Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein must have a new bucket of paint, because the WorldNetDaily Jerusalem reporter is engaging in a new round of whitewashing.
An Aug. 3 article by Klein asserted that "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert now has directed his forces to forcibly evict two families that moved into a market in Jewish sections of Hebron, the oldest Jewish community in the world." He features quotes taken from a Jersalem Post article about Shlomit Bar-Kochba, who moved back into the market with her husband and eight children.
But Klein leaves out one important detail that the Post reported: Shlomit Bar-Kochba is the daugher of Moshe Zar, who purchased large amounts of land in the West Bank (Samaria) to develop Jewish settlements. Neither the Post nor Klein tell the story of Moshe Zar -- and his terrorist past.
In the 1980s, Zar was a part of a "Jewish underground" group that targeted violence against Arabs in the West Bank and plotted to destroy the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jersalem. Zar served a short prison term for his role in the bombings of the cars of three Arab West Bank mayors. Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka lost both legs in the bombing. A July 22, 1985, Washington Post article noted that Zar and 14 others put on trial over the bombings were "vigorously supported by leaders of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and by many Israeli members of parliament from the Likud bloc and other right-wing parties."
In other words, these are no ordinary, everyday Israelis who are being evicted. They are right-wing activists trying to make a political statement -- something Klein utterly fails to address.
Klein's exclusion of the political aspect extends to his description of the Hebron dispute:
In January 2006, Jewish families took up occupancy to strengthen Jewish ties to the area following the murder of an infant by a Palestinian sniper, yards away from the market.
[...]
Following a standoff with the army last year, the Jews who had moved into the market decided to leave, reportedly after receiving promises from military officials they could return a few months later, after the court systems – which deemed the property Jewish – worked with the IDF to verify the legality of the Jewish residence.
Here's how the Jerusalem Post described the incident:
Back in 2006, hundreds of right-wing activists, mostly teens and young adults, had flocked to the city to defend the right of eight Jewish families to live in the stalls which had not been operated by Palestinian merchants since 1994.
But at the time, said Bar-Kochba, given the option for a peaceful outcome, her family and the others who lived in the former shops chose to avert violence, and the activists dispersed.
Again: These are right-wing activists doing this. Even the Jerusalem Post has admitted it. Why can't Klein tell that to his readers?
Because whitewashing the extremist backgrounds of the Israelis he sympathizes with is what he does. As we've documented, Klein has portrayed the AWOL Israeli soldier who killed four Arabs on a bus as being a murder victim when those who witnessed the soldier's shootings subdued and killed him, and he has hidden the violent, extremist backgrounds of other right-wing Israelis he has featured.
The whitewashing has apparently worked for Klein in the past, despite the existence of the Internet and, thus, the ability to learn what he's not reporting. And Joseph Farah apparently approves. Why would he bother to start being honest now?
