Ben Wedeman is a biased peice of garbage

Please excuse the upcoming copy/paste job. I don't want to give anyone a reason to give this story anymore hits than it already has so I'm just reproducing the entire thing here. If anyone doubts its validity, the source can be found here.

It's a story by CNN Middle East correspondent extraordinaire, Ben Wedeman.

Enjoy:

Reporter offers Bush a Gaza, West Bank misery tour

Story Highlights

CNN's Ben Wedeman says Bush won't see the plight of Gaza and the West Bank

Gaza hospital director says babies are dying due to equipment failures

Gazan: "Our leaders are either Israeli collaborators, asses, or mentally unstable"

By Ben Wedeman
CNN


Editor's note: In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news and analyze the stories behind the events.


Palestinian men and children carry anti-Bush banners during a protest in Gaza City.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Air Force One touched down in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. President Bush has come to the Holy Land for the first time as president of the United States.

But he's trapped inside his security bubble, his every step mapped out in great and precise detail by teams of security experts and handlers. In the end he'll see a side of this unhappy land that bears as much resemblance to reality as Hollywood does to real life.

I spend a lot of my time covering the West Bank and Gaza: here's what I see, and he won't.

He won't be going to Gaza, the Palestinian territory that is under the rule of Hamas. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. Watch what Bush won't see »

Gaza today is a wasteland. Since Hamas took power, the Israeli government has made it extremely difficult for Gazans to travel outside their crowded strip of land along the Mediterranean. Israel has also severely restricted imports in Gaza to essential humanitarian goods. Four out of every five Palestinians depend on international food aid, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. No one is starving, but the economy has come to a virtual standstill.

President Bush won't see the hospital wards where babies, just weeks old, are dying because their doctors can't get permission from Israeli authorities to go to Israel for treatment as they did in the past.

Earlier this week, I visited the intensive care unit in Gaza's Nasser Pediatric Hospital. Hospital director, Dr. Anwar Khalil, explained that a third of their incubators have broken down because of a lack of spare parts. The electricity goes out on a regular basis because the power is cut up to eight hours a day after Israel reduced fuel supplies.

Israeli leaders insist they're trying to pressure Hamas militants from firing locally made missiles into Israel, a near daily occurance. But to the vast majority of Gazans -- who have nothing to do with the missiles, who are powerless to stop the militants -- it amounts to collective punishment.

In Gaza, they blame Israel. They blame the United States, which supports Israel's policy toward Hamas. They also blame their own leaders.

"We are cursed," said Iyad Sarraj, a Gaza psychiatrist and a human rights activist. "Our leaders are either Israeli collaborators, asses, or mentally unstable."

Sarraj warns that what he describes as the siege of Gaza will blow up in the face of Israel in another intifada, or uprising. "From the first intifada, which was only stone throwing, to the second intifada, which brought suicide bombing, the third intifada will be much, much worse, and I suspect that it will be chemical weapons and chemical warfare."

But none of my sources who are intimately familiar with the weaponry available to militant groups has mentioned that as a possibility. There are indications that the militants in Gaza, left to their own devices, are up to no good. I was told by reliable sources that Hamas is busy developing new and more effective weapons -- rockets with propellant resistant to humidity, higher explosive payloads and longer ranges as well as roadside bombs and other explosive devices. Weapons are being stockpiled, and tunnels are being dug all over Gaza in anticipation of an Israeli invasion. Little in life in Gaza is inevitable, but death and destruction.

President Bush went to Muqata'a, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in the West Bank.

But he didn't travel around the West Bank to see checkpoints like the one in Hawara, south of Nablus, where Palestinians wait, often for hours, in the winter cold, waiting to be allowed by young Israeli soldiers to go to their homes, universities, businesses, doctor's appointment, or to visit a relative or a friend.

If Bush got through Hawara to Nablus, he'd find a city where the Palestinian Authority, which the United States and Israel are supposed to be supporting, is rapidly losing credibility every time Israeli forces close down the city to round up militants, as they did over the weekend. Israel may have valid security reasons for going in, but these operations do irreparable damage to the standing of Palestinian leaders such as U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Sallam Fayyad, now often described here as Israeli collaborators.


Maybe when the U.S. president went to Bethlehem Thursday, he may have seen what Israel calls its security barrier -- a 24-foot-high concrete wall encircling most of the town. Israel put it up to stop suicide bombings, a measure that appears to be working when it come to cutting down on the number of attacks. But the Palestinians call it the "racist apartheid wall." The wall has all but destroyed the local economy, cutting Bethlehem off from much of its farmland and reducing the flood of tourists to a trickle.

If he had some spare time -- and a convincing disguise -- I'd be happy to take Bush on a tour of my beat. I'll do the driving.


