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Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR): UN Tells Israel: Cease Fire; NYT Says: If You Want

The editorial boards of the nation’s major media organizations must have been frantic last week.

Used to reporting on US foreign policy, wars and arms exports so as to portray the United States as a benevolent, law-abiding and democracy-defending nation, they were confronted on March 25 with a real challenge dealing with Israel and Gaza. No sooner did the Biden administration, for the first time, abstain and thus allow passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution that was not just critical of Israel, but demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, than US officials began declaring that the resolution that they allowed to pass was really meaningless.

It was “nonbinding,” they said.

That was enough for the New York Times (3/25/24), which produced the most one-sided report on the decision. That article focused initially on how Resolution 2728 (which followed three resolutions that the US had vetoed, and a fourth that was so watered down that China and Russia vetoed it instead) had led to a diplomatic dust-up with the Israeli government: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to Washington by a high-level Israeli delegation to discuss Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah and the future of Gaza and the West Bank.

It should be noted that the New York Times, when there is a dispute regarding a document, typically runs a copy of the document in question—or, if it is too long, the relevant portion of it. In the case of Resolution 2728, which even counting its headline only runs 263 words, that would have not been a hard call. Despite the disagreement between the US and most of the Council over the wording of the ceasefire resolution, the Times chose not to run or even excerpt it.

Fucking Hasbara Times. And this is just weeks after their Al-Aqsa Flood atrocity porn fabrication was exposed by The Intercept: “Between the Hammer and the Anvil” The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé

Not to imply that the Times was the only one: the FAIR article goes on about other US media misrepresentations, and compares them to European media coverage of the UNSC resolution.

Deconstructed podcast interview about the piece with the journalist:
How the Gaza War Is Reshaping Social Media

Since Hamas’ attack on October 7, Israel has used American bombs in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 32,000 people — 13,000 of them children — with countless others buried under the rubble, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel is credibly accused of starving the 2 million people who remain, according to the UN special rapporteur on the right to food; a group of charity leaders warns that without adequate aid, hundreds of thousands more will soon likely join the dead.

Yet Israel is still planning to invade Rafah, where the majority of people in Gaza have fled; UN officials have described the carnage that is expected to ensue as “beyond imagination.” In the West Bank, armed settlers and Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinians, including US citizens. These actions, which experts on genocide have testified meet the crime of genocide, are conducted with the diplomatic and military support of the US government.

I am haunted by the final social media post of Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old US Air Force serviceman who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington on February 25: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

NPR: A former State Department employee speaks out against Biden's support for Israel

NBC: Israel faces growing U.S. ire on war in Gaza A State Department official told NBC News she felt she had no choice but to quit over American support for Israel, while a new poll found that a majority in the U.S. now oppose its ally's actions in Gaza.

Reposting here in case anyone missed the c/worldnews posting two days ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs#COVID-19 (emphasis mine)

In spring 2020, Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, appointed Sachs as chair of its COVID-19 Commission, whose goals were to provide recommendations for public health policy and improve the practice of medicine. Sachs set up a number of task forces, including one on the origins of the virus.

Join me, Maggie Mae Fish (she/her), as I explore the history of labor in Hollywood and the House Un-American Activities Committee that led to blacklists. It’s all sadly relevant! From “woke” panic to “cultural marxism,” it’s all the same as the far-right teams up with literal gangsters to crush the working class.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the proposed transitional council in Haiti, meant to provide a political transition and bring stability to the troubled Caribbean nation, is still not set but he expressed confidence it will happen in the coming days.

Blinken said the international community has been working for months on the multinational security force, led by Kenya and other African and Caribbean nations in support of the Haitian police. He said it is moving forward but will not be in place until the transitional council is set up.

I thought Kenya had backed out three days ago, but as of two days ago they’re back in?

Liberation News: ‘Transitional Council’ scheme is a U.S. plot to subvert Haiti’s independence

This military/police intervention is justified as a necessary measure to save the country from the chaos of gang violence. “Gang violence” is being used just like “bandits” were alleged to be the reason the US had to invade Haiti in 1915. The imperialists are trying to hide the fact that the rise of armed groups in Haiti in the past several years, is a direct result of their own policies that deliberately hollowed out the state. Focusing on “gang violence” also aims to send a message that there are no Haitian solutions to Haitian problems, and that order can only be installed from the outside.

The possibility of another UN/U.S.-backed intervention, whether with Kenyan or any other country’s forces, is strongly rejected by Haitian leftists and solidarity activists as the precursor to a years-long occupation of the country. Travis Ross of Canada-Haiti Information Project, writing for Haiti Liberte nearly six months ago, explained that while the Kenyan security mission’s “purported purpose is to combat gangs, the primary goal is to facilitate a controlled changeover from [unelected interim Haitian Prime Minister Ariel] Henry’s embattled regime to another transitional government also beholden to Washington.”

After the disgraced prime minister Henry resigned from his post on March 11, Irfaan Ali, Guyanese President and Chair of CARICOM, held a press conference in Kingston, Jamaica. Ali put an agenda on the table for a “transitional governance arrangement” in order to enforce the “rule of law”. This strategy did not include real input from the Haitian people, only hand-picked “Haitian stakeholders” and “international development partners” which consisted of representatives from Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, the United Nations, and the United States. These are many of the same players that have been responsible for the destabilization and repression of Haiti since the nation’s independence. It is clear that this agenda is to install a US/UN-managed, pliable Haitian government that will carry out occupation and not take care of Haiti’s oppressed majority.

Relatedly:
The Marc Steiner Show: The white identity politics of Christian nationalism From the colonial period to now, the hallmarks of Christian nationalism—a white savior complex, hostility to democracy, appeals to selective authoritarian violence—have thoroughly shaped American politics.

“Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nation’s Capital on January 6th, 2021,” as the description of Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry’s new book, The Flag and the Cross, notes. “And many were bewildered by the images displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; “Jesus saves” and “Don’t Tread on Me;” Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a prayer in Jesus’ name after storming the Senate chamber. Where some saw a confusing jumble,” though, Gorski and Perry “saw a familiar ideology: white Christian nationalism.” In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Gorski and Perry about their book, the white identity politics of Christian nationalism, and the deep political roots of today’s reactionary Christian right.

Philip S. Gorski, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, is a comparative and historical sociologist who writes on religion and politics in early modern and modern Europe and North America. He is the author of numerous books, including American Babylon: Christianity and Democracy Before and After Trump and American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present. Samuel L. Perry, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma, is a sociologist of American religion, race, politics, sexuality, and families. He has authored and co-authored numerous books, including Growing God’s Family, Addicted to Lust, and Taking America Back for God.