Newsflash: Vulture Arrested in Saudi Arabia
Now that talk of the Mossad sharks seems to have died down, the Zionist vulture is all the rage. According to Arutz Sheva:
[Israeli daily] Maariv said that the R65 [vulture] was caught near the home of a sheikh in the community of Hayel in Saudi Arabia. The words “Tel Aviv University” etched in English on a ring clasped to its leg, and especially the transmitter, caused the finders to suspect espionage and alert the security forces.
Any thought that the ring and transmitter were identifiers for a scientific experiment? Apparently, not. Because there was more: A report in a Saudi Arabian newspaper, al-Weeam, said that the vulture had a “foul odor coming out its mouth – proof of a Zionist plot.”
According to UPI, a “spate of anti-Israeli comments in the Arab media” followed the Saudi Arabian media report.
Herein lies the problem. As utterly ridiculous as the espionage claim is, it is being used as the basis of anti-Israel incitement in the Arabic speaking world. Coverage in the English- language media — and especially the Western media — is sparse and generally light-hearted, since the story is so . . . funny. Except it’s really not funny. By not taking the vultures and sharks and killer rats seriously, the media fails to inform the Western public about an important aspect of the conflict and its implications. The stories are important because they both breed incitement and demonstrate the mindset of those who wish to destroy the Jewish state. An increasingly radicalized Arab population can point to crazy theories, which are actually believed and used as justification for all kinds of dangerous activities.
And for the record, Israeli scientists connected the GPS and ring to the bird as part of a long-term research project on vultures’ location and altitude. We are unable, however, to account for the bad breath.
To read more about the media’s failure to adequately cover incitement against Israel, click here.
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