HP Headline/Photo Bias: Renewed Gaza Violence

Over the weekend, there was a renewal of attacks between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Before I tell you what actually happened, here's the two headlines the HP published:

 

For the first article, once you click on it, the picture is of a "burned out car" in Israel. The second article, of course, shows the poor suffering Gazans carrying the body of someone. Only once you click on it do you learn that the body is of a member of Islamic Jihad. Once again, as usual for the Huffington Post, when Israelis are attacked, property damage is the picture (other examples here and here), but when Palestinians are attacked, regardless of whether or not they are terrorists, people are in the accompanying picture.

As if that weren't bad enough, neither headline makes any mention of the Israeli civilian killed by rockets.  The body of the first article mentions it in the text, but neither headline does. The second article, once you click on it, has this headline:

Funny how two Palestinian deaths get the headline, but Israeli deaths don't, don't you think? Just another example of clear Huffington Post bias.

News the HP Doesn't Cover: Israel and Medical Marijuana

This news is a break from the usual "war and politics" stories, but it's no surprise the HP doesn't cover it because some of its far left readers might think better of Israel because of it:

Emmy Award-winning television personality and patient activist Montel Williams said Sunday he was impressed with Israel's liberal attitude toward medical marijuana, and he believes the U.S. could learn a thing or two from the Jewish state.

Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999 and he has since been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana to relieve pain caused by the disease.

The former host of the popular long-running talk show "The Montel Williams Show" is in Israel on a fact-finding mission to learn about its medicinal cannabis practices. He is meeting with legislators, scientists and physicians.

In Israel, certain doctors can approve cannabis prescriptions and disperse them to patients, said Itay Goor-Aryeh, the head of the pain management unit at the Sheba Medical Center in central Israel.

He said that while marijuana use is strictly regulated, many doctors prefer prescribing it to patients who qualify because it is "the lesser of evils."

"Those patients, if they do not get cannabis, they will get morphine-like drugs and other harmful drugs," said Goor-Aryeh. "I think that in many ways, cannabis is tolerated and is less addictive that morphine-based drugs."

If you're a fan of medical marijuana, you might want to head over to Israel. 

Hypocritical Comment of the Day

Doesn't really need any context:

This comment is hilariously hypocritical in light of the Arabs demanding that every inch of the Middle East belongs to them and Israel "stole it".

The original link.

The Hypocrisy of MJ Rosenberg

Yes, he's back, doing what he always does. MJ Rosenberg's latest article at the Huffington Post perfectly summarizes the issue that this blog has with him: His politics we may disagree with, but he is not an extremist. What prompts us to write about him is the way he expresses his opinions; because it very often involves Jew-baiting, lying and hypocrisy. In this article all three are quite prominently on display.

What has gotten Mr. Rosenberg's gander up this time is that a right-wing group called "Emergency Committee for Israel" is expanding its activity, lobbying against Congresspeople who they feel are anti-Israel. You may also remember them as the people who made the video making the case that Occupy Wall Street is anti-Semitic. The ECI also has begun taking shots at President Obama, which I can personally attest to because when I was at New York Comic Con a couple of weeks ago I saw one of their banners prominently declaring that the President is "not pro-Israel."

Now I know what you're expecting: MJ Rosenberg is about to call the ECI "Israel firsters," right? Because that's what he always does? Nope! You're mistaken. This time he thinks that the ECI only pretends to be pro-Israel to further a right wing agenda, and that's why they never target Republicans with their lobbying. Does this sound familiar to long time readers of MJ Rosenberg? Perhaps, but more on that later. And here is where the all time most hypocritical statement comes in:

"That is because it reinforces the most virulent anti-Semitic canard that still circulates in this country: that American Jews are disloyal citizens whose primary allegiance is to Israel and not America."

Now what's truly amazing is that if this sentence had been written by anyone other than MJ Rosenberg, no one would have batted an eye. Because he is right: The dual loyalty canard is most virulent and it does still circulate. What he neglects to mention is that he does more than his fair share in circulating it.

I shouldn't really have to provide evidence that MJ Rosenberg fans the flames of the dual loyalty canard, a simply Google search for "MJ Rosenberg Israel Firsters" reveals 952,000 results. If you take out his name quite a number of those hits are from Stormfront. His words have been used as a shield by real anti-Semites who really hate Israel and want to spread the dual loyalty canard, without a peep of protest from him. He'll call anyone an Israel firster simply for disagreeing with him, including anti-Hamas activists, Congresspeople, and yours truly. And in case you were wondering, the Arab American Institute gave Rosenberg credit for coining the phrase "Israel firster." He should be proud, it's not everyone who will go down in history for creating yet another form of anti-Semitism. I guarantee you people will be using his words against his fellow Jews long after the ECI is forgotten.

And of course that's not the only sort of anti-Semitic libel Rosenberg has deployed in his long months at the Huffington Post. He firmly believes that Jews Zionists AIPAC controls Congress with an iron fist, and that Jewish money controls the President, and he will be happy to share his beliefs with you. If he is aware of the parallel with the Zionist Occupied Government conspiracy theory, he certainly doesn't show it. But he'll happily repeat his two canards, that Jews run America and that Jews are loyal to Israel, forever.

