The Marc Lamont Hill affair? Maybe Aljazeera will give him a job. - by Victor Rosenthal

...It might be controversial to fire a news analyst for taking an unpopular position on his own time. One could even argue that it’s his own business if he calls for the destruction of a state and the death or dispersal of its people, and supports violent terrorism. After all, it was said at the UN, where such ideas are commonplace. But his uncritical acceptance and regurgitation of the most blatantly false and misleading propaganda makes it clear that he is not competent in the role of political analyst for any media outlet that has the slightest regard for truth.

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
02 December '18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/12/the-marc-lamont-hill-affair/

Marc Lamont Hill, a CNN political analyst, went to the UN on Nov. 29, its annual “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” which just happens to be the anniversary of the partition resolution which could have created a state of Palestine – but didn’t, because the Arabs couldn’t accept a Jewish state next door. Hill called for (video) “a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” accused Israel of “settler colonialism,” and spoke approvingly of Palestinian Arab terrorism:

If we are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people, we must recognize the right of an occupied people to defend itself. We must prioritize peace, but we must not romanticize or fetishize it. We must advocate and promote nonviolence at every opportunity, but we cannot endorse a narrow politics of respectability that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in the face of state violence and ethnic cleansing.

He also endorsed the program of the BDS movement, “the need to return to the pre-1967 borders, to give full rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel, and to allow right of return.”

I was planning to write about the history and meaning of the slogan “from the river to the sea…” and refute for the thousandth time the idea that Israel is a “colonialist” enterprise. I was going to explain yet again that “Palestinian” citizens of Israel do have full rights, and that “right of return” means converting Israel into an Arab-majority state. I was planning to present Hill’s explanation of why he didn’t really mean that Israel should be replaced by a Jew-free Arab state like the Jordanians created in the territory they occupied in 1948, and argue that he should have known better.

Well, screw it. I’m going to stop right here. I am tired of swimming in the sewers with people like Marc Lamont Hill. Either he understood the connotations of the words and phrases that he used, and knew that he was participating in an ugly annual ritual to whip up enthusiasm for uprooting the Jewish people from their homeland by terrorism and murder, or he didn’t know what he was saying. Is he in favor of terrorism and ethnic cleansing or just incredibly ignorant?

CNN Says Goodbye to Commentator Who Advocates the Elimination of the Jewish State

It is no secret that Marc Lamont Hill is a radical who hates Israel, promotes anti-Israeli violence and terrorism, and advocates the violent elimination of the Jewish state. After asking how long would he continue as a political commentator on CNN, our question has been answered. The network has finally severed its ties with him.

CAMERA..
29 November '18..

Nov. 29, 4 PM Update:
CNN has been under fire, including by CAMERA, for its continued collaboration with someone who increasingly expresses bigotry and promotes violence. It has now been reported that CNN has severed its ties with Lamont Hill.

It is no secret that Marc Lamont Hill is an extremist who hates Israel, promotes anti-Israeli violence and terrorism, and advocates violent "resistance" to, and the elimination of, the Jewish state. Yet he continues to be listed as a political commentator on CNN and a professor at Temple University, promoting himself as a journalist, author, social justice activist, and bombastically proclaiming himself “one of the leading intellectual voices in the country.”

The fact that he is still accepted as a mainstream “scholar” and “journalist” while using his activist status as a platform to incite anti-Israeli violence and the end of the Jewish state is particularly disturbing. How many times does he have to display his true colors before CNN finally decides that enough is enough?

How many times must his defense of the kidnapping and murders of Israeli children by a terrorist group, his advocacy on behalf of convicted Palestinian terrorists, his opposition to Israel’s use of an air defense system to protect its civilians from deadly rockets, his close association with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, and his relentless, propagandistic lies about Israel be exposed? How many times must he repeat his opposition to peaceful resistance and how many times must he advocate violence until media outlets distance themselves from him? (See previous articles.)

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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CNN's serious error in relying on a congenital propagandist for commentary about Israel - by Dexter Van Zile

...The problem is not just with CNN, but with Catholic leaders who failed to hold him to account over the years. The fact that he served seven years as International President of Pax Christi and as Patriarch of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008 is, in light of his public statements, a shock.

Dexter Van Zile..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
23 January '18..

Vice President Mike Pence's recent visit to Jerusalem provided an opportunity for the anti-Israel Christians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to run for the cameras and tell everyone how bad Israel is.

In a now all-too-predictable turn of events, a Christian “leader” who has little, if any influence on life in Palestinian society, was recently portrayed as a credible source of information about the Arab-Israeli conflict by journalists in the United States.

