Von Palästinensern gelegte Sprengstoffe haben Familie in Gaza getötet - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[spicault]

Erinnert ihr euch an das große Massaker von Jenin, das nicht stattgefunden hat?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-08-01-unreport-jenin…

Jetzt haben wir wieder ein israelisches Kriegsverbrechen, das von allen Medien herausposaunt worden ist und das sich nachher als keines erwiesen hat.

Wieder haben sich die Medien als bereitwillige Verbreiter von palästinenschen Propagandalügen hervorgetan.

Wer glaubt, daß die deutschen Medien - vor allem das deutsche Fernsehen - zugestehen, dass sie einen Fehler gemacht haben und ihre Berichte jetzt korrigieren?

Vielleicht kann man mit der Wahrheit weniger Geld verdienen als mit Lügen.

Beach deaths 'not Israel's fault'

Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 10:14 a.m. EDT (14:14 GMT)


A girl wails after her entire family was killed on the beach while she was swimming.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An explosion on a Gaza beach that killed seven people last week was caused by explosives planted there by Palestinian militants, not artillery fire from an Israeli navy gunboat, Israeli military sources said.

The Israeli investigation concluded that the possibility any of the six artillery shells fired from the gunboat last Friday could have landed on the beach was "almost nil," the sources said.

The deaths of seven people -- all members of a Palestinian family having a beach picnic -- prompted the military wing of Hamas to resume rocket strikes against Israel after a hiatus of more than a year.

The Israel Defense Forces report, to be presented to the Israeli defense minister and Israeli chief of staff Tuesday, will cite several factors that led to the conclusion that the explosion was caused by a mine planted on the beach by Palestinian militants, the sources said.

An Israeli commando unit used the beach to enter Gaza for a mission in recent weeks, prompting the militants to place the mines, the sources said.

Intelligence information gathered by Israeli investigators showed that Hamas quickly removed the remaining mines from the beach after the blast, the sources said.

Investigators were able to locate where five of the six shells fired from the gunboat Friday landed and none of them were near the beach, the sources said. The sixth shell -- the first to be fired -- could not have killed the family because it was fired further north and too early, the sources said.

Adding to the conclusion that it was not an Israeli shell that killed the family was an examination of photographs of the crater on the beach. The sources said experts found it was the type of crater caused by a planted explosive, not by an artillery shell landing from above.

Finally, shrapnel removed from three of the injured by doctors at Israeli hospitals was not the from an artillery shell, the sources said.

At least 11 Palestinians, including two children, were killed Tuesday when an Israeli military aircraft fired missiles at a car in northern Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

Israel Defense Forces said the car carried "Islamic Jihad terrorists" and was en route to a site where rockets have been fired into Israeli territory.

Five Qassam rockets landed on the Israeli side of the Gaza border Monday morning, causing no injuries or significant damage, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Monday launches followed a series of at least 70 rockets fired into Israel from Gaza since Friday, wounding four Israeli civilians, the IDF said.

CNN's Michal Zippori in Jerusalem contributed to this report

[Denali]

Unsere Medien offenbaren sich immer mehr als Propagandaorgane für eine bestimmt Ideologie, und die ist strikt anti-westlich.

Die unendlichen Negativ-Darstellungen der USA in den Medien steht in striktem Kontrast zum Genozid in Darfur, Massenmorden im Sudan, Zigtausenden Ehrenmorden, Millionen Genitalverstümmelungen......

doch unsere Medien berichten permanent und penetrant über Guantanamo.

Auch eine Art "Wertvolle" von "Wertlosen" zu trennen - nur die "Wertvollen" sind der Berichterstattung würde.

Oder geht es nur um die Täter - sobald weiß und westlich tobt sich der politisch korrekte Medienmob aus.

Das geht so seit den 68ern, in denen die USA und der Westen praktisch identisch zu kommunistischer Propaganda zum Hort des Bösen stilisiert wurden, und was bis heute anhält, weil die 68er fast alle Schlüsselpositionen in Politik, Medien, Verwaltung und Justiz übernommen haben.

Da ist es nur logisch wenn jede Möglichkeit die USA, Israel oder die BRD so schlecht wie nur möglich darzustellen, während man über andere, unendlich schlimmere Vergehen in anderen Ländern, so gut wie nichts oder nur äußerst sporadisch berichtet.


Hier noch ein Anschlag eines von den Linken so heiß geliebten Pali-Wiederstandskämpfers - nur läuft es diesmal anders wie gewohnt

Pali-Selbstmordbomber

[Kaperfahrer]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.102.656 von Denali am 14.06.06 00:41:06

Das hat nicht nur, oder hauptsächlich mit den 68ern zu tun, sondern vor allen Dingen mit der Wiedervereinigung, die diese von Dir monierte aber noch nicht bestimmende Strömung massiv verstärkt hat und zu dieser latent antiamerikanisch und antiwestlichen Berichterstattung von heute geführt hat. Vor 15 Jahren war es in dieser Ausprägung noch unmöglich, da waren die Kräfteverhältnisse noch ausgeglichen.

Was vielfach unterschätzt wird, damals wurde die kompletten (bis auf ganz wenige zu offensichtlich Belasteten),von antiwestlicher Propaganda geprägten Ostmedien, 1:1 in die beamtenähnlichen Öffentlich-Rechtlichen des Westens übernommen (ähnlich der nationalen Volksarmee) und haben dort bis in die letzten Redaktionen und/oder obersten Führungspositionen hinein richtig schön Karriere gemacht, oder haben es auch als Karriere-Sprungbrett in die Privaten genutzt.
Ohne hier direkt geplante Absicht unterstellen zu wollen, aber die streng antiwestliche, in der Ex-DDR erfahrene Sozialisierung (mit dem großen Bösen, USA und Israel) lässt sich nicht so einfach aus den Kleidern klopfen und hatte natürlich Einfluss auf die politische Ausrichtung unserer Medien. Überzeugt prowestliche Mitarbeiter gab es in der DDR-Medien aus nachvollziehbaren Gründen ja überhaupt nicht.

Das Schlimme ist, diese schleichende Propaganda macht selbst intelligente Leute auf Dauer mewulwe, denn für den Durchschnittsbürger, der relativ arglos den Medienmist konsumiert der Tag für Tag auf ihn einrieselt, ist es schlicht zu anstrengend und aufwändig alles zu hinterfragen.

[Kwerdenker]

Gaza:
Schwierige Untersuchung des "Massakers"
Von Ulrich W. Sahm, Jerusalem

Die Untersuchung des "Massakers" am Strand von Gaza, bei dem am Freitag sieben Mitglieder einer Familie getötet wurden, gestaltet sich schwierig. Die der Fatah nahestehende palästinensische "Präventivsicherheit" gelangte kurz nach dem Vorfall zum Strand. Aber bis dahin hatten schon Hamasleute fast alle Spuren der Explosion entfernt, darunter Splitter und Reste des Sprengstoffs.

Obgleich die Rede von mehreren Explosionen war, befindet sich am Strand nur ein einziger Krater, so palästinensische Angaben. Dieser Krater sei aber nicht tief und groß genug, um von einer Panzergranate zu stammen, meinten israelische Experten, aufgrund der palästinensischen Erkenntnisse. Die palästinensische Polizei verweigerte zunächst eine Kooperation mit Israel, ist inzwischen aber doch bereit, bei den Ermittlungen mitzuhelfen.

Während Premierminister Ehud Olmert bei der Kabinettssitzung am Sonntag erneut von einem "innerpalästinensischen Ereignis" redete, womit ein palästinensischer Sprengsatz oder eine fehlgeleitete Kassamrakete gemeint sein könnte, erwähnten israelische Militärs eine im Meer schwimmende Mine, die an den Strand gespült worden sein könnte und explodiert sei, als Kinder mit ihr spielten.

Inzwischen haben die Palästinenser den zunächst verschwiegenen Zeitpunkt der Explosion am Strand übermittelt. Gemäß israelischen Angaben habe die Artillerie zu dem Zeitpunkt nicht mehr den Norden des Gazastreifens beschossen, wie das fast täglich geschieht, um radikale Palästinenser aus dem Gebiet fernzuhalten, damit keine Kassamraketen auf strategisch wichtige Ziele wie das Kraftwerk bei Aschkelon geschossen werden können. Das Kraftwerk steht nur wenige Kilometer von der Nordgrenze des Gazastreifens entfernt und wurde schon mehrmals von Raketen getroffen. Die Israelis hatten zuvor schon einen Beschuss des Strandes vom Meer oder aus der Luft ausgeschlossen.

Israels Regierungssprecher Raanan Gissin warnte davor, vorschnell die Verantwortung für den Vorfall zu übernehmen, wie am zweiten Tag der Intifada, als vor laufender Kamera Muhammad al Dura bei der Netzarim-Kreuzung in den Armen seines Vaters seinen Schussverletzungen erlag. Al Dura ist zur Ikone der Intifada geworden. Das Bild seine Todes wurde sogar als Motiv für Briefmarken in der arabischen Welt verwendet. Mehrere Untersuchungen der Schießerei bei Netzarim Ende September 2000 ergaben, dass al Dura vermutlich von palästinensischem Maschinengewehrfeuer und nicht von israelischen Kugeln getroffen wurde.

Völlig aufgeklärt ist der Todesfall dieses 12-jährigen Jungen jedoch bis heute nicht, zumal die palästinensische Polizei eine eingehende Untersuchung für "überflüssig" hielten, "weil doch klar ist, wer der Schuldigen ist". Kein anderer Vorfall während der ganzen Intifada hat dem Ansehen Israels so geschadet wie der Tod von Muhammad al Dura. "Deshalb sollten wir jetzt das Untersuchungsergebnis abwarten und nicht wieder vorzeitig ein Schuldbekenntnis abgeben", sagte Gissin nach der Kabinettssitzung.

