Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East

Kiwis for Balanced Reporting On The Mideast New Zealand Media bias

April 7, 2009

A reasonable response?

A critical letter was received that at first glance seemed quite reasonable, but on closer examination was seen to be filled with errors and bias. The response by the KBRM chairman is shown below, followed by the letter itself.

Dear _ _ _ _ _ _,
Your letter is one of the few reasonably-written critical letters we have received, and I would like to answer you in the same vein.

First, I note that you don't cite many errors in the KBRM advertisement; your intention was to present ‘the other truth’ (which is pretty much what is seen abundantly in NZ newspapers). So my first question to you is, do you object to KBRM presenting what we call "the missing truth": the truth that shows Israel in a favourable light? If so, why?

Second, let's take a look at how truthful your ‘other truth’ is:

  1. You say ‘the Jewish state did not so much accept the land..., but requested it rather strongly.’ Did it ever occur to you that both could be true? Yes, Jews (or to be more precise, Zionists) requested the land - they had good reason to do so, but that doesn't mean they didn't accept the UN partition. While some Zionists might have preferred the entire British Mandate, the fact is they accepted the partition. The Arabs didn't.
  2. You say the UN decision involved a ‘mentality where natives can be uprooted and displaced.’ This is not true. Displacement was not part of the partition plan, or even expected. It happened because the Arabs decided to wage war on the Jews, and some of them then fled from the war they started.
  3. You call the partition ‘the first aggression, the start of the conflict.’ Partitioning a land between two competing groups has been done many times in the past and has never been called an act of ‘aggression’. A partition is not an aggression.
  4. You say ‘the following year understandably, the Arabs retaliated’. First, it wasn't the following year. Arabs began shooting at Jews the very hour the partition was announced, and Arab armies invaded Israel the day after Israel declared independence. Second, ‘retaliate’ means to strike back, to return blow for blow. But it was the Arabs who struck the first blow. Striking the first blow is not retaliation. Words have meanings, and it is this misuse of words that has caused so much misunderstanding.
  5. You claim that the Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank are proof that the 1967 war was not defensive. Once again, I invoke logic. The placement of settlements afterward is not inconsistent with the war being defensive. Israel even begged Jordan not to attack from the West Bank. They would not have done that if their purpose was to occupy the West Bank.
  6. You call them ‘illegal settlers’, but the legality of these settlements is a matter of dispute. In any case, given that 1.4 million Arabs live peacefully in Israel, why do you believe that the Palestinian state must be ‘Jew-free’?
  7. You say that Israeli Arabs ‘do not have the rights, the same freedom. They are second class citizens.’ Every country, including New Zealand, has minority groups that complain of second-class treatment. Apart from some residential segregation, which in most cases is voluntary, Arab Israelis have full rights and freedom, and are treated much better than, say, New Zealand treated German and Italian citizens during WWII. Why don't you complain about the way Jews are treated in Arab countries (if you can find any)?
  8. You say, ‘the grass is green in Israel, they made sure to get the precious wells.’ First, it was the UN, not Israel, that divided the land, and the division was based on demographics, not water. Second, over half the land given to the Jewish state was the Negev desert.
  9. It is true that Hamas ‘was elected democratically’, but they still ‘took over the government’. In fact, bloody fighting occurred between Hamas and Fatah, with the result that Fatah was victorious in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
  10. You claim that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are ‘a product of 60 years of suffering, injustice, displacement, refugee camps, invasion’, but you omit from your list the real reason for their existence — to drive the Jews into the sea and make all of Palestine an Islamist state.
  11. Yes, some Jews believe that ‘the land is theirs by divine decree’, but this is not governmental policy. There are extremists in every nation, and Israel has its share. Israel has never claimed the entire land of Palestine for itself..
  12. You say that Jews, ‘in the extreme’, believe that ‘the rest of us are Gentiles, unimportant, negligible.’ Where did you get that idea? In fact, Judaism is based on respect for all human beings.
  13. On what evidence do you say ‘Israel will do its very best to discredit or stop any inquiry for war crimes’? You may be surprised to learn that Israel takes morality of war very serious, even after fighting for 61 years to defend its citizens. Bad things happen in all wars, but Israel tries hard and investigates any allegation of immoral conduct on the part of its soldiers, even while its enemy flouts the rules of war. Why don't you complain of war crimes by Hamas and other terrorist groups, who glory in inflicting civilian casualties?

There are other errors and misstatements in your letter, but those are the main ones. One can only wonder what motivation leads to you object to facts favourable to Israel being presented, while you overlook or perhaps condone misdeeds of its enemies.

KBRM cares about truth and accuracy in our advertisements. If there are any errors in our advertisement that haven't been addressed above, please be so kind as to let me know. To be specific, put the "erroneous" statement in quotes, and then give evidence why you think it is wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to write,
Rodney Brooks, Chairman
Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Mideast

Here is the letter, as received:

An advertisement on 2 April, page B2 by your group (KBRM) caught my attention, as it was a text titled ‘Today's Nazis: The missing truth’. I found that this text was in fact missing a fair amount of truth and I would like to correct with the following, which I call ‘the other truth’.

The Jewish state did not so much accept the land given to it by the UN but requested it rather strongly. The UN meant well in according it, especially after their suffering, and the holocaust horrors unraveled, but this decision was laced with the old colonial/imperial mentality where natives can be uprooted and displaced to make way, just like you cut or uproot trees in a forest. In this 60 years old + conflict, this was the first aggression, the start of the conflict. The UN resolution creating this territory would have been the only one Israel ever adhered to regarding its invasive actions.

The following year, understandably, the Arabs retaliated and declared war to Israel. We have had this ongoing conflict ever since. If the 6-days-war of 1967 was a defensive operation, how can we explain that, 42 years on, some of the territory invaded then ‘defensively’, the West Bank has been colonized by illegal Jewish settlers. Had it been truly defensive, why would they have wanted to develop it, settle on it?

The 1.4 million Israeli Arabs may live peacefully in Israel, but they do not have the same rights, the same freedom. They are second class citizens, some areas are for Jews to live only, and some properties just for Jews to purchase, but it is most likely better than living in overcrowded war-torn Gaza, or economically bankrupted Palestinian territory, where water usually flows on the other side of the border... The grass is green in Israel, they made sure to get the precious wells.

Israel's is a poor democracy. Its proportional electoral system allows too many small parties, too much power, the typical ‘tail wagging the dog’ syndrome. Interestingly, Hamas, whether we like it or not, was elected democratically under international supervision, including the likes of Jimmy Carter and others. It is incorrect to say that Hamas took over the government. Hamas, Hisbolah, PLO with all the terror they create or created are a product of 60 years of suffering, injustice, displacement, refugee camps, invasion of Palestinians. They never existed before the arrival of Israel in the region.

What is very seldom mentioned in the media is that Jewish religious beliefs make the backbone of their actions, kept on the agenda by political extremists. Their self-righteous conviction is that the land is theirs by divine decree. In the extreme, they believe [ themselves ] to be the chosen people, the rest of us are Gentiles, unimportant, negligible: the Promised Land is theirs, nobody else's, has been for 2000 years even when they were away. We suggested readers to search in the Bible how they got to the Promised Land after Moses died; it was inhabited even then... and there was war...

Israel will do its very best to discredit or stop any inquiry for war crimes in the latest Gaza war in January. But for all these actions, it is losing the international community's support and credibility, fast.
Yours truly,
_ _ _ _ _ _