The Christian in question is the former Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, who has made a career of demonizing Israel and downplaying Muslim violence against Israel — and Christians. In a segment that aired on Monday January 22, 2018, he told a reporter, "Our fear is not from our people, from Muslims,” Sabbah said. “Our fear is from America.”

H.B. Sabbah's message fit in neatly with the thrust of CNN reporter Ian Lee's report — that “U.S. foreign policy is hurting the local Christian community” in the Holy Land. The problem for that narrative is that Israel's local Christian population has increased from 34,000 in 1949 to 130,000 today, an increase of 282 percent.

This increase did not stop H.B. Sabbah from chiding the U.S. for its support of Israel, declaring that it is bad for Palestinian Christians. “American policy must change in the Middle East," he told CNN. "If truly the American administration is Christian, go back to the commandment of love. You love Israel. That's very good. But you [should also] love the Palestinians if you're Christian. Jesus said, love everyone.”

It is hard to believe that after recent events, Christians in the Middle East fear American policy more than they do the prospect of jihadist violence, but His Beatitude Sabbah is a former Catholic Patriarch — in Jerusalem no less — so who are outsiders to argue?

And not only is he the former Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem, H.B. Sabbah served as International President of Pax Christi, a Catholic charity organization for eight years, from 1999 to 2007. (The fact that he was able to hold onto this position in light of what he said during the Second Intifada — documented below — is a shock.)

The problem is that Sabbah is simply not the type of person CNN should rely on as a source for information about the Middle East.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Understanding what happened after Wednesday night's Gazan rocket attack on Israel - by Arnold Roth

...CNN has an interesting way of looking at this. Gaza, which everyone knows views Israel as its sworn enemy and which is busily attacking Israelis with rockets and tunnels at this moment, is shut off "from the rest of the world" by Israel closing its border this morning. Oh, "save for its small Egyptian border" which is "generally closed". The word agitprop was invented for silliness of this CNN sort.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
14 December '17..

Haaretz says (rather blandly) three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel yesterday (Wednesday):

Two were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and one fell into an open area as alarm sirens sounded in southern Israeli districts and cities including Sderot. Magen David Adom emergency responders said that a 30-year-old man wounded his leg while running for cover, and two others were being treated for shock. The rocket fire on Israel from the Gaza Strip Wednesday evening is returning the residents of the Gaza border region back to a state of tension they haven’t experienced since Operation Protective Edge over three years ago. No less [sic] than 15 rockets have been fired into Israeli territory since U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem, and although the Israel Defense Forces has been showing restraint, it will have a hard time holding back for much longer.

Others say there were four, not three, and the difference points to something significant:

On Wednesday night, four rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel. Two of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, a third struck an open field and the fourth fell short of the border and hit a school in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli officials... [Times of Israel, today]

So that's five Arab-on-Israeli attack rockets intercepted in mid-air and brought down by the amazing, life-saving, defensive Iron Dome system so far this week.

As far as we know, neither Haaretz nor any non-Israeli news source has drawn attention to how yet-another Fell Short rocket dispatched on its murderous path towards Israel failed to cross the border and fell onto the heads of hapless Gazan Palestinian Arabs.

This time it struck a school according to Israeli assessments:

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The Iranian Missile Photo That CNN Missed - by Tamar Sternthal

...CNN could not independently confirm the information. So CAMERA has helped CNN, directing editors to a photograph of the missile with anti-Israel graffiti which appeared in the Iranian media.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Snapshots..
21 March '16..

Two CNN articles erroneously reported this month that Iranian media have not published photographs of the missiles emblazoned with the Hebrew words "Israel must be wiped off the earth," and that CNN could not independently confirm the information. So CAMERA has helped CNN, directing editors to a photograph of the missile with anti-Israel graffiti which appeared in the Iranian media.

On March 15, Barbara Starr wrote ("U.S. official raises Iran rocket fears; Tehran denies tests are illegal"):

The missiles, capable of reaching Iran's archenemy Israel, were marked with a statement in Hebrew reading "Israel must be wiped off the Earth," Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency reported.

The phrase originates from a remark made by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution. CNN has not independently confirmed this report, and Iranian media have not shown photographs of the message.

Who Did It? CNN Won't Say - by Tamar Sternthal

...This is not the first time in recent months that CNN has had trouble identifying Palestinian culprits or characterizing the last few months of Palestinian violence as Palestinian.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Snapshots..
16 February '16..

In a gross omission in an article Sunday about Palestinians opening fire on Israeli security forces near Damascus Gate, CNN fails to fulfill one of the basic journalistic requirements: to report who carried out the attack ("Israel says 2 men are dead after opening fire on police near Damascus Gate").