Israel hat angeboten, die schwerverletzten Opfer des Vorfalls am Strand von Gaza in seinen Krankenhäusern zu behandeln. Huda Ralia, das zwölfjährige Mädchen, das gefilmt wurde, wie es am Strand seine Familienangehörigen sucht und "Papa ist tot, er ist tot" ruft, wurde inzwischen vom Hamas-Premierminister Ismail Hanije adoptiert. Palästinenserpräsident Mahmoud Abbas nutzte am Samstag bei einer weltweit im Fernsehen ausgestrahlten Rede die Gelegenheit, Israel eines Kriegsverbrechens und des vorsätzlichen Mordes an unschuldigen Zivilisten zu bezichtigen.

© Ulrich W. Sahm / haGalil.com

hagalil.com 11-06-2006

[Kwerdenker]

Tod von Zivilisten:
"Propagandaoffensive" und Kindesmissbrauch
Von Ulrich W. Sahm, Sderot

Eine "Propagandaoffensive" kündigte der "gemäßigte" Verteidigungsminister Amir Peretz (Arbeitspartei) an, nachdem Ministerpräsident Ehud Olmert bestätigt hat, dass Israel die "moralischste Armee der Welt" habe. Die Offensive solle die Welt überzeugen, dass Israel keinerlei Schuld am Tod der Rhalia Familie am Freitag in Gaza trage.

Zeitgleich führte eine gezielte Liquidierung erneut zu einem peinlichen Ergebnis: Ein gelber VW Transporter mit Katjuscha-Raketen im Laderaum fährt auf der Salah A Din Straße im Zentrum von Gaza. Israels Spionagekameras von Drohnen und Zeppelin sehen keine Passanten. Eine Rakete trifft den Wagen. Drei "Terroristen" des Dschihad Islami werden verletzt. Doch die Katjuscharaketen bleiben heil. Zwei weitere Raketen werden auf das gelbe Ziel gejagt. Plötzlich sehen die Israelis, wie Passanten auf den Wagen zulaufen, um den Verletzten zu helfen. "Wir hätten die Raketen auf Wohnhäuser umlenken können. Dann war es zu spät", kommentiert Generalstabschef Dan Halutz. Die Katjuscharaketen mit einer Reichweite von 20 Kilometern werden vor laufenden Kameras unversehrt weggebracht, um später auf israelische Städte abgeschossen zu werden. Insgesamt gibt es elf Tote. Drei Kleinkinder sterben im Operationssaal vor laufenden palästinensischen Kameras. Israelische "Moral" ist schwer erkennbar, eher schon palästinensische Pietätlosigkeit. Die "Propagandaoffensive" erleidet noch vor ihrem Start einen tödlichen Schlag.

Am Freitag tötete eine mysteriöse Explosion sieben Mitglieder der Rhalia Familie aus Beth Lahia bei Gaza. Sie machten Picknick am Strand nahe der ehemaligen Siedlung Dugit. Die 12-jährige Huda rannte umher und suchte ihren Vater, bis sie sich heulend neben seiner Leiche in den Sand warf. Ein palästinensischer Kameramann war "zufällig" mit seiner Kamera dort, filmte die Szene, anstatt dem Mädchen zu helfen. Er schuf eine neue Ikone palästinensischen Leids und israelischer Brutalität.

Diesmal waren sich die Israelis sicher, keine Schuld zu tragen. "Die Palästinenser wissen immer sofort, ohne Prüfung, dass Israel alle Schuld trägt. Wir gehen sorgfältig vor, prüfen ganz genau. Willst du etwa von uns ungeprüfte Propaganda erhalten", fragte Mark Regev, Sprecher des Jerusalemer Außenministeriums während einer Pressetour nach Sderot, wo es täglich Kasamraketen aus Gaza "regnet".

Am Abend eröffnete Amir Peretz feierlich seine angekündigte "Propagandaoffensive" im Tel Aviver Verteidigungsministerium. General Meir Chalifi präsentierte nach "nur" vier Tagen seine Erkenntnisse. Mit unscharfen Schwarzweißfilmchen von Drohnen und mit Laserstrahlen auf einer Luftaufnahme des "Tatorts" erklärte der General, wie Marine, Luftwaffe und Artillerie morgens um 11:00 Uhr und Nachmittags um 16:48 Uhr punktgenau die eingezeichneten Zielkreuze auf der Luftaufnahme mit 155mm Granaten und 74 mm Kanonen trafen. "Abweichungen von 500 Metern vom Ziel sind ausgeschlossen". Um 17:00 Uhr scanten die Spionagekameras den Strand. "Man sieht da Menschen normal wandeln", sagt der General. Sein per Laptop abgespulter Film zeigt schwarze Punkte und Konturen des Strandes. Erst gegen 17:17 Uhr versammeln sich ganz viele Punkte um eine Stelle. "Das ist ein Menschenauflauf", erklärt der General. "Wir haben da nicht mehr geschossen. Es ist klar, dass wir keine Schuld tragen", jubelt der Militär, ohne zu sagen, wer oder was die sieben Angehörigen der Huda Rhalia ausgelöscht haben könnte. Letzter Beweis, ohne Beweismittel zu produzieren: Ein Metallsplitter in einer der vier Verletzten stamme "einwandfrei" nicht von israelischer Munition. Ob es sich um Blei, Messing, Kupfer oder Aluminium handelt, verrät er nicht. Vier Verletzte wurden zur Behandlung ins Soroka-Hospital nach Beer Schewa gebracht, nachdem im palästinensischen Krankenhaus zuvor fast alle Kriminalspuren, also Splitter, entfernt worden seien.

"Es bleibt kein Schatten eines Zweifels, dass die palästinensische Familie unter keinen Umständen von uns getötet wurde", sagte der General voller Überzeugung. Alle drei israelischen Fernsehkanäle stoppten die Übertragung: "Die Details ermüden wohl unsere Zuschauer."

Der amerikanische Fernsehsender CNN präsentierte zeitgleich mit der "Propagandaoffensive" andere "Beweise". Ein amerikanischer "Experte für Schlachtfelder" will aufgrund von "Interviews mit den Verletzten" und Splittern einwandfrei eine israelische 155mm Artilleriegranate als Todesursache festgestellt haben. Die Splitter hätten ihm die Palästinenser gebracht. Ob sie wirklich vom Tatort stammten?

Derweil leidet die zwölfjährige Huda Rhalia unter ihrer neuen Rolle als Fernsehstar. Erst herzt sie Präsident Mahmoud Abbas, dann adoptiert sie Premierminister Ismail Hanija und zwischendurch absolviert sie unzählige Pressekonferenzen. Unmittelbar vor der "Propagandaoffensive" von Amir Peretz ist sie Stargast einer Talkshow beim arabischen Sender Al Jezeera. Ein palästinensisches Informationszentrum informiert per SMS über die laufende Show. Unter Tränen erzählt das Mädchen, dass "die Juden" ihren Vater und ihre Geschwister ermordet hätten. Der Westen akzeptiert die Zeugenaussage einer Zwölfjährigen, während die arabische Welt noch nichts von Kindesmissbrauch gehört hat. Die Palästinenser erweisen sich als PR-Meister, während die Israelis glauben, mit einer "Propagandaoffensive" die Welt erobern zu können.

© Ulrich W. Sahm / haGalil.com

hagalil.com 14-06-2006

[Veers]

was will man von leuten erwarten die kommunistische diktaturen schönrede(te)n, terroristische massenmörder verteidig(t)en und heute dem islam verklären. genau dieser schlag von menschen, erklärt auch die israelis zu nazis und sieht in den palis, die verfolgten juden.

bei dieser nachricht:
http://www.handelsblatt.com/Politik/International/pshb/fn/re…
ist mir etwas aufgefallen.
Zitat:
Nach einer internen Untersuchung des Vorfalls gab Perez aber auch keine alternative Erklärung für die Detonation.
Der Leiter der Israelischen Verteidigungskräfte (IDF), Dan Haluz, sagte auf der Pressekonferenz: „Wir bedauern den Tod der sieben Palästinenser sehr, aber das bedeutet nicht, dass wir dafür verantwortlich sind.“ Die IDF hätten alle an diesem Tag abgefeuerten Geschosse zurückverfolgt und könnten eine Verwicklung in den Vorfall am Strand ausschlißen.
Eine internationale Untersuchung sei nicht möglich, fügte Haluz hinzu. Das von der Hamas geführte, palästinensische Innenministerium wies den israelischen Untersuchungsbericht als Lüge und weiteres Verbrechen zurück.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
perez wird damit kritisiert und unglaubwürdig gemacht, nur weil er keine "alternative erklärung" (=spekulation) nennt.

warum eine untersuchung unmöglich ist, schreibt der verfasser natürlich nicht. So wird der eindruck erweckt, dass die israelis kein interesse an einer untersuchung haben, der wirkliche grund, nämlich die sofortige spurenverwischung durch hamasleute fällt dabei unter dem tisch.

http://www.segne-israel.de/grundkurs/medien/medien.htm

[graf_von_kohle]

wie immer, terorristen im auto oder es waren die palästinenser selber.

wer sowas glaubt, glaubt an den bösen wolf und die sieben geisslein.


graf_von_kohle

MODiva: ist diese aussage erlaubt?