But wait! I'm sorry, I have misrepresented MJ Rosenberg's position. You see, like John Mearsheimer before him, in his mind there are "good Jews" and "bad Jews." Good Jews are Jews who have the exact same politics as MJ Rosenberg and therefore don't control America and aren't "Israel firsters." If you're wondering what Rosenberg's politics are, let me remind you that that he has accused Israel of practicing apartheid in the West Bank yet still claims to be pro-Israel. Bad Jews are Jews who are more right-wing than Rosenberg and therefore are "AIPAC drones," "Israel firsters," or any number of other insults tinged with anti-Semitism that Rosenberg will employ at the drop of a hat. He'll also accuse them of encouraging anti-Semitism, like in this article and on his Twitter feed.

If all this is sounding familiar, it should. Exploiting Jewish issues and anti-Semitism to further political goals is exactly what MJ Rosenberg accused the Emergency Committee For Israel of doing at the beginning of his column. The other difference is that the ECI is on the right and MJ Rosenberg is on the left. In my mind they are two sides of the same coin: exploiting Jews and anti-Semitism for their own goals. It's only that MJ Rosenberg gets preachy about it:

"To put it simply, these neocons are bad for everyone -- but especially for Jews. It is almost as if reinforcing the ugliest and most libelous stereotypes about Jews is their goal."

Yeah, it does almost sound that way doesn't it?

The Truth About Gaza

[Can't be said enough.]

With the end of Gilad Shalit’s five years in captivity, political advocacy NGOs are grossly misrepresenting the facts in order to advance their own fringe agendas. This tactic was no more clear and egregious than in Sari Bashi’s “Time to lift the Gaza siege.”

Bashi employs selective memory to advance the specious argument that the sole reason for Israel’s imposition of sanctions on Hamas was retaliation for the capture of Shalit. Now that he is free, Bashi claims, Israel should allow for the unfettered movement of all goods in and out of Gaza.

Her argument is based on the faulty premise that Israeli policies are the only obstacle to “a chance for normal life in the Gaza Strip, and an opportunity for its million and a half residents to build a healthy, prosperous society that would be able to peacefully co-exist with its neighbors.”

Bashi seems to live in a world of her own invention, devoid of 10,000 rockets since 2005, suicide bombs, shooting attacks, kidnappings, and other terrorist attacks. Rather, this fictional world is apparently filled with a peaceful Hamas. While we, too, wish this to be true, it simply is not. To paraphrase the late US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Individuals are entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

In 2005, Israel uprooted 8,000 citizens from Gaza in a bold, courageous and significant policy change intended to give the Palestinians there a chance to begin real state-building efforts, and to build a prosperous Gazan society that could live side-by-side in peace with Israel.

Instead of reciprocating with peace overtures, within days of the withdrawal, Gazans destroyed the now infamous greenhouse buildings that Israel left for them, and rocket and mortar fire on Israeli civilians substantially increased.

Hamas attacked many of the border crossings between Israel and Gaza that were used to transfer goods to the territory, forcing them to close in many instances. At other times, Hamas fighters commandeered these goods altogether for their own use. Hamas also attacked European Union officials who had agreed to oversee the border between Egypt and Gaza.These officials ran away at the first sign of intimidation.

Finally, in June 2006, Hamas crossed into Israeli territory, killing soldiers and abducting Shalit. In 2007, Hamas took complete control over Gaza in a vicious coup where its political Fatahopponents were thrown off 17-story buildings. Again, rocket attacks on Israel increased. It was only at this point when Israel hardened its economic policy towards Gaza.

Pointedly, Bashi fails to inform her readers of any of these events. Nor does she explain why her organization failed to regularly and outspokenly campaign against these blatant violations.

Condemn terrorism 

If Bashi really thought that Shalit’s abduction was the reason for economic sanctions on Gaza, then why didn’t her organization,Gisha, tirelessly campaign for his release? Why did she not repeatedly and loudly condemn Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians or its murderous suppression of political opposition?

Moreover, why doesn’t Bashi acknowledge the funneling of arms and other materiel to Hamas by Iran and Syria? Why doesn’t she note that Israel is obligated under Security Council Resolution 1373 to prevent any direct and indirect support for Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization? And why don’t Bashi and Gisha condemn the core nature and principles of Hamas - a genocidal, anti-Semitic, radical terror organization that targets civilians with impunity and brutally exploits its own citizens as human shields to achieve its goals?

If Bashi really wants Gazans to have “a chance for a normal life”, why doesn’t she campaign to free them from Hamas?

One wonders if Bashi saw footage from Gaza and read the news reports in the days after Gilad Shalit returned home. Along with celebrations and speeches welcoming home murderers and calling for the “next Gilad Shalit,” she would have read the speech by Wafa al-Biss. Al-Biss, it should be noted, was caught at the Erez border crossing in 2005 with 22 pounds of explosives she was planning on using to kill Israelis.

Upon her release to Gaza she told a crowd of cheering schoolchildren, “I hope you will walk the same path we took and God willing, we will see some of you as martyrs.” The children responded, “We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine.”

Rather, it would be more productive if Bashi and Gisha stopped using hundreds of thousands of Euros provided by the EU and European governments to cherry pick human rights issues solely based on biased political and ideological agendas. They should strongly and consistently condemn terrorism. And Israel’s policy in Gaza should be presented and understood in a manner that reflects history’s realities and all the accompanying complexities, not in a distorted and oversimplified version that so blatantly seeks to achieve narrow policy goals.

