Palmer Report: Israel Vindicated, Media Shrugs
September 5, 2011 12:56 by Simon Plosker
The UN’s Palmer Report into the events of the first Gaza flotilla in 2010 came to a number of important conclusions that, in the main vindicated Israel’s positions:
- Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza is legal and Israel has the right to enforce the blockade, including in international waters.
- The decision to breach the naval blockade was a dangerous and reckless act which needlessly carried the potential for escalation.
- The conduct and true objectives of the flotilla organizers, particularly the IHH, included plans to violently resist any boarding attempt.
The Israeli Government adopted the Report albeit with reservations concerning the characterization of Israel’s decision to board the vessels in the manner it did as “excessive and unreasonable” as well as alleged mistreatment of some flotilla participants following the docking of vessels in Israel.
But what did the media choose to focus on and emphasize with the publication of the Palmer Report? A grudging acknowledgment that Israel did indeed have a valid case?
Horrendous Headlines
Not judging by these headlines, which made it clear which way the story was framed:
Washington Post
The Independent
Daily Telegraph
Wall Street Journal
In addition, this Sky News headline also makes it abundantly clear who the guilty party is considered to be:
Sky News
A Different Standard for Israel
Joseph Ciechanover, Israel’s representative on the Palmer Panel, stated that:
Their [the Panel members'] efforts should send a message to the international community about the need to engage with all sides to a dispute and to avoid prejudging an incident before all of the facts are known.
This certainly applies to much of the international media that unleashed a maelstrom of vicious reporting, working on the assumption that Israel was the perpetrator and turning Israel into a virtual pariah at the time of the incident.
Think back to the media coverage of the flotilla and the UN’s Goldstone Report, which also generated a wave of anti-Israel sentiment in the media and beyond. So why then is a UN report that, in the main, supports Israeli policies not deemed equally newsworthy? After all, these days, anything positive concerning Israel, particularly from a problematic body such as the UN is news in itself.
No Turkey Shoot
Recep Erdogan
Perhaps Turkish PM Erdogan knew exactly what he was doing when he hijacked the news cycle and turned the media’s attention to the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador to Ankara alongside a downgrading of relations with Israel.
Could it be that he did not want to draw attention to the parts of the Palmer Report where Turkey did not exactly come out smelling of roses? Or could it be the current Turkish bombing campaign against Kurds in northern Iraq that has barely come under any real media spotlight?
In any case, a lazy media preferred to concentrate on Turkish histrionics rather than addressing a certain hypocrisy on the part of the Turks and the substance of the Palmer Report itself.
Missing Context and Underreporting Facts
Hanin Zoabi
Some media just couldn’t help but go looking for contradictory voices concerning the Palmer Report. Turkey publicly admonished the findings. But what better than the comments of an Israeli politician to muddy the waters even further as The Times of London (subscription only) concluded its article:
The report’s finding that the blockade is legitimate was rejected by Hanin Zoabi, a member of the Israeli parliament, who called for “those who sent the army to stop the flotilla [to] be brought before international tribunals”.
What The Times failed to mention was that Zoabi, apart from being a member of the radical Balad party with a very large axe to grind against the Israeli state itself, was also a passenger on the Mavi Marmara.
Meanwhile, Sky News only considered it relevant to mention the Palmer findings in the penultimate and tenth paragraph of its report on the Turkish moves against Israel.
The BBC continued its ever so subtle use of strategically placed headings to steer readers in the direction that it would like, as evidenced by this:
The Guardian was probably the most vociferous media outlet at the time of the flotilla and a perrennial cheerleader for the Goldstone Report and UN actions against Israel. This time, however, The Guardian’s support for a UN-sponsored report melts away when it does not like the conclusions:
Where the Mavi Marmara went, Turkey will follow by challenging the Gaza blockade in the international court of justice. And rightly so. The Palmer panel’s finding went against every statement the UN secretary general has made about Gaza, the Goldstone report and a report by the UN human rights council in September. If, as Palmer found, the siege is legal in international law, the occupation is too. This must be challenged in court.
A Game Changing Report?