[spicault]

The West’s Denial of Evil
By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 16, 2006

“Zarqawi felt my son’s breath on his hand as he held the knife against his throat. Zarqawi had to look in his eyes as he did it. George Bush sits there glassy-eyed in his office with pieces of paper and condemns people to death. That to me is a real terrorist.”

Thus spake Michael Berg, father of jihad victim Nick Berg and Green Party candidate for Congress in Delaware, in reaction to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death. “These words are insane,” wrote former New York City mayor Ed Koch, and of course he’s right. But, however insane, Michael Berg’s words are also a fine distillation of a mentality found among many millions of people in Western countries, particularly the elites.

The mentality was well evident over the past week in reaction to Israel’s alleged accidental killing of a Palestinian family on a Gaza beach.

For months, the deliberate firing of hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians in the town of Sderot and other Gaza-bordering communities had hardly elicited a yawn anywhere but Israel. The fact that most Sderot residents are working-class, dark-skinned Sephardic Jews, many of them (or their forebears) refugees from Arab countries that brutally expelled them some decades ago, did nothing to stir sympathy for them. There is simply no cachet and no romance here, no “Save Sderot” marches on campus, not a whiff of censure of the Palestinian Authority. The Sderot people might as well be George Bush.

Then came an image of a tragically decimated Palestinian family on a beach, and the West sprang into action. The UK Foreign Office said it was “deeply concerned by reports of the deaths from Israeli shelling of civilians”; France’s Foreign Ministry thundered that it “deplores the Israeli bombing on a beach in the Gaza Strip.” The State Department chimed in with only slightly more circumspect language, expressing “regret for the killing and wounding of innocent Palestinians in Gaza today as a result of artillery fire by the Israeli Defense Forces.” UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan called on Israel to “respect human life and international law.”

Gone were the vaunted Western principles of a fair hearing and innocent until proven guilty; the condemnations poured in well before Israel had a chance to investigate the incident and found that an IDF shell could not possibly have been responsible (even then Annan, of course, did not accept the finding). Something else was in the air, something too exciting—an Abu Ghraib, a Haditha, a chance to show, a la Michael Berg, that it is really the Western side who are the brutal abusers and killers. The hunger is so great that even a (supposed) accident, a misfired shell, will do.

If, after all, it is really America and Israel—the only countries (except Britain in Iraq) substantially fighting the jihad—who are the aggressors, then one gets off easy, one only needs to curb these two rogues to continue with one’s luxurious life. Michael Berg, running for office in Delaware, knows in his heart that George Bush is nothing to fear, that he can publicly call him a terrorist, try to wrest power from his political party, and remain perfectly safe. Whether or not a touch crazy, Berg is, though, like the widespread Western mindset he represents, a coward who cannot look evil in the face. He would rather—with words like “felt my son’s breath on his hand . . . had to look in his eyes . . . ” —turn his son’s sadistic killing almost into an act of tenderness than do that.

Almost five years after 9-11, after Madrid, London, the terror war on Israel, and so on, the cowardice—the lunging to pin blame on one’s own side, the eager abandonment of logic and fairness while rushing to embrace moral inversion and idiocy—all this is still so strong as to suggest that the West’s survival is anything but certain.

[CaptainFutures]

Strand-Granate von Gaza war palästinensischen Ursprungs

Die blutigen Kämpfe zwischen Israel und der radikalen Hamas sind wieder aufgeflammt. Es ist auch ein Propaganda-Krieg – nicht ohne Schweizer Beteiligung.

Die Bilder gingen um die Welt: eine Palästinenser-Familie picknickt am Strand, und plötzlich schlägt eine Granate ein und tötet fünf der sieben Anwesenden. Publikumswirksam lässt sich Palästinenser-Präsident Mahmoud Abbas mit einem zehnjährigen Buben fotografieren, der diesen Angriff überlebt hat. Angeblich war es ein Geschoss der israelischen Armee.

Auch Vorverurteilungen sind „nicht akzeptierbar“

Unbesehen eingestimmt in den internationalen Aufschrei hat auch die Schweizer Aussenministerin Calmy-Rey, die sich just am vergangenen Wochenende in Jerusalem aufhielt. Nach einem Treffen mit ihrer Amtskollegin Zipi Livni sagte sie an einer Pressekonferenz: „Die Bilder sind nicht akzeptierbar.“

Genauso wenig akzeptierbar sollten politische Vorverurteilungen sein. Denn inzwischen haben Untersuchungen der Granatsplitter ergeben, dass das Geschoss von palästinensischer Seite stammte und irgendein anderes Ziel verfehlt haben musste. Auffällig war bereits, dass die palästinensischen Behörden die Fundstücke zwei Tage lang zurückhielen, ehe sie diese am Sonntag den Israelis zur weiteren Untersuchung übergaben.

Das wahre Gesicht der Hamas

Derweil ist die Hamas dabei, zu ihrer „Politik“ der Anschläge zurückzukehren. Noch vor dem Vorfall am Strand von Gaza gingen in der jüdischen Grenzstadt Sderot und Umgebung die ersten von rund 50 Raketen nieder und verletzten einen Israeli schwer. Anders als in weiten Teilen der Presse dargestellt, waren diese Angriffe also keine „gerechte“ Reaktion auf den – vermeintlichen – israelischen Beschuss jener Familie. Aus Angst vor weiteren Raketen blieben in Sderot die Schulen geschlossen. In einer ersten Reaktion erschoss die israelische Luftwaffe zwei der Raketenschützen.

„Wir haben beschlossen, Sderot zur Geisterstadt zu machen“, erklärte ein Sprecher der Hamas. Und: „Unsere Angriffe entsprechen dem Willen des palästinensischen Volkes“, brüstet sich der Ministerpräsident und Hamas-Funktionär Hanije. In der Berichterstattung über den Israel-Besuch von Calmy-Rey fehlten kritische Worte der Ministerin zu derartigen Hass-Bekundungen.

http://www.jesus.ch/index.php/D/article/152-International/31…

Wer mit Kenntnis- und Aufklärungsstand heute immer noch steif und fest an ein israelisches Attentat glaubt und das palästinensische leugnet, wird wahrscheinlich auch kritiklos der ganzen anderen Hamas-Propaganda sofort bedingungslos glauben schenken.

[lump60]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.143.524 von spicault am 16.06.06 09:55:23

Der Graf wird das trotzdem nicht glauben und wenn es Arafat selber aus dem Jenseits bestätigt.

Passt halt nicht in seine Ideologie.

[Zaroff]

Das sind schon komische Quellen, auf die sich unsere Zionisten- Freunde hier stützen: segne-Israel, Jesus-liebt-dich (aber vielleicht nicht ganz so viel wie andere).

Dabei dürfte es doch offensichtlich sein, daß die Israelis für diesen feigen Anschlag verantwortlich sind. Jetzt, nachdem internationale Kritik laut wird, will man es nicht gewesen sein. Außerdem hat man damit den Waffenstillstand der Hamas - ganz offensichtlich vorsätzlich - gebrochen. Später wird man wieder behaupten, man hätte nur "reagiert."

Die IDF untersucht den Fall und kommt zu dem Schluß: Wir waren es nicht. DAs ist genau so, als würde man Mörder über sich selbst Gericht sitzen lassen. Ich wette, jeder von ihnen käme zu diesem Schluß. Hier wäre doch eine unabhängige Untersuchung gefragt.


Hier ein Artikel aus dem Independent:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article99407…

Revealed: the shrapnel evidence that points to Israel's guilt
By Donald Macintyre in Beit Lahiya, Gaza

Published: 14 June 2006

Israel has dismissed continuing calls for an independent international inquiry into the beachfront explosion which killed seven members of a Palestinian family in Gaza last Friday after its own internal military investigation decided it was not responsible for the blast.

As the military investigation team insisted that artillery fire had stopped by the time the explosion occurred and suggested it had been caused by a bomb planted in the sand, Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, declared: " The accumulating evidence proves that this incident was not due to Israeli forces."

But the official interpretation was strongly challenged by a former Pentagon battle damage expert who has surveyed the scene of the beach explosion. He said yesterday that "all the evidence points" to a 155mm Israeli land-based artillery shell as its cause.

Marc Garlasco, who worked in war zones including Iraq and Kosovo during his seven-year stint in the US Department of Defence, called for an independent investigation into the killings after concluding that shell fragments and shrapnel from the site, the size and distribution of the craters on the beach, and the type of injuries sustained by the victims made Israeli shelling easily the likeliest cause.

His assessment came as at least another seven civilians, including two children, as well as two Islamic Jihad militants, were killed in a double Israeli missile strike on a VW van in the densely populated Zeitoun district of Gaza City yesterday. The two children were hit at a nearby house by flying shrapnel and the civilian dead included three medical workers from a nearby children's hospital who rushed to help after hearing the first explosion.

Israel said the militants had been on their way to launch Katyusha rockets which have a much longer range than the Qassam rockets normally fired from Gaza into Israel. One of the two dead Islamic Jihad militants was Hamoud Wadiya, described as the top rocket launcher in the faction. Mr Peretz said before the strike that Israel was resuming operations "to protect the citizens of Israel" after a pause caused by what he had acknowledged had been "the international storm" over the civilian deaths at the Beit Lahia beach last Friday.

The debate over the beach explosion is unlikely to die down however. Mr Garlasco who is now the senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch, said yesterday: "Of course I can't be completely conclusive but all the evidence points to its being a 155mm Israeli shell which killed the Palestinians on the beach."

