Oh my! Unpleasant news for Thomas Friedman - by Stephen M. Flatow

Does the level of the Kinneret have anything to do with the prospects for peace in the Middle East? He’d like you to think that it does.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
07 September '20..

When I’m not in Israel, I don’t usually pay much attention to its weather. But an item last week about rainfall in the Holy Land caught my eye. It deserves the attention not only of geologists and meteorologists, but those who are concerned about Israel’s political and diplomatic situation as well.

The Israel Water Authority announced that there has been so much rainfall during 2020 that the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is now at its highest level for this time of the year in nearly three decades. The last time it was this high at the end of August was 1993. “Another surprising phenomenon,” the Authority reported, “is a steady flow in the Dan spring, which has increased slightly.” The Kinneret and the Dan River are two of Israel’s most important sources of water.

Does the level of the Kinneret have anything to do with the prospects for peace in the Middle East? Thomas Friedman would like you to think that it does.

Friedman has been the foreign affairs op-ed columnist for The New York Times since 1995. That means that for the past 25 years, he has enjoyed one of the most prominent and influential platforms in public discourse. Not only are his columns read by movers and shakers around the world, but he is also frequently interviewed on national television and radio shows, and invited to speak at major public forums and events hosted by Jewish organizations that should know better.

I say “that should know better” because in his writings about Israel, Friedman sometimes crosses the line in ways that would earn other pundits pariah status in the Jewish world. In 2004, he wrote that Israel “had George Bush under house arrest in the Oval Office.” In 2011, Friedman claimed that the standing ovations Israel’s prime minister received in Congress were “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” In 2013, he asserted that “many American lawmakers [will] do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.”

Despite those Pat Buchanan-like sentiments, Friedman has managed to maintain his status as a prominent opinion-shaper.

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Surprise? The Washington Post’s Opinion Page Slanders Israel, Again - by Sean Durns

The Washington Post is not living up to its own guidelines and standards. Its opinion pages—meant to be a place for honest debate—are increasingly a forum for falsehoods—and worse.

Sean Durns..
TOI Blog..
06 August '20..

“Facts,” Mark Twain once observed, “are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.” When it comes to the Israel-Islamist conflict, the Washington Post’s global opinion page ignores the facts. And the newspaper consistently treats its own standards and ethics as pliable.

A July 31, 2020 op-ed entitled “The 2020 Democratic platform betrays Palestinians and again gives Israel a pass” offers a case in point. Writers Huwaida Arraf, Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison, and Sam Hindi, all delegates for the Democratic National Convention (DNC), use the Post to slander the Jewish state. They write that “as Palestinian-Americans and delegates to the Democratic National Convention, we are deeply dismayed that the language on Israel-Palestine once again ignores reality and basic Palestinian rights.” Yet, their argument rests on lies and omissions, all of which the Post could have—and should have—fact checked.

The delegates claim that “Israeli settlements are Jewish-only colonies built on stolen Palestinian land” in the “West Bank.” This is false. In fact, no sovereign Palestinian Arab state has ever existed. Indeed, as The Wall Street Journal noted in a May 16, 2020 correction that was prompted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA): “Under the Oslo accords, sovereignty over the West Bank is disputed, pending a final peace settlement.”

And the Jewish claim to the land is based on both history and international law.

Arabs are from Arabia and Jews are from their “historic homeland,” Judea and Samaria — or, as it has sometimes been called for the last half century, the “West Bank.” The term “Palestine” comes from the word “Palaestina” which the Roman conquerors coined after expelling many, but not all, Jews from Judea in the second century AD. Arabs, including the forebears of today’s Palestinians, didn’t arrive in the land until the Islamic conquests of the seventh century. By contrast, Jews are indigenous to the land and have maintained a continual presence that goes back thousands of years.

Contrary to what the writers claim, Jewish communities in the West Bank do not “violate international law.” In fact, the opposite is true.

