A family slaughtered in Israel – doesn't the BBC care?

[shira]

Who is Tamar Fogel? The chances are that you will have no idea. She is a 12-year-old girl who arrived home late on Friday, March 11, to discover her family had been slaughtered. Her parents had been stabbed to death; the throat of her 11-year-old brother, Yoav, had been slit. Her four-year-old brother, Elad, whose throat had also been cut, was still alive, with a faint pulse, but medics were unable to save him. Tamar's sister, Hadas, three months old, had also been killed. Her head had been sawn off.

There were two other Fogel brothers sleeping in an adjacent room. When woken by their big sister trying to get into a locked house, Roi, aged six, let her in. After Tamar discovered the bodies, her screaming alerted their neighbour who rushed in to help and described finding two-year-old Yishai desperately shaking his parents' blood-soaked corpses, trying to wake them up.

I found out about the barbaric attack not on BBC news, but via Twitter on Monday. I followed a link there to a piece by Mark Steyn entitled "Dead Jews is no news'. Horrified, I went to the BBC website to find out more. There I discovered only two stories: one a cursory description of the incident in Itamar, a West Bank settlement, and another focusing on Israel's decision to build more settlements, which mentioned the killings in passing.

As the mother of three children, one the same age as little Elad, who had lain bleeding to death, I was stunned at the BBC's seeming lack of care. All the most heart-wrenching details were omitted. The second story, suggesting that the construction announcement was an act of antagonism following the massacre, also omitted key facts and failed to mention the subsequent celebrations in Gaza, and the statement by a Hamas spokesman that "five dead Israelis is not enough to punish anybody".

more...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8402973/A-family-slaughtered-in-Israel-doesnt-the-BBC-care.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. The Israeli's appear to be getting their "Eye for an Eye"

I'm quite sure that the are and will be scores of Palestinians that can offer the equally horrific stories of death and destruction. BeBe Netanyahu is promising to bring "great force" down on the heads of the Palestinians in the next days. More death certainly does not seem to be any way to resolve anything. I hope someday the madness will end and peace can finally descend on that region.


"Gaza – PNN/PCHR - Ten Palestinians were killed, including four children, and 24 wounded during a week of Israeli attacks on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to the weekly report of the Palestinian Center of Human Rights (PCHR).

The report, which documents daily human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, covers the period of Thursday, March 17, 2011 to Wednesday, March 23, 2011. In Israeli airstrikes since Wednesday, at least five more Palestinians have been wounded in missile attacks in the Gaza Strip."


During the reporting period, Israeli troops killed 6 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, and 4 Palestinian resistance activists in the Gaza Strip. They also wounded 28 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 11 children.

In the Gaza Strip, on Saturday evening, 19 March 2011, the Israeli army killed two Palestinian children who were nearly 300 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. It is worth noting that on 17 March, Israeli aircrafts dropped fliers on border areas warning Palestinians from getting as close as to 300 meters from the border.

more...
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9775&Itemid=64

[King_David]

8. If you so sure help us out

'I'm quite sure that the are and will be scores of Palestinians that can offer the equally horrific stories of death and destruction'

Please give us a link ,where an Israeli Jew has slit the throat of a live breathing toddler.

[azurnoir]

10. I'll give you 2

Itai Ben-Dror, 38, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of stabbing to death his children aged 10, eight and five, whose bodies were found in his apartment in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1573066.php/Israel-shocked-by-father-s-murder-of-three-children

Demian Olegovich Kirilik, 39, like his victims an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, was arrested on October 23 and has reportedly confessed to his crime and reenacted the murder for police.

<snip>

Kirilik arrived at the Oshrenkos' apartment early on Saturday, October 17 and killed the family grandmother, Ludmilla. He then murdered Edward, before knifing the couple's daughter-in-law, Tatiana.

His fourth and fifth victims were the Oshrenko's two young children, a three-year-old girl and her three-month-old brother.

According to one account, he used brute force to kill the children, plunging the knife so hard into the three-year-old that the blade ripped though the body and tore the mattress

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1510847.php/Israeli-police-nab-suspect-in-worst-murder-in-country-s-history



now I suppose you could quibble about but they were just stabbed their throats weren't cut but IMO it is the same horrific and tragic stuff

[Violet_Crumble]

13. No, they can rightly quibble about it not being Palestinians who were murdered...

That was what it was about. It was about Palestinians being killed in horrific circumstances, not about Israelis being killed by Israelis. Not that it matters, coz it's a fucking stupid and pointless argument anyway...

