Hyperreality

I wonder if Russians would be dissapointed to learn that here in the West, few people think about them at all. Not necessarily a good thing, Ukraine needs our continued support, but still. Russia's basically less newsworthy than a d-list celebrity's latest affair.

"The truth of the matter is that my policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies that I had back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican,”

Obama, 2012.

I honestly don't know why people post obvious propaganda like this. It's like they don't even care about convincing anyone and are trying to undermine their own argument. It's not as if you can't find more than enough very critical coverage of Israel in reputable sources. Maybe they're so far down the rabbit hole, they genuinely think obvious propaganda outlets are more reliable than something like reuters.

t I think it's a mistake to confuse the Likud and further right wing parties as representative of all of Israel

Very true. The ruling coalition failed to gain a majority of votes, and only gained a majority in the knesset thanks to a recent rule change that disadvantaged smaller parties on the left. There were widespread protests when the far right government set about entrenching itself. People were worried about shit like this:

An article by former United States ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and former Jordanian United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra'ad in Foreign Policy argued that the insistence of Israeli right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on curbing the powers of the Supreme Court, stems from a desire to "more easily enact his vision of an Israel that extends unimpeded from river to sea," as the court had previously impeded the legalization of Israeli settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land.

When Hamas supporters chant From the River to the Sea, it's often argued to be supportive of genocide. Get rid of all the Jews, establish a Muslim Palestinian state. But the current finance minister has echoed exactly that rhetoric, but for a Jewish ethnostate. From what I've read, they're incredibly brazen about it, especially in Hebrew.

This far right government does not have popular support with ordinary Israelis. Especially now Netenyahu aka "Mr. Security" failed to prevent the attacks. I strongly recommend people read the English language version of Times of Israel or Hareetz to get an idea what part(!!!) of the population thinks about all this. For example, I found this article while reading Hareetz a few days after the attack:

These are dark times: the fear of a catastrophe waiting to unfold. Israelis still don’t know the fate of their loved ones, everyday Palestinians are trying to survive under an all-out Israeli attack, the Israeli government and Hamas, both corrupt and bloodthirsty

And to give people an idea of how genuinely far right some of the people in the current Israeli government are, a copy paste from wikipedia:

Itamar Ben-Gvir ... serves as the Minister of National Security ... Ben-Gvir, a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has faced charges of hate speech against Arabs and was known to have a portrait in his living room of Israeli-American terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in Hebron, in the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre. He removed the portrait after he entered politics. He was also previously convicted of supporting a terrorist group known as Kach, which espoused Kahanism, an extremist religious Zionist ideology ... He has called for the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel who are not loyal to Israel. Ben Gvir is "widely known for his openly racist, anti-Arab views and activities" ...

If you told me that some of these people, were likely secretly happy about the attacks because it gives them an excuse to go all out on their plans, I wouldn't be particularly surprised.

Copy-paste:

Al Jazeera:

... Officials of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party ... accused Al-Jazeera of bias toward Hamas (with which it is at political loggerheads), and Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan sued the broadcaster. ... On 15 July of that year [2009], the Palestinian National Authority (PA) closed down Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank in an apparent response to claims made on the channel by Farouk Kaddoumi that PA president Mahmoud Abbas had been involved in the death of Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Information Ministry called the organization's coverage "unbalanced" and accused it of incitement against the PLO and the PA. ... Al Jazeera reporters and anchors in London, Paris, Moscow, Beirut and Cairo have resigned. Ali Hashem, the organization's Shia Beirut correspondent, resigned after leaked emails publicized his discontent with Al Jazeera's "unprofessional" and biased coverage of the Syrian civil war at the expense of the 2011 Bahraini uprising. Since the Bahrain government was supported by the Gulf Cooperation Council (of which Qatar is a member), the protests were given less prominence than the Syrian conflict on the network. Longtime Berlin correspondent Aktham Suliman left in late 2012, saying that he felt he was no longer allowed to work as an independent journalist ... Al Jazeera faced criticism from Bangladeshi human rights activists ...accused of downplaying the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, in which Islamist militias assisted the Pakistan Army in targeting Bengalis ... demanded a ban on Al Jazeera transmission within Bangladesh citing similar bans in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE.

... Critics say in past years, Al-Jazeera — particularly its flagship Arabic channel — has reflected Qatari policy by promoting Islamist movements. Many of the region’s Arab rulers, particularly in Egypt and the UAE, see the Muslim Brotherhood group and its offshoots as a top threat. ... Al-Jazeera’s English and Arabic channels, as well as its news websites and its popular online AJ+ videos, do not mirror one another in style and target different audiences.

And:

Qatar’s dalliance with Islamist groups has long been the primary means for Doha to project influence in the Arab world, particularly through state support for Al Jazeera Arabic. After 2011, Qatar came to believe, and Al Jazeera Arabic confidently predicted, that a wave of Islamist governance would sweep in with new Arab democracies. Instead, the elected Brotherhood government in Egypt proved even more unpopular than the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship ... With the Brotherhood’s decline in prestige and power, Qatar’s bet has yielded precious few returns. And now Hamas’s disastrous rebranding in Western eyes could well force a reckoning with Doha’s irresponsible strategy.

