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Israelis are right to fear the truth
(Jordan Times)
Pro-Israeli pressure groups have accused the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune, among others, of unfair reporting that favours Arabs. . . . the mighty pro-Israel lobby in America, and elsewhere, has been alarmed by some factual and fair accounts of the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians and the disastrous policies that the Israeli government is following. For so long, Israel and its supporters have managed to deceive public opinion by mastering the art of propaganda. The failure of the Arabs to communicate effectively with the international public opinion and to develop modern competent tools of dealing with the media left the scene open for Israel to spread its lies and manipulations about its occupation of the Palestinians and the usurpation of their rights. . . . Israel and its supporters are right to be concerned that more balanced reporting and analysis of the Middle East will inevitably expose them as the aggressors. Hence is the all-out mobilisation to intimidate and influence Middle East media coverage. This new McCarthyism will not work. The world has become too open a place and technology too advanced for any one to hide the truth. If Israelis are worried about the image of Israel, they need to change extremist policies and end aggressions that produce such images rather than try to force media organisations to cover up for them. It is time Israel and its supporters faced some hard facts: Israel's usurpation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians and occupation of Palestinian land are evil acts. The problem is with these acts, not with media coverage of them.

posted by LoZo 3:38 PM

 

Sharon accused of undermining US peace moves
(Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, May 30, 2002)
A Palestinian minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, warned yesterday that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, was trying to undermine the conference by seeking to downgrade it to a talking shop, at which ideas would be exchanged, rather than a meeting that would hammer out a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement. . . . Mr Abed Rabbo disclosed that he and Mr Beilin are working together on a new peace plan. He expressed confidence that it would win the backing of Mr Arafat and other Palestinians. But Mr Beilin was more cautious. "We do not have a plan yet. We have the guidelines," he said. "We do not have anything detailed yet." . . . Speaking to more than 400 people crammed into Church House near Westminster, Mr Abed Rabbo expressed sorrow that the two men had been unable to meet for three months: "This shows the situation is not moving towards a possible breakthrough. On the contrary, we feel that there is a growing crisis."

posted by LoZo 8:26 PM

 

Academics in war of words over calls to boycott Israel
(Owen Bowcott, The Guardian, May 27, 2002)
In targeting universities, Prof Rose, some of whose relatives died in the Holocaust, explained that Israelis valued intellectual life, so the threat of academic isolation was a stinging rebuke. . . . His letter to the Guardian last month, signed by 125 prominent academics, observed that "the Israeli government appears impervious to moral appeals from world leaders ... However, there are ways of exerting pressure from within Europe. . . . "Many ... research institutions, including those funded from the EU and the European Science Foundation, regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants. Would it not therefore be timely if ... a moratorium was called upon any further such support unless and until Israel abides by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians?" . . . The Association of University teachers (AUT) has adopted a resolution echoing Professor Rose's call. The higher eduction teachers' union, NATFHE, has urged colleges to "review - with a view to severing - any academic links they may have with Israel".

posted by LoZo 12:58 PM

 

New barriers widen gulf on West Bank
(Phil Reeves, The Independent, 26 May 2002)
Fences, trenches and travel restrictions are growing across the occupied West Bank as Israel tightens its lock-down of the Palestinians. . . . further evidence that [Sharon] has a covert long-term strategy of destroying the Oslo accords, establishing control over the bulk of the West Bank, and confining the Palestinians to unconnected, autonomous, urban pockets. . . . a change in travel rules for Palestinians, requiring them to obtain Israeli permits to move between the eight main West Bank towns. . . . ill or pregnant people have repeatedly been turned away from Israeli army checkpoints, or even shot. . . . Parts of Ramallah and the outskirts of Bethlehem are now surrounded by long stretches of razor wire. Some 50 miles of barriers are planned along the north-western edge of the West Bank.

posted by LoZo 3:40 PM

 

