Journalistic Amnesia? The Bahrain Conference and the Big Omission - by Sean Durns

...some Arab officials who decided to attend the Bahrain Conference did what the Palestinian leadership has been unable to. As Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid: “Israel is a country in the Middle East. Israel is part of this heritage of this whole region historically. So the Jewish people have a place amongst us.” Al Khalifa was acknowledging the past while looking towards the future. The pundits writing about future Israeli-Palestinian peace endeavors should do the same.

Sean Durns..
Algemeiner..
28 June '19..

Reporters writing about the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative seem to have amnesia. Curiously, the press and pundits pontificating about the Bahrain Conference have largely omitted the history of earlier failed proposals. Perhaps this is because those failures raise uncomfortable truths.

On June 25, the Trump administration presented part of its plan for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The long-awaited proposal, formally unveiled at a conference in Bahrain, envisions $50 billion in regional investment projects over a period of ten years.

Entitled “From Peace to Prosperity,” the plan seeks to encourage Palestinian economic growth by opening up the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which is ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) — and the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Fatah rival Hamas — to development. The proposal emphasizes regional integration, private sector growth, and improvements to healthcare, infrastructure, and education as means of improving the quality of life for Palestinians.

Both Fatah, the movement that controls the PA, and the terror group Hamas have rejected the plan. In fact, both groups opposed the plan long before its details were announced, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) highlighted previously.

PA officials boycotted the Bahrain Conference, although some Palestinian businessmen and officials from several Arab countries did participate. Many in the press, however, chose to focus on the boycotters, while minimizing the participants.

The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy Magazine, and others reported on the PA’s refusal to participate, but failed to note that it was in keeping with a long history of Palestinians rejecting opportunities for peace.

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Question. How Free is the Israeli Arab Media? - by Pesach Benson

Shame on Miriam Berger and the Columbia Journalism Review for this unprofessional and unhelpful piece.

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting..
17 January '19..

If you were a writer spotlighting Israeli Arab media issues for a magazine like the Columbia Journalism Review, your reporting would include interviews with veteran Israeli Arab journalists, media personalities, news directors and other heavyweights who have since retired or moved on to other things.

Your context would note that the only free Arab media in the Mideast is in Israel.

You would certainly make a crystal clear distinction between Israeli Arab media (under the jurisdiction of Israel) and Palestinian media (in the West Bank under the jurisdiction of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, or in Hamas-ruled Gaza).

And you absolutely wouldn’t let yourself be played into promoting one of those news services.

Unfortunately, Jerusalem-based freelance journalist Miriam Berger managed to do all that and smear Israeli press freedom in a mere 1,426 words.

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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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Violent clashes at the Israel-Gaza border? When is a journalist not a reliable eyewitness? - by Tamar Sternthal

Who qualifies as a reliable witness who can shed light on murky or unsubstantiated specific events in a hotly-disputed ongoing conflict? Specifically, who qualifies as a credible witness when it comes to violent clashes at the Israel-Gaza border?

...credible witness?

Tamar Sternthal..
JNS.org..
20 December '18..

Despite the recent erosion of public confidence in the media, many readers probably consider journalists trustworthy eyewitnesses. Journalists are duty bound to rise above their personal or national interests and report events impartially.

So when a news account cites an eye witness who happens to be a journalist, that witness’s testimony carries more weight than that of the average bystander.

But what if that journalist, in his native language, and unknown to the English-reading news consumers, calls for violence against one of the parties to the conflict? What if the source praises terror attacks in which innocent worshippers were massacred during prayers?

Is that alleged eyewitness credible?

These are not hypothetical questions.

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NY Times Supports the “Right” to BDS - by Daniel Pomerantz

...The New York Times is entitled to its opinion, as is the BDS movement. Yet no newspaper or journalist is entitled to mislead the public. The BDS movement is openly and proudly dedicated to the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state, and is attempting to do so by violating United States law. If The New York Times supports this, then its editorial board should say so: clearly and unambiguously.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
19 December '18..

Ranging from misleading to utterly wrong, the New York Times Editorial Board pushes the definition of “professional journalist” to its breaking point in its article defending the “rights” of BDS, the movement to bring Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the world’s only Jewish state.

Specifically, the New York Times criticizes H.R.1697 – a bill making its way through Congress that is known as “The Israel Anti-Boycott Act.”

