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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

It's so easy to make up lies (updated)

I ran across this at the Intifada-Palestine site, a list I have seen before:

Here’s the roll-call on who introduced terrorism (along with biological, chemical and nuclear weapons) to the Middle East:
Bombs in Cafés: first used by Zionists in Palestine on March 17th, 1937 in Jaffa. (actually grenades).
Bombs on Buses: first used by Zionists in Palestine Aug. 20th-Sep. 26, 1937
Drive-by shootings with automatic weapons: IZL and LHI in 1937-38 and 1947-48 (Morris, Righteous Victims, p681.)
Bombs in Market Places: first used by Zionists on July 6th, 1938 in Haifa. (Delayed-action, electrically detonated)
Bombing of a passenger Ship: first used by the Zionists in Haifa on 25 November 1940, killing over 200 of their own fellows.
Bombing of Hotels: first used by Zionists on July 22nd, 1946 in Jerusalem (Menachem Begin went on to become Prime Minister of Israel).
Suitcase bombing: first used by Zionists on October 1st, 1946 against British Embassy in Rome.
Mining of Ambulances: First used by Zionists on October 31st, 1946 in Petah Tikvah
Car-bomb: first used by Zionists against the British near Jaffa 5 December 1946.
Letter Bombs: first used by Zionists in June 1947 against members of the British government, 20 of them.
Parcel Bomb: first used by Zionists against the British in London 3 September 1947.
Reprisal murder of hostages: first used by Zionists against the British in Netanya area on 29 July 1947.
Truck-bombs: first used by Zionists 4th Jan 1948 in the centre of Jaffa, killing 26.
Aircraft hijacking: world-first by Israeli jets Dec 1954 on a Syrian civilian airliner (random seizure of hostages to recover 5 spies). 14 years before any Palestinian.

I didn't check the veracity of these claims, but I did waste a few minutes looking up any evidence of earlier Arab crimes of the same types.

I found:

On June 4, 1936, a bomb was thrown by an Arab into a bus in Haifa, injuring 6 Jews and two Arabs.

On July 23, 1936, an Arab was arrested for planting a bomb in a cafe, also in Haifa.

Arabs threw at least one bomb at a small hotel in Tiberias on June 29, 1938, injuring seven Jews.

And, a few years ago I found that Arabs exploded a car bomb in 1938.

The list was obviously just made up without any real research, but when people read lists of such "facts" with specific dates they tend to not think critically about whether the facts are true or not.

And while it takes little time to make up lies, it takes a lot of time to debunk them. It is the Internet equivalent of asymmetric warfare, with the liars taking the roles of terrorists.

(I commented at the site, and for a few hours my comment remains "waiting moderation.")

UPDATE: As expected, the site didn't allow my small fact-checking comments - where I challenged them to admit that their anonymous source was making up facts - to pass moderation. Just in case anyone out there thought that a site called "Intifada Palestine" had any interest in truth.