PrintJune 14, 2010
NY Times Defames Israel's Flotilla-Inquiry Commission
Israel has created an inquiry commission to probe all the circumstances of a deadly raid on a Turkish ship trying to breach the blockade of Gaza. But before the commission has even begun to do its work, the New York Times already has dismissed it as a worthless "farce" -- and in the paper's news section no less.
Any fair, impartial observer would wait until the commission performs its task and releases its findings. But not the New York Times, which in its superior wisdom already divines that the Israeli commission is a government tool to divert blame elsewhere. Never mind that the Obama White House already has expressed satisfaction with the formation of the commission and views its composition as being able to meet international requirements ''for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation." The Times knows better and uses its so-called news coverage to dismiss the commission as a rigged affair.
And how does the Times know that? By inserting in its June 14 article about the formation of the commission an attack on the panel by Haaretz, a daily far-left newspaper with limited circulation that consistently blackens Israel's actions and policies. ("Israel Names Panel to Examine Ship Raid" by Isabel Kershner, page A10).
Not surprisingly Haaretz, with its customary bias, published its slanderous accusations against the commission before the commission was even formed! So that ought to tell any fair-minded reporters something about its complete lack of credibility.
But not as far as the Times is concerned. Here is what Kershner filches from Haaretz to drive her poisonous stake into the commission's integrity:
"In an editorial published on Sunday (before four of the five commission members were even known), the liberal newspaper Haaretz said the government's efforts at investigating itself looked increasingly like a 'farce.'"
Further quoting the Haaretz editorial, Kershner continues: "The truth that Netanyahu wishes to bring out involves the identity of the flotilla's organizers, its sources of funding and the knives and rods that were brought aboard. He does not intend to probe the decision-making process that preceded the takeover of the ship and the shortcomings that were uncovered."
This is, of course, a dastardly New York Times libel of the commission's five members. Jacob Turkel, a retired Israeli Supreme Court justice who will chair the commission, should be rightly offended by reading in the Times that he's just Bibi's tool.
Ditto for the other two Israeli commission members -- Amos Horev, former president of Israel's Institute of Technology, and Shabbtai Rosen, a professor at Bar-Ilan University and recognized expert on international law. Kershner is so dismissive of the commission's ability to conduct an objective investigation that she doesn't even bother to name these two Israeli members, who also are supposed conspirators in this "farce."
And what about the two foreign observers tarred by Kershner's regurgitation of Haaretz's venom? They happen to be Lord David Trimble, a former leader of Northern Ireland's Unionist party who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with George Mitchell in fashoning the Good Friday agreement to end factional bloodletting in Ulster, and Brig. Gen. Ken Watkin, former judge advocate of the Canadian Forces.
They also are besmirched by Kershner's foul attempt to undermine the commission's integrity.
Quoting Haaretz has long been a favorite device by correspondents in Israel pre-disposed to malign the Jewish state and its governing institutions. Here, after all, is an Israeli newspaper regularly engaged in calumnies against Israel. That makes it so much easier to funnel one's antipathy to Israel through the foul words of this Israeli newspaper.
How convenient. And how disgusting.
