Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent “mass humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
What they won’t tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip’s crowded shops and markets.
Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn’t fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.
Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, is a report on Gaza’s new Olympic-sized swimming pool . (Most Israeli towns don’t have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?)
If you pop into the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, you can “dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu”.
The restaurant’s website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza. And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don’t tell their readers about them).
And here is a promotional video of the club restaurant . In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this video, I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.
In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the “after effects” of a previous “emergency Gaza boat flotilla,” when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops. (You can also scroll down here for more pictures of Gaza’s “impoverished” shops.)
But the mainstream liberal international media won’t report on any of this. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy: if we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.
But the way that many prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel’s fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state – which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.
People: I submit that you read Bloviating Zeppelin for a reason.
So, Ms. Thomas was the norm, not the exception? As she is aged and her filters are no longer functioning, she spewed what most American journalist feel?
So it would seem.
Thanks for the post.
As I’ve indicated, Capt., those are what I believe to be “facts in evidence.” Except that, as with Ms Helen, her “filters” ARE indeed gone. But her beliefs are firmly entrenched in the DEM/MSM. Just quietly. Or at limited cocktail parties in DC, NY or other east-coast shindigs. Perhaps LA.
BZ
Obama is a loser…
Here it is 50 days and counting and now he is ready to kick ass – 49 days too late to kick anything! He should have ‘kicked’ into gear weeks ago and had tankers vacuuming oil at the scene, he should have ‘kicked’ into gear when shrimp boats were waiting to go into the gulf and skim oil, instead sat idle waiting for someone from our government – I said our government, not BP, to give them the word to go out, he should have ‘kicked’ into gear when Jindal asked for the sand berms to start being dredged – any kicking now needs to be to this administration for failing to move when states were begging for help – I live in this area and I am ready to kick someone!! I love our coast, have a home in Grand Isle, La. and am furious at the lack of action, lack of leadership, the attitude of let’s wait to start until we get the check from BP. Kick into gear government!! Be responsible for our coast land, our gulf, our environment, our marshes, our wildlife, our fisheries, our way of life for generations. The impact is already tragic, hearings in Washington, the dog and pony shows are not going to help that – focus on that later. Get kicking into action and get the check later!!
Yours truly Loretta, (An American Girl)
Good post BZ! THIS stuff is why I tend not to read US dead tree or watch US TV… You do NOT get accurate reporting, much less any real depth to the reporting. The US media is enamored with 30 sec sound bites and one time articles. As a friend told me a number of years ago, give me a bad/sad/horrific story, and I’ll get 15-30 min of coverage in a week. A good story, maybe 1- 1 1/2 minutes once…
AAG: particularly logical and cogent comments; thanks for visiting and thank you for taking the time to comment. How is it that so many people think Government is The Big Answer and, yet, somehow DON’T seem to mind that Government ISN’T doing much of anything, as you point out, on the gulf? How does THAT compute? With every other issue and topic, the Left want Big G inserted frequently; now they decide to “stay at home”?
Can someone explain that to me?
Okay, certainly, that’s way off topic on Gaza.
NFO: which is, again, why you have to frequently attempt to ferret out the truth from as many media sources as possible. Absent the internet, what would be your actual chances of acquiring, in this example, Canadian news sources? I see no Canadian news channels on cable. . .
BZ
Exactly why backdoor censorship is being proposed under “Fairness Doctrine”, “Net Neutrality”, bailouts for the MSM, etc. Too many people like you searching for the truth then shouting it from the rooftops. Such a distraction from the terrible necessary work of Hope and Change.
WSF: and yes, there is that element as well. Too much information unfortunately just does not conform so “conveniently” to actual Truths.
BZ
The propaganda that the Palestinians (What the hell does that word mean, anyway?) are downtrodden and persecuted has permeated our educational system for the past 40 years.
Therefore, people today are predisposed to accepting the lie.
BTW, on the June 11 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, our guest IQ al-Rassooli presented the truth about Pseudostine. Worth listening to what he had to say!
Will Obama even Observe Flag Day? Inquiring minds want to know.
AOW: what did he have to say about Palestine, in general?
Debbie: thanks for the visit, and thanks for taking the time to comment! Please come back! Oddly enough, I have seen Mr Obaka with a flag pin on his lapel. After whatever public event he’s attended so accessorized, he likely returns to Michelle at the end of the day and writhes like the Wicked Witch and says “it burns, it burns!”
BZ