BDS is not criticism

The editorial board repeats over and over that the BDS movement is about criticism – specifically criticism of Israeli settlements.

Three of the founders and heavyweight leaders of BDS disagree. They say loudly and proudly that the purpose of BDS is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state, in any borders whatsoever.

Omar Barghouti, founder, BDS:

Definitely most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.

(Separately he clarifies that “Palestine” means all of Israel.)

As’ad AbuKhalil, California State University Professor of Political Science, BDS leader and activist:

The real aim of BDS is to bring down the State of Israel…this should be stated as an unambiguous goal.

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Surprise? Despite Striving to Avoid War, The Independent Calls Netanyahu “Warmongering” - by Emmanuel Miller

...From beginning to end, this analysis is riddled with mistakes, misunderstandings, contradictions and a paucity of context. One can only hope that Trew will properly research her articles in future.

Emmanuel Miller..
Honest Reporting..
19 November '18..

With events in Israel and Gaza moving rapidly, many column inches have been dedicated to analysis of developments. While pieces frequently lean one way or another, few in the mainstream media have been as poorly written as this one, by The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Bel Trew, describing Benjamin Netanyahu as “a once-warmongering prime minister”.

From the very beginning, this confused jumble of an analysis piece misunderstands events in Israel, what Israelis think, and what their motivations are. That Trew is actually an experienced, knowledgeable former reporter for The Times of London, makes it all the more bewildering.

The article opens with Trew accusing Israelis of not thinking straight about how to react to a massive onslaught of rockets from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ): “The logic doesn’t seem right: the very people fed up of living under a barrage of rockets from Gaza rejecting a ceasefire between their government in Israel and the fighters that are firing at them.”

Such a statement may be excusable coming from an opinionated college student, but is less in keeping with Trew’s credentials as a seasoned reporter.

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Israel and Good Journalism Drown in Roll Call's Shallow Waters - by Sean Durns

Roll Call’s July 27th report is notable not only for its length, but for its shallowness and omissions. It was long on superficiality and short on truth. Perhaps Roll Call is taking too literally the advice of another close observer of American politics, the American humorist and writer Mark Twain, who allegedly jested that “truth is the most valuable thing that we have, let us economize it.”

Sean Durns..
CAMERA..
24 August '18..

A 2,907-word article by Roll Call, the Washington D.C.-based newspaper that covers political and legislative news on Capitol Hill, was littered with omissions that distort the nature of U.S.-Israel relations (“Divide Over Israel Widens in Democratic Party,” July 27, 2018). The report, ostensibly about changing attitudes towards Israel on the American left, relied exclusively on questionable sources and heralded legislation and a movement that both have links to U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

Roll Call’s dispatch argued that the Democratic Party is increasingly disenchanted with Israel—and implied that the Jewish state itself is to blame for this shift. Given Roll Call correspondent Rachel Oswald’s complete reliance on sources that are at best, hypercritical of Israel, and at worst, antisemitic, the paper’s conclusion is as unsurprising as it is wrong and superficial.

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An Editorial on Gaza That Perfectly Shows the Media’s Anti-Israel Bias and Hatred - by Adam Levick

Any media outlet that fails to contextualize the current border violence without acknowledging that the Great March of Return has absolutely nothing to do with human rights or “national liberation,” and everything to do with the virulent eliminationist antisemitism of the group directing the violence, is obfuscating hardcore anti-Jewish racism and abdicating its fundamental journalistic duty to tell the truth.

Adam Levick..
Algemeiner.com..
16 May '18..

The first thing that stands out in The Guardian’s latest official editorial on the Gaza border riots is the absence of even one use of the word “Hamas” in more than 600 words of text, despite the fact that the violence has been organized and funded by the terror group. This is part of a long Guardian and media pattern of erasing Palestinian actions from the moral calculus of the conflict.

The anti-Israel agitprop and lies masquerading as progressive thought begin in the headline: “The Guardian view on Gaza shootings: stop killing unarmed civilians.”

First, contrary to the headline’s claim, hundreds of demonstrators have in fact been “armed” with molotov cocktails and other weapons and incendiary devices. Further, not only civilians are “protesting.” Palestinian terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been present and are among the key instigators of the clashes.

Then, there’s the strap line:

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Gaza presentation in the Lancet and the NY Times. Journalistic standards and lessons to be learned. - by Sheri Oz

...With Israel and the Palestinian Authority taking such a center-stage role in world news, with the issues so incendiary and sensitive, it seems only right that papers such as the Times step up their game and do what The Lancet did in this case.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
05 May '18..