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FP's Faux Pas on Boycotts, Israel, and 'Annexation' - by Sean Durns

Foreign Policy claims to “draw on the world’s leading journalists, thinkers, and professionals” in order to “analyze the most significant international trends and events of our times, without regard to ideology or political bias.” That, however, is up for debate.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA..
24 July '20..

Foreign Policy claims that its mission is “to explain how the world works.” But when it comes to Israel, the magazine frequently allows misleading commentary. Take, for example, several recent op-eds on “annexation.”

For several weeks it seemed that—in keeping with the parameters of a peace plan that Israelis accepted and Palestinians rejected—Israel would apply legal sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, often referred to as the West Bank, and the Jordan Valley. Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that such a move would occur by July 1, 2020. It never did. But this hasn’t stopped numerous media outlets from inaccurately reporting on the possibility.

Indeed, publications like Foreign Policy have repeatedly referred to the application of sovereignty as “annexation.” But this is inaccurate.

As the international law scholar Eugene Kontorovich has noted: “Annexation in international law specifically means taking the territory of a foreign sovereign country.” And neither the Jordan Valley nor the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) belongs to a “foreign sovereign country.” Further, as Dore Gold, Israel’s former Ambassador to the U.N., has highlighted: one can’t “annex territory that has already been designated as yours.” The League of Nations Palestine Mandate, adopted later by the United Nations, calls for “close Jewish settlement on the land” west of the Jordan River in Article 6. The UN Charter, Chapter XII, Article 80, upholds the Mandate’s provisions. The 1920 San Remo Resolution and the 1924 Anglo-American Convention also enshrined Jewish territorial claims into international law.

Unsurprisingly, this historical and legal context has been omitted in numerous media reports, including those by Foreign Policy. Instead the magazine has run several op-eds that misinform as much as they omit.

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Showcasing Artists Who Erase Israel Off the Map - by CAMERA Arabic

“Batur,”opined Vogue Arabia, “created this graphic with one thought in mind: Hope.” Indeed, it seems to be an honest expression of Batur’s hope that all Israeli Jews simply empty out of Israel.

CAMERA Arabic..
22 July '20..

A common trait of contemporary Palestinian and Arab nationalist propaganda is the attempt to conceal its intrinsic contempt for millions of Israelis, Zionists and Jews under relatable labels such as “artistic expression,” “grassroots activity,” “personal initiative” or even “educational endeavor.” The flimsy veneer repackages the same old hateful content, making it seem just harmless enough for “respectable” media outlets to mindlessly amplify.

Vogue Arabia is the latest Western media outlet to fall for this stunt. In an article entitled “Arab Stars Criticize Absence of Palestine on Google Maps,” the fashion magazine featured a series of Israel-free maps under the pretense of “artistic protest” objecting to the absence of “Palestine” from Google and Apple maps. For example, Turkish artist Adige Batur’s take was a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories (pictured below), labelled only “Palestine,” with flowers covering almost everything with the notable exception of the Dome of the Rock.

“Batur,”opined Vogue Arabia, “created this graphic with one thought in mind: Hope.” Indeed, it seems to be an honest expression of Batur’s hope that all Israeli Jews simply empty out of Israel. While Vogue Arabia’s article conceded that “critical voices highlight” that Israel’s noticeable absence from the image fails to “offer a balanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” its Instagram entry could not be bothered to include that minimal qualification; instead, it referred to the image as Batur’s “creative rendering of Palestine” and included an even more extensive quote from the illustrator.

A map labelled “Palestine,” covering Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, is hateful and incites violence, no matter how many flowers bloom upon it.

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Surprise? Israel’s Critics Want to Destroy It — Not Improve It - by Adam Levick

Whereas Israeli leaders must reject annexation and continually work to keep the two-state solution alive, less they forfeit their very right to exist, nothing whatsoever is asked of Palestinian leaders. They aren’t asked to create, as Zionists leaders did in the decades before 1948, the apparatuses of statehood — healthy proto-state political and civil institutions that would inspire faith that Palestine won’t become a failed state.

Adam Levick..
Algemeiner..
15 July '20..

Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland begins his recent Jewish Chronicle op-ed, “What next, if the two state dream is dead?” thusly:

Though annexation itself seems to be up in the air, one of annexation’s expected consequences is already materializing: a crisis of faith among those whose Zionist belief in the legitimacy of a Jewish state depended on there being at least the possibility of an eventual two-state solution, but who now see that prospect vanish before their eyes.

Freedland’s op-ed was addressing a recent 7,000 word piece by Peter Beinart calling for Jews to embrace a one-state, non-Zionist future, published at Jewish Currents — a shorter version of which was published by The New York Times.

You can read CAMERA’s response to Beinart’s call for the end of a Jewish state here, but Freedland’s framing of the crisis is interesting, as it — correctly — casts the (former) Zionism of Beinart and his allies as contingent upon a particular political outcome with the Palestinians. This contingent Zionism suggests that the very legitimacy of Israel is not, as with all other countries, to quote Abba Eban, “axiomatic and unreserved” — but is permanently “suspended in mid-air” awaiting others’ moral approval.

Contingent Zionism negates and erases the fact that Israel is, by any objective measure, a dynamic, successful, and democratic state; and demands, as the condition for political and moral international legitimacy, that it facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state. Conversely, this political calculus appears to conclude that no moral demands should be made of Palestinians for them to be granted the right to statehood and legitimacy.

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As Expected, Reuter's Annual Arabic Press Release on Behalf of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics - by CAMERA Arabic

For Reuters, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics' annual Nakba Day reports present a opportunity to serve as a Palestinian Authority mouthpiece, amplifying the message of eternal Palestinian victimhood with coverage that suspends journalistic considerations.

CAMERA Arabic..
27 May '20..

Continuing a longstanding tradition, Reuters Arabic’s coverage this month of the annual “conditions of the Palestinian people” report released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reads more like a press release for the Palestinian agency than a news report by an independent international news agency.

The Palestinian Authority’s PCBS publishes its report every year in anticipation of Nakba Day on May 15, the date that Palestinians mark as the “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding.

But the annual affair is of dubious newsworthiness. Indeed, the journalistic value of Reuters’ consistent coverage of the annual PCBS report, year after year, is highly questionable at best (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013). Only two figures in Reuters’ 2020 coverage – those concerning the total population of Palestinians and the current number of “Palestinian refugees” – concern 2019. PCBS’s announcement also includes two 2018 figures, which Reuters had not previously reported last year. The rest of the material, which constitutes the overwhelming bulk of the report, concerns 1948 events and their aftermath. Reuters’ West Bank reporters have been covering the PCBS reports every single year since 2013 in much the same way, primarily rehashing the exact same material, in much the same language, concerning events from decades ago, and including minimal material on current data.

For instance, on a consistent basis, Reuters’ yearly article about the PCBS publication alleges, by directly quoting the unchallenged PCBS claim, that “the uprooting of 800,000 Palestinians” was carried out “from their villages and cities, out of 1.4 million Palestinians who, in 1948, resided across historical Palestine in 1300 Palestinian villages and towns.” Nearly identical quote and figures appear in Reuters’ 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015 reports.

Recycled over many years are also the claims that “The process of this [ethnic] cleansing was accompanied with the Zionist gangs perpetrating more than 70 massacres against the Palestinians, creating more than 15,000 martyrs,”

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Surprise? Financial Times more anti-Israel than Arab media - by Elder of Ziyon

When European media is more anti-Israel than Arab media, there is a big problem.

Elder of Ziyon..
19 April '20..

Here was an absurd headline from the Financial Times last week:

The article's bias is truly insane:

Arabs make up only a fifth of Israel’s population, but represent half the country’s pharmacists, a quarter of its nurses and just under a fifth of its doctors, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Some of the nation’s largest hospitals have Arab doctors heading major departments, and the country’s leading virologist is Arab.
...
In Kafra Qara, an Arab town south of Haifa with so many medical professionals that residents call it the city of doctors, Jameel Mohsen was more critical.

