
“A flotilla of 15 ships carrying humanitarian aid and activists from 100 countries will sail for Gaza next month, in a second attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, organizers announced this week.”
So states the article from the NY Times.
Fellow Canadians, have a look at the hateful tactics the Flotilla ‘family’ are using. http://www.freedomflotilla.eu/en/news/pressreleases From the article:…the government of Israel has launched a campaign to slander, disrupt, and possibly attack the upcoming Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, which will have many Canadians aboard the Canadian Boat to Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has now threatened to “act firmly” using “force” against the flotilla in May.
The Canadian Boat to Gaza is calling on all of the federal parties to denounce these threats against Canadians by Israel, which has demonstrated its willingness to use lethal force against civilians, similar to its fatal attack on last year’s freedom flotilla.
“Netanyahu’s vow to use force is tantamount to a death threat against the Canadian and international participants in the flotilla,” says Wendy Goldsmith of the Canadian Boat to Gaza. “The question is, if elected, what will candidates running in this election do to ensure the safety and security of those on board the Canadian Boat to Gaza, in light of Israeli threats of violence?”… “Many notable Canadian and international figures have already endorsed the Canadian Boat to Gaza, including Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Amir Khadir, Quebec MLA, Maher Arar and Monia Mazigh, writers Judy Rebick and Linda McQuaig, Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, to name but a few. More than 100 civil society organizations – trade unions such as CSN in Quebec, Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups, campus and community organizations, as well as non-governmental organizations – have lent their support to the mission.”
Let’s hope and pray that the Canadian government does not fall prey to this blackmail, but leaves the welfare of these individuals to their obviously well loved Freedom family, with whom they apparently have much more of a kinship than with Canada. If I had my ‘d’ruthers,’ why not just deny the Canadian Boat to Gaza, re-entry into Canada. They would be much happier in Turkey, Iran or Syria anyway.
Fellow Canadians, it’s time to sharpen those pencils and getting writing to your MP’s.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ali Murat Ba?kent
10:05 pm
May 15, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
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genomega
11:53 pm
May 15, 2011
Give us a break: Turkey has gone over to the dark side and you know it.
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Jim Kvitfjell
7:54 pm
May 20, 2011
Canada has a long history of antisemitism.
http://palestinespeaks.net/2010/11/antis...
To call this flotilla a ” freedom flotilla” is really a joke. It is a clear provocation and a total lack of respect for international law at sea. An atemt to break the embargo is unlawfull and a pirat like action that must be met with apropriate force if necessary to stop them. Israel is in their fully right, backed by international law, to stop any sea wessel atemting to break this embargo. Canada can not ignore international consensus behind Israels jurisdiction at sea and embargo politicks.
It must be noted that there is a long history of embargo activities in international waters.
Indeed, according to the San Remo Manual that governs international humanitarian law, it is permissible under rule 67(a) to attack neutral vessels on the high seas when the vessels “are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture.”
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Mark
7:23 pm
May 15, 2011
Pardon my cynicism – I’m amazed that anyone expects the NYT to be other than an organ of propaganda. Long ago the Times tilted against reporting the news in favor of shaping the news and public perceptions. When has the NYT ever been honest? When Duranty was painting false rosy pictures of the Soviets in the ’30s whilst millions were dying of deliberately-caused starvation on Stalin’s orders during the Holmodor? Cheerleading the murderous regimes of Mao, the Khmer Rouge, and Ho Chi Minh? The consistently pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli stories from the ’70s onward? The only difference between the NYT and Pravda of old is that there are some naive people who still credit the Times with being an actual newspaper.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ofra Ben-David
1:22 pm
May 16, 2011
It’s so true, well said !
Thank you!
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A.LIN
8:06 pm
May 15, 2011
NYT “RIP”
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jacob
10:02 pm
May 15, 2011
A lady from the NYT offered me a subscription and I told her she would give it to me for free and pay me on top to read it and my answer would be NO, as I wouldn’t touch it with a 30
foot pole and that to me, it has the value of wet used toilet paper…
I wonder how come the N. York Jews still stick to this despicable piece of “journalism” and
don’t cancel their subscriptions “en masse” just to see another Israel enemy bite the dust,
although I wouldn’t doubt Gestapowitz SOROS would keep it alive…
Or would he ???
As to the “flotilla” I hope the Israeli Navy developed in the meantime some attachment that
will render inoperative the flotilla vessels steering and propulsion systems, leaving them dead in the water and this time, confiscate all vessels and either sell them in public auction or simply junk them, mainly the MAVI MARMARA but not return to their owners as ingle one of them
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NY Times Sinks the Truth « Simon Studio Analysis
1:06 am
May 16, 2011
[...] This time, there is no excuse for the media not to question the agenda behind a second flotilla and to include the relevant context. The New York Times, however, has published such a shoddy piece of journalism that it is difficult to believe how such an article was allowed in the newspaper of record. via honestreporting.com [...]
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Maura Collins.
8:20 am
May 16, 2011
I have sent many letters to my government in Ireland on this matter. Several passengers who will board this latest ship of tools are from the former governing party that lead Ireland over a financial cliff along with the bankers, and now step up their game to lift their political bums out of the fire by stepping on to this Flotilla of Shame. Some of these people are of the Sinn Féin party, known to many of you as the IRA, who wear the cloak of respectability now that a few of them have been elected to government, but I assure you they are still the same thugs who murdered and tortured innocent men and women in Northern Ireland. Many trained in the terrorist camps of Libya and were given cash to fuel their ’cause’ by Gaddafi, but today run the protection, prostitution and drug smuggling rackets in my homeland. Some others are simply out of work terrorists while the rest are the usual left wing dross and a thorn in the side of humanity.