Anne Herzberg is legal advisor of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institution dedicated to promoting universal human rights and to encouraging civil discussion on the reports and activities of nongovernmental organizations, particularly in the Middle East.

Jason Edelstein is communications director of NGO Monitor.

Comment of the Day

Typical, standard faire, Jews control America comment:

Key sentence: "the Jews hold the trump card in American elections".

If you really want to scare some HPers on Halloween night, dress up as a Jew.

The original link.

Do Israel's Detractors Believe in Free Speech?

[From the Jerusalem Post by Jason Holtzman]

Making positive presentations on behalf of the State of Israel is not so easy these days. In fact, speakers and performers who represent the various perspectives of Israeli society have to worry whether they’ll be heard at all, given the efforts of anti-Israel activists. This trend of silencing Israelis, which has been repeated in venues worldwide, is a major concern for many Israeli speakers and performers when they prepare for events. That concern is warranted, which is evident from the now almost customary procedure for organizers of pro-Israel events to have security or police present at their programs to guard against the worst-case scenario.

One of the most publicized incidents occurred at the University of California-Irvine in February 2010. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, had been brought to campus by pro-Israel students for a lecture. Unfortunately, Oren was relentlessly heckled, repeatedly called a “murderer,” and effectively silenced by radical anti-Israel activists from the Irvine campus’s Muslim Student Union, who walked out on the speech after verbally assaulting Oren for close to an hour.

Thankfully, justice was eventually served this past September when seven students from UC-Irvine and three from the nearby UC-Riverside campus, who all had been involved in the protest against Oren, were found guilty on two misdemeanor counts: “conspiring to disturb a meeting” and “disturbing a meeting.” Although these convictions may sound insignificant, they are anything but.

Following the Oren incident, there has been a kind of chilling effect on campus. Itzik Yarkoni, Internship Coordinator for the 2011-2012 Israel Government Fellows program who arrived at UC Irvine as the Hillel Israel Fellow after the event with Oren, says, for example: “I realized that when doing events on campus connected to Israel, I needed to be cautious because of hecklers trying to prevent our events from happening.  In anticipation of that, we always had to have police or some form of security at our events. When I attended anti-Israel events though, there were never policemen there on duty. Why is it that only pro-Israel events need protection?”

The answer to Yarkoni’s question is clear, since the students involved in organizing the heckling against Oren pursued a specific goal: preventing him from speaking on their campus. Yet by interfering with his right to express an opinion, they apparently forgot about the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee to freedom of speech.

For years, the Zionist Organization of America has been shining a spotlight on the Muslim Student Union’s vicious anti-Israel programs, which have caused Jewish students and faculty to feel intimidated and even fearful for their physical safety. Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, in New York praised the jury’s decision that held the disrupters of the Oren event accountable. “These students have been relying on their First Amendment protections to spout their bigotry against Jews and Israel,” Tuchman said of the UC-MSU defendants. “Ironically, the students did not appreciate the fact that the First Amendment also protects speech that they disagree with. The jury verdict let these students know that they’re not above the law.”

There have been many other events around the world similar to the incident at UC Irvine. And looking at such disruptions from an external viewpoint, it’s easy to conclude that anti-Israel activists have a problem with the political messages being delivered. But, considering the particular performers and lecturers who have been heckled, walked out on, or prevented from speaking or performing, there needn’t be any political message at all.

A telling example occurred at some distance from any campus last month, when the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London for a BBC Promenade Concert. During the performance, almost 30 people were removed for standing up and shouting slogans such as “OUT!” The shouting became so intense that the BBC had to stop the live broadcast of the event – a first for the BBC.

At universities outside the United States, meanwhile, hostility toward pro-Israel speakers has grown to the point where they have begun to experience what amounts to silencing techniques. In February 2011, Ishmael Khaldi, an Arab-Israeli diplomat from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was scheduled to speak at the University of Edinburgh about his experiences growing up in Israel as a Bedouin Muslim.

But as Khaldi began his talk, approximately 50 protesters loudly stormed into the room and became increasingly hostile. Khaldi tried to reason with them, while university security turned a blind-eye toward the confrontation. The result was that Khaldi was effectively silenced and the presentation was halted. The anti-Israel activists in essence were handed a victory, while free-speech at their university suffered a resounding defeat.

Other attempts to prevent free speech have taken place at prestigious American universities such as Brandeis University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Michigan. These displays by Israel’s critics show that they have seemingly rejected what America’s institutions of higher learning are about. In addition, rather than looking to engage in dialogue and/or debate, they’re completely dedicated to their personal, self-serving ideologies that ignore any opposing viewpoint.

The fact that this scenario is tolerated on campuses and venues around the world is unfathomable. Praise must be given to the Orange County jury for believing in freedom of speech and delivering a guilty verdict for the 10 students who relentlessly disrupted Israeli Ambassador Oren. No longer should it be possible to discriminate against speakers and performers based solely on their nationality. Hopefully these jury convictions will send a strong message worldwide and lead the way for other campuses and venues to seek legal recourse against those who try to shut down lawful assemblies and shout down protected speech.

Huffington Post Links to Nazi Websites

The Huffington Post is not exactly treading new ground with its story about Poland reopening investigations into war crimes committed at Auschwitz. Nor is it exactly new for us that a whole new crop of Huffington Posters came charging in to accuse the Jews of profiteering off the Holocaust and other such nasty libels, with HuffPo moderator approval of course. What is new for us is that the Huffington Post officially links to Stormfront, the Neo-Nazi web forum. Don't believe me? Check out this screengrab of their "Around the Web" section:

That's right. They proudly link here, to Stormfront's coverage of the story. But hey, if you're so inclined why don't you take a look? The people on Stormfront can't possibly be more hateful than the people on the HuffPo.