Mr Garlasco said that most of the serious injuries of the victims in the Gaza hospitals that he had visited were to the torsos and heads, which were inconsistent with a land mine or of a bomb embedded in the sand. "If this had been a landmine I would have expected to see serious leg injuries," he said. Mr Garlasco said that while he could not rule out the theoretical possibility that Palestinian militants had rigged up an unexploded 155mm shell to make an explosive device of their own, that too would have normally produced many more severe leg injuries.

Mr Garlasco produced a four to five-inch, mainly blackened shell fragment which he collected about 100 yards from the scene of the explosion and in which the figures 55 and the letters "mm" are clearly discernible. While acknowledging that this was not itself definite proof that the shell had killed the Palestinians he said some fragments and shrapnel which the Palestinian police explosives department say they took from the scene where the victims were killed were definitely from a 155mm shell.

Mr Garlasco who accompanied a small group of journalists to the Beit Lahia beach, pointed to three separate craters, each covered in a whitish powder, which he said were fresh, one of which was at the spot where witnesses agree the fatal blast occurred, and the two others separated it from it by about 120 and 250 yards. Mr Garlasco added: "It would be a really ridiculous coincidence if there is active shelling and then suddenly an IED [improvised explosive device] goes off."

The military have admitted firing earlier in the area but now say that the explosion occurred between 4.47 and 5.10pm, when it says firing had stopped. An ambulance driver from the nearby al-Awda hospital, Khaled Abu Sada, said that he first took a call about the emergency at 4.50pm.

The military did not explicitly repeat claims in earlier leaks that Hamas had planted the device or say whether it was a dud shell. It says that shrapnel taken from the bodies of victims being treated in Israeli hospitals was not from a 150mm shell. But Mr Garlasco said that copper-lined shrapnel taken from two injured girls who had been in a car at the time of the blast and from the car itself were consistent with such a shell fired by a M109 howitzer.

Mr Garlasco ruled out the possibility that the shells were naval, as originally thought, on the grounds that they were too large to be fired from Israeli navy coastal vessels.

Israel has dismissed continuing calls for an independent international inquiry into the beachfront explosion which killed seven members of a Palestinian family in Gaza last Friday after its own internal military investigation decided it was not responsible for the blast.

As the military investigation team insisted that artillery fire had stopped by the time the explosion occurred and suggested it had been caused by a bomb planted in the sand, Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, declared: " The accumulating evidence proves that this incident was not due to Israeli forces."

But the official interpretation was strongly challenged by a former Pentagon battle damage expert who has surveyed the scene of the beach explosion. He said yesterday that "all the evidence points" to a 155mm Israeli land-based artillery shell as its cause.

Marc Garlasco, who worked in war zones including Iraq and Kosovo during his seven-year stint in the US Department of Defence, called for an independent investigation into the killings after concluding that shell fragments and shrapnel from the site, the size and distribution of the craters on the beach, and the type of injuries sustained by the victims made Israeli shelling easily the likeliest cause.

His assessment came as at least another seven civilians, including two children, as well as two Islamic Jihad militants, were killed in a double Israeli missile strike on a VW van in the densely populated Zeitoun district of Gaza City yesterday. The two children were hit at a nearby house by flying shrapnel and the civilian dead included three medical workers from a nearby children's hospital who rushed to help after hearing the first explosion.

Israel said the militants had been on their way to launch Katyusha rockets which have a much longer range than the Qassam rockets normally fired from Gaza into Israel. One of the two dead Islamic Jihad militants was Hamoud Wadiya, described as the top rocket launcher in the faction. Mr Peretz said before the strike that Israel was resuming operations "to protect the citizens of Israel" after a pause caused by what he had acknowledged had been "the international storm" over the civilian deaths at the Beit Lahia beach last Friday.

The debate over the beach explosion is unlikely to die down however. Mr Garlasco who is now the senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch, said yesterday: "Of course I can't be completely conclusive but all the evidence points to its being a 155mm Israeli shell which killed the Palestinians on the beach."

Mr Garlasco said that most of the serious injuries of the victims in the Gaza hospitals that he had visited were to the torsos and heads, which were inconsistent with a land mine or of a bomb embedded in the sand. "If this had been a landmine I would have expected to see serious leg injuries," he said. Mr Garlasco said that while he could not rule out the theoretical possibility that Palestinian militants had rigged up an unexploded 155mm shell to make an explosive device of their own, that too would have normally produced many more severe leg injuries.

Mr Garlasco produced a four to five-inch, mainly blackened shell fragment which he collected about 100 yards from the scene of the explosion and in which the figures 55 and the letters "mm" are clearly discernible. While acknowledging that this was not itself definite proof that the shell had killed the Palestinians he said some fragments and shrapnel which the Palestinian police explosives department say they took from the scene where the victims were killed were definitely from a 155mm shell.

Mr Garlasco who accompanied a small group of journalists to the Beit Lahia beach, pointed to three separate craters, each covered in a whitish powder, which he said were fresh, one of which was at the spot where witnesses agree the fatal blast occurred, and the two others separated it from it by about 120 and 250 yards. Mr Garlasco added: "It would be a really ridiculous coincidence if there is active shelling and then suddenly an IED [improvised explosive device] goes off."

The military have admitted firing earlier in the area but now say that the explosion occurred between 4.47 and 5.10pm, when it says firing had stopped. An ambulance driver from the nearby al-Awda hospital, Khaled Abu Sada, said that he first took a call about the emergency at 4.50pm.

The military did not explicitly repeat claims in earlier leaks that Hamas had planted the device or say whether it was a dud shell. It says that shrapnel taken from the bodies of victims being treated in Israeli hospitals was not from a 150mm shell. But Mr Garlasco said that copper-lined shrapnel taken from two injured girls who had been in a car at the time of the blast and from the car itself were consistent with such a shell fired by a M109 howitzer.

Mr Garlasco ruled out the possibility that the shells were naval, as originally thought, on the grounds that they were too large to be fired from Israeli navy coastal vessels.

[Ballyclare]

!

Dieser Beitrag wurde vom System automatisch gesperrt. Bei Fragen wenden Sie sich bitte an [e-mail]

[Zaroff]

16. Juni 2006 Spiegel online

GAZA-EXPLOSION

Menschenrechtler belasten israelisches Militär

Sieben Mitglieder einer palästinensischen Familie sind bei einer Explosion am Strand des Gaza-Streifens ums Leben gekommen. Die Menschenrechtsorganisation Human Rights Watch will nun weitere Hinweise auf einen tödlichen Granatenangriff Israels auf den Strand haben.

Gaza - In einer heute verbreiteten Mitteilung erklärte die Organisation, inzwischen habe sich Palästinenserpräsident Mahmud Abbas zu einer unabhängigen Untersuchung bereit erklärt. Auch Israel solle dem zustimmen. Die israelische Armee hatte die Beteiligung an dem Zwischenfall zurückgewiesen, bei dem vor einer Woche sieben Mitglieder einer palästinensischen Familie getötet worden waren.

Zeitangaben aus den Computern des Kamal-Adwan-Krankenhauses legten nahe, dass die Patienten vom Strand innerhalb eines glaubwürdigen Zeitraums nach israelischem Granatenfeuer eingeliefert worden seien, teilte Human Rights Watch mit. Zudem habe ein Vater eines Opfers blutverschmierte Splitter vorgelegt, bei denen es sich um Teile einer Granate handele. "Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist gering, dass die Familie Galia von einer anderen Explosion als durch eine von der israelischen Armee abgefeuerten Granate getötet wurde", erklärte HRW- Militärexperte Marc Garlasco.

Nach einer israelischen Untersuchung ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass von mehreren abgefeuerten israelischen Granaten eine zu dem Zeitpunkt und an der Stelle am Strand von Gaza einschlug, praktisch gleich Null. Aus der Armee war die Beschuldigung laut geworden, militante Palästinenser könnten dort eine Mine vergraben haben.

[Sealion]

Zudem habe ein Vater eines Opfers blutverschmierte Splitter vorgelegt, bei denen es sich um Teile einer Granate handele. "Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist gering, dass die Familie Galia von einer anderen Explosion als durch eine von der israelischen Armee abgefeuerten Granate getötet wurde", erklärte HRW- Militärexperte Marc Garlasco.

Jetzt ist doch noch ein Splitter aufgetaucht!
Gott sei Dank. Die linke Welt ist wieder in Ordnung. Hoffentlich ist der Splitter noch nicht zu sehr verwittert.

[Ballyclare]

Süddeutsche von heute


Auch die Recherchen eines Teams der US-Menschenrechtsgruppe Human Rights Watch führten zu dem vorläufigen Ergebnis, dass Israel für die Granatenexplosion verantwortlich sei
Die Gruppe formuliert allerdings vorsichtig und weniger apodiktisch: Nach Interviews mit Opfern, Augenzeugen, Polizisten und Ärzten und einem Besuch des Unglücksorts hege man „starke Vermutungen“, dass israelische Artillerie für das Unglück haftbar sei. Der Bericht der Menschenrechtsgruppe erwähnt allerdings nicht, dass deren Rechercheure erst einen Tag nach dem Unglück am Strand nach Beweisen gefahndet haben - genug Zeit also, um wichtige Beweisstücke zu entfernen.

Das israelische Verteidigungsministerium hat nach ersten Auswertungen von Radar- und Satellitenbildern erklärt, das Geschoss, das zum Tod der sieben Palästinenser geführt hat, stamme nicht von der Armee. Generalstabschef Dan Halutz sagt, Israel bedauere den Tod der sieben Palästinenser, dies bedeute aber nicht „dass wir dafür verantwortlich sind“.

