Frisking Fisk

See my response in Red
Fisk’s original drivel is in black. Original source: http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk06092007.html

Frisking Fisk

When …………..yada yada yada…………. in the United States.
The problem, of course, is that these are all extraordinary facts which will not offend anyone. There are no suicide bombers in Ripley, no Israeli air strikes ("Believe It or Not, 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon") – yes but the vast majority were killed by Lebanese infighting, Palestinian infighting and the Syrian invasion forces – Also what about the many Israelis killed by indiscriminate PLO and Hezbollah shelling? Not important hey Rob , no major casualty tolls ("Believe It or Not, up to 650,000 Iraqis died in the four years following the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq") – a highly disputed figure from Lancet that is believed to be a gross exaggeration. See http://dissectleft.blogspot.com/2007/03/irrelevant-expertise-what-happens-when.html . See what I mean? Just a bit too close to the bone (or bones). Actually Rob – I don’t believe that Ripley’s is in the business of publishing errors which is not the case of the leftist holier-than-thou media.

But I was reminded of dear old Ripley when I was prowling through the articles marking the anniversary of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Memoirs there have been aplenty, but I think only the French press - in the shape of Le Monde Diplomatique - was prepared to confront a bit of "Believe It or Not". Yes the same French Press that at one time tried to convict Dreyfus in the late 19th century.

It recalled vividly - and shamefully- how the world's newspapers covered the story of Egypt's "aggression" against Israel.. - Believe It or Not it was Israel which attacked Egypt after Nasser closed the straits of Tiran and ordered UN troops out of Sinai and Gaza following his vituperative threats to destroy Israel. "The Egyptians attack Israel," France-Soir told its readers on 5 June 1967, a whopper so big that it later amended its headline to "It's Middle East War!". Egypt had closed the Straits of Tiran on May 22nd 1967 – cutting off Israel’s only supply route for oil. This Egyptian action was an act of war….international law was on Israel’s side as a pre-emptive strike once war has been declared is legitimate Also lets not forget that the Syrians were waging a terror war against Israel from the Golan Heights by their incessant shelling of civilian targets. Opps I forgot the shelling of Jews doesn’t count in your view…Believe it or Not!! ……

Quite so. Next day, the socialist Le Populaire headlined its story "Attacked on all sides, Israel resists victoriously". True On the same day, Le Figaro carried an article announcing that "the victory of the army of David is one of the greatest of all time". Believe It or Not, the Second World War - which might be counted one of the greatest of all time, had ended only 22 years earlier. (one of not the one … Come on Rob follow your own logic here. Anyway whats your point here? The Second World War didn’t end in Six Days…


Johnny Hallyday, France's undie-able pop star, sang for 50,000 French supporters of Israel - for whom solidarity was expressed in the French press by Serge Gainsbourg, Juliette GrÈco, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, ValÈry Giscard d'Estaing and FranÁois Mitterand. For once France was on the right track. The country has deteriorated since then as has your native UK. Although under Sarkozy better days in France may be back again (there is a tune for you)

Believe It or Not - and you can believe it - Mitterand once received the coveted Francisque medal from PÈtain's Vichy collaborationists…..Mitterand was also part of the French Resistance and was not exactly pro-Israel during his Presidency (although he was far better than that Scheister Chirac).

Only the president of France, General de Gaulle, moved into political isolation by telling a press conference several months later that Israel "is organising, on the territories which it has taken, an occupation which cannot work without oppression, repression and expulsions - and if there appears resistance to this, it will in turn be called 'terrorism'". Which it is very often - terrorism - with without the quotes.


De Gaulle – the same man who attempted to sow nationalistic dissident in Quebec, sold out his people in Algeria, and stabbed the Americans and the Brits in the back after they had liberated his country from the Nazis – A clear voice of reason and arguably one of the greatest post war weasels.