Oh wait, the fun doesn't end there. See on the bottom where it simply says "Auschwitz?" That links to Save Your Heritage dot com. And what can you find there?

Out of all the websites that the Huffington Post could have linked to in order to provide more information about Poland, the Holocaust, and Auschwitz, 2 out of 4 of them are Neo-Nazi/Holocaust denial websites. Some interesting company the Huffington Post keeps, don't you think?

Bradley Burston is Mistaken, Hypocritical

Bradley's Burston latest article demonstrates a more perfect example of "liberal tunnel vision" than I have ever seen before. That's not a shot at liberals by the way, conservatives have been known to demonstrate tunnel vision as well. It's just that Burston's article is coming from the liberal side of Israeli and American politics, and his blinders are up in full force this time. The article is quite rambling, but it all boils down to this:

"The difference is that it now turns out to be just fine for U.S. Jews to denounce the actions and policies of the government of Israel - so long as it's being done by hard-line rightists."

You see, what happened is that in the wake of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange is that a lot of prominent American Jews and Jewish organizations got up in arms about it, proclaiming that it was a bad idea for Israel to do this because it encourages more kidnappings in the future. Burston gets upset about this why?

"Of course they can't. You don't live here. Why should you have any idea why nearly 80 percent of Israelis supported the exchange?For that matter, why should people who have claimed the title of Zionists of America be swayed by the feelings of the overwhelming majority of Israelis -- who are, after all, the ones who are putting themselves and their loved ones at direct risk in accepting the deal?"

An understandable point of view. So where does the hypocrisy come in?

Well, you'll see two paragraphs up that Burston was complaining that the only American Jew who can criticize Israel are right-wing American Jews who want Israel to be more right-wing. Except that the only way he can come to that conclusion is if he didn't read the Huffington Post. I wasn't aware that Alon Ben-Meir, Max Blumenthal, Ira Chernus, Ben Cohen, Joseph Dana, Lara Friedman, and MJ Rosenberg were all hard core Republicans. So I don't understand: Did Burston just ignore these legions upon legions of left wing American Jews who often lambaste Israel for not being left-wing enough, or does he not read the internet newspaper to which he comments? And of course let's not forget how all of the above mentioned bloggers don't hesitate to throw out the insults toward anyone who disagrees with them (drill or otherwise) including "Israel firster" and "traitor." So I for one have little sympathy toward Burston's point of view in this particular case.

But then, if you can believe it, the hypocrisy continues:

"These are the very people who for decades have maintained that American Jewish condemnation of Israeli security-related measures is dead wrong on principle, because it will be Israelis and not Jews living in the United States who will ultimately bear the potentially lethal consequences of these critical positions."

Yes, contrast that with the Burston paragraph quoted above. He's criticizing "these very people" for doing exactly what he did later down the column. That sure sounds like hypocrisy to me.

Maybe this is not simply an Israel thing, though. Maybe it's a staple of politics: Both sides are hypocrites because they both criticize each other for doing the exact same thing, and then justify it to themselves by thinking "we're in the right so it's okay." Based on the reading of Burston vs ZOA in this column alone, it certainly comes off that way.

Anti-Semitic Comment of the Day

Finally, a thread about Ilan Grapel got some commenting action. Mostly, though, it was people accusing Jews of disloyalty to America simply for being Jews. But here's one that is even worse than that:

 

Key sentence: Since when did Jews have a soul.  Huff Post approved.

The original link.

Robert Naiman Fails

When it comes to Israel and the Palestinians Robert Naiman has one job on the Huffington Post. One freaking job. And what is that? To end the siege of Gaza. That's right, Naiman has to fight endlessly and tirelessly to end the siege, even when the siege has already finished. And even though it never really was a siege to begin with. We have never seen Robert Naiman's agenda more clearly than with his latest article on the Huffington Post: "Shalit Is Free. Lift the Siege of Gaza Now."

The article itself is the same spin and lies that we have seen a million times before from Naiman's pen. He claims Gaza is besieged, even though we all know that the Rafah crossing opened months ago. But apparently that doesn't matter. He thinks that the blockade is illegal, citing an obscure UN official and the Red Cross, while ignoring the Palmer Report commissioned by the United Nations that says the exact opposite. He says that Gaza is still occupied so that he can use the Geneva Conventions against Israel, forgetting that everyone recognizes the line between Israel and Gaza as a recognized border. He declares that the blockade denies "basic human rights" to the inhabitants of Gaza, forgetting it was the Quartet powers who came up with the idea of isolating Gaza in the first place. Funny how it wasn't a human rights violation then.

Those are some of the major lies. Let's get into some slightly more obscure ones:

"Hamas officials have said that Israel pledged to lift the Gaza blockade as part of the prisoner exchange that freed Shalit. Egyptian officials have also indicated that lifting the blockade was part of the deal. But Israeli officials have said that Israel did not agree to lift the blockade."