The New York Times (NYT) and other major papers could benefit readers by taking an example from the British medical journal, The Lancet. Let us look at the difference between the way the NYT and Lancet handled opinion pieces written about the March of Return in Gaza. These protests began on 30 March and will continue until 14 May.

On 27 April, the Times published an op-ed written by Fadi Abu Shammalah. He provides a first-New York Times and in my analysis of it, I found many errors (lies?).

person description of the demonstrations at the fence along the border between Gaza and Israel claiming them to be non-violent protests against the insufferable occupation and blockade committed by Israel against innocent Palestinian civilians. This piece was unchallenged in the pages of the

Of course, it is legitimate for a newspaper to publish an opinion piece that stands on its own. According to the editorial code of ethics, journalistic reporting must be distinguishable from commentary and opinion and the Abu Shammalah piece is clearly opinion. However, even here, newspapers have a responsibility to readers to provide them with enough material to develop informed opinions themselves regarding important current events in their own countries and around the world. With Israel and the Palestinian Authority taking such a center-stage role in world news, with the issues so incendiary and sensitive, it seems only right that papers such as the Times step up their game and do what The Lancet did in this case.

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(Part 2) BBC jumbles cause and effect, amplifies disinformation in Iran drone story - by Hadar Sela

...While there is no evidence to support either that Syrian claim of having hit “more than one plane” or Iran’s assertion that it did not launch the drone , the BBC continues to amplify those claims regardless. Meanwhile, as details of Saturday’s events were still emerging, a BBC News producer found the time to translate and amplify disinformation from another source too.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
12 February '18..

As we saw in part one of this post the BBC News website’s written report on the infiltration of Israel’s air-space by an Iranian UAV and the events that followed amplified Iranian and Syrian disinformation on the story while also implying to audiences that there is room for doubt regarding the veracity of official Israeli accounts of the various incidents.

“The Israeli military says a “combat helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel”.

It tweeted footage which it says shows the drone flying into Israeli territory before being hit.” [emphasis added]

“Meanwhile Iran and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon – which are allied with the Syrian government – dismissed reports that an Iranian drone had entered Israeli airspace as a “lie”.”

“Syrian state media quoted a military source as saying that the country’s air defences had opened fire in response to Israeli “aggression” against a military base on Saturday, hitting “more than one plane”.”

On the same day – February 10th – the BBC News website also posted a filmed report on the same topic titled “Israeli jet downed during Syrian attack: What happened?“. The film’s synopsis makes no mention of the UAV infiltration that was the cause of the subsequent strike on the mobile command vehicle that launched and guided the Iranian drone at the T4 airbase near Tadmor in central Syria.

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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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The Washington Post Alleges Israel Used Iranian Drone As ‘Pretext’ For Attack - by Sean Durns

...Webster's Dictionary defines pretext as "a reason that you give to hide your real reason for doing something." The chain of events (an account of which can be found here) proves otherwise. The phrase "pretext" is journalistically imprecise, misleading and violates The Post's own standards for fairness in reporting.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots@camera.org..
11 February '18..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/02/_the_washington_post_claims_is.html

The Washington Post has treated an Iranian attack against Israel with unwarranted skepticism, using the event to unfairly question the motives of the Israeli military.

The Post asserted in a Feb. 10, 2018 report (“Israel claims incursion by Iranian drone”) that the Jewish state used an Iranian drone’s “alleged incursion” into Israeli airspace as a “pretext for Israeli strikes on what it described as Iranian targets in Syria.” The Post’s claim was part of a problematic and inaccurate caption that accompanied a video that the paper posted online to describe events that transpired in the early morning hours of Feb. 10, 2018.

As the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) noted, the IDF intercepted an Iranian made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) after it entered Israeli airspace from Syria. During the attack, several anti-aircraft missiles were launched at Israeli fighter jets and sirens sounded in northern Israel. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) responded by engaging twelve targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian military targets, all of which were located in Syria. An Israeli attack helicopter successfully destroyed the Iranian UAV. An IAF F-16 jet also crashed, after its two pilots ejected. The pilots are currently hospitalized and it's unclear at the time of this writing what led to the downing of the IAF plane.

The IDF has released footage showing the Iranian drone infiltrating Israeli airspace and the IDF’s response.