This accurate prophecy earned reproof from the Nouvel Observateur - to the effect that "Gaullist France has no friends; it has only interests". Yes it is hard to believe considering France’s history of Pan Arabism and Anti-Semitism? Must really show you how strong Israel’s case was. generally And Believe It or Not, with the exception of one small Christian paper, there was in the entire French press one missing word: Palestinians.

That’s because much of the Palestinian issue was churned up after 1967 as a way of the Arab world deflecting attention for their own shortcomings – Why was there very little demand for a Palestinian State prior to 1967 when Jordan occupied the West Bank? Where were you then?

I owe it to the academic Anicet MobÈ Fansiama to remind me this week that - Believe It or Not - Congolese troops from Belgium's immensely wealthy African colony scored enormous victories over Italian troops in Africa during the Second World War, capturing 15,000 prisoners, including nine generals. Called "the Public Force" - a name which happily excluded the fact that these heroes were black Congolese - the army mobilised 13,000 soldiers and civilians to fight Vichy French colonies in Africa and deployed in the Middle East - where they were positioned to defend Palestine - as well as in Somalia, Madagascar, India and Burma. Of course at the about the same time the Palestinian leader the Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini was asking Hitler to speed up the execution of Jews? Lets not forget as well the work by Moshe Dayan in fighting off the Vichy French in Syria as well.

Vast numbers of British and American troops passed through the Congo as its wealth was transferred to the war chests of the United States and Britain.
A US base was built at Kinshasa to move oil to Allied troops fighting in the Middle East.
But - Believe It or Not - when Congolese trade unions, whose members were requisitioned to perform hard labour inside Belgium's colony by carrying agricultural and industrial goods and military equipment, often on their backs, demanded higher salaries, the Belgian authorities confronted their demonstrations with rifle fire, shooting down 50 of their men. And of course its this same country of Belgium that was extremely oppressive of the local Cingolese population that is now one of the most ardent critics of Israel – Believe it or Not!!

At least 3,000 political prisoners were deported for hard labour to a remote district of Congo. Thus were those who gave their blood for Allied victory repaid. Or rather not repaid. The four billion Belgian francs which was owed back to the Congo - about £500m in today's money - was never handed over. Believe It or Not. Yes more European Hypocrisy.

While we are on the Believe it or not issue. Take a look at this.

POST BELOW HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mf18.html#u

When Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, officials took measures to improve the conditions that Palestinians had lived under during Jordan’s 19-year occupation of the West Bank, and Egypt’s occupation of Gaza. Universities were opened, Israeli agricultural innovations were shared, modern conveniences were introduced, and health care was significantly upgraded. More than 100,000 Palestinians were employed in Israel, and were paid the same wages as Israeli workers, which stimulated economic growth.

The rise in violence during the 1990s, and then the war instigated by Palestinian terrorists beginning in 2000, has taken a heavy toll on the Palestinian economy. To protect its citizens from suicide bombers and other terrorists, Israel was forced to take measures that had a deleterious impact on the economy in the Palestinian Authority. The most serious step was to limit the number of Palestinian workers entering Israel to reduce the risk of terrorists pretending to be workers slipping into the country. This raised the level of unemployment, which, in turn, had a negative spillover effect on the rest of the Palestinian economy.
Despite the collapse of the PA economy from the last five years of war, Palestinian Arabs are still better off than many of their neighbors. The most recent Human Development Report from the United Nations ranks the PA 102nd in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income out of the 177 countries and territories in the world, placing it in the “medium human development” category along with most of the other Middle Eastern states (only the Gulf sheikdoms are ranked “high”). The PA is ranked just 12 places below Jordan and one behind Iran; it is rated ahead of Syria (#105), Algeria (#108), Egypt (#120), and Morocco (#125).31

Few Palestinians would trade places with Arabs in neighboring countries. Well, perhaps, with one exception. They might aspire to the standard of living in the country ranked 22nd by the UN – Israel.