#PropagandaWaves: The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade or the ‘Free Gaza’ Movement?

Here’s a headline, from Roy Greenslade blog in the Guardian, Nov. 5, about the latest flotilla propaganda stunt which could have been written by spokesmen for the Free Gaza Movement:    

A “peace flotilla”.

I guess that’s the term for anti-Zionist activists intent on violating the legal blockade of a sovereign country established to prevent the flow of weapons into a terrorist controlled territory. 

A few highlights from Greenslade’s propaganda communique.

A Scottish TV reporter was among a group of journalists arrested earlier today when Israeli soldiers boarded two ships sailing toward Gaza.  Hassan Ghani who works for Iran’s Press TV, was detained

Sure, Ghani may be an apparatchik for the state controlled propaganda tool of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but who is Greenslade to judge?  

Then this:

The ships were forced to sail into the Israeli port of Ashdod, where all 27 passengers were handed over to the authorities.

They were aboard the Canadian vessel Tahrir (Arabic for liberation) and the Irish boat Saoirse (Irish for freedom), which were reputedly carrying medical equipment from Turkey to Gaza.

I don’t know how you say Guardian Left Dupe in Arabic or Irish, but, as we posted on Friday shortly after the flotilla was intercepted, and as the media has subsequently reported, the vessels were not carrying medical supplies or cargo of any sort. 

Finally, this:

“The flotilla, meant to be a symbolic and non-violent peace gesture,

Truly remarkable. Thousands of tons of supplies flow freely into Gaza daily by land – the IDF even has a page on its website with instructions on how people can donate additional goods to the Hamas controlled territory – and a ship carrying absolutely no cargo is a “peace gesture”. 

Moreover, in 2009 alone more than 10,000 patients and their companions left Gaza for medical treatment in Israeli hospitals.  

That is, Israel treats thousands of Palestinians – citizens of a country with whom they are at war – free of charge each year.

But, who can be concerned with such quotidian concerns as food, medicine, and humanitarian aid when you can manufacture a publicity stunt and be assured of favorable coverage by the world’s leading liberal voice?

Related articles

• The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade, Ha’aretz and the political pathos of the radical left (cifwatch.com)
• IDF makes contact with crew of flotilla near Gaza, who admit they “have no cargo”! (cifwatch.com)
• Great comment by Guardian reader in reply to Greenslade blog post about limits on journalists covering flotilla (cifwatch.com)
• Radical Terrorist Chic on the high seas yet again (cifwatch.com)
• Guardian moderators inexplicably delete comment beneath post by Roy Greenslade (cifwatch.com)
• Guardian and Independent coverage of second flotilla omits key facts (cifwatch.com)
• Next Hamas-supporting stunt by Western ‘activists’: the ‘Flytilla’ (cifwatch.com)