However, in its report, The Washington Post—without reason or explanation—sought to impugn the IDF’s motives and obfuscate on what happened. The paper wrote “the Israeli military released video it said shows an Iranian drone in Israeli airspace on Feb. 10, before it was destroyed by an Israeli attack helicopter. The alleged incursion was used as the pretext for Israeli strikes on what it described as Iranian targets in Syria [emphasis added].”

NY Times Demonstrates ‘Ultra-Bad’ Journalism About Israeli Politics - by Ira Stoll

What can one say about this treatment from the Times? One might call it bad journalism, or bad history. But that might even be too generous. If one were to treat the Times the way the Times treats Israel, one might write that the Times has “always been identified with ultra-bad journalism.”

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
12 July '17..

Just days after hurling the adjective “nationalist” at the political party of Israel’s defense minister — and coming in for criticism from The Algemeiner for doing so — the New York Times is upping the ante, with a news article describing the minister, Avigdor Lieberman, as “ultra-nationalist.”

The Times offers no explanation about what exactly crosses the line from merely “nationalist” to “ultra-nationalist,” or why a politician described as merely one a few days ago deserves a promotion, or demotion, to the more extreme category a few days later.

Nor is that the only oddity in this Times article, which reports on the election of Avi Gabbay as the chairman of Israel’s Labor Party.

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Not Easy but The Washington Post Manages to Outdo the BBC with Anti-Israel Headline - by Sean Durns

In a Feb. 11, 2017 tweet, Post Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth claimed that “every major attack in Israel & West Bank gets covered in Wapo NYT etc and we dig deeper.” That, however, is demonstrably false.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
28 June '17..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2017/06/_the_washington_post_manages_t.html

The Washington Post not only failed to offer a full-length report on the June 16, 2017 terror attack in which a 23-year old Israeli Border Policewoman, Hadas Malka, was murdered, it also made misleading changes to an AP dispatch on the attack.

Malka was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in a coordinated terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. She was attacked while responding to the scene of another terrorist attack in which two Palestinian attackers opened fire on an Israeli Border Police patrol at Zedekiah’s Cave in the Muslim Quarter. Israeli authorities killed all three Palestinian terrorists.

The initial AP report on the attack was titled "Palestinian attackers killed after killing Israeli officer." This headline made clear to AP readers the important chain of events and noted the death of the Israeli officer.

The Washington Post, however, made questionable edits to the AP brief it republished in the print version of its June 18, 2017 edition. The headline chosen by The Post was “3 Palestinians killed after attacks on police”—omitting the death of the Israeli officer and failing to mention that the Palestinians killed were terrorists carrying out an attack. As CAMERA pointed out to Post staff, this violates the ethics code of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). SPJ calls for journalists to "Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context."

Passing Muster: If It Bleeds, It Leads — To Reuters’ Absurdity

...However, there’s a culture in your newsroom — perhaps even specific guidelines — that whenever there’s a terror attack, you emphasize the death, not the actions or intent that led to it. Even if it the only person who died was the terrorist himself. It’s a thin moral veneer for the news adage, “If it bleeds, it leads,” which itself tends to rationalize sensationalism over sensibility.

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting..
02 March '17..





It was a clear-cut case of self-defense.

And Reuters blew it.

Imagine you’re a headline writer and a story reaches your desk that a Palestinian has infiltrated a settlement farm in the Hebron Hills and stabbed an Israeli man in front of his horrified family. The victim managed to shoot the terrorist, who was subsequently pronounced dead by medics. The victim, thankfully, was only lightly wounded.

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Lies, Fabrications and Half Truths: NY Times Op-Ed Bulldozes Journalism

...It is entirely legitimate to criticize Israel, its laws and its practices. However, if one must lie in order to do so, then the New York Times has a professional obligation to either reject the op-ed, or to disclose the factual shortcomings to its readers.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
12 February '17..

In his New York Times op-ed “Israel Bulldozes Democracy,” Israeli Arab MK Aymon Odeh presents a wide range of incorrect “facts,” and even some blatant lies.

By printing incorrect information without context, disclosure or refutation, The New York Times bulldozes journalistic ethics, and for that matter, truth itself. Or to put it in the famous words of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

Odeh begins his essay with an utterly irrelevant reference to President Trump which includes evocative phrases like “hate and fear.” Regardless of one’s emotions toward the new US President, the reference has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. It is a cheap ploy to gain the sympathy of those New York Times readers who are anti-Trump, as is the newspaper itself.