Nach Ermittlungen der israelischen Armee, die sich nur auf Bilder und Arztbefunde, nicht aber auf Recherchen vor Ort beziehen, hat die israelische Armee an jenem Freitagnachmittag sechs Granaten in Richtung Gaza-Strand abgefeuert. Nach Angaben von Halutz schlugen fünf der sechs Granaten in der Zeit zwischen 16.31 und 16.48 Uhr ein - rund 250 Meter nördlich jener Stelle, an der das Familienpicknick stattgefunden hatte. Mit dem Artilleriebeschuss sollten palästinensische Raketenwerfer abgehalten werden.

Ein unbemanntes Flugzeug der israelischen Armee hat den Gaza-Streifen zum Zeitpunkt des Beschusses aus der Luft gefilmt. Auf den Filmen sieht man einerseits fünf Einschlaglöcher der Granaten im Strand, aber auch 250 Meter südlich davon Menschen. Nach Angaben der Armee muss die Explosion an dem Strandabschnitt, an dem die Ghalijas picknickten, zwischen 16.57 und 17.10 stattgefunden haben. Vor 16.57 ist auf dem Film der Armee normales Strandtreiben zu sehen.

Dass die Menschen auf die fünf Granateinschläge in 250 Metern Entfernung nicht mit überstürzter Flucht reagiert haben, ist seltsam. Die nächste Aufnahme auf dem Armeefilm zeigt Krankenwagen, wie sie am Strand ankommen. Das ist um 17.15 Uhr. Das Krankenhaus, wo die Krankenwagen herkamen, liegt fünf Minuten vom Explosionsort entfernt.



Möglicher Blindgänger
Über den Einschlagsort der sechsten Granate, die nach Aussagen der Menschenrechtsgruppe und der Palästinenserregierung als Blindgänger den Tod der sieben Familienmitglieder herbeigeführt habe, kann die israelische Armee keine Angaben machen. Sie hält es aber für „ausgeschlossen“, dass die Granate ganze 250 Meter von ihrem Ziel abgewichen sein soll.

Als weiteren Beweis führt Israel an, dass es vier Verletzte vom Strand in Krankenhäusern in Tel Aviv behandelt. Aus dem Körper eines der Verwundeten seien Splitter geborgen worden, die nicht von Waffen aus dem Arsenal der israelischen Armee stammen könnten.

Die israelische Armee schließt nicht aus, dass es sich bei der Detonation auch um eine Mine gehalten haben könnte, die von Palästinensern dort vergraben worden sei, um israelische Marinesoldaten daran zu hindern, im Gaza-Streifen an Land zu gehen.

Angesichts der sich widersprechenden Aussagen kommt Harbeds Fernsehbildern große Bedeutung zu. Diese allerdings werfen mehr Fragen auf, als dass sie zur Klärung beitragen. Die Originalaufnahmen sind inzwischen so fragwürdig, dass CNN sie auf seiner Website nur noch sehr verkürzt zeigt.

Der SZ erklärte Harbed, er sei von den Rettungssanitätern über die Explosion unterrichtet worden und im eigenen Wagen den Krankenwagen hinterhergefahren. Auf seinen Bildern allerdings filmt Harbed die Hysterie der zehnjährigen Huda, als sei er Zeuge der Detonation gewesen. Auch filmt er die Ankunft der Sanitäter, er muss also schon vorher am Strand gewesen sein. Zudem sind manche der Toten und Verletzten mit Tüchern abgedeckt - wer hat das getan?

Harbed erklärt, Huda sei kaum verletzt worden, da sie im Meer gebadet habe. Auf seinen Bildern allerdings läuft Huda in trockener Straßenkleidung herum. Minutenlang rennt Harbed der schreienden Huda hinterher und schwenkt mit seiner Kamera zu den Toten und Verletzten.

Plötzlich ist ein Mann neben Hudas totem Vater zu erkennen, der eben noch zugedeckt reglos dalag und nun aufsteht, in der Hand ein Maschinengewehr. Auf den Bildern des Kameramanns sind auch Sanitäter in grüner OP-Kleidung zu erkennen sowie Dutzende Männer, die meisten mit Hamas-typischen Vollbärten, die offenbar Beweisstücke sicherstellen.

Allerdings muss man fragen, weshalb die Sanitäter sich nicht um die Verletzten kümmern und keine Polizisten den Ort sichern. Haben die Hamas-Männer, wie israelische Medien palästinensische Augenzeugen zitieren, Beweisstücke entfernt?

[spicault]

"Unbiased" Advice
By HonestReporting.com
HonestReporting.com | June 16, 2006

The Israeli Defense Forces recently concluded a report on the tragic deaths of seven Palestinians on a Gaza Beach. As detailed yesterday in HR's special report "Gaza Beach Libel", the IDF has carefully analyzed all evidence and proven that it was not responsible for this tragedy.

In the past 24 hours, our report has generated over 500 letters to the media. While some news organizations have reported the IDF findings, it certainly does not compensate for the highly emotive front page initial accusations.

At the same time, many in the media have been quoting Human Rights Watch (HRW)'s military "expert" Marc Garlasco. Garlasco was one of the authors of HRW's controversial study "Razing Rafah." The study is based on unverifiable Palestinian allegations and unsubstantiated security judgments. This "academic" study claimed that "the IDF actions destroyed over 50 percent of Rafah's roads and elements of its water, sewage, and electrical systems" based on a combination of Palestinian "eye-witnesses" and sympathetic journalists.



HonestReporting does not expect media to accept Israel's conclusions at face value. However, Human Rights Watch, along with many other organizations which claim to focus solely on human rights without a political agenda, have hardly proven themselves to be an "unbiased" source.

First, as an NGO (Non-Government Organization), HRW is not held accountable to anybody but its own staff.

According to Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar Illan University:

< The international human rights framework was created in <response to the horrors of the Holocaust and embodied in the <Nuremberg trials and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human <Rights. But going far beyond simple irony, this idealistic <framework has been hijacked to justify the Palestinian terror <campaign against Israelis.

< A small group of powerful NGOs has played a leading role in this <process. At the same time Israeli victims of the latest <Palestinian bus bombing were being buried, HRW's ideologists <denounced "Israel's West Bank barrier" as a grievous violation of <human rights. While claiming to speak in the name of <humanitarian principles, HRW officials have been abusing these <norms in order to play an active role in the public-relations <campaign to <demonize Israel.

The organization's bias against Israel is hardly new. A report from the influential NGO Monitor (which we encourage our readers to read in full) makes the case of HRW's agenda against Israel:

<In a study of activities between October 2000 and April 2004, <HRW's reports and activities on Israel were found to be <systematically and exceedingly biased. Most of the 103 reports, <press releases, letters, photo essays and film festivals focus on <condemning Israeli responses to terror, in comparison to only 13 <that deal with Palestinian terror attacks. This record <illustrates HRW's exploitation of the rhetoric of universal human <rights in order to pursue political and ideological objectives in <concert with international demonization of Israel.

The bias of HRW become clear when reading any of its reporting on the Middle East. In their latest annual report, they dismiss the fact that Israel removed all civilian and military personnel from Gaza, and that Gaza now has its own border with Egypt:

< Gaza remains occupied, and Israel retains its <responsibilities for the welfare of Gaza residents. Israel <maintains effective control over Gaza by regulating movement in <and out of the Strip as well as the airspace, sea space, public <utilities and population registry. In addition, Israel declared <the right to re-enter Gaza militarily at any time in its <"Disengagement Plan" Since the withdrawal, Israel has carried out <aerial bombardments, including targeted killings, and has fired <artillery into the northeastern corner of Gaza.

While the last sentence is true, to write it without explaining the context of why Israel has launched attacks into Gaza is deliberately misleading, like condemning the U.S. for attacking Afghanistan without context. Israel conducts military operations in order to stop continual rocket fire targeting civilians. To ignore the rationale for the military operations is to ignore the very "human rights" that HRW claims to monitor.

Human Rights Watch is just one of many biased or previously discredited sources that the media often refer to when reporting on Israel. After being caught telling an outright lie that thousands of Palestinians had been killed in Jenin, there is no reason the media should ever quote Saeb Erekat. (For more on Erekat and other PA "spokesmen", read this CAMERA report). Yet, we the media again giving exposure to his outrageous statements. Consider Erekat's recent claim:

< The Palestinians do not have any weapons capable of such <precision and such effectiveness that can massacre seven people in <one shot. Now they want to escape the responsibility, and these crimes may reoccur and that is dangerous and alarming.



No responsible news agency should repeat the outrageous claim that the Palestinians have no weapons that can kill seven people in one blast? Tragically, the Palestinians have become quite proficient in mass murder through explosives.

HonestReporting subscribers should demand that the Media use sources without history of questionable integrity. If your local media have cited spokespeople or NGOs with a proven anti-Israel agenda, challenge them to work harder to get the story right. To do otherwise is to mislead the public.

[spicault]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.148.136 von spicault am 16.06.06 13:48:11

Gaza Beach Libel

Following Palestinian claims and the media reports of Israeli culpability in deaths on a Gaza beach, the real story emerges...

It is now becoming clear that, despite the claims of the Palestinians and the international media's rush to blame Israel, the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians on a beach in Gaza on 9 June were not caused by the IDF. Investigations by the IDF and others over the past few days have revealed new evidence that a Hamas mine was most likely the cause of the beach blast:

1) Shrapnel removed from two of the wounded Palestinians evacuated to Israeli hospitals was not from Israeli-made ordnance.

2) No large crater was evident on the beach as would be expected from the impact of an artillery shell landing from above. The blast site would suggest the likelihood of a mine exploding from below the sand rather than above.