[azurnoir]

15. well I'm sure his highness will be ever so grateful for your help

but the nationality of victim was not specified in his statement

"Please give us a link ,where an Israeli Jew has slit the throat of a live breathing toddler."

[King_David]

18. 'I'm sure his highness will be ever so grateful for your help'

Snarky

[azurnoir]

20. ah I take it you don't dig snarky? sorry n/t

[King_David]

23. 'don't dig snarky? '

Dig ?

[azurnoir]

24. The word 'dig' can have different meanings

my use was an 'archaic' slang meaning but I have recently seen it used in other ways

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Okay, so it's only very specific violent crimes that are equally horrific to you?

Yr going to need to explain how that works for you. Coz it sure as hell doesn't work any way I look at it...

[King_David]

17. Explain your question again please,I read it twice and do not understand.

[azurnoir]

21. I think it relates to what she said in comment #13

sorry if I misread your comment but IMO no ethnic group or nationality has a lock on good or evil or what a given individual might be capable of

hopefully that was my 'well duh' comment of the week

[LeftishBrit]

2. Wrong. I know the tragic story very well.

And from the British media. I am pretty sure that I did hear it on BBC News; but I certainly read about it in the much-maligned Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/14/fogel-family-massacre-israelis-palestinians

As for Louise Bagshawe, she is a Tory MP, and I doubt that she really gives tuppence about Israel; this is a weapon that she's using in the Tories' fight for cuts to and greater control of the BBC, whom they see as over-critical of *the Tories*. The Telegraph, for which she writes here, is vile, and, for all their bringing up antisemitism when it suits them as an argument against Muslims, include Christian-Right commentators whose threads act as magnets for right-wing antisemites. See this article, and especially some of the comments on it! (By the way, the Tali Argov episode took place pretty much in my backyard, and I am aware that it involved general cuts affecting lots of people, not special discrimination against Christians. The employment tribunal rejected her claim.)

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100049072/jewish-hostility-to-christians-the-prejudice-no-one-ever-writes-about/

I realize that by responding to this article I am just falling into the trap set by Bagshawe, who is using a human tragedy as a political pawn.

I cannot imagine the horror that Tamar Fogel is experiencing. I've known a child who came home from school to find his mother on the doorstep, murdered probably by a relative. I can think of few things more horrible. And Tamar's entire family was killed.

She and those who died deserve better than to be used as a pawn in a British political campaign not even related to Israel.

ETA: See Oberliner's thread on 'A private side of a public tragedy'.

[shira]

4. It's all part of a bigger more pervasive problem WRT how a lot of news is reported on I/P

For example, CNN and the BBC...
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2011/03/a_terrorist_attack_by_every_ot.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041694,00.html

Only Israel labels the perpetrators as "terrorists". Maybe there's some question as to whether it was in reality a terror attack (even Salam Fayyad called it that). The terrorist is described as an "intruder" by several media outlets. The victims are demonized as extremist settlers, as though that lessens the severity of the murders.

The recent Jerusalem bombing was handled the same way...
http://justjournalism.com/media-analysis/media-coverage-of-jerusalem-bombing/

This prompted Jeffrey Goldberg...

Dear Reuters, You Must Be Kidding
This is from a Reuters story on the Jerusalem bombing earlier today:

"Police said it was a "terrorist attack" -- Israel's term for a Palestinian strike. It was the first time Jerusalem had been hit by such a bomb since 2004."

Those Israelis and their crazy terms! I mean, referring to a fatal bombing of civilians as a "terrorist attack"? Who are they kidding? Everyone knows that a fatal bombing of Israeli civilians should be referred to as a "teachable moment." Or as a "venting of certain frustrations." Or as "an understandable reaction to Jewish perfidy." Or perhaps as "a very special episode of 'Cheers.'" Anything but "a terrorist attack." I suppose Reuters will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 by referring to the attacks as "an exercise in urban renewal."

The mind reels.

Just looking for consistency in reporting, that's all.

Had the tables been turned and innocent Palestinians were killed, it would be handled by the same press much differently and we both know it.
http://cifwatch.com/2011/03/23/4-simple-guardian-rules-for-journalists-reporting-a-terrorist-attack-in-israel-a-brief-primer/

======

Finally, note how silent much of the media is WRT Palestinian Authority and Hamas antisemitic incitement to violence, murder, hatred, etc... and the way in which they reward and celebrate such terror acts. Amira Hass actually touched on this recently and pretty much admitted to it...