It's not only the headline which fails to note that the two attackers were Palestinian. Nowhere does the article itself identify the assailants as Palestinian, though that information had earlier been reported by other news services. The CNN story begins:

Two men who opened fire at Israeli security forces outside the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City were shot and killed late Sunday, according to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

No police or soldiers were injured.

Authorities have not yet identified the alleged attackers, referring to them only as "terrorists."

According to the time stamp, the article was last updated at 22:20 GMT. Before then, news agencies had already identified the assailants as Palestinian.

For instance at 21:37 GMT, AFP reported ("Palestinians fire at Jerusalem police, attackers shot dead: police"):

Two Palestinians opened fire on Israeli police just outside Jerusalem's old city walls before being shot dead by officers, police told AFP. (Emphasis added).

Spontaneous Combustion at CNN: Joseph’s Tomb “Catches Fire”

...In CNN’s world, Joseph’s Tomb spontaneously combusts while Israelis fall victim to anonymous knives.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
18 October '15..





CNN managed to disgrace itself over a weekend in which Joseph’s Tomb, an important Jewish holy site located in Nablus, was torched by a mob of Palestinians. According to CNN, however, Joseph’s Tomb simply caught fire with not even a whiff of Palestinian involvement.

Eventually, CNN updated the headline:

Surprise? CNN: Israel “Concerned” Enough to Carry Out “Retaliatory Attacks”

...Are Martians responsible for stabbing Israelis? Is it too difficult for CNN to keep one eye on Israeli media....CNN needs to get a grip on its shoddy coverage.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
15 October '15..

CNN continues to put its foot in its mouth with its coverage of the ongoing Palestinian wave of terror.

Take the casually understated description above this interview with Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev.

“Cause concern?!”

What are the sorts of things that “cause concern?” Israelis could be concerned by the cost of living, environmental issues, or a stubbed toe.

Concern is not an apt description for the fear that Israelis are experiencing, avoiding public transport, cafes and escorting their children to school in the morning.

But it’s one extreme to the other for CNN.

Israeli forces are most certainly not carrying out “reprisal attacks.” Palestinians are not dying as a result of Israelis taking revenge but because they have been shot while taking part in acts of violence.

But is it even Palestinians who are attacking Israelis? CNN doesn’t seem to know.

CNN's Amanpour interviews Iran's Larijani : Referendum for "All People" or "Elimination of Israel"?

...While he and other Iranian leaders have spoken similarly of Israel in the past, the one-page document, packed with specific details, was new. It says the "proper way of eliminating Israel" is for "all the original people of Palestine including Muslims, Christians and Jews wherever they are, whether inside Palestine, in refugee camps in other countries or just anywhere else, take part in a public and organized referendum." The "Jewish immigrants who have been persuaded into emigration to Palestine do not have the right to take part," he adds. It's unclear who Khamenei thinks the "original people of Palestine" are, given that the region's history dates back thousands of years and includes countless waves of immigration and exile.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
02 September '15..

Despite probing questions from Christiane Amanpour, Ali Larijani, Iran's speaker of the Parliament, successfully evaded answering her queries about Iranian plans to attack Israel yesterday on CNN.

"Well, can I just get this straight? Does Iran envision attacking Israel then?" Amanpour presses, after Larijani ducked her initial query: "Can you say anything that would reassure Israel that you are not committed to the destruction of that country?"

But Larijani prevaricates, transforming a 2014 call by Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei for the elimination of Israel into a "solution . . . totally compatible with democratic principles." Thus, he insists:

Several years ago, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, came up with a solution for this problem, which I think is totally compatible with democratic principles.

He said that the solution actually lies in a referendum. There should be a referendum in occupied territories and people — all people, Muslims, Jews and Christians — should participate in that referendum. And they should choose their own destiny.

Whatever they decide should be implemented. And this solution is the one that Iran will adhere to. This is our — in our vision. And I think this is something that is, as I said, compatible with democratic principles.

At this point, Amanpour does not question Larijani's account of Khamenei's referendum solution "compatible with democratic principles" and proceeds to move on to the next topic. But as CNN's own 2014 coverage of the Khamenei's referendum "solution" for Israel shows, the Supreme Leader's plan was for nothing less than the elimination of Israel.

As CNN's Josh Lev reported online ("Iran leader's call to 'annihilate' Israel sparks fury as nuclear deadline looms"):

The Iranian leader made his call for Israel to be "annihilated" on Twitter over the weekend. Mixed in with tweets insisting that Iran is committed to diplomacy on other issues, Khamenei posted a series of tweets slamming Israel. Among them was a document called "9 key questions about elimination of Israel."