“As an Arab, other jobs are closed off to us, so we became doctors,” he said, peeling off layers of protective equipment after setting up a Covid-19 ward at the Hillel Yeffe Medical Center, where he is head of infectious diseases.

If anyone can find any minority group complaining that they are over-represented in the medical professions as evidence of discrimination, I'd love to see it.

Of course, there are no professions in Israel where Arabs are not allowed.

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Surprise? NY Times Backs Cellphones to Fight Virus Everywhere Except Israel - by Ira Stoll

The only thing missing is for the disease to spread to Palestinian-controlled Gaza or areas of the West Bank, or for that matter, in Israel itself, and the Times then to blame Netanyahu for failing to use cellphone data to prevent the spread. It’s a safe bet that whatever Netanyahu does with the coronavirus and cellphones, the Times will find a way to criticize him.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner..
24 March '20..

A New York Times news article from Israel is faulting Prime Minister Netanyahu for combating the coronavirus with measures similar to those the Times itself, in a different article published the same day, says experts recommend.

Here’s the side-by-side comparison. The Times article about Israel reports, “Mr. Netanyahu has resorted to emergency regulations to usher in increasingly draconian measures to combat the spread of the virus. Those included authorizing the Shin Bet internal security agency to use cellphone data to track citizens, without any parliamentary oversight.” The language­ — “resorted,” “draconian,” “without any parliamentary oversight” — makes it clear enough that the Times disapproves. Draco, a 7th century BCE Athenian lawgiver, favored the death penalty for anyone who stole a cabbage or an apple, according to Plutarch.

And here’s the front-page New York Times news article from the same day’s newspaper, under the introductory language, “There is a chance to stop the coronavirus … doing so takes intelligent, rapidly adaptive work by health officials. … What follows are the recommendations offered by the experts interviewed by the Times.”

The Times says, “Everyone who is infected in South Korea goes into isolation in government shelters, and phones and credit card data are used to trace their prior movements and find their contacts. Where they walked before they fell ill is broadcast to the cellphones of everyone who was nearby. Anyone even potentially exposed is quarantined at home; a GPS app tells the police if that person goes outside. The fine for doing so is $8,000. British researchers are trying to develop a similar tracking app, albeit one more palatable to citizens in Western democracies.”

The same Times article reports, “China’s strategy is quite intrusive: To use the subway in some cities, citizens must download an app that rates how great a health risk they are. South Korean apps tell users exactly where infected people have traveled.”

So when it’s South Korea, Britain, and China using cellphones to fight Covid-19, the Times basically cheers them on, describing them as expert-recommended. Yet when the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, does a version of the same thing, the Times casts shade. It’s a classic Times double standard.

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Unpacking the Independent's latest tale of ‘Israeli cruelty’ - by Adam Levick

...it’s important to note that Palestinian children never travel for treatment unaccompanied by a parent or (at least) a relative. COGAT informed us that “during the first half of 2019, over 2,700 permits were issued for children’s medical treatment, with a nearly equivalent number issued for accompanying parents”. The image evoked by the language in the op-ed, of children alone in Israeli hospitals without family members, is, as with the broader narrative of the Indy op-ed, pure fiction.

Adam Levick..
UK Media Watch..
01 January '20

The latest Indy tale of Israeli cruelty (My friend was banned from travelling to visit his dying mother. This is the personal, intimate price of occupation, Saleh Hizjazi, Dec. 27th) begins in the opening sentences:

On Christmas Eve I received the distressing news that the mother of my friend and colleague, Laith Abu Zeyad, passed away after a short but bitter battle with cancer. She had suffered for three excruciating months between the diagnosis and her laying to rest. She died in the Augusta Victoria hospital in occupied East Jerusalem. Her eldest son, my colleague, was not able to spend the last days with her because of a travel ban Israel has imposed on him after his involvement in human rights work.

However, Hiziazi, the deputy regional director for Amnesty Mid-East and North Africa, who, research by David Collier demonstrates, has a penchant for promoting terrorists on Facebook, fails to note reports that the travel ban imposed on Abu Zeyad had nothing to with his “human rights work”.