Source: CNN.com

What an unbelievable pile of DRECK. So if I'm reading this right...the only people suffering in Israel are PALESTINIANS at the hand of the evil Israelis?! Really? Are you serious Ben?

Tell that to the settlers thrown out of their homes in Gaza in a futile attempt to grant Palestinians autonomy and freedom

Tell that to the Jews in Sderot and the western Negev (which last time I checked wasn't part of ANY "occupation") who have to deal with a neverending nightmare hailstorm of Qassam rockets

Tell that to the Jews of northern Israel who had their homes destroyed and lost everything in the Lebanon war last year

Tell that to the family of Israeli soldiers who are grieving because they lost a son or a daughter or both in one of the murderous intifadas your buddies in the Hamas government instigated

You say "Gaza today is a wasteland" as if up until the vile Israeli seige it was the cultural center of the Middle East. As if Israel destroyed a wonderful paradise and beacon of hope for Arabs everywhere. Well tell me Ben, answer me this question, was it Israelis who launched a coup against Fatah? Was it Israelis who threw Fatah leaders off high rise apartment buildings? Was it Israelis who hoard international assistance money and uses it to build Qassam rockets instead of food and other necessities?

WHY is Israel cutting off supplies to Gaza Ben? When did Israel start doing this? Was it during the 2000-2003 suicide attack campaign? Was it during the 1st intifada? Was it after Hamas pulled off its bloody coup? No Ben, it was only as a last resort, after warning Hamas for months that this was coming.

What would you expect Israel to do, Ben?

I want to point out something else in your story, a particularly galling segment:

Israel calls its security barrier -- a 24-foot-high concrete wall encircling most of the town. Israel put it up to stop suicide bombings, a measure that appears to be working when it come to cutting down on the number of attacks. But the Palestinians call it the "racist apartheid wall." The wall has all but destroyed the local economy, cutting Bethlehem off from much of its farmland and reducing the flood of tourists to a trickle.

First of all, get your facts straight. Israel does not call it a "security barrier" they call it a "security FENCE" because that's what it is in the VAST majority of places. Do you know why it has to be a wall in some places Ben? Because the Palestinians who not-so-surprisingly call it a "racist apartheid wall" SHOOT THROUGH THE FENCE AT INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN. They do this Ben, not to hunt for food that as you say, they so desperately need...rather they do this to MURDER JEWS.

But you don't care about Jews do you? You're only concerned with the plight of Palestinians. Because to you Ben, Jewish blood is cheap. Why else would someone speak so negatively about a NON-VIOLENT device that by his own admission "works" at preventing suicide bombings?

Pretend for a minute Ben, that you had real responsibility as a leader of human beings instead of just journalistic responsibility (which you obviously don't believe in either). But for a minute, pretend you actually were responsible for real people. Now your people have a thriving economy. Your neighboring country has no economy. Your neighbors rely on your economy and being able to cross into your country to work and support their families. But the leaders of their country are constantly calling for your destruction. They send people to MURDER your civilians by disguising themselves as workers. The people in this country don't pay you taxes, don't serve in your military and take the money they earn in your country and use it in their own country.

So Ben, what would you, as a leader do if your citizens were under constant attack by citizens of a different country. Who are you responsible to protect? The people that elected you, or the people that are murdering the people that elected you. You jackass.

But then why would anyone be surprised by this lack of ethical journalism? After all this is the same guy that reported on the "Qana massacre" during the Lebanon war without actually taking the time to question all the holes in the story.

This is the same Ben Wedeman that when Alan Johnston was released sung the praises of Hamas as if they rescued him rather than being accomplices to his kidnapping. The same Ben Wedeman that sung the praises of Hamas as a stabilizing force by making statements like:

Regardless of what you think about Hamas, it's a much calmer place in Gaza now

and that with Hamas in power and factional fighting "over" it

certainly opens up Gaza in a way that it wasn't opened before and for ordinary Palestinians, certainly life is somewhat less dangerous in Gaza.

and finally

at least for the time being, does seem to have come to an end. The kidnapping is over. So there is a hope that Gaza will enjoy a period of stability. But you know how Gaza is. It doesn't seem to last for long.

That's right Ben, a period of stability. Kind of like the period of stability in Germany between 1933-1938. And yes the kidnapping is "over" for Alan Johnston, but isn't there still another kidnapping in progress?? But of course, Jewish blood, like Gilad Shalit's, is cheap. So why bother reporting on it.

No Ben, you'll keep reporting only on the Palestinian side of the coin. It's only bad for Arabs in the Middle East. No Jews are suffering. And you're right, the president won't be visiting Gaza on this trip. But it's not because he doesn't care about Palestinians, it's because he doesn't hang out with Hamas thugs.

But that never seemed to bother you, did it?



You jerk.