PrintJune 6, 2010
WaPo news and editorial pages disagree on Gaza flotilla
In the June 5 edition of the Washington Post, reporter Scott Wilson writes that Israeli "commandos boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters, killing nine civilians, among them a 29-year-old U.S. citizen of Turkish descent ("Obama's agenda, Israeli Ambitions often clash", front page)
For an accurate picture of these "nine civilians," however, readers will have to turn elsewhere; they won't get it from Wilson or the news section. Rather, they have to turn to the lead editorial in the same edition ("Turkey's responsibility -- How the country's leader has used the Free Gaza flotilla").
The editorial completely refutes Wilson's assertion that the commandos killed "nine civilians." It emphasizes that there was "no fighting" by the commandos with "civilians" aboard the ships and no "civilians" ended up dead.
In the words of the editorial:
"There was no fighting with those people, or with five of the six boats in the fleet. All of the violence occured aboard the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmama, and all of those who were killed were members or volunteers for the Islamic "charity" that owned the ship, the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH)."The foundation is a member of the 'Union of God,' a coalition that was formed to provide material support to Hamas and that was named as a terrorist entity by the United States in 2008."
So much for Scott Wilson's nine "civilian" fatalities, who in reality turn out to have terrorist credentials.
The editorial doesn't whitewash Israel either. It's also critical of "Israel's poor judgment and botched execution in the raid against the Free Gaza flotilla."
In sum, the editorial, unlike Scott Wilson's latest flog-Israel piece, gives Post readers a fair, complete and even-handed account of what happened. Real news, which ought to belong in the news section, instead can be found only on the Post's editorial page.
Wilson's biased, anti-Israel report -- with full support from news editors -- comes as no great surprise. During his stint as the Post's Jerusalem correspondent during the second intifada, Wilson left a long trail of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel dispatches. He spared no effort to file lengthy, empathetic, up-close and personal accounts of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, while turning a blind eye to the plight of Israeli civilians in Sderot and other nearby Israeli communities whose residents were terrorized by thousands of rockets fired from Gaza.
And Wilson is still at it -- this time from his front-page perch in Washington. And again, abetted by news editors at the Post.