Into this pot of swill flops the NY T’s who see fit to report a story that has little basis in reality and involves no journalism, period. Perhaps the same rag ought to stick to reporting on global homosexuality, or how brilliant the golfing vacationer in chief at the white House is doing, or even how well all those countries falling like dominoes in the Middle East will fare now that the Muslim Brotherhood have been treated to lunch at that same White House by BHO. The NY T’s long ago threw the mantle of impartiality in the gutter, and as a near bankrupt newspaper, they are not fit to wrap fish in. To their detriment, they choose to ignore the good Israel has done for the world these many years, but like any corrupt and rotten business they too will fall. We must keep faith with Israel, help and encourage her people and write many letters to our representatives in government and demand they keep these thugs off this obscene flotilla. Shalom to all.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Ofra Ben-David
1:41 pm
May 16, 2011
Crrupted business will fall Soros will not keep them going for long.
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Ali Murat Ba?kent
11:23 am
May 21, 2011
Soros? bood sucker?
Agree or Disagree:
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Ali Murat Ba?kent
11:24 am
May 21, 2011
Soros? blood sucker?
Agree or Disagree:
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Michael Shtofman@Security Systems For Home
9:33 am
May 16, 2011
I think we should do 2 things:
1. Do now alllow the New York Times and alike into Israel and let them report from the stinking opposition site. Not to travel over Holy Land.
2. Israeli enemies enjoy a lot of favorite coverige by Far Leftist Media. Why not have a similar organization that protects Israel but that organization will not necesserily be legal! Eye for an eye sort of thing.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
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Steve Mann
11:07 am
May 16, 2011
I have come to the conclusion that regardless of the facts, the truth, the reality- There is a cabal among the media to vilify Israel.
I use to think oil had something to do with it-and maybe there was a time that, that was so-
Then I thought it was those Liberal Left Wing Pseudo humanists- who always support the underdog- regardless of whether he be in the right.
Now I come to one conclusion- ANTI-SEMITISM .
The prospering Jew- who rises by hard work, gives to the world humanitarian “Goodies” defeats the ideology of the anti-Semite. He would rather portray the Jews as Shylock, Fagin or modern day Maddoff.
And the anti-Zionist Jew who is always apologising for being a Jew- forgets that if Israel had been a nation in 1920 the same time that Britain gave East of the river Jordan to the Hashem tribal ruler- Then maybe 6 million would not have perished. As there would have been a land to run to which did not have quotas.
So when the NY times, BBC and the rest write their bias stories maybe they will recall that it has never been the Israeli who has killed or kidnapped their fellow reporters.
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Ofra Ben-David
1:32 pm
May 16, 2011
I had the same call one day and I said the same thing you did, Thankyou. NYT is not about
true and honest reporting they are all about money.
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R. Cross
9:55 pm
May 16, 2011
Go back to Flotilla 1. There are some questions that the NY Times and “Other Media” have not answered and these are:
1.
Agree or Disagree:
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Igrina
12:51 pm
May 17, 2011
For everybody, who has interest about the REAL situation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg&annotation_id=annotation_665723&feature=iv
ENJOY!
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Ali Murat Ba?kent
11:57 pm
May 17, 2011
I see how a nice song becomes a zionist lie))
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Maura Collins.
9:32 am
May 18, 2011
And true to form you show up and oblige us with your standard party piece racist remark on Zionists. Could you not learn a new hymn and quit with the jaded ideology of such degenerate thinking? It is beyond time to shuffle off the 7th century you seem to worship in, and slip effortlessly into the current one with a bounce in your step and a new song in your heart. The train is leaving, you need to purchase a ticket.
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Zack Parsons
10:25 pm
May 23, 2011
This article is a joke, Israel attacked the flotilla in international waters for the “crime” of getting to Gaza which is under a blockade (here’s a hint: both the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross have called the blockade illegal). A US citizen, Dogan, was even shot execution style by Israeli commandos.
It’s also funny that instead of going to human rights groups like Amnesty Intentional, Human Rights Watch or -possibly- the UN to see whether the incident was legal, they go to the Turkel Commission, because the Israeli government sure is unbiased in this incident.
I especially like this:
“the real motives and agenda of those involved in the flotilla only became clear after Israeli commandos were attacked by extremists brandishing weapons.”
Oh, so the passengers jumped off the Flotilla boats and attacked Commandos who are in international waters? Last time I checked they “attacked” by using self-defense because what the Commandos were doing was illegal.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Moshe Flam
11:42 am
May 26, 2011
A scrutinized look at the released full footage of the Mavi Marmara trip (censured in places by the IHH) is due. All Israeli claims are clearly proven.
From the paintball to the “soldiers”. Also what happened is now much clearer.
Anybody who knows how to make a short movie can quickly show the sequence of the Marmara preparations prayers and fighting, the two Israeli soldier hostages the shooting, the Israeli soldier’s identifying the gun, the command to stop paintball use, the false ship IHH doctors, false treatment (clearly killing two “IHH soldiers” who were alive for a long time after wounded.) the refusal to receive medical treatment, the clear lies of the spokeswoman with her baby, hiding the truth of the attack sequence and claiming they were shot in the backs while bowing down in prayer. The clear acknowledgement of the IHH soldiers of plastic bullet wounds, and many more interesting facts.
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abe ariew
5:43 pm
May 29, 2011
Where is the flotilla to help the Armenians survive from the Turkish murders? (well’ at least those who survived the Turkish massacres..)
Where is the flotila to help the Curds have their own state? (alas! the Curds, a REAL people, with a distinguished language and culture and history, demand their homeland from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq… all of them are Muslim countries. And this is the reason you’ve never heard of it. Just consider what would be the situation if they’d claim their land from Israel !!,,!!..)
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