3) The IDF fired six shells towards the Gaza area, one of which remained unaccounted for. All of the shells were fired, however, more than 10 minutes before the blast that killed the Palestinians.

It is now increasingly likely, that in true "Pallywood" fashion, as seen in the Mohammed Al-Dura case and the Jenin "massacre" libel, the Palestinians have attempted another cover-up in order to smear Israel:

1) Palestinian Television broadcast doctored scenes showing file footage of Israeli naval vessels shelling Gaza, interspersed with video of the beach victims, despite the fact that the Israeli Navy was not responsible for any shelling at the time. Click here to see the footage courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.[/url]

2) Suspicions were initially raised by the Palestinian refusal to cooperate with Israeli investigators and the remarkably swift cleansing of evidence from the blast scene by Hamas gunmen who arrived shortly after the incident. Palestinian spokespeople usually display parts of Israeli shells to the international media - but not this time.

3) Israeli intelligence suggests that Hamas had mined the beach area in order to prevent Israeli naval commandos from landing there as part of anti-terror operations to prevent Qassam missile launches.

THE MEDIA'S PREMATURE RESPONSE

Even though there was no evidence as to who was responsible, other than Palestinian claims of Israeli culpability for a "massacre," the international media immediately bought into the Palestinian storyline. This, despite the continuing barrage of Qassam missiles, some of which had fallen on Gaza, and the "work accidents" caused by Palestinian explosives detonating prematurely, which should have made journalists think twice. Here are some examples of those who did not:

The Washington Post's headline: Israeli Fire Kills 7 Beachgoers in Gaza

Excerpt: Israeli artillery fire targeting the northern Gaza Strip on Friday killed at least seven Palestinian civilians and wounded 30 others, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said.

Contact: [e-mail] and [e-mail]

The New York Times' headline: Errant Shell Turns Girl Into Palestinian Icon

Excerpt: Eleven-year-old Huda unwittingly became a symbol of Palestinian pain and loss during an afternoon picnic with her family on a hot day when a cameraman captured her shrieking "Father, Father, Father!" as she hovered over the bloody bodies of 13 dead or wounded members of her family, hit by what was apparently an errant Israeli artillery shell.

Contact: [e-mail] and [e-mail]

Australia Broadcasting Corporation's headline: Israel faces criticism over Gaza beach shelling

Excerpt: Seven Palestinians died on Friday, when the Israeli military shelled the beach where they were enjoying the Muslim day of rest, an eighth victim died in hospital on Saturday.

Contact: http://www.abc.net.au/contact/contactnews.htm

CNN's headline: Beach strike shakes Hamas cease-fire

Excerpt: An Israeli navy gunboat fired shells onto a northern Gaza beach Friday, killing at least seven people and prompting the military wing of Hamas to call off a 16-month-old cease-fire with Israel.

Contact: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/

The Guardian's headline: Death on the beach: seven Palestinians killed as Israeli shells hit family picnic

Excerpt: A barrage of Israeli artillery shells rained down on a busy Gaza beach yesterday, killing seven Palestinians, three of them children.

Contact: [e-mail]

The Independent's headline: Palestinians killed on Gaza beach by Israeli gunboats

Excerpt: Israeli naval gunboats killed at least seven Palestinian civilians and wounded about 40 others as they relaxed in the summer heat on a beach in northern Gaza yesterday.

Contact: [e-mail]

The Times of London's headline: Girl who saw family die on beach becomes icon and media celebrity

Excerpt: In the days since a wild-haired Huda Ghalia was filmed howling with anguish amid a family picnic blown apart by shellfire, she has become an instant symbol of suffering across the Arab world.

Contact: [e-mail]

CONSEQUENCES FOR ISRAELI DIPLOMACY

Aside from the very real damage caused to Israel's public image, the images and headlines transmitted around the world also demonstrated the sometimes insidious influence of the media on Israel's diplomatic standing. Coming at the same time as Israeli PM Ehud Olmert's visit to the UK, it was therefore damaging that the British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett launched a scathing attack on Israel following the incident, which the British press interpreted as casting a shadow over the trip. In addition, the French also rushed to issue condemnation of Israel, deploring "Israel's bombardments on a beach in the Gaza Strip, whose disproportionate character has cost the lives of several civilians and injured many others."

HonestReporting is aware of the political and diplomatic damage that biased or inaccurate reporting causes for Israel within international governmental circles. Contact details for elected representatives from a number of countries can be found on HonestReporting's website along with those of many national and international media outlets.

While the media may choose not to believe the results of the IDF inquiry, it has a duty to report on the developing story and the new evidence that has emerged. HonestReporting calls on its subscribers to hold the media to account for its initial premature judgments and to also ensure that the real story is published.

QASSAM BLITZKRIEG ON ISRAEL

Palestinian terrorists continue to launch Qassam missiles from Gaza, subjecting Israel to an intolerable blitzkrieg of over 100 missiles launched since the weekend, wounding at least two Israelis in Sderot and causing damage to a number of buildings in Sderot and the western Negev. No country, including Israel can be expected not to take action under these circumstances.


While attempting to escalate the situation further, Islamic Jihad terrorists were prevented from launching even more deadly Katyusha missiles by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday. Unfortunately, due to Palestinian terrorists operating from within densely populated areas, a number of civilians also died when the terrorists' vehicle was hit by an Israeli missile. Due to the continuous barrage of Palestinian missiles, Israel has been left with little choice but to take action to defend its citizens.

As seen by this and recent events, Palestinian terrorists show scant disregard for the lives of their own people as well as Israelis, continuing to cause suffering in the region.

HonestReporting.com

[Veers]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.145.884 von Zaroff am 16.06.06 11:34:27

Das sind schon komische Quellen, auf die sich unsere Zionisten- Freunde hier stützen: segne-Israel, Jesus-liebt-dich (aber vielleicht nicht ganz so viel wie andere).
die genannten beispiele aus den komischen zionistischen quellen kannst du gerne nachprüfen.

Dabei dürfte es doch offensichtlich sein, daß die Israelis für diesen feigen Anschlag verantwortlich sind.
wunsch deckt sich selten mit wahrheit. natürlich sind auch die israelis schuld, wenn die palis kindern spielzeugwaffen geben und sie absichtlich am sicherheitszaun spielen lassen. die barbarischen söhne zahals reagieren dann sogar so besonnen und erschießen die lieben kleinen nicht, sondern schicken sie einfach wieder heim. natürlich wäre die weltweite entrüstung über die kindsmörder groß gewesen und überall in den medien breitgetreten worden. da aber nichts passiert, berichten die "unparteiischen Medien" nicht darüber, und erst recht nicht über die fanatischen irren, die zu solche widerlichen propagandatricks greifen.

von was für einen angeblichen waffenstillstand sprichst du eigentlich? die hamas feuert tagtäglich qassam-raketen auf israel ab, während die IDF nur auf diese angriffe reagiert und versucht die raketenbedienung auszuschalten.
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/T…

natürlich muss auch die zionistische untersuchungskommission falsch liegen, sonst hätte sie ja auch wie die palis, sofort die übeltäter verteufelt und nicht zuerst alle informationen ausgewertet. da das resultat jetzt eine beteiligung der IDF auschließt, kann es natürlich nur eine zionistische lüge sein. dass der israelischische artillerieschlag weder zeitlich zur explosion am strand passt, ignorieren wir am besten genauso, wie die abweichung "in der seite" zum zielgebiet. dass jetzt hier sogar ominöse experten aus dem pentagon als zeugen aufgeführt werden, haut mich aber richtig von den socken (hier im forum gelten die doch sonst als oberschurken schlechthin).

[Zaroff]

honestreporting.com

Der Name sagt mir alles, wenn sich Zionisten "honest" nennen, dann braucht man nicht mehr weiter lesen.

wunsch deckt sich selten mit wahrheit.

Über diesen Satz, dem ich grundsätzlich zustimme, solltest erst mal du nachdenken.

Was den Experten aus dem Pentagon angeht: Der Gegner liefert immer die besten Zeugen.

[CaptainFutures]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.151.536 von Zaroff am 16.06.06 16:52:08

Der Gegner liefert immer die besten Zeugen.


Ja, genau wie die längst widerlegten Quellen der Hamas-Freunde, die diesen feigen Anschlag den Israelis in die Schuhe schieben wollten.
Danke, daß Du das hiermit nochmal bestätigst.

[Veers]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.151.536 von Zaroff am 16.06.06 16:52:08

Der Name sagt mir alles, wenn sich Zionisten "honest" nennen, dann braucht man nicht mehr weiter lesen.
wenn alle missliebigen quellen als unwahre zionistische propaganda diffamiert werden, auch gut. der von ballyclare zitierte artikel aus der sz http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ausland/artikel/315/78237/
müsste aber zumindest deinen strengen auswahlkriterien entsprechen, da die sz ja wohl unbestreitbar, weder konservativ noch besonders israelfreundlich ist.

Über diesen Satz, dem ich grundsätzlich zustimme, solltest erst mal du nachdenken.
für mich zählen nur fakten, daher würde ich mich freuen, wenn du einen stichhaltigen beweise für die schuld der bösen zionisten nennen könntest (zum nachdenken ). ich kann bspw. nicht ganz nachvollziehen, warum 5 schuss dicht gestreut liegen und einer 250 m versetzt einschlägt.
warum beseitigen ausgerechnet hamasleute umgehend spuren am strand, anstatt z.b. splitter von der israelischen geschosshülle als unschlagbaren beweis in die kamera zu halten? wer hat also was zu verbergen?