Okay, let's take a look at the links that Naiman cites. First of all Hamas are liars, we have seen that before. But Egypt was very informative. Naiman's description of what exactly was said is vague enough to give him plausible deniability, but let's read from his link:

"The officials said talks on the deal's details were still being discussed Saturday in Cairo, and that after Shalit returns home, Israel is expected to ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip. But they said any such move by Israel also depends on the conduct of Hamas, which rules the territory."

Lie #1: The Egyptian official said "ease," not lift. Lie #2: The official also said that it would depend on Hamas' actions. Naiman does not. So this makes one wonder: Does Mr. Naiman actually read the articles that he cites for his pieces, or does he simply take the sections that he wants to hear and hope that no one notices the difference? I'm going to go with the latter, since it fits his pattern of behavior.

He then misconstrues what the blockade is for:

"The ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza -- which until now blocks Gazans from traveling to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and blocks Gazans from exporting, farming, fishing, and otherwise earning their living..."

As we mentioned at the time, it's incredibly hypocritical for Naiman to whine about a "siege" that is allegedly starving the Palestinians to death and then without missing a beat gripe only about "earning a living" and "visiting family." Amazing how he wants us to believe that the blockade is some kind of major human rights violation, but the only examples he can point to is that Israel won't let the Palestinians just waltz into their country whenever they feel like it. This does not sound like the behavior of someone who has a legitimate grievance, it sounds like someone who will say whatever helps him at the moment, even if he ends up contradicting himself.

For his next trick, Naiman quotes Gilad Shalit himself:

 "I will be very happy if all these prisoners are freed so that they can go back to their families, loved ones, territories -- it will give me great happiness if this happens," Shalit told Egyptian TV. "I hope this deal will help with the conclusion of a peace deal with the Israelis and Palestinians and I hope that cooperation links between the two sides will be consolidated."

And exploits Shalit for his own political goals:

"The international community should follow Gilad Shalit's noble lead. Lift the siege of Gaza now." 

You'll notice up to this point we have only pointed out which parts of Naiman's article are straight up not true. But here is really where his politics shine forth: Gilad wanted peace. Naiman doesn't particularly care about peace, he has said that many times over. He wants the Palestinians to get what he thinks they deserve, and if a few Israelis get killed along the way, that's just too darn bad. Just look at his demands for "justice" instead of peace if you don't believe me.

Or just look at the column in general: The call is not for peace, but for the fictional siege of Gaza to end. Because that's what the Palestinians want, every other inconvenient facts gets forgotten. Has Hamas changed their attitude toward Israel? No. Is there a risk to Israel? Maybe, but who cares! Naiman certainly doesn't. He's got an agenda to push, after all.

Comment of the Day

Somehow I don't think the answer he is looking for is that old prejudices die hard.

The original link.

Comment of the Day

In the wake of the Turkish tragedy, most everyone on the Huffington Post came together in solidarity with the Turks and the other countries coming to their aid. Notice I said most everyone:

The original link.

News the HP Doesn't Cover: Jordan Warns of Egypt-Israel War

Highly unlikely the HP will cover this news, as it violates the narrative of mean Israel starting all the wars:

"The Israel- Egypt peace treaty has never been in greater danger, as the post-Mubarak regime in Cairo may choose to revoke it altogether, King Abdullah II of Jordan somberly predicted in an interview with the Washington Post.

The king had previously expressed his concern over the volatile situation caused on the region in the wake of the Arab Spring, and has urged both Israel and the Palestinians to find a way to overcome the stalemate in the peace process. 

...The king further warned that there was a "very strong possibility" the Cairo's new rulers will choose to revoke the 32-year-old accord, but the Washington Post qualified the statement, saying that "Egypt’s role in brokering the exchange of Shalit for over a thousand Palestinian prisoners demonstrated that fears of a major break between Egypt and Israel have been wildly overstated.""

 While we all hope for peace, warning signs like this one cannot be ignored.

To Mira Suchorov, It's All About the Jews

We've agreed and disagreed with Mira Suchorov in the past, and her latest article on Gilad Shalit written in HuffPostCanada has some interesting things to say. In short, her article makes three points:

That Jews are proud of Israel, even if they didn't agree with the prisoner swap decision, because it shows Israel's commitment to human life:

"I read how much "we" value human life, compared to "their" murderous, "sociopathic" criminality. One thousand and twenty-seven prisoners for one boy soldier. Choose life, as the Torah famously says. Those are Jewish values."

Secondly, how this proves Israel is better than the Palestinians in how they treated their respective prisoners:

"I watched with measured fascination as one tweeter posed a question ("Who do you think was treated better?") along a photo of a pale, thin Ashkenazi'ed-complexion Gilad with sunken eyes adjacent to photos of dark-skinned, smiling, Arab men: the released Palestinian prisoners. The lesson was clear: Israeli prisoners emerge from demonic Palestinian dungeons appearing sallow and weak, while Palestinian prisoners are released from benign Jewish incarceration looking ruddy and strong." 

Now before we get to the third point and her conclusion, if you look at the article itself you will see that Ms. Suchorov approaches all this with an air of detachment and skepticism: "I.e. this is what the Jews are saying but I don't truly think that. That's just what I hear."

But the facts are clear: The above statements are the truth. Israelis do value the lives of their people more than the Palestinians do. That's not a hateful or racist statement, no matter what the Huffington Post trolls try to claim. No people who can use suicide bombers can claim to value human life above all else. And Israel does treat its prisoners better than the Palestinians do. That was laid out in full color at the Israellycool link Ms. Suchorov links to in her article. Just ask Samir Kuntar who got a free college education for murdering an Israeli.

