Johann Hari is one of the first to leap on reports from some IDF soldiers about Operation Cast Lead. He doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good Israel-bashing session.
For instance, in this short article alone:
* He says Operation Cast Lead “killed 1,434 Palestinians”. Not true – closer to half that number.
* He writes about “the 2007 war in Lebanon”. It was in 2006.
* He mentions “all sorts of people who cannot run away: the elderly, the disabled, the pregnant, the terrified”. As a journalist of his standing should know, Israel’s enemies routinely use just such people as booby-traps and suicide bombers but he doesn’t mention that. It’s easy to condemn the IDF from the safety of your London office, I wonder what decisions Hari would make in such circumstances.
* “This is not a few bad apples,” he writes, lending the report far more authority and scope than it warrants.
His article is titled “Dupes? No, were were telling the truth.” Oh the irony.
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Hey Chas, well said. There is another deception in his report. “This is endemic to the nature of occupation…” Occupation? What a fool. We pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
Careful, Chas. Johann doesn’t like criticism, and responds to it just like every other illiberal coward in this country: by threatening with libel suits.
I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Thanks.
At least one of the soldiers who gave Ha’aretz the original allegations wasn’t even in Gaza during the war.
http://muqata.blogspot.com/2009/03/allegations-agaisnt-idf-based-on-rumors.html
To see the story refuted, see Barry Rubin on Facebook and article in Jerusalem Post today
Chas. It is obvious to all who know and hate Johann (that covers a multitude!) that you have to bugger him in order to be loved by him…! Don’t play that game; remember this joke instead!
Masochist to Sadist–”You love to beat, I love to be beaten. Let’s both get some kicks. You beat me and I’ll scream with delight! OK?”
Sadist to Masochist–”NO!”
Also, I see that your interview with Nick Cohen has received a flecking of sputum from another jealous WordPress buggerer calling himself “Back towards the…Buggerer(sic)”–How sick is that?!–in which he complains about the fact that Nick and you have refused to roger him. I’ve taken up cudgels on your behalf and have written him thusly–
http://backtowardsthelocus.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/nick-cohen-still-lyingno-come-back-i-promise-that-ill-try-to-make-it-exciting/#comment-771
elixelx Says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
March 21, 2009 at 8:34 am
Let’s see….
1)You haven’t read W&M’s screed, but feel qualified to exude anti-Cohen sputum from every pore…How tit-for-tat of you!
2)You quote W&M as saying that the IL was ONLY “critical” to the war, but can’t decide if this POV is anti-semitic…How shilly-shally of you!
3)You rightly point out that Cohen has used “Jewish Cabal” and “Israel Lobby” as virtual synonyms, but at least Cohen is honest in saying that he believes the two are the same, whereas YOU, and W&M, and Chas Freeman, and Sam Power, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the NYT and the entire Left, all argue, disingenuously, even wickedly, THAT JEWISH AND ISRAEL ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE TERMS…How namby-pamby of you!
So, Sir…Publish THIS and be damned…but of course you wouldn’t dare exercise censorship in YOUR virtual house…How mean-spirited of you!
Elixelx,
To misquote Mark Twain…
“First, God created idiots. That was just for practice. Then He created trolls.”
Love,
Ben
Seems to me Johan Hari also got greatly exercised about a large spill of human sewage in Gaza, laying the blame on Israel, where what actually happened was that piping was purloined to build Qassams.