In the binary thinking of those who oppose the Israeli occupation (Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners), public criticism of the tactics used in the struggle of an occupied and dispossessed people is taboo. It is as if criticism would create symmetry between the attacker and the attacked. To a large extent, this taboo has been broken with regard to the Palestinian Authority: Many opponents of the occupation have no qualms about portraying the PA as a collaborator, or at least as the captive of its senior officials’ private interests. But when it comes to Hamas’ use of arms, silence falls.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-sanctity-of-the-soaring-qassam-1.351249

There are so many things wrong with Hass' article, but I'm surprised she admitted so much.

Explains a lot of the thinking here...
:eyes:

[Ken Burch]

3. Stop the baiting

We ALL grieve for that family.

It's just that not all of us accept that this act justifies the Occupation and the settlements.

[shira]

5. Cut the ridiculous strawman arguments.

No one here claims this act justifies the occupation and settlements.

Minimizing the act, clouding the story with settlements and occupation, covering for the PA's incitement, and refusing to call the act "terrorism" does nothing to bring peace closer.

[Ken Burch]

6. Nobody has minimized the acts

We all agree that this was wrong.

[shira]

7. See all of #4 above. Take your time. n/t

[King_David]

9. Strawman

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[azurnoir]

11. From Haaretz

The private side of a public tragedy

Against the crowds who see the political significance of the murder of the Fogel family of Itamar vis-a-vis the background of their various national goals, one man wishes to remind us that his loved ones lost their lives

Everyone came to the funeral of the Fogel family members murdered in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, from members of the national-religious youth movement Bnei Akiva, in their blue shirts, to the "hilltop youths," with their long sidelocks. All the public leaders, Knesset members, settlement leaders and regional council heads came to the cemetery on March 13 to bury parents Udi and Ruthie, and children Yoav, Elad and Hadas.

The eulogizers' words were aimed at the large crowd, the people of Israel and the prime minister. One spoke about incitement, another about the defense minister's lax policy. Almost all were united in what they deemed the appropriate response to terrorism: building new settlements and neighborhoods.

Against this background, the voice of Motti Fogel, Udi's older brother, stood out. "If I could, I would get rid of everyone here and whisper to you, 'Let's go play soccer one last time,'" he said. "All the slogans about Torah and land settlement, the Land of Israel and the Jewish people try to make us forget the simple fact that you are dead. A person is born to himself, to his parents and his siblings, and he dies to himself, to his children, and in very bad cases also to his parents and his siblings. You are not a symbol or a national event, your life bore a purpose unto itself and we must not let your terrible death become a tool, no matter what for."

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/the-private-side-of-a-public-tragedy-1.351740

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=347199&mesg_id=347199


those who opportunistically use this murder for political capital and mudslinging over the way it has been reported should be ashamed

[cali]

16. It didn't happen in Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

19. A family slaughtered in Israel - doesn't the Telegraph care?

As far as I can see, the Daily Telegraph gave NO news coverage to the tragedy. The *only* references that I can see to the tragedy in that newspaper are this article by Bagshawe, and one by the regular Torygraph blogger Guy Walters, also complaining that the murders had been ignored: 'the world neither knows nor cares' - in a newspaper that did not report the murders as news, and only seems to care about them insofar as they can be used as a political weapon against 'left-wing' media. Walters himself, incidentally, sails pretty close to the wind with regard to antisemitism, and in particular has quite a hate-on about Simon Wiesenthal; e.g.:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/guywalters/100056051/why-cant-old-etonians-criticise-holocaust-survivors/

[shira]

22. Nope. Here's what they wrote the day after...

In response to an attack on a settler family over the weekend, Israel approved the construction of between 300 to 500 new homes in the West Bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8381183/US-deeply-concerned-over-Israeli-settlement-plan.html

That's beyond pathetic. An attack on settlers? What happened, were they mugged?

:eyes:

The massacre wasn't mentioned as it was only used as a pretext to report Israel's decision to build new settlements in reaction. Worse, in that same article, Israel's building was considered the big obstace to peace - nothing about Fatah's armed wing (which took responsibility) being any such obstacle at all.

Seriously, reading much of the media on I/P is like reading World Nut Daily, but in reverse.

[shira]

25. Correction....they reported it

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8378061/Israeli-settler-family-murdered-Palestinians-accused.html

See if you can find problems with their report of the incident.

[LeftishBrit]

27. You are right; they did report it

It was for some reason difficult to find it through the search function.

The use of the word 'attack' certainly seems to minimize the massacre of a family.

At any rate: my main points are (1) that Tory MPs like Bagshawe are bringing up the issue because they hate the BBC for reasons quite unrelated to Israel; (2) if one reads the Telegraph blogs and the comments on them, it is quite easy to find borderline and sometimes blatant antisemitism, despite all the stereotypes that this is specifically a feature of the left.