Copy-paste:

Al Jazeera:

... Officials of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party ... accused Al-Jazeera of bias toward Hamas (with which it is at political loggerheads), and Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan sued the broadcaster. ... On 15 July of that year [2009], the Palestinian National Authority (PA) closed down Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank in an apparent response to claims made on the channel by Farouk Kaddoumi that PA president Mahmoud Abbas had been involved in the death of Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Information Ministry called the organization's coverage "unbalanced" and accused it of incitement against the PLO and the PA. ... Al Jazeera reporters and anchors in London, Paris, Moscow, Beirut and Cairo have resigned. Ali Hashem, the organization's Shia Beirut correspondent, resigned after leaked emails publicized his discontent with Al Jazeera's "unprofessional" and biased coverage of the Syrian civil war at the expense of the 2011 Bahraini uprising. Since the Bahrain government was supported by the Gulf Cooperation Council (of which Qatar is a member), the protests were given less prominence than the Syrian conflict on the network. Longtime Berlin correspondent Aktham Suliman left in late 2012, saying that he felt he was no longer allowed to work as an independent journalist ... Al Jazeera faced criticism from Bangladeshi human rights activists ...accused of downplaying the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, in which Islamist militias assisted the Pakistan Army in targeting Bengalis ... demanded a ban on Al Jazeera transmission within Bangladesh citing similar bans in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE.

... Critics say in past years, Al-Jazeera — particularly its flagship Arabic channel — has reflected Qatari policy by promoting Islamist movements. Many of the region’s Arab rulers, particularly in Egypt and the UAE, see the Muslim Brotherhood group and its offshoots as a top threat. ... Al-Jazeera’s English and Arabic channels, as well as its news websites and its popular online AJ+ videos, do not mirror one another in style and target different audiences.

And:

Qatar’s dalliance with Islamist groups has long been the primary means for Doha to project influence in the Arab world, particularly through state support for Al Jazeera Arabic. After 2011, Qatar came to believe, and Al Jazeera Arabic confidently predicted, that a wave of Islamist governance would sweep in with new Arab democracies. Instead, the elected Brotherhood government in Egypt proved even more unpopular than the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship ... With the Brotherhood’s decline in prestige and power, Qatar’s bet has yielded precious few returns. And now Hamas’s disastrous rebranding in Western eyes could well force a reckoning with Doha’s irresponsible strategy.

Much of Russia Today's coverage is also perfectly factual. They mix the lies in with the truths, to make it less obvious.

Feel free to continue posting al jazeera links, but people will be rightly sceptical. It is not a reliable source.

Thanks for the headsup on the dead link. I've replaced it with an archived link.

Obviously I'm not going to argue the US isn't hypocritical in its dealings with Qatar. You can also look forward to Europe doing exactly nothing, because they rely on Qatari gas.

But if you think it's damning that Qatar has close ties to the US, you should probably read this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas

That's the thing with people who spread pro-Islamist coverage, including stuff from al-Jazeera.

For years Hamas was supported by key players in Israel. A strong Hamas helped to sow division in the Palestinian cause, undermining the two state solution. People who support Hamas, and/or push pro-Islamist media, are arguably helping support the continued oppression of the Palestinian people.

Netenyahu and the Jewish supremacists in his government, certainly weren't too dissapointed by this recent Hamas attack. They have their excuse now. Thanks to Hamas and media like Al-Jazeera who support them.

Also huge doubt on the actual numbers themselves since it is, well, Aljazeera. Might as well listen to RT.

Copy-paste:

Al Jazeera:

... Officials of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party ... accused Al-Jazeera of bias toward Hamas (with which it is at political loggerheads), and Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan sued the broadcaster. ... On 15 July of that year [2009], the Palestinian National Authority (PA) closed down Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank in an apparent response to claims made on the channel by Farouk Kaddoumi that PA president Mahmoud Abbas had been involved in the death of Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Information Ministry called the organization's coverage "unbalanced" and accused it of incitement against the PLO and the PA. ... Al Jazeera reporters and anchors in London, Paris, Moscow, Beirut and Cairo have resigned. Ali Hashem, the organization's Shia Beirut correspondent, resigned after leaked emails publicized his discontent with Al Jazeera's "unprofessional" and biased coverage of the Syrian civil war at the expense of the 2011 Bahraini uprising. Since the Bahrain government was supported by the Gulf Cooperation Council (of which Qatar is a member), the protests were given less prominence than the Syrian conflict on the network. Longtime Berlin correspondent Aktham Suliman left in late 2012, saying that he felt he was no longer allowed to work as an independent journalist ... Al Jazeera faced criticism from Bangladeshi human rights activists ...accused of downplaying the 1971 Bangladesh genocide, in which Islamist militias assisted the Pakistan Army in targeting Bengalis ... demanded a ban on Al Jazeera transmission within Bangladesh citing similar bans in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE.

... Critics say in past years, Al-Jazeera — particularly its flagship Arabic channel — has reflected Qatari policy by promoting Islamist movements. Many of the region’s Arab rulers, particularly in Egypt and the UAE, see the Muslim Brotherhood group and its offshoots as a top threat. ... Al-Jazeera’s English and Arabic channels, as well as its news websites and its popular online AJ+ videos, do not mirror one another in style and target different audiences.

And:

Qatar’s dalliance with Islamist groups has long been the primary means for Doha to project influence in the Arab world, particularly through state support for Al Jazeera Arabic. After 2011, Qatar came to believe, and Al Jazeera Arabic confidently predicted, that a wave of Islamist governance would sweep in with new Arab democracies. Instead, the elected Brotherhood government in Egypt proved even more unpopular than the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship ... With the Brotherhood’s decline in prestige and power, Qatar’s bet has yielded precious few returns. And now Hamas’s disastrous rebranding in Western eyes could well force a reckoning with Doha’s irresponsible strategy.