An article published last month in Haaretz noting the following:

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Promoting Guilt By False Association: Israel ‘Noted in Particular’ - by Simon Plosker

How sad that The Independent, most likely also driven by its anti-Israel agenda, has given Zinevich a platform for his hate.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
23 October '19..

Anti-Israel activists will use any opportunity to present Israel as guilty by association with states that engage in controversial behavior. The South American state of Chile is currently experiencing violent street protests that have led to 15 reported deaths so far.

What has this got to do with Israel?

Plenty, according to The Independent.

Who is Benjamin Zinevich?

But firstly, who is Benjamin Zinevich, the author of the opinion piece?

Is he an academic? An expert on Israel-Chile relations?

No.

The Independent fails to provide any bio for Zinevich but a simple Google search reveals that he is an undergraduate student New York University where he is a prominent anti-Israel activist and member of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization, described by the Anti-Defamation League as “a network of pro-Palestinian student groups across the US which disseminate anti-Israel propaganda often laced with inflammatory and at times combative rhetoric. They are a leading campus organizer of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel, and specialize in using confrontational tactics such as disrupting student-run pro-Israel events, and constructing mock “apartheid walls” and distributing fake “eviction notices” to dramatize what they consider Israeli abuses of Palestinians.”

Zinevich most recently co-sponsored a resolution on his own NYU campus calling for a boycott of the school’s own study abroad program in Tel Aviv.

Zinevich’s bio page on The Independent is empty. In the interests of transparency, shouldn’t The Independent disclose the background of the contributor?

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The Independent’s Clueless Staff Editorial on Israeli Elections - by Simon Plosker

The Independent’s editors evidently need a lesson in politics, history and geography when it comes to Israel if this clueless staff editorial is anything to go by.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
19 September '19..

The disdain shown towards Israel by The Independent is obvious. While there is clearly a visceral and nasty attitude, the paper’s staff editorial (paywall) on the Israeli elections also demonstrates an embarrassing level of ignorance.

Referring to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, The Independent says that he

is making some brave noises about constructing a “national unity” government, comprising his own movement and a variety of smaller left-wing groups, and possibly with the tacit support of Israeli Arab parties.

Oh dear. It doesn’t take a politics degree to understand that a national unity government by definition is one that comprises of parties from both sides of the aisle joining together. Blue and White is considered to be part of the center-left bloc of Israeli parties. That means that any coalition government comprising it along with smaller left-wing parties would be a center-left coalition, not a national unity government.

Amidst all of the complicated political machinations currently taking place right now in Israel, a national unity government, if it were to come about, would be based on Blue and White with Likud.

National suicide – a liberal value

The Independent continues:

Although the liberal and pluralistic credentials of the Blue and White Party can be overstated – it remains opposed to the Palestinian right of return and supports Jerusalem as the undivided national capital – a Gantz premiership would at least mark a fresh start for Israel.

In fact, no mainstream Zionist political parties from left to right support the Palestinian right of return. This includes the Labor party and even the staunchly left-wing Democratic Union (formerly Meretz).

The right of return effectively means the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. Is The Independent seriously suggesting that Israel is not liberal or pluralistic because it rejects a policy that would bring about its own destruction?

At least we now know that The Independent believes national suicide is a liberal value.

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“Disneyfication”? NY Times’ Jerusalem Cable Car and the Architecture of Bias - by Simon Plosker

Ultimately, this story is typical of the New York Times: what is at its core a scheme to improve access to historical tourism sites in a city with significant transport challenges is instead critiqued not on grounds of architecture, design or effectiveness but on political grounds. The cable car may not be to everyone’s taste and is certainly contentious but the New York Times and Michael Kimmelman have created a framework where Israel’s plans are sinister and malevolent; designed specifically to maintain an “occupation” of its own capital city and to promote the Judaization of Jerusalem.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
15 September '19..

