Palestinian Distortion of Stabbings Finally Gets Israeli Mainstream Media Attention

In my last posts, I have been focusing on how the Palestinians media perceive the stabbings of Jews by Palestinians. I devoted two posts to the Afula attempted stabbing by an Arab woman, who was unsuccessful in her stabbing attempt and was shot in the legs by security personnel to neutralize her. I also devoted one post to the explosion of a car carrying gas canisters and incendiary materials driven by an Arab woman. It is true that these were small incidents (and involved no fatalities) in the current large wave of Palestinian Terror that is sweeping Israel in which Jews (including innocent women and children) are being targeted by Palestinian terrorists;  my intention is to show how the blatantly terrorist event is perceived by the Palestinian propaganda machine and how it is explained to Palestinians and the world media.

I have purposely taken micro events because they are more manageable for a blog such as this. We have seen that the Palestinian media and Arab Members of the Knesset invert the facts so that the 'victim' is the Palestinian knifer/terrorist and the Jewish victim becomes 'the aggressor'. Ahmed Tibi persistently shouts 'we are the victims'. He knows that the media is the message; the victim and underdog automatically generates sympathy.

Thus, Israeli Arab members of Knesset and Palestinians call shooting a stabber in the legs murder, even though no one was killed. A policeman who was doing his job (he stopped the car because there was a traffic violation; he didn't know it was being driven by an Arab) and was a good Samaritan and wanted to put out the fire in the Arab woman's car (he didn't know she was a terrorist intending to blow up her car) is described as preventing the woman from getting out of the car with her child (there was no child). The Palestinian news agency Ma'an had no problem printing the detailed account of an anonymous Palestinian 'witness'. (How are you going to argue with someone that's anonymous?).

In the Palestinian propaganda war, facts have only marginal importance and a picture that can be 'interpreted' for their own propaganda and political purposes is the primary exhibit of their so-called 'truth'.

I was happy to see that Ynet is finally beginning to pay some attention to how Palestinian propaganda is distorting the facts. The truth is the mainstream media coverage of this important issue for Israel is rather thin. If you are interested in detailed examples of distorted and malicious Palestinian propaganda, see Palestine Media Watch here.

Palestinians Say Wounding Afula Female Terrorist is 'Murder' - Follow-up

On October 9, Assara Zidan, a single mom who studies at a local college and is separated from her husband, entered the Central Bus Station of Afula, a major town in Israel's Jezreel Valley region, and near one of the bus platforms, screamed and drew a knife on a soldier. Security personnel shot her in the legs to bring her down when she refused to drop her knife.
After the video was uploaded to the Internet, the pro-Palestinian talkbackers 'interpreted' the video as showing the lady holding her hands up trying to surrender, and the cruel Israelis shooting her.
Well, sorry dear talkbackers, even the Israeli Palestinian leadership doesn't buy the 'holding up her hands, trying to surrender' business (see below).
The Palestinian leadership, however, does indeed claim that it was a 'cold-blooded shooting' with intent to 'murder' (see my earlier post).
On October 11, journalist Attila Somfalvi interviewed Dr Basel Ghattas a member of Balad party and currently serving as a member of the Israeli Knesset for the Arab Joint List alliance.
Consider the following exchange (edited because of shouting and simultaneous overtalk). You can listen to the original here):

Dr Basel Ghattas: Whoever shoots with intent to kill ... police officers shot a young woman in Afula, even if she has a knife in her hand ... shot to kill ...
Attila Somfalvi: They shot her in her feet. She held a knife in her hand and tried to stab a soldier.
Dr. Basel Ghattas: For this you have to kill her.
Attila Somfalvi: She was not killed. She is being treated in a hospital.

Masud Ghnaim and Ahmed Tibi are also part of this chorus, as are others.

And so the lies are propagated, morphing relentlessly into a Palestinian 'narrative' that bears little resemblance to what actually happened and magnifying a distorted bogeyman of Israel and Jews as an object of hatred and rage.

Palestinians Starting to Recruit Their Women to Kill Jews?

The Palestinians made a valiant effort to describe the moderate wounding of an knife-wielding Arab women terrorist in Afula as a 'cold-blooded shooting' and 'murder'. Palestinian leaders and Internet responses raged about how 'tough' Israeli soldiers had shot a defenseless woman, who could have been disarmed by other means. The Palestinian 'narrative' of this event was not very convincing, since it contradicted the basic evidence. Not only that, the Palestinian 'narrative' disregarded the long history of women suicide bombers, of which Israeli security personnel were obviously aware when they decided to disarm the woman knife-wielder by wounding her.

At this point in time, an argument could be made that this woman was in fact a 'lone wolf terrorist' and, as such, does not indicate any particular trend in the current wave of Palestinian Terrorism. The actual details of how this woman came to be a terrorist will be revealed after she is interrogated, because she has lived to tell the tale.

