TPM's M. J. Rosenberg: The Media Blitz Justifying Gaza Attacks

[flpoljunkie]

Here's Their Playbook: The Media Blitz Justifying Gaza Attacks

By M.J. Rosenberg - December 28, 2008, 7:34PM

Check out Dan Fleshler on the strategy to justify what Israel is doing and watch the media fall into line.

http://www.realisticdove.org/archives/250

And here is The Israel Project, dedicated to separating Middle East myths from facts and propagating the myths.

http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.672581/k.9AD8/For_freedom_security_and_peace_in_Israel_and_the_Middle_East.htm

And here is The New Republic, the Likud party's house organ.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/index.html

Check these out. You will be hearing "the line" emanating from the MSM. Go straight to the source and be one step ahead of Kristol, Krauthammer, and, sad to say, your favorite liberals too.

Need a corrective, try this.

http://www.philipweiss.org/

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/28/and_now_the_media_blitz_justif/

Matthew Iglesias on Israels attack on Gaza...

Attack on Gaza

The Israeli government, seemingly dissatisfied with the results of their earlier effort to just make life as miserable as possible for residents of the Gaza strip went and killed a couple of hundred people in retaliatory airstrikes. The strikes were in response to Hamas’ habit of launching indiscriminant rocket fire from Gaza land, though how exactly these strikes are supposed to stop the rockets is mysterious to me. Less mysterious is the idea that the Kadima-Labour coalition wants to “look tough” and beat off the political challenge from Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud.

That, in turn, is a reminder that I just don’t think the parties to the conflict are capable of reaching a settlement without strong external pressure. The internal political logic of both sides defaulting to hawkish extremes is just too strong. On the Israeli side, “strong external pressure” could, in principle, come from the United States were we to have an administration that recognized the necessity of playing such a role.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/attack_on_gaza.php

[ErinBerin84]

1. yep, watching that on Morning Joe as well.

and of course, Joe had to ask Peggy Noonan what the "Gipper" would have done. Puke.

[Christa]

2. Follow the money trail. nt

[babylonsister]

3. Mort Zuckerman's video needs to go up there. Another wtf moment.

Israel right or wrong!

[flpoljunkie]

4. Compare Zuckerman with today's op-eds in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper

Define the objectives in Gaza
By Haaretz Editorial

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050461.html

Delusions of victory in Gaza
By Zvi Barel

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050460.html

The neighborhood bully strikes again
By Gideon Levy

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050459.html

Netanyahu? Believe him
By Avirama Golan

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050458.html

[Danger Mouse]

5. I hate how we don't seem to want to hold Israel responsible for their behavior...

yet expect Hamas to be responsible for theirs. That's an absurd double standard.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Talkingpointsmemo's Josh Marshall: Heart of the Issue

Heart of the Issue

12.29.08 -- 11:07AM
By Josh Marshall

As the Israeli assault on Gaza unfolds, and we receive new information about the death toll and new predictions about the prospects for any peace settlement, I wanted to refocus back on the essential issue that is still with us and will continue to be with us after this blow up fades into memory like the Second Lebanon War, Jenin, and the terrorist attacks and back and forths of the 1990s. Since the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process began going on twenty years ago, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have continued to expand every year. The settler population was 130,000 in 1995 and had grown to 270,000 by 2007 -- through a mix of natural increase and immigration. The numbers have continued to increase right through the Olmert government, which I think really wanted to get about the business of uprooting settlements and solving the core issues. But he wasn't willing or able to do it. Whatever you can say about Palestinian terror attacks or missiles into Southern Israel and whatever you can say Israeli incursions and aerial attacks, the situation is insoluble without dismantling those settlements. And that is why Hamas, as much as it thrives on war and confrontation, is a distraction -- for some an intentional one, for others unintentional -- from this core point. That's why I think Bernard Avishai is right in his post from last week. The settler issue is intractable without an outside hand.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/22/hebron_agonistes_too_much_for/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/249637.php

[LynnTheDem]

7. When will McCane stand up and say "We're all Israelis now!"?

The "media" is doing just as they did against Russia when Russia defended her citizens from Georgia's attack. The "media" is doing just as it did when the bush regime spewed massive amounts of bullshit against Iraq.

"And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power ..."

Did ya hear the "media" point out what utter unbelievably stupid bullshit this was??? Nope.

After all, our "media" only reports what they're told to report. Maybe that's why we're #53 in freedom of the press.

[flpoljunkie]

8. Tragically, Israel's attack on Gaza plays right into Hamas' hand and yet we support this assault.

[Sensitivity]

9. More BLOOD on OUR HANDS as we cover attrocity with a blanket of lies.

Israeli leaders practice the worst of the lessons of the Nazi and we all pretend it isn't true.

[flpoljunkie]

10. Haaretz: Israeli UN ambassador: Aim of Gaza op is to destroy Hamas (AP)

Really? Not bloody likely. Predictably, it will only increase their numbers.

http://www.haaretz.com