We have seen some over-the-top coverage of the conflict in Gaza. We have seen inaccurate and biased coverage as Israel attempts to defend itself from a continuing onslaught of rocket fire and attempted terrorist infiltrations.
But if there was an award for hyperbole and gross inaccuracy, my vote would be for Mr. Sam Kiley, the Foreign Affairs Editor with Sky News. In The Battle to Win the War and Keep the Peace, he writes:
The firebombing of Dresden and the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki targeted women and children, the innocent, their homes, parks and pets – on purpose.
The Allies intended to break the will of the Axis powers utterly.
And that is the intent of the Israelis in Gaza.
Wait. Did he just compare the strikes on Gaza with the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan and the firebombing of Dresden,Germany???
This is not The Onion, this is Sky News. This is from the Foreign Affairs Editor.
He mocks the multiple cease-fires without mentioning that every single time it has been Hamas that has ended them. He ridicules the IDF’s claim to be “the most moral Army in the world.”
But none of that is as outrageous as the comparison to Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki where hundreds of thousands were killed. The article is even accompanied by pictures of the destroyed cities.
Yet, despite the sheer idiocy of such a comparison, there are people more than willing to believe the most obscene stories when it comes to Israel. Writing in the Guardian’s, Comment is Free Section, Eylon Aslan-Levy chairman of the UK’s National Council of the Union of Jewish Students, describes the impact such comparisons can have:
Israel’s protestations that it does more than any other army to avoid civilian casualties are simply laughed off. Israel is painted as irredeemably evil; its friends, accomplices in crime. I cannot count the number of times I have been told that if I am a Zionist – which means no more than believing that Israel has a right to exist – that means I must support the murder of children.
Sky News writes the following on Kiley’s profile page:
He (Kiley) has extensive contacts within the intelligence community and delivers the kind of breaking news on which Sky News has made its name. Sam has one of the most significant news briefs of the coming decade.
This is not a question of possible bias. This is a matter of gross inaccuracy and defamation. Please write to Sky News and demand that they issue a retraction and apology for this perverse absurdity at once. And tell them that they are doing themselves a disservice to brag that Sky News has “made its name” on the kind of reporting that would compare Hiroshima, Dresden, and …. and Gaza City.
