Tabloid Tactics

This headline:

"NDP delivered plea to Israel not to harm Canadian Gaza flotilla boat"

introduces the article in which we are told that:

"NDP Leader Jack Layton and foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar delivered that plea directly to Israel's ambassador to Canada, Miriam Ziv, during a meeting at the opposition leader's office in early June."

What do you make of such an appeal? I'll tell you what I think of these sly and malevolent formulations, intended a-priori, to put an onus of preconceived blame on the party being appealed. As if Israel is in the business of harming humanitarian activists as a matter of policy.

Paul Newman once explained how Tabloids manufacture their sensationalist appeal.

A reporter asks him: "How often do you beat your wife?"

He replies, "But I don't beat my wife"

Next morning the headline reads: "Paul Newman denies beating his wife".

This is exactly the kind of media manipulation and political ethics that animate the initiative taken by NDP Leader Jack Layton and foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar.

Note the subtle re-writing of the facts, suggested by the report about these two gentleman:

"They were trying to prevent a repeat of last year's tragedy when nine activists taking part in a similar flotilla on a Turkish boat were killed in a raid by Israeli commandos."

Those "nine activists" , who were they?

"However another group of some 40 IHH activists had boarded the ship earlier in Istanbul and had kept themselves separate from the other passengers throughout the journey.

These activists did not go through security, and were equipped with walkie-talkies and ceramic flack jackets tagged with Turkish flags. They were apparently given stickers labeled "security," and set their headquarters on the top deck of the ship, where no other passengers were allowed. The group was organized into a clear command structure, with some of the activists commanding smaller units.

IHH director Bulent Yildirim, who was on board the Mavi Marmara, reportedly delivered a detailed briefing to the group some two hours before the Israeli commandos arrived. Their task was to repel the Israeli forces by any available means and push them back into the sea.

"> Although the ship's crew prohibited weapons on board, the IHH had prepared metal rods and chains in advance; the rods were said to have been sawed off from the deck's railings. One of the crew officers told his interrogators that the crew tried unsuccessfully to confiscate the saws from the IHH group. The group also commandeered all the knives from the six dining rooms on the ship, the axes from the firefighting kits and metal rods found in lifeboats. All of these items were later used to attack the Israel Navy com

I have my own plea addressed to to Jack Layton and Paul Dewar. Considering Canada's shameful history in its treatment of Jewish immigration during and after the Holocaust, these political leaders must do their utmost to ensure that no Canadians are seen to collaborate with the Hamas government, which is dedicated, through its declarative charter and deeds, to the annihilation of Jews in Israel. Jack Layton and Paul Dewar, as elected leaders in free Canadians elections, bear a terrible moral responsibility to avoid any acts that can be seen as promoting, assisting and abetting governments and organizations from carrying on with their genocidal agenda.