Charges that the Guardian has been anti-semitic
(Ian Mayes, The Guardian, May 25, 2002)
One of the paper's leading commentators believes the perception of anti-semitism among the Jewish readership derives more from tone and a sense that the Guardian sees humanity only on the Palestinian side, that it will explain Palestinian action in a way less readily afforded to the Israelis. Jewish readers, he said, "are telling us loud and clear an inconvenient truth: that they see Israel as a version of themselves, that an attack on the Jewish state is an attack on Jews, whether we like it or not. . . . "The Guardian is a progressive paper with a noble history: we were first in the British press to realise the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany and we were an early backer of the Zionist project. But now we are seen as a paper that is hostile to the Jews, one even liberal Jews cannot read any more." . . . A senior Guardian journalist said: "One of the biggest problems for reporters [has been] to withstand the - clearly orchestrated - pressure to equate any criticism of Israeli government action with anti-semitism . . . The blackmail of making one feel ashamed to criticise Israeli actions . . . [can lead] to immeasurable damage." . . . "Our leader line has been very critical of the Sharon government which is, in our view, in a cul-de-sac. We think that to identify Israel with Bush's war on terrorism is a grossly simplified reading of the situation. We have also said that Arafat is a busted flush and criticised the surrounding Arab nations for their failure to play any constructive role. But, in the end, we think friends of Israel should not shy away from criticising the behaviour of a government which, in our view, is harming the cause of Israel itself."

posted by Emmett 9:54 AM

 

U.S. Blames Israel
(Eli J. Lake, UPI, May 21, 2002)
The United States on Tuesday said Israel's "destruction of the Palestinian Authority's security infrastructure" was partly responsible for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's failure ability to control extremists. . . . "Israel's destruction of the Palestinian Authority's security infrastructure contributed to the ineffectiveness of the PA," the report says. "Significantly reduced Israeli-PA security cooperation and a lax security environment allowed Hamas and other groups to rebuild terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian territories." . . . The report released last week, and covering a six-month period ending last December, said, "there is no conclusive evidence that senior leaderships of the (Palestinian Authority) or PLO were involved in planning or approving specific acts of violence."

posted by LoZo 11:42 AM

 

4,000 Rave Against the Occupation
(Ha'aretz, May 24, 2002)
Under the banner of, "Leave the Territories or Don't Leave the House," some of Israel's leading DJs, including Nabil; Yaron Sobol; Avner Malkha; Yaheli; Ori Likhtig; Yoav B and others spun their disks for the revelers, who danced the evening away as images from Israel's latest military operation in the territories, as well as from the 1967 Six Day War, were beamed onto a giant screen. . . . It was a spontaneous initiative undertaken by young people in their twenties, who are sick and tired of staid demonstrations staged by the left at Rabin square.

posted by LoZo 4:17 PM

 

Is Truthout.org Leaving the Truth Out?
(Jacob Levich, Counterpunch, May 14, 2002)
On May 7, the Truthout newsletter linked to an Associated Press story about the Rishon Letzion suicide bombing. The AP report correctly refrained from identifying a perpetrator. (The party responsible is still unknown, although Hamas looks like the most likely culprit and the PA has since arrested 15 Hamas members in response.) . . . But Truthout flagged the story with a headline spun out of thin air: "Palestinian Authority Strikes Killing 15 Israelis." Worse was soon to come. . . . At any rate, Truthout has frequently attacked the Bush administration for lying about its aggressive global agenda, and has criticized mainstream media for reporting those lies uncritically. Typically, however, an exception is made where Palestine is concerned. . . . Ash wrote. "But do any of you honestly believe this could have happened while the IDF had Arafat under detention? It could not. Did you not notice that while Arafat was 'besieged' and exile was on the table the bombings stopped? Now he is once again a free man and the bombings have resumed." . . . This, of course, is a very serious charge -- if true, it would lend considerable moral weight to Sharon's claim that the IDF's recent invasion of the West Bank was a defensive operation. But it's wholly false. In fact, at least six suicide bombings took place between March 29, when Israel confined Arafat to his Ramallah compound, and May 1, when he was granted partial liberty. . . . What we have here, in other words, is a prime specimen of The Big Lie.

posted by LoZo 2:08 PM

 

