A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

And a Reuters caption can generate a thousand laughs.

Check out Israellycool's latest find.

Nice one Aussie Dave!

ABC News Bingo

Courtesy of Melanie Phillips, Honest Reporting has highlighted the one-sided nature of the mainstream media's (MSM) coverage of the conflict between Palestinians and Israel:

Much of the media, while focused on Israeli counter-terror measures, have, however, forgotten the constant Palestinian terror efforts that led to the IDF operations in the first place. This April alone, the following incidents illustrate that the media's impression that Israel shattered the calm is anything but accurate:

• Islamic Jihad terrorist captured near Tel Aviv after his bomb belt fails to detonate
• Palestinian bride arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out suicide bombing
• 3 Israelis injured in shooting attack near Modi'in
• Hamas calls for further kidnappings of Israeli soldiers
• Israeli cars shot at in West Bank
• Israeli civilian wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting
• Arrests prevent huge Hamas-planned car bomb in Tel Aviv
• Egypt arrests would-be Hamas suicide bomber near Israeli border
• Palestinian rockets hit Sderot home; several Israelis treated for shock

Further, Honest Reporting also refers to the blog Elder of Ziyon, who has tabulated the number of Qassam rockets bombarding Israel in the last three months:

February: as many as 83 rockets
March: as many as 56 rockets
April: as many as 63 rockets by April 24

So how does our own national news website fare in covering the conflict?

Unsurprisingly, a look at the headlines ABC News Online's Middle East Conflict section

Militants killed in Nablus raid
Israeli forces kill at least 6 Palestinians
Abbas 'reassured' BBC reporter still alive
Clashes as Palestinian journalists protest abduction
Israeli PM calls for diggers to stay in Iraq
Palestinians say no proof BBC reporter murdered
Palestinian wounded after stabbing Israeli police
Missing BBC journalist's parents appeal for information
BBC fears Gaza correspondent killed
BBC chief appeals for Gaza journalist's return
Israeli warplanes 'nearly shot down' US airliner

shows that they nicely fit with the MSM profile described by Honest Reporting.

If news coverage was a bingo game, the ABC would have a blank sheet with no numbers circled.

Holocaust Denial Avoidance Denial

From the UK's Daily Mail newspaper:

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

The UK's Daily Telegraph elaborates:

Some teachers dropped the Holocaust completely from lessons because of fears that Muslim pupils might express anti-semitic reactions. One school avoided teaching the Crusades because its "balanced" handling of the topic would directly contradict what was taught in local mosques.

Education from local mosques being what it is.

The BBC digs deeper into the Historical Association report to find this logical reasoning:

The Historical Association report claimed: "Teachers and schools avoid emotive and controversial history for a variety of reasons, some of which are well-intentioned.

"Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.

"In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship."

Which is worse:

• the revisionism by a minority community (read 'Islamist anti-Semitism'),
  
• the response - or more accurately, the lack of one, or
  
• the apology for the (lack of) response?

The UK is not having a great time of it at the moment.

I wonder what Winston Churchill would have thought.

(Hat tip: Dean)

UPDATE: Now that is more like it.

UPDATE 2: Via Melanie Phillips, the UK's Holocaust Education Trust has released a long statement highlighting among other things about the incident:

This is an anecdotal response from one teacher in one school out of four thousand five hundred secondary schools in the UK. While we cannot say what happens in every single school, our understanding is that this is highly unusual and not general practise of teachers around the country.

Non-existent is preferable to highly unusual.

Some Speech

Thanks to reader Dan L for bringing attention to the post at Andrew Landeryou's website.

Pastor John Hagee speaks at the 2007 AIPAC Conference.



Humbling.

A Christian that makes a Jew proud to be Zionist. Ironic.