Saturday, May 16, 2009
Carol Gould, a member of the UK's National Union of Journalists, shines a light on the stinking pit that is UK journalism: British Journalists March for Palestine
...In 2007 the loathing of Israel and America was brought home to me at a particularly rancorous meeting of the union, which had called a special gathering to discuss the Israel boycott motion that had been passed on April 15 at their national delegates' meeting. The hatred of me, of Israel, of Zionists, and of Holocaust remembrance will last a lifetime. Am I overreacting? Here is what happened:
I went along armed with a book by Hillel Halkin, Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist's Polemic, written after the Yom Kippur War and chronicling daily life as a long-suffering reservist in Israel. I never had a chance to read from the book because the meeting degenerated into a series of furious diatribes by NUJ members.
Each member who spoke made sure to tell us that they had "been boycotting absolutely anything and everything from Israel for years and years," and the editor of the union's Journalist magazine spat out the comment I hear almost every day in London about rich American Zionists funding and driving Israel's disgraceful policies. I was refused the floor when I wanted to correct the calumnies being articulated. Later I escaped to a nearby pub but the angry members piled in to continue their assault. One said, "You need to get the Holocaust out of your system and get that chip off your shoulder because slavery was a much worse genocide," whilst yet another said, "Israel is plain thievery -- you nicked their land in '48 and Zionism is out-and-out racism." This barely contained venom was something that left me paralyzed with -- yes -- fear. What is the difference between a tattooed BNP (neo-Nazi) member screaming at a Jew and these so-called anti-war activists? In fact, the BNP is more even in its analysis of the issues than the NUJ!
As so many Israel boycotters shrilly proclaim, criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. They use as their protective shield the fact that many prominent Anglo-Jews, including rabbis, actors, academics, and scientists, deplore Israel's policies to defend her shores. The purple-faced British journalists who lambasted me could barely contain their hatred not just of Israel but of everything I am.
There will, no doubt, be a good turnout at the May 16, 2009, rally in Trafalgar Square. But as thousands die and are made homeless in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, why do non-Jews in Britain obsess, boycott, and march only about Israel? This is Groundhog Day...
The MSM, especially in Europe, is nothing but an anti-Israel propaganda machine. Our MSM isn't much different.
BHG
I linked this to Harry's, on this thread:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/05/16/mr-netanyahu-goes-to-washington/
There are certain issues that override right/left arguments and basic fairness is one of them.
To see the press abusing its position like this is depressing and scary. It's propaganda, not journalism. And unfortunately it isn't limited to demonstrations but permeates BBC and Guardian and other European MSM "news" and editorial policy.
That in turn supports endless conflict between Israel and the Arabs - it does little to encourage rational, peaceful solutions.
How could it, if the essential position is that Israel is evil from the get-go? And how could objective coverage emerge from a situation in which the Palestinians openly claim the BBC as an ally?
Meanwhile, how much on the spot coverage of what's essentially a civil war in Pakistan are we seeing - on-the-ground footage from Sri Lanka - where is the intrepid Christiane Amanpour when it comes to these conflicts or to human rights violations in Iran or in China, in Gaza for that matter!?
Doesn't the oppression of people in Gaza matter? What about the destruction of Nahr al-Bared by the Lebanese army? Doesn't that count?
What of the torture and abuse of people who don't support Hamas, what about the fate of the Palestinian man who's been sentenced to death for selling property to a Jew?
Where is the round-the-clock, on-the-ground coverage of Darfur, the Congo, Zimbabwe, hunger and poverty in Latin America? Where are the demonstrations, the boycotts?
A contribution from the Israeli embassy to a film festival in Scotland has been refused however - Israel is so immoral apparently her people can't even support an arts festival?
Notably a Palestinian film will be shown there, with a point of view damaging to Israel - yet the Israelis were supporting the festival until the Scots in their wisdom returned the money - I guess Israeli money is unclean?
Importantly - there is clear linkage between extremists in Britain and extremists in Pakistan - British citizens have attacked British and American forces in Afghanistan - attacked the British at home - threatened to blow up planes and commit other acts of terror - British politicians give money and audience to terrorists like Hamas - yet the so-called journalists and academics have time to attack and boycott Israel and try to silence or marginalize people who speak in her defense?
It takes chutzpah to ignore or even endorse violent religious and philosophical extremists or worse - blame their ideology on Israel.
Meanwhile, over here, I watch CNN hoping for good coverage of these global issues and discover relative zip. Nada. Maybe I don't watch it enough?
I have given up on Fareed Zakariah since he saw fit to give the bigoted and angry Chas Freeman a platform to spew about how the Likud runs the US - why should I watch GPS if its editorial position is the deliverance of propaganda, if its idea of "edginess" or "relevance" is to present a clearly antisemitic world view?
Just because that happens to be the world view of many doesn't mean it deserves a platform on a news program! Maybe the news is that 57 nations are so biased they don't recognize Israel at all - why is that? Maybe we are missing a link between the non-recognition of Israel and the violence, the repression of human rights throughout a huge portion of the world?
Maybe, instead of blaming this on Israel - blaming the extremism of al Qaeda, the Taliban, the repression of women, of dissent, the lack of progress on the existence of Israel - it's the other way around?
I am especially concerned right now about Pakistan where today a terrorist blew up a bus full of handicapped kids and the US is engaged as well as the Pakistani army and tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing the violence.
Where is the wall-to-wall media coverage like what we saw during the Israel/Lebanon conflict, complete with Hezbollah tour guides and endless, repeated imagery of the same damaged building in Beirut?
This situation in Central Asia is important! Pakistan is a nuclear state bordering vital and heavily populated regions of the world and it's struggling for balance. The struggle between modernism, democracy and human rights on the one hand and religious extremism on the other is vital!
Our own army is right across the border in Afghanistan, to the south is democratic India - nearby is Russia, the oil fields of Central Asia - Baluchistan borders Iran - the stakes could not be higher.
Yet King Abdullah of Jordan is basically and somewhat self-importantly making threats that if the US doesn't essentially force Israel to take the Arab deal re the Palestinians RIGHT NOW(complete with ROR and no negotiations on the borders and Jerusalem) there will be "more war"!
I am missing something?
Meanwhile people obsess about the "Israel lobby" or the "hasbara machine"? Sheese.
Memo to CNN: I turned on the tube last week to find news about the war in Pakistan and got buckets full of touching anecdotes about Mother's Day. So I turned it off.
This anti Israel bias is largely a symptom of the greater Anti Western (Western Left positions) bias, Sophia.
The Western Left is a force for evil in the world. I wish you would read some David Horowitz, he finally turned to the "Dark Side," American Conservatism, and has written about his journey.
Here is a good start...
Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties by Peter Collier and David Horowitz