The British people are being deceived by the lies and distortions.

Visiting the UK at this difficult time is frustrating, to put it mildly. The newspapers almost universally present a one-sided  picture and it is easy to understand why so many people are appalled at Israel's perceived bahaviour. 

Clearly there is a great deal of latent anti-Semitism out there. It would be naive to think otherwise. However, I think the majority of Brits are decent folk and it the lack of honest reporting that is slanting their views so unfairly.

If for example they were to see this Australian TV broadcast, they would surely begin to think differently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=entzhLjVUZY

And if there were more like Con Coughlin, one of the very few  to unequivocally spell out the truth in a British paper, The Telegraph, that too could help.

Let me give one small example of how subtly an opinion may be influenced.

On BBC Lancashire radio, I heard a news flash. There was no follow up, no further explanation (I suspect that if there had been, it would have followed the same line ... and even if it had qualified it, the seeds were already sown, the bias implanted).

Here is the flash:
Israel attacks Gaza as ceasefire is broken.

Israel attacks.
Who broke the ceasefire?
Wouldn't you assume it was ISRAEL as it is they who attacked ? I would!

11 year old Palestinian boy killed.

Any proof? Where is the word "alleged" which is always inserted when reporting on Israeli casualties?

Now let's present a news flash without the OMISSIONS!

Hamas breaks ceasefire, missiles hit Israeli kibbutz causing injuries and trauma. Israel retaliates, killing two terrorists and allegedly also killing an 11 year old boy.


Am I right in thinking you would have a totally different feeling about the incident?

Of course you would.

An Arab boy cowers under the gun of a brutal Israeli soldier! A pitiful sight.

If you open this link

 http://www.quora.com/Why-would-the-IDF-arrest-Palestinian-teens-playing-soccer/
 

you will find a photo of a 14 year old Palestinian boy standing with an Israeli soldier who towers over with him with a gun. The kind of photo you see all the time. There’s worse to come. There are pictures of the boy being made to strip off his clothes.

Abominable, you think. And if I tell you that as I watched and saw the story unfold I felt so sad and sorry for this youngster … well. What possible conclusion can you come to?

Shall I explain?

A poor Arab boy, unhappy, unpopular with his school-mates was exploited by Hamas. They psychologically abused him until they had convinced him it would be better to die, a hero and a martyr, than to continue his miserable life.

At one of those Israeli check-points that we hear maligned so often, an alert soldier spotted something about the boy’s behaviour that was suspicious. And discovered that he had a suicide belt strapped to his body. The boy began to cry. Surprise, surprise, he didn’t really want to die.

Did the Israelis make him walk away, shoot him from afar, “explode” him? It sounds horrible but it would have been justified. These belts are notoriously volatile. They are not meant to be taken off so are attached almost permanently. Did the Israelis take the safe option? They did not. They risked lives to help him remove the belt. (But did they sensibly keep guns trained on him? They damned well did! Hence the opportunity to take yet another "brutal" photo.)

Now the story is complete: photos of the boy, cowering, surrounded by gun-toting soldiers. The photo of the boy “humiliated” because he is stripped to his underwear.

Add a headline – Palestinian boy not allowed to play football (!) - and there we have it. 

How lack of context can twist and pervert an action into something else. This is what Israel has to contend with all the time.

The practical explanation here is simple enough, now we know how it’s done. What I cannot find an explanation for is why? 

Why does the press, which surely can’t ALL be gutter press, out for nothing but a sensational story, manipulate and fabricate the facts and allow these travesties to be published? 

They must know that the innocents like the boy in this story are powerless to stand up against Hamas. Why then do so-called responsible reporters misrepresent and debauch the truth, thereby bolstering the evil regime of Hamas? 

Why is their professed sympathy for the Palestinians so skewed that they actually harm the ones they are supposed to be defending?

And what the hell did we, the Jews, the Israelis, ever do to make them hate us so much?