Crisis for American Jews
(Edward Said, Al-Ahram, 16-22 May 2002)
American Jewish support for Israel today simply does not tolerate any allowance for the existence of an actual Palestinian people, except in the context of terrorism, violence, evil and fanaticism. Moreover, this refusal to see, much less hear anything about, the existence of "another side" far exceeds the fanaticism of anti-Arab sentiment among Israelis, who are of course on the front line of the struggle in Palestine. . . . the theme being that "in New York, as in Israel, [it is] an issue of survival." I won't try to summarise the main points of this extraordinary claim except to say that it painted such a picture of anguish about "what is most precious in my life, the state of Israel," according to one of the prominent New Yorkers quoted in the magazine, that you would think that the existence of this most prosperous and powerful of all minorities in the United States was actually being threatened. One of the other people quoted even went as far as to suggest that American Jews are on the brink of a second holocaust. . . . Nowhere in all this incitement to hatred does the reality of a Palestinian people exist, and more to the point, there is no connection made between Palestinian animosity and enmity towards Israel and what Israel has been doing to Palestinians since 1948. . . . This is de-humanisation on a vast scale, and it is made even worse, one has to say, by the suicide bombings that have so disfigured and debased the Palestinian struggle. All liberation movements in history have affirmed that their struggle is about life, not about death. Why should ours be an exception? The sooner we educate our Zionist enemies and show that our resistance offers co-existence and peace, the less likely will they be able to kill us at will, and never refer to us except as terrorists.

posted by LoZo 2:02 PM

 

Why Israel's 'seruvniks' say enough is enough
(Michael Sfard, The Observer, May 19, 2002)
The laywer representing Israeli conscripts who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growing number of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic values on which Israel was founded. . . . The occupation corrupted Israeli culture, it eroded our code of ethics, and it even contaminated the Hebrew language. In the name of the fight against the murderous and unforgivable terror that struck Israeli cities and towns, we grew accustomed to manning check-points in which thousands of Palestinians are being detained for hours and humiliated by young soldiers. We grew accustomed to pointing our rifles at children and women. We became tolerant to large-scale demolition of houses ('surface uncovering' in military jargon). Finally, we accepted a state-sponsored policy of assassinations, neatly labelled by Israeli spokesmen as "focused prevention". We learned how to distinguish between roads for settlers (Jews) and roads for 'locals' (Palestinians), and we were asked to implement discriminatory laws for the sake of the illegal settlements that have trapped our country in an endless messianic war. A war which the vast majority of Israelis never wanted. . . . The seruvniks come from the backbone of Israeli society. They were always seen by themselves and by others, as Israelis from the mainstream of our civic life. "I took seriously the values I was brought up on in this country", they tell me. We must now ask ourselves whether this was always simply rhetoric, or whether Israel has fundamentally changed. As seruvniks, we have chosen to speak out. To silence our voice would be to marginalise further the basic values upon which our country was founded.

posted by LoZo 1:48 PM

 

Worse than CNN? - The BBC and Israel
(Paul de Rooij, Counterpunch, May 16, 2002)
The main problem with the BBC's reporting is not with the reporters on the ground. These are on the whole very good journalists who take considerable risks. . . . The problem with the coverage resides primarily in the way this news is packaged in London or by the commentator in the Jerusalem studio, and how it is framed in the extended news program, Newsnight. . . . The coverage is always stripped of its historical context. Although Palestine was a former British colony and the UK bears a considerable responsibility for the calamity that affected the native population, one never hears any historical references to that. . . . Israeli embassy staff is known to exert pressure on the BBC's choice of words. It usually comes in the form of a question like "isn't the word settlement wrong here?" . . . It is rare for the BBC to refer to the West Bank or Gaza as "occupied territories". A clear litmus test of the bias of a news source on this subject is whether it uses the word "occupation"; in the case of the BBC it is virtually non-existent. . . . Another curious BBC practice is to interview Richard Perle or James Rubin, ostensibly as American commentators. Perle is always described as a "former" Under Secretary of Defense. It is never revealed that he is a pro-Israeli right wing hawk lobbying for Israeli interests and advocating the demolition of Iraq. His commentary is hardly the American viewpoint, official or otherwise.

posted by LoZo 1:09 PM

 

BBCUK Rally calls for sanctions against Israel
(BBC News, May 18, 2002)
Organisers estimated 50,000 people marched through the centre of the capital, calling for sanctions to be imposed on Ariel Sharon's government. . . . As well as expressing support for refugees and those who had lost their homes, marchers called for sanctions to be put in place until Israel agreed to a complete withdrawal from Palestinian territory. . . . "We want Israel to sit down and negotiate with the Palestinians so they can have their own state."

posted by LoZo 8:26 AM