What is WITH the NYT?

First, this light note: Our little household has survived the Snowpacalypse quite nicely, thank you very much, although our poor pooch George would like to register a strong complaint with the Gods of Weather. There's one thing you have to understand about George: If he were a supervillain, he'd be The Piddler. This little guy streams more frequently than Netflix. The poor creature could not understand why he had to stay inside for an entire night -- and when he finally could not hold it in any longer, he strolled out the back door and landed in snow past his ears.

The Piddler was defeated by Mr. Freeze.

And now, the depressing news.

The New York Times published the following without the slightest quibble or question -- although, as we shall see, we have good reason to view this account with grave suspicion.

A 13-year-old Palestinian girl was fatally shot by an Israeli security guard at the entrance to a West Bank settlement on Saturday after she ran at him with a knife, according to the Israeli police.

The girl was identified by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa as Ruqayya Eid Abu Eid, a resident of the Palestinian village of Anata. The village is about a mile from the settlement of Anatot, where the attempted stabbing and killing occurred.

Ms. Abu Eid quarreled with her family on Saturday morning and then left her home with a knife “intending to die,” the police said in a statement. She arrived at the settlement at about 8 a.m., the police said, and ran toward the civilian guard at the entrance, who opened fire.

According to the NYT, Israelis have had to face battalions of knife-wielding Palestinian maniacs in recent times...

The shooting on Saturday came amid a wave of Palestinian stabbings and attempted stabbings, car rammings and gun attacks that have killed about 25 Israelis, an American student and one Palestinian bystander since Oct. 1. About 150 Palestinians have been killed during the same period. Up to two-thirds of them have been described by Israel as assailants.

The NYT then quotes Netanyahu with deep respect (as the NYT is wont to do):

“People are defending themselves against assailants wielding knives who are about to stab them to death, and they shoot the people, and that’s extrajudicial killings?” he said, noting that “a knife-wielding terrorist” had also recently been shot to death in Paris.

Do we have the grounds for suspecting that there is more to this story -- something that the NYT refuses to discuss? Yes. Yes we do.

Last week a video of illegal Israeli settlers shoot a Palestinian teen in the West Bank went viral. The video showed the illegal settlers yelling to the teen “die you son of a whore!” over and over.

The boy in the video was writhing in pain, dying surrounded by settlers, and apparently a police officer or soldier who seemed to show no concern for any weapon being nearby. Indeed, in the video there is no sign of a knife that settlers and the IDF would later claim the boy had.

But now, a new video published on Facebook by Youth Against Settlements shows the moments after another illegal Israeli settler shot yet another Palestinian teenager dead in Hebron, Saturday.

Shortly into the video, after about 12 seconds we can see a soldier pass an object that seems to be a knife to another soldier. The soldier then appears to drop the knife by the body.

This has raised questions as to whether earlier videos of settlers shooting Palestinian teens – where no knife seems to be in the frame – are also instances of such knife-planting by police, IDF soldiers and settlers.

Also see here. The victim, it seems, was an 18 year-old named Fadel al-Kawasmeh.

That was in October. The same month, a similar "planted knife" video was uploaded to YouTube. showing the death of one Israa Aabed.

Here is video of a separate "knife planting" incident, uploaded to YouTube in early December. The pattern is established.

Why does the NYT refuse to publish this side of the story?

Below, I will embed two or three of the relevant videos, although I encourage you to click on the links provided above for more context. I would prefer not to subject you to such grisly material -- not on this white weekend, not on a day when I had hoped to write a lighthearted post for folks in fuzzy bathrobes to read while sipping hot coffee. But what choice is there? The mainstream media won't show this evidence to you. They won't even discuss it.

For an excellent overview of what is really happening in fascist Israel, read this piece by Uri Avnery.

In Israel proper, the government belongs to the extreme Right, with some elements that would be called "fascist" anywhere else. The Center and Left are impotent. The only real political fight is between the radical Right and the even more radical extreme Right.

And speaking of media manipulation...

Speaking about divine intervention: last week the Swedish Foreign Minister, Margot Wallstrom, criticized Israel’s legal system for having different laws for Jews and Arabs. Netanyahu reacted sharply, and lo and behold – by sheer accident, a few days later the Swedish press was full of stories about the corruption of Wallstrom, who did pay less rent for her government apartment than she should have.

How does a fascist state become untouchable? Spying, blackmail, and bribes -- applied ruthlessly.

And now, I invite you to look at the videos that Israel doesn't want you to see. In fact, Israel has been trying to force Google to take such videos offline.