Jennifer Rubin
Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post, asks what the Palmer Report has to do with the Palestinian statehood effort at the UN this month and notes how the Report clearly acknowledges the necessity of Israel having to defend itself from rocket attacks and terrorism from Gaza. Rubin states:
Not only is this an implicit repudiation of the premises of the Goldstone Report (which, in Operation Cast Lead, portrayed the Israelis as aggressors and Gazans as victims), but it is a powerful argument against granting the Palestinians their request for a declaration of statehood. The government of that new state is co-run by the very terrorists described in the flotilla report as waging war on Israel.
The consequences and implications of Israel being in the right may well go far beyond just the flotilla incident. But then, in the eyes of many, Israel can only ever be in the wrong even when it is found to be in the right.
sav'ta shel Cohen
11:06 pm
Sep 05, 2011
Israel gets demonized again! This situation will continue until every incident is forcefully confronted head on and the media outlets find some other whipping boy! Where are the voices of the organisations that should be doing something about this?
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Nathan Zafran
11:43 pm
Sep 05, 2011
Get it into your heads, that regardless of what the Arabs do/don’t do and regardless of what the Israelis do/don’t do, the fiends will always be Israel and the “poor” victims will always inevitably be Arabs and Muslims. On the one hand I always wish the 54 million Muslims in Europe success in bringing down all this anti-Israeli arse-licking and hypocritical system (which they deserve for their duplicity), but on the other hand a sanctimonious and hypocritical entity is preferable to a murderous and despicable Arab-Muslim regime. God save tha world from this pestilence!
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Jack Fahy
12:30 am
Sep 06, 2011
sav’ta shel Cohen! Indeed, Israel will always be the whipping boy by the Marxist-Leftist-Bias Media! NB, there are millions of non-Jews both Christian and Non-Christian in this country that have and will continue to support Israel! And that scares the hell out of all of them!
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Tejano
1:35 am
Sep 06, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Tejano
10:25 pm
Oct 16, 2011
It scares the hell outta me too.
Americans don’t need to be sticking our neck out for a pack of thieving Jews. They can do that all by their lonesomes, AND pay for it.
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Scott
1:59 am
Sep 06, 2011
I understand that Israel is an open society, and that charges of apartheid are ridiculous. Still I must question why a nation would allow people who openly call for the overthrow of the State to participate in its parliament. These are criminals at the least. And if not Israelis should take another look at their laws to ensure that the Zoabi’s of the world cannot bring any further harm to the State.
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Deandre
6:03 am
Sep 25, 2011
Essays like this are so important to broadening people’s hrioozns.
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Eric Roth
4:13 am
Sep 06, 2011
Thank you for detailing the double and triple standards that too many mainstream media reporters maintain against Israel. Those sample headlines illuminate how lies and distortions travel farther, and faster, than more nuanced, balanced perspectives. Please keep up your difficult work – and know that your insistence on telling the truth amidst the prevalent lies – will help both save lives and prepare the naive for harsh reality that many “moderate” Palestinian activists still dream of genocide and holy war against Israel.
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Anne Johnson
4:49 am
Sep 06, 2011
I enjoy reading your articles, you present it as it is. I cannot understand what some of these people are thinking, when they insist on blaming Israel for everything. The Arab world is no angel to the universe. We should have had the Arabic nations under the microscope long ago, and really watched them. They are not to be trusted, or believed.
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Allan Levine
5:33 am
Sep 06, 2011
Once again, too many gutless news editors & commentators/commentaries purporting objectivity on Israel & its neighbors reveal their distorting upside-down lenses prevent them from seeing and reporting truthfully, even
when a UN Major Report on Conflict and its Aftermath the (so-called post-flotilla evaluation) Palmer Report FINALLY absolves Israel of responsibility for anything but lawfully, legally, rightfully and gallantly defending its citizens and borders from the Turkish terrorists and others’ intending to violate lawfully sacrosanct borders & ceasefire lines and offshore ocean region.
George Orwell, where are you when so sorely needed again to condemn the whores of the press who choose to trade truth for “access” in their misleading Headlines and placement choices when reporting on Israel facing aggressors?
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Stephen
10:03 am
Sep 06, 2011
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Allan Watford
5:41 pm
Sep 06, 2011
The Palmer Report was a moderate report which I find mostly acceptable.
