In “Settlers believe evacuation betrays God’s will”, Martin Fletcher of NBC News makes errors, jumps to conclusions, and distorts reality.
In discussing what happened during the disengagement process, Fletcher describes the situation on the ground:
But, the screaming, the shooting, and cursing, that’s from everyone. All the settlers have been screaming and shooting at the army…
No Israeli evacuees fired guns. Clearly, this is likely a typo and merely sloppy work. In a recent change to their online version of this article, only one of the references to “shooting” was, in fact, changed to “shouting”. But, doesn’t NBC/MSNBC have anyone reading their articles before publication? And, if they don’t get it right the first time, why can’t they get it completely right the second time?
Further into the article:
These youngsters who are living by themselves in these small settlements — playing the guitar, singing songs, half of them are probably smoking dope, praying, and they are violent.
“Dope”? “Half of them”? “Probably”? Fletcher brings no evidence for this characterization. If a similar baseless charge were leveled against another group, would it be stood for?
Fletcher is either absent from reality or has a bizarre concept of calm when it comes to Israel:
How have the Palestinians helped ease the process?
So far they have helped…The fact that the Palestinian leadership promised calm, and so far has been the case, that is a major contribution by Palestinians to the smooth function of this process which so far has been very smooth indeed.
What about the multiple sets of mortars fired by the Palestinians at Gaza evacuation sites (on Monday and Thursday), or the Palestinian shooting of an Israeli soldier? Or, what about the attempted suicide bombing by Islamic Jihad of Israelis in Gaza? This is all in addition to the rhetoric of those like Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal who stated that the disengagement is “the beginning of the end for Israel”.
