The Imaginary Jenin Massacre

The Jenin battle in 2002 was a relatively small battle, but a major propaganda coup for the Palestinians -- since they simply lied about what really happened. In a brief, but compelling article, P. David Hornik summarizes the real events that occured (which I quote here), and then goes on to talk about the Palestinian filmmaker's admissions about the lies and distortions he put in his propaganda film on the same subject:

Back in March 2002, some 130 Israelis were murdered in Palestinian terror attacks culminating in the Passover massacre in a Netanya hotel, which killed 29. In reaction, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. As part of the campaign Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp, a major nucleus of terrorist planning and operations. With Israel finally fighting back militarily, the Palestinians launched a media counterattack. Most famously, Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat announced to the world that Israeli forces had massacred 'over 500 civilians' in Jenin -- a figure later rounded down to the 52 Palestinians, most of them armed combatants, who were actually killed. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers also died in the fighting -- a direct result of the fact that Israel refrained from bombing or shelling targets in the camp for fear of harming civilians. Later investigations by human rights NGOs revealed -- even to the UN's satisfaction -- that there had been no massacre or wanton destruction in Jenin and that the Palestinian claims were baseless.

Israel never seems to grasp that, in this modern world, it's no use winning the war on the ground (which they're doing successfully) if you allow your enemies to control the information flow. The MSM routinely reports after every event in Israel the voluminous statements from the PA and Palestinians-in the-street, and then follows with "The Israeli military refused to comment." Well, the Israeli military had better damn well start commenting, unless it's already too little, too late.