Silly Little Country

The Middle East According to the CBC

This morning's 'The Current' pretty much outdid any previous attempt they have made at disguising advocacy as reporting in their short 'report' on the Free Gaza flotilla battle that cost ten or more lives. The whole report consisted of two interviews, one with a friend, and one with a relative, of useful idiots who were part of the flotilla, both probably exactly the idealists and dreamers the interviewees described.
They were neither on the Turkish ship so may have missed, or simply misunderstood, the chants described here, and the commitments made clear.

On the day before the Gaza flotilla confronted the Israeli navy, Al-Jazeera TV documented the pre-battle atmosphere created by men on board the flotilla, who chanted a well-known Islamic battle cry invoking the killing and defeat of Jews in battle:
"[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!"
Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. Many Jews were killed in that battle, which marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia. There are Muslims who see that as a precursor to future wars against Jews. At gatherings and rallies of extremists, this chant is often heard as a threat to Jews to expect to be defeated and killed again by Muslims.

It is my offhand guess that the useful idiots really are idiots rather than connivers, but one cannot be sure. One can be sure what the intentions of those running the Free Gaza efforts were, now successful.

Yesterday I followed the news agencies and they conveyed Zionist threats to stop the convoy and prevent it from entering Gaza; on the other side, those with faith and will once again call out upon hearing the reports of the threats: '[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!'"
Hamas TV Host: "Strong motivation."
Shayyeq Naaman: "One woman standing on the ship said that now we are awaiting one of two happy endings: either Martyrdom or the beaches of Gaza.

Given the probability in these circumstances of reaching the Gaza shore, I'd say they achieved the other goal handily.
And have given outfits like the CBC an opportunity to prove their lack of journalistic professionalism yet again by leaving this sort of information completely out of their reports.
I am ashamed to be forced to fund this farce of an advocacy group pretending to be a national news outlet.
UPDATE: I should mention as well the hilarious and consistent descriptions by the CBC reports of this effort as a 'humanitarian' effort carrying 'aid'. Part of that might be true but it was not the point, unless one wants to studiously ignore reality (as the CBC seems at times determined to do).
UPDATE: The videos here seem to show pretty clearly that the IDF story fits far better than the story presented on the CBC from the firends/relatives of the useful idiots aboard other ships. Much as I am saddened at the carnage it looks fully justified to me.
I plan to listen to the Current tomorrow and see if they phone these folks back and ask them about what is the pretty obvious evidence that not everybody on that flotilla was trained not to confront armed IDF soldiers. What chance do you think there is that will happen?
UPDATE: A sibling has commented, making great claims in ignorance of international law. The boarding was of course entirely sensible, not that I expect that sibling to actually check international law. Better just to stick to his murderous buddies.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 12:22 PM