The LA Times’ “Ugly” Obsession With Israel

Yesterday, I teed off on Reuters for it's non-story about earthquake-stricken Turkey declining Israeli humanitarian assistance. The Turks have so…

By Pesach Benson October 25, 2011

Yesterday, I teed off on Reuters for it’s non-story about earthquake-stricken Turkey declining Israeli humanitarian assistance. The Turks have so far turned down all foreign aid offers. Strange, but that’s Ankara’s perogative.

Now the LA Times churns out the same non-story.

The Times itself even notes:

But for now Turkey has politely declined help from Israel and other nations, saying it hoped to tackle the crisis on its own.

Irresponsible headlines like these fuel further rumors that Turkey’s deputy prime minister Bülent Ar?nç called “ugly.” Hurriyet writes:

Whoever is doing this is doing something horrendous,” Ar?nç said. “We may not be on the best of terms with Israel on a governmental basis. Yet to respond negatively to such humane offers of the Israeli government in the wake of such disaster would have been wrong and inappropriate. It is completely untrue that we refused their help on separate agendas.”

© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Pesach Benson

Pesach Benson

A Baltimore native, Pesach was with HonestReporting from 2011 to 2020. He edited the Israel Daily News Stream and authored the e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias. Before moving to Israel in 1995, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Pesach has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he was executive editor of the campus newspaper.

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