While he and other Iranian leaders have spoken similarly of Israel in the past, the one-page document, packed with specific details, was new.

It says the "proper way of eliminating Israel" is for "all the original people of Palestine including Muslims, Christians and Jews wherever they are, whether inside Palestine, in refugee camps in other countries or just anywhere else, take part in a public and organized referendum." The "Jewish immigrants who have been persuaded into emigration to Palestine do not have the right to take part," he adds.

It's unclear who Khamenei thinks the "original people of Palestine" are, given that the region's history dates back thousands of years and includes countless waves of immigration and exile.

Coverage of Khamenei's tweets calling for Israel's annihilation. Amanpour doesn't challenge Larijani's recasting of Khamenei's referendum plan as "totally compatible with democratic principles"

No Room for Palmyra but CNN Claims Jerusalem’s Old City Endangered

...So long as Israel maintains control over the Old City, the free access to its holy sites for all that only began in 1967 will be preserved along with its precious treasures and archeological excavations such as those being undertaken just outside the walls at the historic City of David. The only possible threat to its existence would be if the Old City were to fall into the hands of the Palestinian Authority, which has a history of allowing Jewish sites under its control to be destroyed, such as the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus and an ancient synagogue in Jericho. Those who treat a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict that would mandate Jerusalem’s partition must understand that such demands are tantamount to ensuring the destruction of World Heritage sites. But in the meantime, ignorant or malevolent media cheerleaders for Palestinian propagandists, such as those at CNN, will continue to spread libels about Israel rather than focusing on the real threat to ancient Jerusalem and completely ignoring the depredations of Islamist vandals.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
06 July '15..

The rise of ISIS has been a tragedy for historical sites in the Middle East. Just as the Taliban destroyed monumental historical artworks in Afghanistan in the 1990s now the new Islamic “caliphate” has taken to undertaking the same sort of vandalism in Iraq and Syria in areas that have fallen under their control. The latest example came in the Syrian city of Palmyra — a UNESCO World Heritage site that is thousands of years old where the Islamists have begun pounding precious artifacts to dust this past week only days after ancient tombs were similarly destroyed. So, as media watchdog Honest Reporting notes, it was not inappropriate for CNN to publish a list of “the world’s most endangered structures on the verge of extinction” on its website. But astonishingly, ancient Palmyra, which according to its own reporting is under direct threat at this moment, didn’t make the CNN list. Not surprising, though disappointing, is the fact that the first item on the list was “the Old City of Jerusalem,” whose preservation, it said, was being prevented by “political tension” that exists “between Israel and UNESCO. This is an outrageous libel against the state of Israel, backed up by not a shred of proof (either on the CNN or the UNESCO websites) and perpetuates the most vicious myths propagated by Palestinian groups intent on whipping up anti-Semitic sentiments among Muslims.

In terms of the omission of Palmyra from the list, it’s difficult to imagine the thought processes of those involved in creating this article. Though the piece is the work of CNN’s Style section rather than its main news division, surely even the people working there ought to be aware that sometimes the news must influence even travel features. Indeed, the hyped language of its opening would seem to betray the notion that those responsible actually watch the news:

Go see them now, before it’s too late: threatened by neglect, the elements, changing architectural trends or ruthless developers, these outstanding buildings are all fighting a hard battle for survival.

Many of the structures that are listed after the Old City are of historical significance, but some are of questionable importance. Two from Britain, the Preston Bus Station and the Robin Hood Gardens of East London, date only back to the last half century and are examples of “brutalism” and are rather ugly structures that were not designed by UNESCO as worth saving for good reasons. Most are also not endangered by architecture critics or have outlived their original purposes like those two structures but are simply falling down due to neglect.

Including Palmyra on such a list, indeed listing it at the very top, would have made the article both newsworthy as well as accurate. Palmyra is a unique ancient city filled with amazing artifacts that would be worth visiting if it were not located in a country that has gone from a brutal dictatorship to a strife-torn battleground much of which now is in the thrall of fanatical Islamists determined to destroy any vestige of history that predates the Muslim conquest.

Which leads us to the obvious question as to why Jerusalem’s Old City should be included on a list of places that are about to disappear. The Old City is in the middle of an ongoing dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. However, it is not about to collapse. Even more important, to say that its preservation is being prevented by Israel is a flat out lie.

When CNN’s Journalism Goes to the Dogs

...So where’s the “incident” that CNN refers to? On the basis that Jews as well as tourists are allowed to visit the Temple Mount compound at set hours, is this really an “incident?” And who are these unnamed “sources inside the mosque?”.
...This we do not know. Much like the sum of CNN’s abysmal excuse for a piece of journalism. Unfortunately, the damage isn’t contained to CNN and has spread to other news sites that have reproduced the content based on a clearly misguided level of trust in CNN.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
18 May '15..





