Media Throws Israel Under the Bus

Honestreporting.comBY 
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In the battle for public opinion, Israel’s enemies often claim that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is based on racial discrimination, apartheid laws and segregation. The goal is convince the public that Israel is like apartheid South Africa and therefore lacking in legitimacy.
In the latest effort to draw false analogies based on race, a Palestinian media stunt has attempted to twist the spirit of Martin Luther King and the American civil rights movement of the 1960s as six Palestinians boarded an Israeli bus in the West Bank in order to demonstrate Israeli “segregation” of Palestinians.
Judging by the amount of coverage, the international media was only too happy to give this publicity stunt exactly what it craved.
As the BBC acknowledged:
The West Bank Freedom Riders punched above their weight, drawing a lot of publicity for what was a relatively small event, reports the BBC’s Jon Donnison in the West Bank.
The comparison to the Freedom Riders of 1960s America seemed to capture the imagination as dozens of journalists gathered to see the small group board the bus, our correspondent says.
McClatchy mentions nearly 100 journalists waiting at a bus stop with the six Palestinians in the settlement of Kochav Yakov. Others reports refer to a veritable media scrum as the Palestinians boarded the bus.



So who bothered to include some vital context?
  • “Israel has no law barring Palestinians from its public transport in the West Bank” – Reuters
  • “no specific rule prevents Palestinians from riding the “Israeli” buses” – Associated Press, Daily Telegraph
  • “Palestinians are not explicitly barred from riding the Israeli buses” – Christian Science Monitor
  • “It is not illegal for Palestinians to travel on Israeli buses in the West Bank” – The Guardian
And who preferred not to challenge the false narrative?
The LA Times, BBC, Washington Post, AFP, The Independent all pointedly failed to make it clear that there is no law banning Palestinians from riding on Israeli buses, omitting this vital context.
Sheera Frenkel, however, went one step further writing for both McClatchy and The Times of London (subscription-only):
  • “Six Palestinian activists were arrested Tuesday when they attempted to enter Jerusalem on buses designated for Israelis alone.”
  • “Israel operates two bus lines in the West Bank that run through the circuitous mountains and into Jerusalem. Only Israelis, however, are allowed to use the bus system.”
  • “Many of the Jewish passengers said they were surprised to learn that Palestinians were not allowed on the Israeli bus system.”
  • “For some Jewish passengers it was a surprise to learn that Palestinians were not allowed on the Israeli bus system.”
Perhaps the passengers expressed surprise because Frenkel had told them something that is not actually true.
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New Agreement Will Expand U.S. Military Presence in Australia


November 16, 2011: U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard meet in her office at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia.


Fox News
November 16, 2011

CANBERRA, Australia –  President Obama insisted Wednesday that the United States does not fear China, even as U.S. officials acknowledged that a rising China is part of the reason for a new U.S.-Australia security pact created in response to Beijing's growing aggressiveness.

The plan is to have a Marine, air and ground task force using Australian facilities to act as a "force multiplier" in the region. No new U.S. bases will be built. Marines will rotate into and out of the region, building up slowly from 250. After the buildup is complete, they will total some 2,500. 

The number and frequency of U.S. aircraft using Australian air bases will increase and more bases will be in use. However, no numbers were given regarding air power, there is no ships element in this agreement.
Obama called the deployment "significant," and said it would build capacity and cooperation between the U.S. and Australia. 

"It also allows us to meet the demands of a lot of partners in the region that want to feel that they're getting the training, they're getting the exercises, and that we have the presence that's necessary to maintain the security architecture in the region," Obama said.



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U.S. Sheriffs Rise Up Against Federal Government: Sheriff Threatens Feds With SWAT Team ~ Grass Roots Take Charge!


Political Vel Craft
November 15, 2011
NOVEMBER 14, 2011 BY VOLUBRJOTR 25 COMMENTS

Sheriff Threatens Feds With SWAT Team

As more people became dissatisfied with federal government controls and land grabs, it was inevitable that local law enforcement would eventually see the bigger picture. At the northern California fairgrounds of Yreka last month, seven California sheriffs and another from Oregon gathered with a large group of citizens to say that they are finally going to do something about it.
“A giant has been awakened,” said Plumas County, Calif. Sheriff Greg Hagwood, “and they didn’t count on that,” speaking of the federal bureaucracy.
With exposure of the Emergency Management Center in San Luis Obispo a few decades ago, California began to offer the rest of the nation some evidence of the psychological conditioning aimed from the federal level at state, county and city law enforcement.
Dean Wilson, sheriff of Del Norte County (Sacramento), is a great example of this great awakening. He received the loudest and longest applause  for his candor in confessing past faults after apologizing for not understanding the central government assault and land grab being committed against the people and what he should have been doing about it. Only in the past year has he done a turnaround and begun to behave as a county sheriff instead of an extension of federal law enforcement.
“I had spent a good part of my life enforcing the penal code, but not understanding my oath of office,” he told the audience. “I was ignorant and naïve, but now I know of the assault against our people by the federal government.”
Host sheriff John Lopey of Siskiyou County, speaking about the federal environmental intervention, said: “I have told federal and state officials over and over that, yes, we want to preserve the environment, but you care more about the fish, frogs, trees and birds than you do about the  human race. When will you start to balance your decisions to the needs of the people?” Later he told the audience, “We are right now in a fight for our survival.”
Glenn Palmer, sheriff of Grant County, Oregon, said, “If an elected official has not taken an oath of office, he does not belong in office.”
AFP readers are familiar with the work of former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, who has spent the latter half of his life teaching sheriffs that they are the top law enforcement officers in their counties despite continuing federal intervention attempts. The ears that were deaf for so long may finally be starting to hear.
“It’s becoming a national movement now,” Mack told AFP, citing Immigration and Naturalization Service failure at the Mexican borders, the phony drug war, plus IRS and other unconstitutional intervention within these states.
His plans to take this movement national will be launched at a January meeting, where he anticipates 200 sheriffs will be in attendance.
“The county sheriff is the last line of defense guarding our people’s liberty,” he said.
Retired USAF Col. Richard Niemela of Reston, Va. has been exposing the federal monster for years.
He told AFP: “It’s the surreptitious domination by international globalists insidiously using unauthorized and illegal tactics to render null and void those historic and unique powers of the sheriff.”
Sheriff Swat Team
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China: Google Earth spots huge, unidentified structures in Gobi desert


Telegraph

November 15, 2011


Vast, unidentified, structures have been spotted by satellites in the barren Gobi desert, raising questions about what China might be building in a region it uses for its military, space and nuclear programmes.

China: Google Earth spots huge, unidentified structures in Gobi desert
Image 1 of 3
All of the sites are on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang... Photo: GOOGLE EARTH
Malcolm Moore
By , Shanghai and Thomas Harding, Defence correspondent
1:50PM GMT 14 Nov 2011
Comments313 Comments
In two images, available on Google Earth, reflective rectangles up to a mile long can be seen, a tangle of bright white intersecting lines that are clearly visible from space.
Other pictures show enormous concentric circles radiating on the ground, with three jets parked at their centre.
In one picture from 2007, a mass of orange blocks have been carefully arranged in a circle. In a more recent image, however, the blocks, each one the size of a shipping container, appear to have been scattered as far as three miles from the original site.
Another image shows an array of metallic squares littered with what appears to be the debris of exploded vehicles while another shows an intricate grid that is some 18 miles long.
All of the sites are on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang, some less than 100 miles from Jiuquan, the headquarters of China's space programme and the location of its launch pads.
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