Was den Experten aus dem Pentagon angeht: Der Gegner liefert immer die besten Zeugen.
genauso wie independent behaupten kann, die stellungsnahme eines experten aus dem pentagon vorliegen zu haben, könnte ich auch behaupten, dass ich vor jeden trade jesus um rat frage (in wahrheit bin ich ein bekennender gottlosser heide). da die idf 155 mm munition verwendet, muss es natürlich ein 155 mm geschoß und nicht etwa eine verlegte sprengfalle sein. laut zionistenfreundlichen quellen soll der krater allein größenmäßig nicht einer 155 mm artilleriegranate entsprechen.

[spicault]

Israel Should Not Be Presumed Guilty of Gaza Beach Deaths

Much has been reported about an explosion on a Gaza beach on June 9, 2006 which killed 7 people, including 3 children. There has been a video shown repeatedly of a young girl wailing with grief there, coming upon the dead body of her father. Palestinians and their supporters have responded by blaming Israel and insisting that it was a deliberate "massacre" of civilians by Israel.

Many in the press are presuming that Israel is responsible for the deaths, but there is no proof of this, and the media and the world community should not rush to judgment. According to Ha'aretz military correspondent Amos Harel, an Israeli investigation has determined that it is highly unlikely that an errant Israeli shell was fired at the time of the explosion on the beach.

Israel's initial response was to offer medical help, to offer condolences, and apologize should it turn out that they were responsible for a missile going astray, stressing that they work hard to minimize any harm to civilians. They said they were investigating because they were not aware of firing at that area at that time. Nonetheless, many reports about the incident have been saying that it is "presumed" that Israel is responsible. Why? Based on what proof?

The Israelis investigating the incident have narrowed it down to several possible scenarios, with an errant Israeli shell being fired at the time of the explosion the least likely, since the Israelis had stopped firing approximately 15 minutes before the Gaza beach explosion. More likely causes are, according to the June 12 Amos Harel article on the IDF investigation:

* Unexploded IDF ordnance: In the past months the IDF has fired hundreds of shells in the area of Friday's incident. In some instances, Palestinian civilians were killed when they touched the unexploded shells including youths who sought to dismantle the ordnance in order to sell the metal. Israel has no means of pinpointing the location of the unexploded ordnance from previous operations.

* Detonation of a Palestinian bomb: Less than two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos operated in the northern Gaza Strip and ambushed a team of Qassam rocket operators. The Palestinians reported that groups of divers had arrived by sea, and militant forces announced that they would find ways to prevent any similar operations in the future. The possibility does exist that areas near the beach were mined and that the family members accidentally set off an explosive device that was intended to destroy a team of Israeli special-forces troops. Possible evidence of this hypothesis are Palestinian eye-witnesses who said that Hamas militants rushed to the site of the blast on Friday evening to collect remnants of the explosives.

...The key to solving the mystery will be in the analysis of the remnants of the shell or bomb that killed and injured the civilians. Three of those injured are hospitalized in Israel. If they were hurt by shrapnel, its origins can be determined." (Ha'aretz article, "IDF Hard-pressed to Pinpoint Cause of Gaza Beach Deaths" )

It should also be recalled that:

* The Palestinians have in the past blamed Israel for deaths that were caused by their own bombs or weapons going off by accident or landing in the wrong place.

For example, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in January of 2005 by celebratory gunfire as several Palestinians departed for their pilgrimage to Mecca. Her death was initially blamed on the Israelis by PA and UN officials.

In another case, in November of 2001, a Palestinian security official initially blamed the death of 5 Palestinian children on an Israeli tank shell hitting a school, but later recanted.

* Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians has at times fallen short or gone astray and damaged Palestinian homes and killed Palestinians. For example, according to http://www.albawaba.com :

"...on the afternoon of 8 February 2006, an armed Palestinian group launched a locally made rocket from the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip at an Israeli target across the border. The rocket went astray, hitting a house belonging to Saber Mohammed Abdul Dayem, nearly 300 meters from the launching site. The rocket hit the southern part of 3-storey house, where 10 people live, said the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR.). Fire broke out, terrifying the family-members. The rocket exploded in the family's living room and destroyed all their furniture. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

This incident was not the first of its kind. On 2 August 2005, Palestinian armed groups launched three locally made rockets at Israeli targets. One of them went astray and hit a house belonging to the family of Al Ashqar east of the town of Beit Hanoun, also in the northern Strip. Fifty-year old Al Ashqar and his 6-year old son, Yasser, were killed. Nine other civilians, including five children, were also wounded in the attack. " www.albawaba.com/en/news/197801

The press should be more clear in its reports that the cause of the deaths is unknown and that Palestinian allegations should not automatically be believed because:

* According to a June 11th AP article,

"Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, the head of Israel's southern command, said Sunday the military had proof it wasn't responsible [for the Gaza beach deaths]. He said the [Israeli] military suspended artillery fire 15 minutes before the explosion at the beach, Army Radio reported" (AP article, "Israeli airstrike kills 2 Hamas militants" by Ibrahim Barzak, AP Writers).

* the Palestinians have not allowed any kind of professional independent investigation of the evidence to determine what actually caused the explosion.

The video taken by an Arab news agency (Ramattan) of an inconsolable young girl wailing as she discovers her dead father, has been played and replayed on Arab news stations several times an hour. Photos from the video as well as clips have appeared on TV stations and newspapers around the world, instantly becoming an iconic image similar to that of 12-year-old Mohammed Al Dura who was said to have been shot to death by an Israeli soldier in September 2000. As it turned out, however, Al Dura was almost certainly shot by Palestinians, if he was shot at all. (See BACKGROUNDER: Mohammed Al Dura, or Anatomy of a French Media Scandal )

While no one is questioning whether the young girl lost members of her family, many are now questioning how a video camera was at the scene within seconds to follow the daughter across the sand and capture her grief upon finding her dead father or how no one seems to console the child, including the photographer, how there is no evidence of a crater or blood near the bodies. Were the bodies moved, was the girl asked to reenact her discovery for the camera, was the video staged? Palestinian Media Watch has already demonstrated that the clips aired on official Palestinian Authority TV have been edited and falsified by including unrelated video of an Israeli missile boat firing at Gaza earlier in the day, creating the impression of Israeli responsibility. Al Jazeera similarly includes scenes of the supposed Israeli "strike". Yet some are accepting these inserted clips of an Israeli missile boat as the direct cause of the deaths.

Remarks by Prime Minister's media advisor Ra'anan Gissin are of interest. As noted in a June 11 Jerusalem Post article by Herb Keinon, entitled "Gissin: Don't blame Israel first":

Israelis are doing themselves a gross disservice, and playing into the hands of the Palestinians, by presuming that an Israeli shell caused the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians Friday in Gaza, Prime Minster Ehud Olmert's Foreign media advisor Ra'anan Gissin said Sunday.

"We are repeating the same mistakes of the past in taking responsibility when there are other possibilities about who is responsible," Gissin said.

He said that Friday's tragedy on the Gaza beach may indeed be similar to the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura in 2000, the "Jenin Massacre" in 2002, and the killing of 21 people at the Jabaliya refugee camp last September. While the Palestinians originally pinned the blame for all these incidents on Israel, it has since turned out that al-Dura may have been killed by Palestinians, that there was no "Jenin massacre," and that the deaths in Jabaliya were caused when Hamas activists "mishandled" explosives at a mass rally.

Gissin said that Israel should immediately have raised doubts after Friday's incident about the Palestinian version of events that placed the blame squarely on Israel.

"We jumped to conclusions before the evidence, and we immediately assumed that it was probably an Israeli shell," Gissin said. "But we don't know that for a fact. The Palestinians moved in and destroyed all the evidence. People should be asking themselves, 'why?' "

Just as Israel is conducting an investigation, Gissin said that the international community should also be demanding that the Palestinians conduct an investigation. But rather than doing that, he said, the Palestinians are removing evidence from the scene.

"We look at the area as a battle zone," Gissin said, "while the Palestinians view it as a crime scene, and are interested in making the evidence look like Israel carried out an atrocity," he said.

Gissin said that the evidence "didn't add up" in Jenin to equal a massacre because there were not enough bodies, and in Jabaliya there were too many witnesses to what happened to buy the Hamas line that the explosion in 2005 was the result of missiles fired by an IDF helicopter.

"But now we have a classic case where there is no real evidence, and all we have is a picture of a crying girl on the beach," Gissin said of Friday's incident in Gaza. "Nobody knows how the people there were killed. If it was an Israeli shell, why didn't the Palestinians invite the press to see the remnants of the shell, why have they been so quick to remove the evidence?"

Gissin bemoaned a situation where he said that instead of waiting for the investigation, the Israeli press jumped to the conclusion that it was an errant Israeli shell and reflexively began calling for an end to artillery fire on Gaza.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, meanwhile, said that considering the circumstances, Israel weathered this particular storm in the foreign media "fairly well."

Regev said that none of the serious international news outlets blamed Israel for intentionally targeting the civilians, and that most mentioned that Israel expressed regret and set up an investigation of the incident.

Regev said that the Foreign Ministry and IDF coordinated Israel's reaction after the incident and that there were two main messages:

*That Israel regretted the incident and expressed sorrow for it; that it deems the loss of innocent civilian life unacceptable; but that it was not taking responsibility because an investigation into exactly what happened was continuing.

*That the violence in Gaza is a result of Palestinian extremist groups continuing to launch rockets on Israel even though Israel pulled out of Gaza 10 months ago and has neither a single settler nor soldier there.
Regev said that this message did not emphasize the possibility that the Palestinians may have been responsible for the blast, because no one at this point knows exactly what happened. Israel, he said, did stress that it was investigating the incident, and that it was premature to draw conclusions.