Just what is going on at CNN? According to a report:

The official Palestianian news agency is reporting that Israeli settlers have chopped down and seized about 800 Palestinian-owned olive trees near the town of Shuyukh, east of Hebron.

The report, by WAFA, the Palestine News & Information Agency, cited “a local source,” whom it did not identify. Israel has yet to comment on the report.

The source, described by WAFA as “a local activist,” told the agency that residents of the Israeli settlements of Bani Kadim and Asfar broke into an olive orchard near the town and chopped down the trees, which belonged to people who lived in the area.

It’s one thing when a mainstream media outlet quotes anonymous sources and unverifiable “eyewitnesses” as we see all to often in reporting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s even worse when a news organization such as CNN relies on unverified reports from a Palestinian news agency such as WAFA.

As Elder of Ziyon rightly points out:

Israel-ISIS Analogy? CNN’s Zakaria Puts Foot in Mouth Again

...What’s the secret of Zakaria’s charmed life on CNN? Viewers see what CNN management still won't; in addition to plagiarism and insufficiently cited sources, misplaced appeals to authority and tortuous analogies do not make Zakaria a foreign policy expert. Rather, they undermine his pretense to being one

Myron Kaplan..
CAMERA Snapshots..
10 February '15..

Fareed Zakaria’s take on Feb. 9, 2015 cited the Irgun, a covert Jewish group in British Mandatory Palestine, as an inspiration for ISIS’ (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) terrorism barbarianism. Irgun was one of three Jewish underground military organizations in 1945-1948 that fought to bring about the end of the U.N. Mandate and the establishment of a Jewish state. Zakaria has demonstrated a compulsion to see Israel darkly, regardless of facts (examples here, here, here), and this is one more piece in the pattern.

Here, Zakaria implicitly equates ISIS to Irgun — Islamic fundamentalists who commit mass murder of children, trade captured minority women as "wives" and "execute" prisoners by beheading and immolation to Jewish nationalists who attempted to avoid non-combatant casualties.

ISIS slaughters and enslaves as many as it can of those opposing its ideology bent on establishing a world wide caliphate under sharia (Islamic law). But the Irgun, a small group numbering less than 2000, aimed primarily at destroying property. It did not target noncombatants, let alone insist at gunpoint that non-Jews convert to Judaism, on its way to compelling Britain to remove its troops from what was to become Israel.

Wow! If CNN Asked You If You Are Brain Dead

...I cannot sit back any longer and watch people like you continue to misreport the truth. In my fantasies, the answer to all of these questions is zero. The time for change is now, and if you are not prepared to be a part of the change, I ask you, ‘Are you serious?… Are you brain dead?’

Hayley Nagelberg..
Times of Israel..
24 December '14..

CNN does not have a great reputation for a fair and balanced coverage of events involving Israel. Ten years ago, Israeli hip-hop group הדג נחש (HaDag Nachash) released a song called שירת הסטיקר (Shirat HaStikar). The song’s lyrics include the lines that were found on bumper stickers throughout Israel, namely “CNN משקר” (CNN Mishaker) – “CNN lies”. I don’t think anyone could have fathomed ten years ago just how true that line would prove to be.

On November 18th, 2014, American Israeli Rabbis Moshe Twersky (ז״ל), Calman Levine (ז״ל), and Aryeh Kopinsky (ז״ל), British Israeli Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg (ז״ל) and Druze first responder Zidan Saif (ז״ל) were killed during morning prayers at a synagogue in Har Nof, Jerusalem by Abed Abu Jamal and Ghassan Muhammad Abu Jamal. These two Palestinian cousins attacked the Israelis with meat cleavers, axes and a gun. The first headline I witnessed from CNN read “Two Palestinians Killed”; the next said “Four Israelis Two Palestinians Killed”; and later, the story would also read that this attack took place in a mosque.

One month later, on December 21, 2014, over 700 Jewish teenagers from around North America gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for United Synagogue Youth’s (USY) 64th annual international convention. During our convention, on December 22, after a study session about the concept ואהבת לרעך כמוך (Ve’ahavta L’ereacha Kamocha) – “love your neighbor as yourself” – I joined roughly thirty other USYers and staff in a conference room of the Omni hotel to listen to representatives from CNN, which has headquarters right next to our convention center. We gathered to learn about a modern application of this concept to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Richard Davis is the Executive Vice President of News Standards and Practices for CNN. He has held this post since 1998. He is known for launching many CNN programs such as Sports Tonight. During the hour that I spent listening to him and his colleague Etan Horrowitz, CNN’s Mobile Editor, I felt my jaw drop lower and lower in disbelief, and the scowl on my face grow increasingly intense in anger and frustration.