Unfortunately, Israel has no spokesmen to give their viewpoint. The anglos here (UK) love Mark Regev – as they are relieved that at last Israel’s official UK spokesman speaks English – but he is whiningly defensive and has no idea how to reply to BBC interviewers, before whom he whinges like a beaten cur, and makes one almost ashamed to be pro-Israeli. He was totally destroyed in a ‘Today’ interview with veteran BBC journalist John Humphrys concerning the Palmer report, one of the most pro-Israeli reports ever issued by an official UN body; I am not sure he has even read the report (I did, before the interview) which contains wonderful passages which all one has to do is to cite verbatim. Again, and again. (Examples below).He did not do this.
Selected passages:
ii. The fundamental principle of the freedom of navigation on the high seas is
subject to only certain limited exceptions under international law. Israel faces
a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade
was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons
from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the
requirements of international law.
iv. Although people are entitled to express their political views, the flotilla acted
recklessly in attempting to breach the naval blockade. The majority of the
flotilla participants had no violent intentions, but there exist serious questions
about the conduct, true nature and objectives of the flotilla organizers,
particularly IHH. The actions of the flotilla needlessly carried the potential
for escalation
v. The incident and its outcomes were not intended by either Turkey or Israel.
Both States took steps in an attempt to ensure that events did not occur in a
manner that endangered individuals’ lives and international peace and
security. Turkish officials also approached the organizers of the flotilla with
the intention of persuading them to change course if necessary and avoid an
encounter with Israeli forces. But more could have been done to warn the
flotilla participants of the potential risks involved and to dissuade them from
their actions.
vii. Israeli Defense Forces personnel faced significant, organized and violent
resistance from a group of passengers when they boarded the Mavi Marmara
requiring them to use force for their own protection. Three soldiers were
captured, mistreated, and placed at risk by those passengers. Several others
were wounded.
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Rafi
10:40 pm
Sep 06, 2011
Israel’s spokespersons need to respond to media attacks with the same or greater force than those attacks. First of all, it is very important that spokespersons not only speak perfect English (e.g. Mark Regev) but also understand the ever-so-subtle innuendo that permeates much of the reporting and many direct questions put to Israel’s spokespersons. For example: questions that strart off with that vavourite BBC whining question “…yes, but is it not true that….” – should be immediately answered with “No that is a lie.”
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R. Cross
5:59 pm
Sep 06, 2011
Why should Israel apologise? It has every legal right to blockade that strip and the Palestinians know it. When they sail a “relief ship” into thos waters, of course they are going to be boarded and inspected. If they offer resistance then the boarding party has every legal right to take militant action to protect its definition at sea. Well Done, Israel!
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Bob Poplar
6:09 pm
Sep 08, 2011
The founders of Israel gave a lot of thought to what lied ahead for them if they joined the West in the OIL project. It was a calculated risk that so far has worked out. We have to hang tough. The USA can not pursue the past policies because the Saudies are running out of oil and we can see in Lybia that the EU does not want the USA medaling. The Royals of Europe are patient and that’s who Israel should partner with not the want-to-bees. It could be a beautiful world if we would just accept where we are and enjoy it.
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Armand Kidouchim
10:38 pm
Sep 08, 2011
The leftist Cabal with its legions of Mainstream Media ”Minions” and its Priest in Chief OBAMA, cannot and will not change REALITY.
Our TV screens are day on and day on showing the Cruelties perpetrated by Muslims (mostly against Muslims).
Islam preaches ”takkiyah” (morally O.K. to lie and DECEIVE the infidel). Islam, its History, archeological and chronoligal accuracy is not subject to debate nor is subject to reform,…the way Judaism and Christianity are…
It is obvious and easy for the silent majorities of the civilized world to see ”GOOD from EVIL”.
ISRAEL will be vindicated either by INTELLECT or by TECHNOLOGY POWER and soon to be by FINANCIAL POWER.
Israel has discovered Enormous GAS reserves and is sitting on 260 BILLION Barrels of Shale oil.
Israel has MASTERED the thermal technology of extracting shale Oil by occupying a small foot print while getting in the process ”OIL-GAS-WATER”.
The combination of Jewish ”uber intelligence”, Superior Technology and Financial Power will make the media whores and their MINIONS regret their insanity.