From that incongruous starting point, the New York Times op-ed launches into a laundry list of lies, fabrications and half truths.

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MK Ayoob Kara: A Study In Media Distortions - by Sheri Oz

...While this particular instance is perhaps minor, and may cause you to wonder why I would invest so much energy and words in writing about it, I suggest that this small example very clearly demonstrates how what is presented to us as news is so easily twisted and how we are so easily mis-informed by the very news upon which we rely to inform us.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
Keeping Up With Our MKs..
13 January 17..

We have all heard stories about how the media twists stories around and produces fake news. How often do we have the opportunity to see it in action ourselves? Here is one example I chanced upon two days ago.

On Tuesday morning (10 January), I was driving down to Tel Aviv, listening to Galei Zahal on the radio, as is my habit. The programme “Ma Bo’er” was on. Razi Barkai interviewed Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara and bereaved father David Einhorn regarding the fact that no MK or Cabinet Minister had come to any of the four funerals of the young soldiers killed in the latest terror attack in Jerusalem.

A mere ten minutes later, at 10:00, part of Einhorn’s interview was replayed on the hourly news, as was part of an interview with Minister Yoav Galant, that was heard earlier on Boker Tov Yisrael. My curiousity was sparked by the fact that the interview with Kara had disappeared as if it had never taken place. An hour later, on the 11:00 news, listeners heard only Einhorn.

The evening news programme on Mabat also carried an item lambasting the government for not having had even one single representative at any of the funerals. Deputy Minister Kara was interviewed in his car and this time he said something that sounded to me quite different from what he had said in the morning on the radio. I set out to understand what had happened between the morning and the evening.

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The Seven Things NPR Wants You to Know About Settlements - by Ricki Hollander

...The NPR editors have clearly articulated their views on the subject supporting those of Palestinian leaders and they have every right to do so, but it should be done in a clearly labelled opinion piece. Using NPR as a bully pulpit to indoctrinate readers by purporting to inform them the "things to know" about any topic is a departure from journalistic norms.

Ricki Hollander..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
04 January '17..

In the wake of the recent UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements, passed without veto by the US, NPR International Editor Greg Myre (previously, Middle East reporter for the AP and the New York Times) and Middle East Editor Larry Kaplow (previously, reporter for Newsweek and Cox newspapers) offered the public radio station's website readers an article entitled "7 Things To Know About Israeli Settlements." The piece, however, would have been more aptly titled "The 7 Things We Want You to Know About Israeli Settlements" because it conceals relevant information, cherry-picking the facts to present a partisan, evasive and distorted view of the topic.

The tone is set by Myre and Kaplow's misleading half truths in the opening paragraphs of the article:

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Constructing a highly misleading, agenda-driven attack against Israel - by Daniel Pomerantz

...An organization like DCI-Palestine may choose to adopt an anti-Israel agenda and a newspaper may even quote them as a source, but journalistic transparency requires the media to disclose an organization’s agenda to its readers.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
05 January '17..

The Independent claims in a headline that “2016 was ‘deadliest year’ for West Bank children in a decade,” but the misleading report fails to live up to fundamental journalistic standards.

Correspondent Bethan McKernan, who is based in Beirut, uses DCI-Palestine (an anti-Israel advocacy group, more on this group below) to accuse Israel of unnecessarily killing Palestinian youths. To a lesser extent the article quotes Human Rights Watch, which has its own axe to grind with Israel.

McKernan speaks about the period of time from October 2015 to the present, with a particular focus on children.

But she fails to acknowledge that the Palestinians carried out 2,732 terror attacks against Israelis, many perpetrated by minors. This wave of terror was characterized by shootings, stabbings, car rammings, and firebombings. In other words, the spike in Palestinian deaths corresponded with a spike in Palestinian attacks.

Moreover, only 228 Palestinians died in carrying out their attacks. So even when Israelis were under direct and often deadly assault, Palestinian attackers survived over 90 percent of the time.

That indicates an impressive degree of Israeli restraint by any standards.

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Would the NYT publish an article without the transparency that professional journalism requires?

...We already know that the New York Times presents a one-sided view of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But to publish an article like Rachel Kushner’s without the transparency that professional journalism requires is highly problematic.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
04 November '16..

The New York Times magazine publishes an in-depth article by author Rachel Kushner, describing her experience of visiting the Shuafat refugee camp in the eastern part of Jerusalem.