Davis told me and my peers and staff that it is up to us, and everyone else, as consumers to check other news sources if we think we may want more information. He said, “You can’t be in the news business and also be a babysitter to the people that only read the first paragraph”. I was confused. Isn’t it a news organization’s job to provide the facts? While an educated reader should always check a variety of news sources for different presentations, one should expect a leading news distributor to get the basic story right. And in a day and age where most people only read headlines, or maybe the first few lines or paragraphs if you’re lucky, shouldn’t CNN make sure that all salient and truthful information can be found there?

(Video) Who Exactly is Killing Israelis?

Yarden Frankl..
Honest Reporting Video..
Published on Nov 12, 2014..




CNN and other media don't report that Palestinian terrorists are killing Israelis. Only that Israelis are victims of "knife attacks" and "car attacks."



CNN Video: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/11/world/meast/mideast-violence/index.html?iref=allsearch

Join the fight against anti-Israel media bias: www.honestreporting.com

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6x4OyqyeD8

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out!
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Making Moral Equivalence Out of Children’s Deaths at CNN

...Abdelrahman al-Shaludi was not killed in cold blood by Israelis. Neither were Orwa Hammad or Einas Khalil, the five-year-old victim of the hit-and-run accident. But that’s unimportant for CNN. If Palestinians are undeniably deliberately murdering Israeli children then CNN has attempted to create a false moral equivalence by painting Israelis as equally cold blooded murderers of Palestinian children. Only by achieving this can a helpless three-month-old baby in a stroller be equated with a Palestinian throwing a Molotov cocktail.

Image: CC BY-NC flickr/Mitchell Joyce

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
26 October '14..

The death of any children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is undeniably a tragedy. But is there a moral equivalence between a three-month-old baby murdered by a terrorist and a 14-year-old Palestinian youth killed by the IDF in the course of throwing a Molotov cocktail? Is there a moral equivalence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists?

According to CNN there is:

Now, once more, children on both sides have lost their lives violently, rending hearts and stoking resentment.

One of those killed was a kindergartner, another a baby, both run down by motorists last week.

And on Sunday, Palestinians lay to rest a teenage boy with U.S. roots, whom the Israel Defense Forces shot and killed in the West Bank on Friday, according to the U.S. State Department.

While both children were “run down by motorists,” one of those motorists was a Palestinian terrorist who deliberately set out to kill Israelis when he drove his car into passengers disembarking the Jerusalem Light Rail. The other, according to CNN, was carried out by “an Israeli settler” and deliberate, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

Israeli police believed that it was an accident. What CNN also does not tell you is that the Israeli involved stopped at the nearest Jewish community to report the incident and turn himself in, explaining that he’d left the scene to avoid a potentially dangerous crowd that had gathered there.

Does this sound like someone who deliberately set out to kill Palestinian children?

Amanpour Remains Amanpour, Smears Israel at Mandela Memorial Service

...So, Amanpour remains Amanpour, a real-life cable television version of the film farce "Anchorman 2's" Ron Burgundy character. However, she continues ponderous and misleading rather than the fictional Burgundy's fluff and slapstick. Perhaps Amanpour is destined never to understand the news about Israel and Jews she claims to report.

MK..
CAMERA Snapshots..
18 December '13..

During coverage of the December 10 memorial service for the former South African president, Nelson Mandela, held in Johannesburg, frequent Israel basher and CNN (Cable News Network) personality, Christiane Amanpour reminiscing about Mandela, drew what she thought was a key lesson from Mandela’s leadership applicable to an intractable conflict of today. Not Syria’s civil war, not Iraq’s civil war nor any number of other bloody internecine conflicts, but to the Palestinian Arab conflict with Israel,

… as one who's covered so much conflict around the world, you can't help but really, really internalize this notion that without the kind of forgiveness that Mandela was able to exhibit, that's not just something nice. It's not just something between, you know, classroom bullies. It is the quintessential element of conflict resolution. It is a political tool. Forgiveness is a political tool to get over what seems to be intractable conflict. I honestly can't help but think right now about Israel and the Palestinians and any number …

At this point, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo interrupted, interjecting what he thought was an important point, “Israel who doesn't have leadership here today.” Amanpour attempting to correct Cuomo, claimed that Israel’s president (Shimon Peres) was present but not Prime Minister Netanyahu (but Amanpour erred about Peres since Israel was represented by the speaker of the Knesset [parliament] Yuli Edelstein leading a delegation of five ministers. According to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu cited the high security cost of the journey and Peres was sick). “And what does that mean, by the way?,” asked Cuomo. Amanpour didn’t pass up an opportunity to pontificate, falsely likening Israel to apartheid South Africa:

It isn’t “piffle” - CNN’s Holocaust-revisionism denial

...So why in this case, even after NPR and NBC and The Wall Street Journal and Al Monitor and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and CNN’s own translator and others uncovered the error, won’t CNN do the right thing by broadcasting a correction, as journalistic ethics demand? Why are those who rely on CNN the last to know the truth? Is it because Amanpour’s star power trumps accuracy? Is it because the wishful idea of Iranian moderation supersedes professional norms?