We will NOT FORGET!
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Tejano
7:01 am
Sep 09, 2011
Speaking of different standards, how many dunims did you all pick up this week?
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Asha
12:22 pm
Sep 09, 2011
It all goes way back. A big mistake was made when it was stated that Palestine is a “land without a people, for a people without a land”. Everything that came after can be debated till we turn blue. Everything that came after was a direct result of the occupation. It remains a solid fact that Israel came into existence through the occupation of a country.
Nothing in this world is all good or all bad. I’m sure there is good in Israel as there is bad in Palestine. My request is that we go back and look at the facts around the formation of the State of Israel. No dramatics or emotional outbursts or provative language. Just the cold, hard facts.
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Armand Kidouchim
6:12 pm
Sep 09, 2011
Asha,
In 1867, Mark Twain visited the middle east (holly land). He wrote a book ”The Innocents Abroad”
In his travel memoir, Twain describes a 1867 trip to the Land of Israel, which he finds a backward and desolate place devoid of culture or law. “Renowned Jerusalem itself, the stateliest name in history, has lost all its ancient grandeur, and is become a pauper village,” he states, calling it a country where prosperity had died out, a place of lost splendor and beauty where joy has turned to sorrow, and where silence and death prevail in its holy places.
To be noted as well is the fact that Jews have lived in ANCIENT ISRAEL for ever without interruption.
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Tejano
10:30 pm
Sep 09, 2011
In his travel memoir Twain also wrote:
“The narrow canon in which Nablous, or Shechem, is situated, is under high cultivation, and the soil is exceedingly black and fertile. It is well watered, and its affluent vegetation gains effect by contrast with the barren hills that tower on either side”
“Sometimes, in the glens, we came upon luxuriant orchards of figs, apricots, pomegranates, and such things, but oftener the scenery was rugged, mountainous, verdureless and forbidding”
“We came finally to the noble grove of orange-trees in which the Oriental city of Jaffa lies buried”
“Small shreds and patches of it must be very beautiful in the full flush of spring, however, and all the more beautiful by contrast with the far-reaching desolation that surrounds them on every side”
“Every where about the Mosque of Omar are portions of pillars, curiously wrought altars, and fragments of elegantly carved marble–precious remains of Solomon’s Temple. These have been dug from all depths in the soil and rubbish of Mount Moriah, and the Moslems have always shown a disposition to preserve them with the utmost care. At that portion of the ancient wall of Solomon’s Temple which is called the Jew’s Place of Wailing, and where the Hebrews assemble every Friday to kiss the venerated stones and weep over the fallen greatness of Zion, any one can see a part of the unquestioned and undisputed Temple of Solomon, the same consisting of three or four stones lying one upon the other, each of which is about twice as long as a seven-octave piano, and about as thick as such a piano is high. But, as I have remarked before, it is only a year or two ago that the ancient edict prohibiting Christian rubbish like ourselves to enter the Mosque of Omar and see the costly marbles that once adorned the inner Temple was annulled. The designs wrought upon these fragments are all quaint and peculiar, and so the charm of novelty is added to the deep interest they naturally inspire. One meets with these venerable scraps at every turn, especially in the neighboring Mosque el Aksa, into whose inner walls a very large number of them are carefully built for preservation“
And if he saw any Polaks, he neglected to write about it
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Newz
12:01 am
Sep 10, 2011
Friends of this website need to confront the secular leftist media. That means:
– emailing friends about this website
– posting links to this website on your blogs
– sending links to this website to the leftist media outlets (their email addresses are usually online)
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Tejano
2:03 am
Sep 10, 2011
Yes, friends of this website need to confront the secular leftist media. That means:
— email your friends and anybody you think is dumb enough to believe it, and tell them Polaks have always had a permanent presence in Palestine
— tell them you planted those ancient olive groves and citrus orchards in 1940
— tell them Palestinians would rather load up West Bank with thieving Jews than have a state
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Newz
6:38 am
Sep 11, 2011
Hey Tejano,
Why don’t you explain to us why you have such a hatred for the Jewish state.
I find that most people with your bent on this situation are unable to explain their hatred.
Is it a reasoned hatred, or is it just unexplained emotion bubbling over…?