So because Ms. Suchorov knows that the rather stark difference between Israel and the Palestinians cannot be denied she takes a different tactic: It doesn't matter. Israel may be better than the Palestinians in every way, but they still aren't good enough and aren't "Jewish" enough. And by "Jewish" enough, we mean "dovish" enough. Don't believe me? Let's quote her directly:

"We need to listen to the narrative of the Other, even if that narrative is difficult to hear. For Israelis, that two-fingered victory sign is inextricably tied up with the release of terrorists and thus images of the brutal killing of civilians juxtaposed against the pale, sunken eyes of one kidnapped boy-soldier who was conscripted to defend his country's borders. But for Palestinians, that same "V" signifies steadfastness in the face of the humiliation of occupation, the vagaries of European colonial history, and the sting of statelessness."

First of all, how the hell do you know what the Palestinians project onto the "V," Ms. Assistant Professor at Ottawa University in Canada? The "V" has two meanings, hippies and peace or "V For Victory," like Winston Churchill.

We know the Palestinians aren't hippies, so when they use the V, it means "Victory." We won, we beat the Jews, we got released to kill again. That is what it means. Let's take a look at some other usages of Palestinian V signs besides the released prisoners (because everyone has seen those)

Do those people look like hippies to you? And there are many other examples, notice how none of them look particularly sad, when they wave the symbol of "the vagaries of European colonial history." What Ms. Suchorov is doing is nothing less than projecting her own interpretation onto the Palestinians' actions because what they actually do in the real world doesn't fit her worldview of "helpless Arab victim." 


So when they cheer and dance at murderers running free, Ms. Suchorov doesn't want to face the ugly truth that the Palestinians love death as Israelis love life. She'd rather simply pretend that the Palestinian point of view has just as much value as the Israeli and if the Israelis really had "Jewish values" like she did, they would listen to the Palestinians and work to accommodate them. But there can be no accommodation with people for whom Samir Kuntar is a national hero. If the Palestinians truly want peace with Israel, it is long past time that they take responsibility for changing their attitudes, and change that V for Victory into a peace sign. But as long as they have people like Ms. Suchorov to apologize and make excuses for them, they never will. And enabling a cycle of failure like that is most certainly not a Jewish value.

The West Must Bear Witness to Iran's Prisoners

[By Linda Frum, crossposted from the HuffPo.]

Last month in New York, in the shadow of the sham "human rights conference" known as Durban III, I had the honour of attending a counter-conference organized by the human rights organization UN Watch. At this conference, leading dissidents and human rights activists from Iran, Syria, Cuba, Burma, North Korea and China assembled to shine a light on the extreme human rights violations that the UN's corrupt "Human Rights Committee" would rather ignore.

One of the most touching pieces of testimony at the UN Watch conference was a letter smuggled out of Iran's notorious Evin Prison, read aloud by Iranian human rights activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi. I have put this letter into the record of the proceedings of the Senate of Canada as a show of solidarity with the suffering of its author, a brave and principled ayatollah whose only crime was to advocate in favour of the separation of religion and government.

According to Amnesty International, poor prison conditions, torture and ill treatment have left Ayatollah Boroujerdi in a dangerously precarious state of health. I read his letter aloud to the Senate to honour his courage and that of his family and supporters and to let them know that we in the Senate of Canada bear witness to their struggle and to the leadership and criminal treatment of this good man.

Here is his message:

A message from Ayatollah Kazemeyni Boroujerdi to the 66th annual UN General Assembly:

Honorable UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, respected and esteemed representatives of the countries around the world, ladies and gentlemen of the free world,

The abominable oppression and subjugation of the people of Iran by the Revolutionary Guards, under the ruling dictatorship is so egregious, and their apparatus for its cover-up so systematic that the world at large never learns of the actual horror stories and the crimes committed by the Islamic regime against the humanity of the people of Iran.

I am hereby informing you, the defenders of human rights, that the innocent people of Iran are deprived of their most basic human and civil rights while their natural resources and national wealth and assets are being squandered on saturating the world with a universal propaganda campaign devised for an expansionist agenda of these sinister claimants of faith.

The wave of poverty, despair, fear and helplessness has created a desperate atmosphere in my country but the regime relentlessly censors and prevents the information about the condition of the poor citizens of Iran to be disseminated.

I am appealing to all people of faith, and reverence to divine Justice, to come to the aid of a nation that was deceived in the name of God 32 years ago; that exchanged the throne and crown for a politicized Islam. Now Godlessness and Immorality has encroached on all levels of our society and has shattered the peoples confidence and trust in faith and spirituality.

Now that the hope of democracy in the Islamic world is spreading and the foundation of human rights is being established throughout the region, the international community's support for the struggling people of Iran is needed for Iran to reach independence and self determination and also establishment of peace in the Middle East.

This humble preacher who has continually spoken out against the incursion of religion in government and politics, has spent over 2000 days in the nightmarish prisons and torture chambers of the Islamic regime's Dictatorship. Every single day, I have been denied council, and my wife, children, extended family and defenders have been systematically threatened and actively abused.

I thank you for your time and willingness to lend an ear to the Iranian plight and eagerly await your support for the oppressed people of our nation.

