As I wrote a few days ago, the main problem with criticism of Israel today isn’t what people are saying, but what they aren’t saying. They aren’t talking about Iran’s nuclear hegemony and their defiance of global non-nuclear proliferation efforts. Rarely do they speak of human rights abuses committed by the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban, even for the razing and destruction of girl’s schools that do not get a mention in the back pages of any newspaper.

The same United Nations that called for an “impartial” investigation of Israel’s interception of Turkey’s “aid” flotilla, publicly condemning the incident and generally acting as if Israel had committed an international crime, are the ones now trying to get the Taliban leadership removed from an international terrorist blacklist.

If that isn’t evidence that the international community has swallowed the Palestinian-Hamas sympathy propaganda machine hook, line, and sinker, I don’t know what is. Harvey Oberfeld demonstrates:

The jets streaked across the border into the neighbouring country with almost blinding speed … the sound of their screaming jets sending everyone below … including women and children … rushing for cover. Then the planes fired their missiles and rockets, killing two and injuring others, scaring scores more … innocent civilians among them; while ground troops, who also crossed the border, killed one more, and frightening hundreds more … before heading back across the frontier into their own country.

Damn Israelis! Ooops, wait a minute …. they were not Israelis; the attack on June 7 involved Turkish warplanes and troops, striking Kurds in Iraq, ACROSS their border. The deaths, the injuries, the civilian terror were all real … yet there were few news stories done anywhere on the attack (my source was a quick radio spot I heard and then the Reuters news wire) .

Where was the media? Where were the videos of the crying, screaming victims? Where were the tens of thousands of protestors around the world marching on the Turkish embassies? Where were the hard, tough questions or accusations hurled at Turkish leaders?

Nowhere.

So much for that “Zionist-controlled media” myth, I guess. In fact, if one were to look at the disproportionate sympathy articles about Gaza and Palestine, one could easily conclude that it is Hamas who are the masters of media manipulation.

Although no side is completely innocent in this long-standing conflict — it is a war, after all — it’s easy to see that the story that leads is the Gazan that bleeds. We hear twenty-four hour media speculation about Israel’s interception of the Turkish flotilla and unfortunate aftermath, but trying to find a byline on how many rockets and mortars continue to rain into Israel can be a real challenge.

And how could you be blamed for being misinformed, when our media is seemingly focused on the task of ensuring you are? While the left lament the hideous possibility of a right-wing news channel buried deep in some triple-digit cable slot, they’re perfectly content to nod in agreement with what passes for responsible journalism from the mother corporation:

The CBC also looks like it got caught up in the anti-Israel frenzy, reporting earlier that the child mortality rate in Gaza is among the worst in the World. I wonder who gave them that information! It’s totally untrue. In fact, the CBC Friday corrected itself, Gaza’s child mortality rate stands at 109 out out 224 countries. But the original propaganda damage to the Israelis was already done, just as Hamas and the Palestinians wanted.

It’s amazing to me to read scathing articles about the Zionist apartheid regime denying aid and murdering Palestinians at will, and yet the countries so willingly engaged in condemning these alleged human rights abuses, are themselves busy engaging in some of the most brutal abuses in the world today.