The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman accuses Israel of carrying out the “Disneyfication” of Jerusalem in reference to a planned cable car network connecting the Old City. The article, however, is less “Disneyfication” and more politicization on the part of the writer.

The scene is set in the opening paragraph:

The skyline is still dominated by the city’s great Muslim and Christian shrines: the gold, glistening Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus was said to have been buried.

For it is these sites that Kimmelman evidently sees as the legitimate religious identity of Jerusalem at the expense of its Jewish sites. Kimmelman is clearly an architect rather than an historian for in his second paragraph, he inaccurately describes the Western Wall as “the holiest site in the Jewish world.”

In fact, while the Western Wall is the holiest site that Jews are allowed to pray, the Temple Mount, the site of two ancient Jewish temples is, in fact, Judaism’s holiest site. The New York Times itself has previously corrected this error, prompted by HonestReporting.

Kimmelman is perfectly entitled to critique the Israeli cable car plan on the grounds of architecture and design. Indeed, one of the critics he interviews is Moshe Safdie, the architect responsible for many Israeli building projects including within Jerusalem. But Kimmelman goes further:

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The critics who deny Jerusalem’s past and its future - by Jonathan S. Tobin

A plan for cable cars to take worshippers to the Old City is debatable, but calling it a nefarious Israeli plan to ‘Judaize’ the capital reveals the motivations of some critics.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
13 September '19..

Its critics have accused Israel of a lot of terrible things over the course of its 71 years of existence, but The New York Times has now added one more to the list that will particularly resonate with intellectuals. While Israeli policies in Jerusalem since its reunification in 1967 have often been blasted, a recently approved proposal to deal with the city’s seemingly insoluble traffic problems is being put down as “Disneyfication.”

The accusation that Jews are trashing the holy city and turning it into a theme park was the focus of a feature published this week by the Times. The cable-car scheme is fair game for criticism from architects and others who worry about the potential aesthetic damage to the ancient capital. But the subtext of the campaign against the initiative goes far deeper than whether or not it will make Jerusalem look like a Swiss ski resort or even Disneyworld. For Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and many of the Israel-bashers he quotes in his piece, the real story is about how Israel is seeking to emphasize Jerusalem’s Jewish history.

The object of their scorn is a cable car that will start its journey at the First Station cultural complex in western Jerusalem and then travel over the Hinnom Valley to a stop at Mount Zion before landing in the City of David archeological park in eastern Jerusalem. There, visitors and worshippers will be able to tour the historic excavations at the site and walk to the Western Wall via recently excavated underground passageways that were taken by pilgrims on their way to the Second Temple 2,000 years ago. If planners have their way, this line will be the first of many that will crisscross the city in the future, delivering people to destinations that would otherwise require them to navigate jammed streets.

The project is a solution to a problem that is readily apparent to anyone who visits Jerusalem—and other ancient cities, for that matter, that were not built for modern-day concerns.

(Continue to Full Column)

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Where is a war crime not a war crime? In NY Times coverage of Hamas - by Gilead Ini

The paper makes a point of enlightening readers on international law — at least when it comes to Israeli actions

Gilead Ini..
CAMERA..
21 June '19..

A story in today’s New York Times refers to Hamas rocket fire into Israel and its imprisonment of two Israelis. But David Halbfinger, the newspaper’s Jerusalem bureau chief and author of today’s article, avoids telling readers that these are both violations of international law.

Writing about a press conference held by the head of Hamas yesterday, Halbfinger notes that the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, “ignored questions about whether Hamas, in launching rockets at Israel, fires them indiscriminately or intentionally at civilians, and whether it endangers its own civilian population by firing rockets from residential neighborhoods.”

Later, Halbfinger references “Israelis being held by Hamas in hopes of a prisoner swap — two soldiers believed to be dead and two civilians thought to be alive,” and explains that Haniyeh during the press conference “refused to say definitively whether the four are alive, a matter of intense interest in Israel.”

