Israel's Bombing of Damascus: When Aggression is Framed As Defense

Israel Bombs Syria Becomes Israel Is Only Defending Itself

 By Danny Schechter

An Israeli plane bombs a target in Syria. The news is passed along first to Fox News, (huh?) by someone in the Administration.

 It happened on a Thursday, but we find out about it  late on Friday. The New York Times assigns three reporter to cover the story that goes up on the website in the middle of the morning on Saturday.

Earlier that day, President Obama, speaking in Costa Rica, said there will be no US ground troops on the ground in Syria.  Now, the Administration says it is considering "military options."

Saturday's New York Times choses this story for the first page: " ISRAEL TIGHTENS BORDER DEFENSE AS SYRIA ERUPTS."

  And so, the story is reframed with Israel the defender, not the aggressor. The bombing makes it into the third paragraph  on page 1 but refers only to the bombing of  "a target."

The earlier story has now ben moved  by the Times to the bottom of page 10: "ISRAEL BOMBS SYRIA as the US Considers Its Own Military Options."

"American officials did not provide details on the target but, instead, referenced an earlier attack attacking a Syrian military supply effort to Hezbollah." Unmentioned is that the original report understated the extent of the damage caused by the bombing.

Reuters was better informed, "I srael has carried out an air strike targeting a shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon."

  The New York Times does not mention the reaction by Lebanon which issued a statement carried by BBC denouncing the attack as illegal and a violation of  their air space.

CNN reported," U.S. and Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data showing Israel most likely conducted  ( emphasis mine ) a strike in the Thursday-Friday time frame, according to both officials. This is the same time frame that the U.S. collected additional data showing Israel was flying a high number of warplanes over Lebanon.

One official said the United States had limited information so far and could not yet confirm those are the specific warplanes that conducted a strike. Based on initial indications, the U.S. does not believe Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace to conduct the strikes.

"The Lebanese army website listed 16 flights by Israeli warplanes penetrating Lebanon's airspace from Thursday evening through Friday afternoon local time."

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).