Seyyed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi

ZOG Comments of the Day

The Huffington Post published a non-story about Israel allegedly closing down Hamas offices in the West Bank. Ho hum, not particularly interesting. But because the story is about Israel, the HPers took advantage of the opportunity to spread some anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Here's a sampling:

Woo hoo! Great fun! Accuse the Jooos of running the government!

The original link.

Chris York's Airport Security Story

The qualifications to become a Huffington Post blogger keep sinking, as our latest blogger proves. Chris York's only biographical information is "the world's most over-qualified waiter." But he writes articles bashing Israel, so of course Huffington Post UK was happy to give him a job. And his latest article is pretty weak sauce by HuffPo standards. He begins by exploiting Gilad Shalit's release in the title of his post and in the introduction:

"The 18th of October was a big day in Israel. A young man, imprisoned against his will was released and flew home to be reunited with friends and family. I'm not talking about Gilad Shalit, I am in fact referring to myself."

So immediately York is playing the victim and leeching off of Shalit's suffering. Now why would he have been "imprisoned" by those eeevil Israelis?

"Alas, my plans were scuppered by an Israeli immigration official suspicious that I had no hotel reservations, no return ticket and was a solo traveller who didn't know anyone in Israel...Reliably advised that admitting that I was working for a Palestinian organisation would only cause me trouble, I stuck to my story that I was a traveller seeking all the joys that Israel could offer." 

Oh my gosh! Who on earth could have imagined that lying to airport security might have negative consequences?

Clearly Mr. York didn't think so, and in his next paragraph he tells us how he was asked (not forced) to show the airport security his email and Facebook, thinking that he hadn't written anything about his trip. But the Israelis just searched "Palestine" and immediately found dozens of conversations about his intentions. So he apologized and came clean, but was searched and then deported anyway. His conclusion:

"I sank into my seat and hoped that in the world of karma my good intentions cancelled out my consequence-laden mistruth."

Unlike some of the people in the thread, Mr. York doesn't blow things out of proportion, and does acknowledge by the end of the column that he shouldn't have lied when things got bad and that it was his fault he was deported. That still doesn't justify his Gilad Shalit parallel in my eyes though, nor the Huffington Posts' decision to publish this article instead of all the possible columns written about Shalit in the past few days.

And by the way, if you're wondering which Palestinian organization Mr. York was going to work for, you should probably stop because he isn't sharing. Someone even asked him in the thread:

Unfortunately we can only take his word for it. Unfortunately, this kind of one sided story (and despite Mr. York's apologetic attitude, he remains convinced he was in the right) is pretty normal for the Huffington Post, and will remain so in the future.

New on the HP: Turkey Accepts Aid From Israel

Breaking news from the earthquake in Turkey, as of yesterday afternoon Turkey agreed to accept aid from other countries besides their Muslim brothers. Check out how the HP spun the headline:

 

I'll give this for the HP, they know what their audience wants. Dozens of countries giving help to Turkey, but only one Jewish one, and that Jewish one gets the headline.

Unfortunately for the HP's Google ranking, the thread got little commentary, despite the presence of Israel in the headline. At the time this post goes up, the thread has 29 posts.

The Latest Grapel Griping

The Huffington Post shockingly continues to follow the story of Ilan Grapel, this time with an article about how it looks like he might be exchanged for 25 Egyptian prisoners. I guess they found the Gilad Shalit swap story to generate a lot of clicks and hoped to replicate that success. Unfortunately they forget that Huffington Posters don't care about American Jews being held in captivity somewhere, and the thread didn't exactly take off. But we did see the usual Huffington Poster talking points:

Assuming that Grapel is a spy despite having no evidence...

Off topic spam about the USS Liberty which despite having nothing at all to do with the thread remains undeleted...

An obvious lie implying that Jews are traitors...

And finally not only is he a spy (despite the lack of evidence) he hates Arabs and he is a traitor to America! This argument is hypocritical on many levels actually, as I have said before: Europeans and other foreigners hate America because America goes to war in places like Iraq just for the oil or "imperialism," and not because those wars are protecting the American people. But should an American go and fight in Israel's army (which does in fact protect the Israelis people) he suddenly becomes a traitor. The implication being it would be better to go and oppress some Iraqis and steal their oil. And of course a draft dodger who runs to Canada or something rather than serve in America's military is a hero and not secretly loyal to Vietnam. Another rigged game that the Jews always lose. Welcome to the Huffington Post.

News the HP Doesn't Cover: More Palestinian Preconditions

Spotted by Daled Amos:

"The Palestinian Authority is set to demand that the Quartet pressure Israel to release prisoners in fulfillment of a pledge made by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, senior Palestinian sources told Haaretz on Monday. 

"Among the prisoners The PA wants released are Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat. The former is a member of the Fatah leadership, while Saadat is Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 

"At the Knesset on Monday, MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al ) said that Israel should not be surprised if the two current conditions the Palestinians have set for restarting talks - a halt to construction in the settlements and recognition of the 1967 borders as a basis for negotiations - become three, the third being the prisoner release."

The Huffington Posters are pretty obsessed with "who is holding up negotiations." That's why the Huffington Post can't print this story, because then the truth about who is really the intransigent one will get out.