It is disingenuous for the New York Times to treat the question of Hamas’s targeting as if it were unanswered. And it is hypocritical for them to avoid explaining the international law implications of those rocket attacks. Haniyeh is free to “ignored questions” about who is being targeted with his rockets. But Halbfinger is certainly aware that those rockets are both indiscriminate and fired toward civilian centers — and that such rocket fire is a war crime.

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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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Indy evokes ‘wag the dog’ conspiracy vs. the Ireland Israel Alliance. One of them gets it right.

UK Media Watch does an excellent job dismantling Bel Trew's ‘wag the dog’ conspiracy to explain Israeli wars with Hamas, however the concept does have an appropriate place, as the Ireland Israel Alliance twitted after this morning's rocket attack. If the shoe fits...

Love of the Land..
25 March '19..

From UK Media Watch

The Independent’s Mid-East correspondent Bel Trew makes the following claim in an article on recent US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights (“Golan Heights: How Donald Trump’s tweet saved Netanyahu’s re-election”, March 23).

Normally known for launching wars ahead of elections to ensure the security vote, Mr Netanyahu was also batting off stinging criticism from all sides for not ordering a full military operation in Gaza

This is actually the second time in a week that Trew made some variation of the allegation that Israel’s prime minister launches wars against Hamas in order to secure electoral victories. A March 18th article by Trew on fears that a (evidently accidental) Hamas rocket attack on Tel Aviv could lead to all out war argued that “Israeli incursions into Gaza have been launched ahead of the last three elections…often winning incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu additional votes on a security ticket.”

Trew’s narrative is completely counter-factual. (Continue to Full Post)

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On the other hand, not to abandon the concept of 'wag the dog', the following was posted by Ireland Israel Alliance

Air raid sirens sound north of #TelAviv this morning. Rocket from #Gaza demolished house injuring 7 inc. 2 infants. A cynical attempt by #Hamas to deflect outrage of their own people rioting against them in Gaza? @rtepolitics @rtenews @VirginMediaNews @IrishTimes @irishexaminer pic.twitter.com/jFXRvWxjBS

— Ireland Israel Alliance (@irlisrAlliance) March 25, 2019

*auto-correct? deflect outrage in place of deflect overage

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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Courtesy of BBC Radio Ulster, audiences hear that ‘Israel should be wiped off the map’ - by Hadar Sela

...not for the first time ,we see that unfettered defamation, demonisation and delegitimisation of Israel – along with promotion of the antisemitic denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination – gets a free pass on BBC Northern Ireland radio stations.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
12 February '19..

On January 30th the BBC News website published an article that included the BBC’s response to calls from supporters of the anti-Israel BDS campaign to boycott the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.

Notwithstanding the BBC’s statement on the issue, the following day – January 31st – BBC Northern Ireland’s BBC Radio Ulster decided to air a long phone-in item on its ‘Talkback’ programme hosted by William Crawley. Titled “Is the BBC right to take part in Eurovison being held in Tel Aviv, or should the corporation stay away?”, the item included contributions from journalist/activist Eamonn McCann and historian Ruth Dudley Edwards as well as seven callers.

On the hook of the Eurovision Song Contest, listeners heard thirty-eight minutes of mostly unchallenged falsehoods and delegitimisation – often outstanding for their ignorance even by the ‘standards’ of BBC Radio Ulster.

Having informed listeners in his introduction that “Jerusalem is a disputed capital” and after noting the BBC’s statement on the call to boycott May’s event in Tel Aviv, Crawley invited listeners to phone in.

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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 New York Times’ latest anti-Israel smear - by Tamar Sternthal

Thus, in one respect, Alexander is right. There has been a “Silence on Palestine.” But far from being silent on Israel’s bad behavior, real or imagined, the Times has obsessively focused on it. Michelle Alexander’s 2,000-word plus op-ed is a continuation of the paper’s compulsive placement of Israel under a microscope. Sullivan’s spot on advice is just as much, if not more, relevant today: It’s time to break the silence on Palestinian bad behavior.

Tamar Sternthal..
JNS.org..
22 January '19..