Nonetheless, the Palestinian Terrorism trend now seems to be to recruit women to do the dirty business of terrorist work.

Thus, this morning, October 11, Ynet reports that a woman driving a vehicle detonated an explosive device when she was stopped near a checkpoint leading into Jerusalem.  The terrorist, a 31-year-old resident of the A-Tur neighborhood in East Jerusalem, married to a Palestinian but with no children, was severely wounded. Police said she also had gas canisters in her car (which did not explode) and was on her way to Jerusalem to carry out a bombing. The Judea and Samaria District Police said that a traffic officer noticed the vehicle driving in the bus lane on route 437, which connects Ma'ale Adumim and a-Zaim checkpoint. He signaled her to stop by the side of the road. This is what the officer said happened next:

I stepped over to her car, thankfully wearing a kevlar vest, and told her: 'Lady, you committed a traffic felony, She didn't seem to know what was going on, so I started speaking to her in Arabic, at which point she started shouting 'Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar! and I noticed smoke coming out of the car, I thought her car was on fire, so I ran to get an extinguisher, and then I heard a blast.

The wounded officer was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center with reported burns to his face. The woman is in critical condition in Hadassah Hospital.

In contrast, the Palestinian Ma'an News agency provides the account of a nameless witness, who gives a rather detailed technical explanation: i.e., that it was not a terrorist attack, but rather the woman driver panicked after an electrical failure caused a fire, which exploded the car's airbag. No explanation is given for the gas canisters. Also, the anonymous witness also claims that the lady had a child in the car, but no mention of a child is made by police sources and the lady is even reported to have no children.

In the afternoon, the Israeli police stated that handwritten documents supporting Jihad were found on the terrorist after a search and that the terrorist said she had ignited a gas canister. It should be noted that car bombs usually use detonators to explode additional explosive material such as gas canisters. This is may have been what happened in this case.

Unlike the 'lone wolf' knife terrorist, car bombs driven by women require an infrastructure, additional personnel and technical knowledge (and usually funding). The lady did not wake up one morning and decide to do this. This incident has all the telltale signs of a female suicide car bomber. A troubling and more dangerous development in the current wave of Palestinian Terrorism may be brewing.

Palestinians: Wounding Afula Female Terrorist is 'Murder'

Have you read the title of this post correctly? Can it be? Read on and follow this breaking story.

Ynet reported that on October 9, Assara Zidan, a single mom who studies at a local college and is separated from her husband, entered the Central Bus Station of Afula, a major town in Israel's Jezreel Valley region, and near one of the bus platforms, drew a knife on a soldier and began to scream. Luckily, there were security personnel nearby who saw the knife in her hand. As it turns out, there is actually a video of part of this event. From the video, it seems clear that the woman in traditional Muslim garb still has the knife raised in her hand. Furthermore, the police are calling to her probably to drop the weapon and lie down, which she does not do. She is kept at bay for a while by soldiers, till a policeman arrives, and she is shot several times in her lower body. She was taken to the hospital in 'moderate' condition. In situations where it is possible to neutralize a terrorist without shooting to kill, it is commendable that Israeli security forces routinely do so. On the British Independent newspaper site, the pro-Palestinian talkback interpretation is that she had her hands up, but I think its clear that she was wielding a knife and did not want to put it down. Finally, Israel Today informs us that the family claims that she had mental problems.

So, what was the reaction of Israeli Palestinians to this act of terrorism?

Her friends said, "This is a cold-blooded shooting, They [the Israelis] want to force us into becoming terrorists."

Another source in the Arab sector said: "The Government has given the green light to murder Arabs."

'Cold-blooded shooting'? 'Murder Arabs''? I ask you, dear reader, does this response, in tone or substance, bear any relation to the events that actually occurred. Is not a knife in the hand of a screaming terrorist who attempted to attack a solder and refuses to disarm a sufficient pretext to shoot to neutralize that person? Was anybody actually murdered here?

Well, for Palestinians, if they can't get their terrorist dead, at least they can shout 'murder'.

On October 10, at a large demonstration of Israeli Arabs in Nazareth, this so-called 'unprovoked' shooting of Assara was protested. So, I suppose this perversion of truth will join the already crowded list of Palestinian myths and lies intended to defame the good name of Israel, the only viable, true democracy in the Middle East.

By the way, it is well known that in Arab society a single woman with a child is considered an outcast. In the past, some of these women have committed terrorist acts to regain their status and redeem themselves. Female terrorists with this profile have in the past murdered many people in a single terrorist act by blowing themselves up in a crowded public place. There have also been many cases of stabbings and other terrorist acts committed by such female Palestinians.