Gilead Ini..
Times of Israel..
17 October '13..

NPR knows it. NBC knows it. Even Iran’s Fars News Agency knows it.

CNN seriously mistranslated its interview with new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, and it’s turning into a scandal that won’t go away.

Nor should it go away. The network’s refusal to fix the error is an inexplicable and serious violation of journalistic ethics.

At issue is whether Rouhani used the word Holocaust in his interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and, in doing so, acknowledged the Nazi genocide. CNN says he did, and its translation allowed it to make the dramatic announcement in a headline late last month, “Iran’s new president: Yes, the Holocaust happened.”

Except Rouhani never did use the “H” word, or its Farsi equivalent. And he certainly did not acknowledge Hitler’s systematic murder of six million Jews. He referred only to generic Nazi “crimes” of questionable severity — and did so with such ambivalence that analyses in The New Republic and the Daily Beast convincingly argued that Rouhani was in fact engaged in old-fashioned Holocaust denial, albeit a more subtle version than that practiced by his outspoken predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

CNN’s false claim that “Iran’s new president has acknowledged the Holocaust,” though, set the tone for media coverage of the interview. Exculpatory headlines in major media outlets around the world announced the end of Iranian Holocaust denial. So when the radical and sometimes ridiculous Fars News Agency made noise about the translation error shortly after CNN broadcast the interview, it was easy to ignore. Fars, after all, is the same news source that republished an Onion article as truth, and the same organization that claimed an Iranian citizen invented a functioning time machine.

But then Sohrab Ahmari, a Farsi-speaking editor at The Wall Street Journal, went on record agreeing with the Fars translation. And The Journal itself published two separate editorials calling out CNN. Arash Karami, an Iranian journalist at Al Monitor, did his own translation, and also found that Rouhani never said “Holocaust” (or, for that matter, “reprehensible,” a word that also appeared in CNN’s translation). The editor of The New York Times’s Lede blog also consulted with two Iranian-American journalists, who checked off on the Fars translation.

I asked the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Ali Alfoneh, an Iran expert and native Farsi speaker, who was right. He concurred with the independent translations — the word “Holocaust” was not said in the interview.

When confronted with their mistake, though, CNN seemed unmoved. Officials told The Wrap and The Washington Free Beacon that the translator was hired by the Iranian government. (Why exactly CNN would think that gets them off the hook is another question.) When contacted by CAMERA, senior CNN executives stonewalled.

Meanwhile, Christiane Amanpour, who conducted the interview, went on a counter-offensive. On Twitter, she accused The Wall Street Journal, and anyone else who would challenge CNN’s translation, of being willing to “jump into bed” with Iranian extremists. And when CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked his colleague about the issue, she tersely responded that the charges were “piffle.” Saying she didn’t want to dignify the issue with a comment, Amanpour told Cooper only that “We put the entire transcript up on line…. We have his translator. I speak Persian, I know what he said. It’s ridiculous.”

CNN and Rouhani Fever

As news organizations blatantly mischaracterize statements recently made by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, a number of Farsi-speakers challenge CNN's account of his supposed "acknowledgment" of the Holocaust.

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
26 September '13..

It is hard to imagine what would compel a serious journalist to sit at her laptop after Hassan Rouhani delivered his speech at the United Nations yesterday and type the phrase, "The Iranian president's first speech to world leaders was absent anti-Israel rhetoric."

When the Associated Press's national security reporter Lara Jakes wrote this passage, the Iranian president had just finished telling the General Assembly that Israel is guilty of "brutal repression," "structural violence," and "institutionalized aggression" against innocents, to the extent, Rouhani insisted, that "apartheid" is not a strong enough descriptor.

The anti-Israel rhetoric was clearly present.

It is also hard to imagine why a sober reporter would view Rouhani's interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour and claim that Rouhani proffered "frank acknowledgment and condemnation of the Holocaust." Even according to the most sympathetic translation, Rouhani had responded to Amanpour's question about the Holocaust by insisting, clearly and repeatedly, that he couldn't comment on the "dimensions" of Nazi atrocities against the Jews because he is not a historian. In other words, the Nazis did something bad, but he doesn't quite know what it was.