Reflecting a total lack of self-awareness, the trite headline to Michelle Alexander’s 2,281-word op-ed, online on Sunday and in print on Jan. 19, in The New York Times says it all: “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.” The notion that the Palestinian issue is ignored, that a “silence” currently surrounds it or has surrounded it in years past, and that pro-Israel advocates muzzle opposing views is a common canard of anti-Israel activists.

For example, veteran Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, who regularly accuses Israel of war crimes and apartheid in the pages of his own newspaper and in international forums, recently charged that “it’s getting more and more difficult, more often than not, impossible” to publish articles critical of Israel in the mainstream press. But the facts say otherwise. At the Times, for instance, in the six months prior to Levy’s column, the paper published 10 opinion pieces showing explicit support of Israel in general or of a specific Israeli policy, presenting Israel in a positive light or defending it from criticism. In the same time period, the media outlet published 15 Times opinion pieces criticizing or condemning Israeli policies.

(Continue to Full Column)

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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As Expected, Israeli’s Murder Misappropriated for Political Ends - by Simon Plosker

Yes, Maasarwe should be humanized and if the family wish to identify as Palestinian above all else, that is their right. But Khalik and The Guardian should not be politicizing the death of young woman in pursuit of their own anti-Israel agendas. That Israel has treated Aiia Maasarwe as an Israeli is exactly what scares the likes of Khalik because it proves the opposite of their anti-Israel narrative.

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
21 January '19..

The appalling rape and murder of Israeli Arab student Aiia Maasarwe in Melbourne last week has made news in both Australian and Israeli media.

Maasarwe was an Israeli citizen, lived in the town of Baqa al-Gharbiya in northern Israel and was in Australia on an Israeli passport.

It’s no secret that Israel’s Arab citizens self-identify in different ways. Some have no problem with their Israeli identities. Others see themselves as Palestinian above all else despite their citizenship. That’s their prerogative and, irrespective of how they relate to the Israeli state, Israel will still treat them as citizens deserving of the same legal rights afforded to all Israelis.

But this is anathema to Israel haters whose narrative falsely portrays Israel as an apartheid state. Just imagine if Israel had washed its hands of any responsibility for this poor young woman simply because she was an Arab. The world would, quite rightly, be hauling Israel over the coals for an act of blatant discrimination. But Israel’s embassy in Australia has taken responsibility for repatriating Maasarwe’s body and the embassy’s spokesperson, herself a member of Israel’s Druze minority, issued this press release:

Official statement of the Embassy of Israel concerning the death of Israeli citizen, Aiia Maasarwe. pic.twitter.com/pryKW9QD6u

— Eman Hasisi Amasha - אימאן - ايمان (@AmashaEman) January 17, 2019

But in a case of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t, The Guardian has published an opinion piece politicizing Maasarwe’s death on the basis of her ethnicity.

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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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Surprise? NY Times Abuses Martin Luther King’s Legacy to Attack Israel - by Simon Plosker

Ultimately, Michelle Alexander has sullied the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with her assault on Israel, aided and abetted by the New York Times, which continues to up the ante in its efforts to single out Israel for crude special treatment.

Simon Plosker..
20 January '19..

At a time of increasing tension in the US surrounding identity politics and the antisemitism afflicting the Women’s March movement, trust the New York Times to add to the toxic mix just in time to commemorate Martin Luther King Day.

There’s something ironic in the NY Times’ headline given that the newspaper is one of Israel’s most strident critics, frequently publishing news and opinion pieces about Israel. Hardly much of a need to “Break the Silence on Palestine.”

It’s sad that Alexander looks to Martin Luther King as her justification for penning an op-ed of over 2,000 words attacking Israel. She writes:

if we are to honor King’s message and not merely the man, we must condemn Israel’s actions: unrelenting violations of international law, continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, home demolitions and land confiscations. We must cry out at the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints, the routine searches of their homes and restrictions on their movements, and the severely limited access to decent housing, schools, food, hospitals and water that many of them face.

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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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