Kushner writes that she was “invited on an extensive tour of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and was asked to choose a subject to write about, for a book to be published next year.”

When asked in an accompanying Q and A, Kushner expands:

I had been invited, totally unexpectedly, by Ayelet Waldman, Mario Vargas Llosa and Michael Chabon, to take a trip there, in mind to contribute to a book of essays that Chabon and Waldman are editing on the occupation of the West Bank.

What neither Kushner nor the New York Times includes is the information that the visit and the book is a joint initiative with the Breaking the Silence organization.

(Continue to Full Article)

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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Creative Journalism 101? The Globe & Mail Makes Up News - by Daniel Pomerantz

...It seems that when Patrick Martin has made up his mind to tell a particular story, he won’t let anything get in his way: not professionalism, not his employer’s own policies, not even the truth.

Daniel Pomerantz..
Honest Reporting..
16 November '16..

According to The Globe & Mail’s Patrick Martin, “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could hardly conceal his excitement last week on hearing the news that Donald Trump had been elected U.S. president.”

His evidence for this insight into the Prime Minister’s private emotions? Nothing.

Martin’s only meager attempt to support this assertion is a generic statement in which Netanyahu welcomed President-elect Trump, referring to him a “true friend of Israel.”

Just two months earlier, Netanyahu used almost identical language while praising presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her “friendship and support for Israel.” In October, a leaked email seemed to indicate that the Israeli Prime Minister might even have preferred Clinton as president.

So how does Martin know what Netanyahu thinks and feels? Is he able to read the Prime Minister’s mind?

The Globe & Mail’s headline editor must also be a mind reader, because its headline says “Netanyahu elated at Trump’s condemnation of Iran nuclear pact.”

(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 Abandonment of the First of the 5 W’s of Journalism at Harvard Law Record

...Why did the paper withhold El-Qoulaq’s name from the story about his antisemitic insult directed at Tzipi Livni? To promote “respectful discourse” and “recognition of the fact that Husam is a member of this community.” Apparently, holding people accountable for their public statements is not part of the Harvard Law School’s ethos. How else can we explain the efforts of both administrators and student journalists at the school to protect El-Qoulaq’s identity? Annual Tuition at Harvard Law School is almost $60,000. That’s a lot of money, but it still does not enough to protect students who attend the school from scrutiny and criticism, as The Record’s staff seems to believe.

Dexter Van Zile..
CAMERA Snapshots..
25 April '16..

The Harvard Law Record explains why it protected the identity of Husam El-Qoulaq, who hurled an anti-Semitic insult at Tzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister of Israel and current member of the Knesset. Livni appeared as a guest at the school earlier this month when El-Qoulaq insulted her.(Screenshot.)

Journalists are supposed to find out what happened and tell their readers what they have learned. Historically, there have been five questions that reporters are expected to answer, or at least try to answer, when writing about public events. The questions are:

1. Who?
2. What?
3. When?
4. Where?
5. Why?

Apparently, the student journalists at The Harvard Law Record did not get the memo.

When Husam El-Qoulaq, a student at the school insulted Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister and current member of the Israeli Knesset, at a public event on Thursday April 14, 2016, (he called her “smelly”), the newspaper initially concealed the El-Qoulaq’s identity.

When, on April 18, 2016, Jewish students who attended the event condemned the statement as antisemitic in a letter to The Record, they did El-Qoulaq the undeserved and unwarranted courtesy of withholding his name from their complaint.

This is their right, but The Record to assist in the effort to protect Husam El-Qoulaq’s identity is simply disgraceful and runs counter to the demands of journalism. It’s a betrayal of the publication's loyalty to the reader.

It’s a decision that makes a mockery of The Harvard Law Record’s credibility as a journalistic enterprise. Rather than do their job and inform their readers who said what to whom, the staffers at the newspaper withheld this information from their readers. And when students identified El-Qoulaq in the comments section of the article, they deleted these comments. (Eventually, Noah Pollak confirmed El-Qoulaq’s identity and posted it on Twitter.)

The Record’s effort to conceal El-Qoulaq’s identity is disgraceful.

El-Qoulaq offered his antisemitic insult in front of dozens of students at a public event, which was being videotaped. Even more bizarrely, Harvard Law School deleted the section of the video that recorded Husam El-Qoulaq insulting Livni.