Jenin II

The Gaza flotilla clash is another chapter in the propaganda war

LITTLE DID WE THINK IN WRITING THE headlines for our last issue that what we recognized might possibly come true actually would come true.

Our main front page story in that issue was about the possible outcome of the confrontation between the "Free Gaza" flotilla and the Israeli navy. When we sent those pages to press, days before the confrontation, we headlined our main story "Gaza flotilla flap1'. The "flap", of course, unfortunately turned into a "fiasco".

The international condemnation of Israel which followed from nearly all corners was remarkable in-and-of itself.

Yes, the deaths of the flotilla activists were regrettable, even if they were the result of what was characterized as a "brutal ambush [of Israeli commandos] at sea".

But beyond that - why, without waiting ilardly a moment after the first details of the confrontation became known, was there such an immediate, explosive, and self-righteous international condemnation of Israel?

And why the demand for a "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation" (thus the United Nations), and the expectation that Israel will "conduct a full and credible investigation" (thus State Department spokesman RJ. Crowley on June 1)?

One expects such absurdities from the Halls of Shame at the United Nations, but from the United States? Is there a scintilla of doubt in the Obama administration that the Israeli judicial system is not only capable of undertaking such a task, but - more notably - that it has done so timeand-again, under the most difficult of circumstances, in the most exemplary and dispassionate manner, displaying admirable and outstanding integrity?

THOSE WHO RUSHED TO JUDGMENT, condemning Israel without a moment's thought, are not friends of Israel. They certainly are not fair-minded.

But what is the Gaza Flotilla Flap except another "Jenin Massacre" of 2002?

Remember yesterday's "war crimes"?

How PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat claimed that "more than 500 people" were slaughtered by Israel and buried in mass graves? How the UN's Terje Roed-Larsen found a tour of Jenin "horrifying beyond belief? How The New York Times reported on "refugees" who "hope to find survivors" (April 18, 2002)? How Amnesty International called for an "international investigation"? How, within three weeks after that operation, there were 360 antiJewish incidents in France alone? And how, in the end, it turned out that there were 53 Palestinians, and 23 Israeli soldiers, who died in the Jenin confrontation? (Jewish Star, May 24, 2002).

And what, after all, was Jenin but Lebanon 1982? And what was that but Deir Yassin of 1948?

The names and places change. The propaganda war continues.