Monday, July 31, 2006

Sounds familiar: The Israeli press spins "Preemptive strike" and "Support our troops"

Sounds familiar: The Israeli press spins "Preemptive strike" and "Support our troops"
By Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com

Perhaps you are asking yourself, "Why is the average Israeli supporting the massacre in Lebanon?" Or "Why don't the Israelis fire Olmert? He obviously doesn't know what he is doing and totally miscalculated the success of his attack." Or "When a leader fouls up this badly and leads his country into an unwinnable quagmire, why do the Israelis put up with it?" I have the answer to that question in only one word.

"Spin."

Why did America attack Iraq? Hell, why did America even attack Afghanistan when the CIA knew that Osama bin Ladin was not supported by the Afghan people but only by the Pakistan-generated Taliban? You and I both know the answer to that one.

"Spin."

The Israeli public has already bought the "Preemptive strikes are necessary" fable. "Hezbollah has WMDs!" And now they are willingly swallowing the obvious next thing. Now that Olmert's Shock and Awe is a failure and the Golani army is bogged down in southern Lebanon, Olmert pulls out Bush's favorite next chestnut, "We have to support our troops."

Guess what? Americans fell for Bush's spin-doctoring hook, line and sinker and now we are bogged down in a war in Iraq that is far worse than the war in Vietnam. So. How do we expect the average Israeli to be any smarter than the average American? Bush is still parading around the White House in his flight suit. He's not in jail for war crimes. If GWB can get away with butchering over 100,000 Iraqi civilians and still have his game on, then how can we hold Israelis to a higher standard and expect THEM to be invulnerable to the Tel Aviv equivalent of Fox News? We can't.

"Spin."