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Tejano
7:15 am
Sep 11, 2011
There’s nothing unusual or unprecedented about your state.
It’s just another conquest, and there’s no place on earth that hasn’t violently changed hands countless times.
On the other hand this sort of behavior is out of place in a modern world, and since we pay for it, we can stop it.
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Newz
10:23 am
Sep 12, 2011
What sort of behavior? Oh, you mean Libya. Or did you mean Iran. No, sorry, Saudi Arabia. Oh come now, why stop there with the list of barbaric Jew and Christian hating regimes.
Or did you forget Syria where you just gun down your own people? Or Turkey where Christians are butchered.
Sir, you are a stupid fool, babbling stupid nonsense. The Jews are not the problem. It is idiots like yourself who cannot construct an argument but instead spew forth hatred.
Perhaps you have forgotten that Jew gave us Einstein, Google, Christianity, and so many other precious things.
An no, I am not a Jew or an American.
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Scott
7:26 am
Sep 11, 2011
Nothing unprecedented? How about it is a world leader in science, medicine, technology and agriculture? How about that it is an open society where people are free to worship as they please? How about the right to a fair trial when arrested? Israel is a civilized society surrounded by intolerant, barbaric and despotic regimes with enslaved populaces. Civilization vs Barbarism. Looks like your the one who’s out of place. Tell us again what you pay for and what you intend to stop? Maybe I should stop before I call you an effing moron. OOPS!
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Newz
7:29 am
Sep 11, 2011
Tejano,
It is not my state, and I do not live there.
The fact is, Muslims (as most Palestinians are) are daily butchering each other, and Christians that dare to disagree with them. Why then are you so focussed on hating a tiny country with a large Arab population rather than Arab countries that have kicked out and murdered all their Jews and Christians?
Or put another way, why are you so happy to hate Israel, but not even more angry about the treatment of and by Muslims the world over?
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Tejano
6:41 pm
Sep 12, 2011
Geez, Christians butcher each other all the time – 100,000,000 of each other in the XX century, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon, or anytime ever for that matter.
And if you think Israel allies herself with Palestinian Christians or somehow supports and protects them you’re plumb out of your gourd. She robs and kills them to make way for nice Jews
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Scott
7:26 pm
Sep 12, 2011
I see HR has cleaned up some of the filth posted by Tejano while some of it still remains. Why isn’t Tejano banned from this site? Shame on you HR! If you want readers to comment on your articles you should monitor racist comments like you do the pres. First it’s the poster ‘Patricia Jones’, who stated repeatedly how we all neded to accept jesus as our lord and savior, and attacked other posters when she was told to get lost. And now a Jewhater named ‘Tejano’ is allowed to spew Jew-hatred here. HR, clean up your own backyard!
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Tejano
9:02 pm
Sep 12, 2011
Why isn’t Tejano banned from this site?
Because HonestReporting.com is convinced that their empty-headed followers will compare your vacuous posts to mine and believe you.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tejanochimbo#p/u/37/tlJoPhP4Pg4
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JL
5:50 pm
Sep 14, 2011
A member of the israeli parliament aboard the Mavi Marmara ! The israeli government is crazy to allow this.
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sav'ta shel Cohen
11:54 am
Sep 15, 2011
It is true that Tejano is an annoying little cha’mor. But he speaks the truth when he suggests his posts make those of the rest of us look very logical, civilized and grounded. In that respect he is doing us a great service. The more barbaric he appears the more persuasive our arguments seem. I guess Tejano was too busy writing invitations and his phone number on the urinal walls to attend Persuasive Writing 101 lectures! I find his outrageous arrogance and complete lack of breeding and good manners rather amusing but Yesh G’vul L’Chol Ta’alul!!!
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Tejano
7:06 pm
Sep 27, 2011
If I had your outrageous arrogance I’d launch a expedition to Palestine and load it up with thieving Jews
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Video, audio & artikler: Konflikt mellem Israel og Tyrkiet « Veritas Universalis
1:35 am
Sep 18, 2011
[...] Beast, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, Blomberg Businessweek, MSNBC, BBC, BBC, CNN, HonestReporting, Israel Hayom, Israel Hayom, IMRA, AEI, Globes, Daniel Pipes, Daniel Pipes, National Review [...]
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