That prompted Marc Tracy to make the following analogy:

Imagine that a company or some other kind of organization with a history of believing that the world is flat appoints a new CEO who is more open to alternative beliefs about the shape of the world. "The world is not flat," he says. But he doesn't then say: "In fact, the world is a globe with a circumference of 24,901 miles." He says: "I don't know whether it is a globe. Maybe it is. Or maybe it is curved. Maybe it is jagged, like one of its many mountain ranges. Maybe it dips, like a crater. Maybe it is a series of steps hurtling through the cosmos. I am not qualified to judge."

Tracy's takeaway: You wouldn't say this person's view conforms to the known facts about the earth — and you can't say that Rouhani acknowledged the Holocaust. "It is Holocaust denial," he bluntly concluded.

Chemi Shalev noted that, according to the criteria laid out by the Holocaust History Project, "Rohani might still be considered a Holocaust-denier, albeit a much smoother one than Ahmadinejad."

And Michael Moynihan likewise concluded, "Using the definition accepted by mainstream scholars of Nazism, Rouhani is a moderate Holocaust denier."

But to New York Times reporters Mark Landler and Thomas Erdbrink, the Iranian president's rhetoric amounted to "frank acknowledgment."

There is something terribly unhealthy in journalism when reporters from two of the most prominent American news organizations feel comfortable seeing something but reporting the exact opposite. In the space between Rouhani's mouth and the journalists' pens, a powerful, distorting force managed to neutralize, and then replace, journalistic ethics and concern for the facts.

In "10 Things To Know", 10 Things CNN Needs to Fix

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
15 September '13..

"10 things to know before visiting Israel, the West Bank and Gaza" is CNN's Sept. 12 article by Matthew Teller meant to promote a broadcast this weekend called "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," featuring the acclaimed author and chef on location in Israel and the West Bank. It is unfortunate that the piece, intended to educate about basic information on the region, is chock full of factual errors and distortions. CAMERA, in turn, presents the 10 things that CNN needs to fix in Teller's piece and the accompanying graphics and captions.

1) Palestine On the Map

Teller rightly observes:

To some, the chunk of territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is all Israel.

To others, it's all Palestine.

It's too bad, then, that CNN further muddies the terms. Instead of clarifying, CNN gets bogged down in incorrect nomenclature with this map:

As the article itself acknowledges the state of "Palestine" does not yet exist, and labeling the West Bank "Palestine" is inaccurate and misleading. It should be deleted.

2) Manipulated Historical Narratives, 'biblical Palestine'

Reflecting further on the Israel versus Palestine terminology, Teller writes: "For most -- as is true so often in this region of shifting truths and manipulated historical narratives -- it's a bit of both."

Instead of offering readers solid factual ground, Teller takes manipulated historical narratives to a whole new level with the heading for his ninth item: "When you visit Israel, you're also visiting biblical Palestine."

We don't have a clue as to what he means by "biblical Palestine" given that the Romans renamed the Holy Land Palestine in 135 CE, after the events described in the later Christian Bible had already concluded.

(Continue)

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Soccer-Playing Member of Terrorist Org Gets a Free Pass at CNN

Adam Kredo..
FreeBeacon.com..
06 June "13..

CNN has come under fire for what critics say is a highly misleading Thursday story about a Palestinian soccer player who is boycotting Israel.

Critics said the sympathetic CNN profile of Palestinian soccer player Mahmoud Sarsak neglects to mention is that he is an admitted and active member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a violent Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that carries out terror attacks against Israel.

CNN’s story about Sarsak and his efforts to boycott a high-profile soccer tournament currently taking place in Israel were prominently featured on the front page of CNN’s international edition.

Pro-Israel advocates and Jewish officials expressed outrage over what they said is CNN’s efforts to whitewash Sarsak’s violent background and erroneously portray his boycott as a successful international campaign against Israel.

“The reporter makes a romantic figure out of someone with ties to Islamic Jihad and shows zero skepticism about Sarsak’s rendition of events,” said Andrea Levin, director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). “CNN shouldn’t be in the business of whitewashing. Viewers need the whole story.”

Sarsak, who splits his time between playing semi-professional football and working with the PIJ terror group, has become a cause célèbre among anti-Israel advocates who support boycotts of the Jewish state over what they argue is its unfair treatment of the Palestinians.

CNN centers its story on Sarsak’s unsuccessful attempts to convince the European Football Association (UEFA) to cancel its European Under-21 Championship, which is being hosted in Israel for the first time.