UPDATE, July 12: The Jerusalem Post is now reporting that the IDF probe investigating the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians from an explosion on a beach in Gaza on Friday evening concluded that chances were slim that the accident was caused by IDF shelling, basing their findings on an inconsistency between the shrapnel found in the body of one of the wounded babies and the metal used in IDF artillery, and the absence of a crater at the site of the explosion, as would be expected if an IDF shell had landed there.

*********************************************************

The Western press, however, have misreported the story, presuming, based on zero evidence, it was an errant Israeli shell. For example:

BBC News reported on its Web site:

"Seven people, including three children, died on Friday when Israeli shells hit a beach in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials say."

The reporter qualifies the remark by adding "Palestinian officials say", but they include several more quotations from Palestinians blaming Israel who use words such as "massacre." The article has only one sentence from the Israelis saying they are "investigating," making it sound like Israel is investigating how it happened, not if it happened as a result of their actions. The article makes no mention that the Israelis were not even sure if the explosions were from Israel's weapons at all. No doubt at all is cast on the Palestinian claims that Israel is responsible. (For full article, click here.)

And a BBC radio broadcast, "World: Have Your Say" accepts that the videos shown in the Arab world that include the "Israeli strike" are real and asks whether the Western media is sanitizing the truth when showing clips that omit the strike.

The New York Times, for its part, has been placing disproportionate emphasis on the incident, with several articles over the past three days, including a human interest story about the girl (June 12, 2006), and a huge above-fold color photo from the video that spread across four columns. (June 10, 2006).

In another article "Hamas Fires Rockets Into Israel Ending 16-Month Truce" (June 11, 2006), bureau chief Steven Erlanger writes that six members of the Ghaliya family "were killed when the Israeli shell struck the beach where they were having a picnic." And in "Errant Shell Turns Girl Into Palestinian Icon" (June 12, 2006), reporter George Azar writes:

Eleven-year-old Huda unwittingly became a symbol of Palestinian pain and loss during an afternoon picnic with her family on a hot day when a cameraman captured her shrieking "Father, Father, Father!" as she hovered over the bloody bodies of 13 dead or wounded members of her family, hit by what was apparently an errant Israeli artillery shell...

Nowhere in these articles is any doubt raised as to who fired the deadly weapons. It is presumed that Israel is at fault. And there is no curiosity about how a camera got to the scene before the girl discovered her father's dead body or if indeed the cameraman asked the girl to reenact her discovery.

The press and the public should reserve judgment and not make hasty assumptions.

And if Israel is indeed responsible for the deaths, it should be noted that Israel in no way intended to harm civilians and is sorry if it did cause the deaths. In contrast, the goal of the Palestinian terrorists (including the current Palestinian legislative leaders) is to intentionally harm Israeli civilians, and they celebrate and gloat when Israeli or Jewish children are injured, maimed or murdered.

The explosion on the Gaza beach may have been an accident involving either Israeli or Palestinian weaponry, yet it garnered huge press coverage. The frequent Palestinian rocket attacks against the Israeli civilians living in Sderot, however, is entirely intentional and barely reported upon. The attacks are nothing short of attempted serial murder and it is interesting that there is so little outrage from the world community.

CAMERA (Committe for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America)

[spicault]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 22.151.536 von Zaroff am 16.06.06 16:52:08

The Left's Media Manipulators
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 6, 2006

During the Cold War, under Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the United States government paid special attention to Soviet efforts to manipulate world public opinion against the United States.

They referred to these Soviet efforts as “active measures.” A special unit at the United States Information Agency, headed by a top Soviet analyst, Herbert Romerstein, kept track of the most vicious Soviet tricks and exposed them as frauds to the public.

Among the Soviet fabrications were such gems as the claim, which was widely accepted before it was debunked, that the U.S. government had invented the AIDS virus and was spreading it throughout the Third World to decimate non-white populations.

Today, new masters of disinformation have emerged in Iran, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories.

Although the KGB is no longer behind their efforts to manipulate world opinion, a new “corporate” entity has emerged. Its active agents tend to be Palestinians, who have learned the ropes fabricating Israeli “atrocities.”

They are now exporting their wares to Iraq, and according to Israeli officials I spoke to recently in Jerusalem, have been personally involved in fabricating U.S. “atrocities” in Haditha and elsewhere in Iraq.

To vehicle their fabrications as fact they frequently turn to left-wing activitists working for Human Rights Watch and other NGOs. They are aided by a willing press; from the left-wing Guardian and Independent dailies in Britain, to the French state-owned France2 Television, now defending its reputation in a court case for having allegedly fabricated the Mohammad al-Dura “Murder” in 2000 that ushered in the 2nd Intifada and killed off any hopes of a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians.

The most recent example of this new, KGB-style media manipulation operation hit the big screen on June 9, when international media spread worldwide the image of a bereaved Palestinian girl, wailing on a Gaza beach, after an Israeli artillery shell killed her entire family during a picnic.

The only problem was, it never happened –at least, not as the media first told the story.

A self-styled “military expert” for Human Rights Watch, Marc Garlasco, alleged that an Israeli artillery shell, fired in retaliation for Palestinian rocket attacks into Jewish towns inside Israel, had strayed onto the beach and killed the Palestinian family.

The Israelis agreed a bit too hastily that Garlasco’s version may have been true. They had been firing against Palestinian terrorists several hundred meters away, and agreed to launch an investigation. But as the Israeli government investigation proceeded, all the evidence pointed in another direction.

Garlasco, who has no artillery experience or forensics training, has never explained how a 155 mm artillery shell could explode amid sand dunes without leaving a huge crater. Despite this, international media organizations considered him to be a credible “expert,” when he accused Israel of the killings.

According to a French Media watch organization, Media ratings, France 2 television quoted Garlasco as claiming that he had picked up scrapnel on the beach from an Israeli artillery shell.

But even Arab media had reported that the beach had been cleaned of scrapnel by Hamas and Palestinian security officials immediately after the incident.

And Israeli officials told me that the wounded who were eventually transported to Israeli hospitals had been picked clean of easily-accessible scrapnel by Palestinian doctors.

Garlasco also misrepresented a meeting he had with the head of the Israeli military forensics team investigating the incident, Maj. Gen. Meir Klifi.

After a three-hour meeting with Klifi and other Israeli officials in Tel Aviv on June 20, Garasco told the Jerusalem Post that he “came to an agreement with Gen. Klifi that the most likely cause [of the blast[ was unexploded Israeli ordnance.”

But an Israeli official present at the meeting told me that was not the case. “We agreed that no Israeli shell was fired at the beach that day, and that we could not yet determine what caused the explosion,” he said. “It might have been an old Israeli mine, or an unexploded shell. Or it could have been a makeshift explosive device.” The Israelis taped the meeting.

The Israeli government has said that Hamas operated an explosives factory not far from the site of the beachfront accident.

Dr. Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University has been tracking non-governmental organizations operating in Israel for several years. “Human Rights Watch has a political agenda, based on Israel bashing, and Garlasco is not what he purports to be,” he told me in Jerusalem.

An earlier Human Rights Watch report that used Garlasco as a military forensics expert made “unverified and unsubstantiated claims” that Israel had razed Palestinian neighborhoods in Rafah, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, he said.

News organizations plastered the photograph of a terror-stricken six-year old girl, grieving the loss of her family on the Gaza beach, on front pages around the world.

But the photograph was staged by Hamas fighters who rushed to the scene after the explosion, new video footage of the immediate aftermath of the attack shows, Israeli officials believe.

Israeli military officials identified a Palestinian photographer with known ties to Hamas from video footage shot in the aftermath of the beachfront tragedy.

The photographer arrived with Hamas fighters after emergency aid workers had covered the bodies and taken them to ambulances, and could be seen giving direction to aid workers to “set up the scene for the photoshoot,” an Israeli official who viewed the footage told me.

The Palestinian photographer coached the girl whose photograph hit the front pages around the world, the official said.

“This is very similar to the Mohammad al Dura case,” the Israeli official said, “where Palestinian stage-managers have created fictional facts that many in the media bought into uncritically.”

The alleged killing of a 6-year old Palestinian boy by Israeli soldiers in September 2000 led to the second Initifad.

An Israeli army investigation, which examined all footage taken by Palestinian camera crews on scene, concluded that it was physically impossible for Israel soldiers to have shot the boy, since they were positioned around a corner.

Mohammad al Dura and his father could be seen looking fearfully at Palestinian gunmen positioned directly across from them just before they were shot, in video footage that was aired on France 2 television.

The Palestinians were now trying to export their “stage-managed massacres” to Iraq, the Israeli official said.

Another Palestinian photographer, Mazen Dana, was killed by U.S. forces in Fallujah in 2004 when American soldiers saw him encouraging Fallujah residents to stage a riot for a camera crew.

The Israelis believe that Dana was just one of several Palestinians who have since gone to Iraq to coach Iraqi insurgents in media manipulation techniques.

U.S. military lawyers defending the Marines on trial for the Haditha “massacre” last November would do well to take a much closer look at the affiliation of the so-called “witnesses” who shot the incriminating footage of civilian victims after the running house-to-house battles in Haditha between the Marines and anti-U.S. insurgents.

They will find a similar pattern to many of the so-called Israeli “massacres” in Gaza and elsewhere; stage-managed events, planned and coordinated by Palestinian media manipulators, seeking to achieve maximum impact on world public opinion.