The Ethereal Standard Returns

By now you have probably seen the story about the devastating earthquake in Turkey that killed over two hundred people. It made the top headline on the Huffington Posts' "World" section and in addition the usual offensive comments that we always seen on World threads, there were a few informative ones along the lines of this:

It's a rehash of the same ethereal standard that we saw in the Haiti earthquake relief threads: Israel is going to help, so they can choose between getting no attention at all (which lets the anti-Zionists go back to their regularly scheduled hatefest free of inconvenient facts) or to receiving attention and gratitude for their work, which lets the anti-Zionists bash them for seeking that attention, and claiming that attention was the only reason Israel went in the first place. Either way Israel loses, either way Israel gets bashed. That's not the behavior of a critic, it's the behavior of something much uglier.

To add an extra level of hypocrisy to this ugly cake, this behavior was exactly what the anti-Zionists were engaging in during the Carmel fire; i.e. shrieking to the high heavens about how Israel accepted help from neighbors thus proving:
1. How weak Israel.
2. How incompetent Israel is.
3. How much Israel values killing Palestinians over making their country fireproof.
4. How much better Israel's neighbors are.

But I guess when you're motivated entirely by hatred, hypocrisy just comes right along with the territory.

Daily Show on the Conflict

From Elder of Ziyon:

Richard Burden Does His Job

Ready to meet the latest Huffington Post blogger? Say hello to Richard Burden, a Labour MP, the chair of the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group, the chair of the Jordan All-Party Group and the Vice Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. Because if there was one thing that the Huffington Post has been missing, it's the Palestinian point of view on things. Good thing that MP Burden is here to speak up for them. 


Burden's introductory article at HuffPostUK is comparing the Palestinian prisoners and Gilad Shalit, and of course trying to establish a moral parity between them. When discussing Shalit Burden actually comes off as pretty moderate, correctly saying that Shalit was denied his rights under the Geneva Conventions and that he was cut off for five years. He also correctly explained that the Israeli point of view was that Shalit was one of them and could be any of their children, and that is why it is so important to them that he be brought home. It is when he switches to discussing the Palestinians that he goes completely off the rails and into Palsbara-land.

"If it is important for people like me to understand the significance of one Israeli soldier's captivity to Israeli families, so too is it important for Israel's friends abroad to understand the personal significance of Palestinian prisoners for Palestinian families across the Occupied Territories....For Palestinian families, being a prisoner is being 'one of us' in much the same way as being a soldier is being 'one of us' to Israelis."

I don't see how. Almost every one of Israel's non-Arab citizens serves in the military, and they have to serve. In contrast, Palestinians are not forced to participate in terrorist activities or even rock throwing. And though I will believe that some Palestinians are arrested for associated with terrorism (having a brother or something who is a terrorist) according to Burden's own statistics one-fifth of Palestinians have been arrested at some point in their lives. That sounds like a lot, and of course it is, but when you consider that 75% of Israelis serve in their military for years on end there really isn't any comparison. Even if we are generous and conclude that every single Palestinian arrested was guilty of a crime, then the risk to your average Israeli over the course of a lifetime is higher than that of a Palestinian. Palestinians choose whether or not to "resist," Israelis don't.

Anyway let's get to the most egregious exaggeration in the article:

"Palestinian prisoners too are daily denied access to many of their rights under the Geneva Convention... A number of Palestinian prisoners are currently on hunger strike against the conditions in which they are held. It has not had the publicity afforded to the recent prisoner exchange, but it is just as real for the Palestinian prisoners themselves and their families."

Mr. Burden's first statement is an example of the "I know it because it is true" kind of logic that we often see from Arabists, that they make a statement and take for granted that it is true and therefore don't have to explain themselves. Let's take a quick look at the demands of the prisoners from Burden's own heavily biased link:

"ending the IPS’s abusive use of: isolation; collective punishment, particularly with regard to restrictions on family visits and imposition of fines; frequent raids and humiliating searches; and shackling of prisoners’ hands and legs during transfer to and from lawyer visits."

See if you can find one complaint in that paragraph that doesn't take place in prisons all across America. As usual, the Palestinians think they deserve special treatment just because they are fighting Jews. It would be hilarious if they weren't perfectly serious. But the joke doesn't end there:

 "The demands also focused on reinstating prisoner’s access to university education and improving the health conditions of hundreds of sick and injured prisoners, notably by providing them with adequate treatment."

Oh my God they are denied their university education? Quick, call the Labour Friends of Palestine! We've got a Geneva Convention violation here! Let's not forget Daoud Kuttab's statement that they are demanding satellite TV, and how the prisoners were striking over whole chickens and not chopped chickens. Yes, this is the noble Palestinian cause that claws its way to the forefront of the Huffington Post's blog section. Now that Mr. Burden has solidified the Palestinian reputation as the most self-righteous entitled people on Earth, let's conclude with his apologizing for terrorists:

"Many have been accused or convicted of heinous killings but many have not. In any case, casually using the blanket term 'terrorist' to prisoners and detainees does not absolve any state of its obligations under the Geneva Convention and other humanitarian laws."

Many haven't, but many have, Mr. Burden. Many aren't terrorists but many proudly are. Are you going to propagandize for all of them? Oh wait, you already have. All I see is you whining about how mass murderers and bombers don't have satellite TV and university degrees. And there still is no elaboration about exactly what "humanitarian laws" Israel is violating. You know what that means: Lying is at hand.

If that isn't straight up propaganda I don't know what is. And unfortunately when it comes to the Palestinians, all the Huffington Post ever prints is propaganda. At least now they are honest enough to declare that their articles come straight from Arabists like the Labour Friends of Palestine.