How bad is the New York Times?

Enabling and abetting anti-semitism through biased reporting appears to be a feature and not a bug in New York Times coverage of  the Middle East.

From Honest reporting
The New York Times’ Cartoon Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere

The New York Times cartoon may have been a blunder, but only in the sense that it exposed the extent to which antisemitism has been allowed to creep into the New York Times’ pages.

In the last week alone, Honest Reporting has documented a singular bias in the New York Time's coverage of the Middle East

*On Friday, 19 April, the New York Times published a piece, by a former magazine staff writer no less, about what Jesus may have looked like, referring to him as “likely Palestinian.” Jesus was in fact a Judean Jew, and in his eyes, the term “Palestine” would have been associated with the occupying Roman forces.

*On Sunday, 21 April, a piece by New York Times writers David Halbfinger and Miriam Berger detailing Palestinian fears after the Israeli elections was published. While little in the article was factually incorrect, the article totally omitted repeated Israeli offers to the Palestinians, repeated Palestinian rejections of offers seen by America as generous and fair, and didn’t once mention Israel’s fears.

*Finally on Thursday, 25 April, BDS founder Omar Barghouti was allowed the platform of the newspaper’s letters page to champion his cause and openly call for the dismantling of Israel, the world’s one Jewish state...

If that weren't bad enough, a glance at today's print edition of the New York Times shows the utter contempt they hold not just for Israel, but for the American Jewish community as well.

While we collectively mourn the shooting and the tragic loss of an innocent life at the Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, coming 6 months to the day of the Pittsburgh massacre, the New York Times parked the story on page 25, directing readers to it with a tiny paragraph at the bottom of page one.

Jews shot dead while worshipping in California does not even merit a page one article in the New York Times.

Outraged at this bias?  

Sign Honest Reportings petition: Its time for the media to endorse the internationally recognized definition of anti-semitism .  Its a start.

Repulsive Anti-Semitism in the New York Times

From Emunah:

Many years ago I observed a protest at San Francisco's Israeli Consulate, standing with those who refused to cede the street to those that meant to destroy us.  Faces covered, the protestors' chants were blood-chilling.

"Itbach al Yahud" (Slaughter the Jews)

"Ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (With our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine),

"Al mawt al Yahud" (Death to the Jews), 

"Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish-Muhammad saya'ud" (Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return).

"Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs)

"Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs."

"Jews are the sons of pigs and apes."

This vile rhetoric serves to dehumanize the Jewish people and is anti-Semitic to its core.  

This cartoon, appearing in the April 25 international edition of the New York Times strikes all those notes, and more.  Simultaneously, Jews are portrayed by these dual antisemtic tropes.  In the eye of the anti-semite Jews are both subhuman, yet capable of directly influencing power.

The imagery of the unscrupulous Jew leading around the blind leaders of the west echos both Nazi-era propaganda

And Soviet propaganda

It was no wonder the Times attempted to scrub the digital site of the cartoon.   But it was too little, too late.   The print version had already been distributed to over 100 different countries.

The New York Times issued a detraction of sorts, but regular readers know that this sort of rhetoric has become a feature, and not a bug of their coverage.  Their words are meaningless.

Are you still subscribing to the New York Times?
Why?

On the Avenue: Jewish Voice for Peace at the Solano Stroll

Via Emmunah:

It wasn’t all cotton candy and churros at Sundays' Solano Stroll, the East Bay’s largest street festival.   Extremist group JVP also had a presence, and what they dished out was unpalatable.

JVP is only nominally Jewish and is not for peace. Jewish Voice for Peace routinely protests Jewish social and cultural events. They've scheduled and sponsored anti-Israel events on Yom Kippor.  Their members stand shoulder to shoulder with the worse anti-Semites out there.

Jewish voice for Peace via Zombietime

They’ve been behind the scenes at many college, municipal and corporate divestment proceedings, invariably beginning their diatribes "As a Jew".  JVP members disrupted an Israeli LGBT Shabbat event  in Chicago. A JVP member brought a terror supporter to Ithaca New York to propagandize a classroom of 3rd graders.   JVP disrupted a NYC  Holocaust commemoration.

JVP simultaneously demands a voice within the established Jewish community while admonishing its members against “normalization”  with the community.

Their stated mission, according to executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson, is to drive“a wedge” within the American Jewish community. 

Marching in the Solano Ave parade under the “Jewish” Voice for Peace banner were a handful of anti-Israel activists, including  Schivone Jews, Hassan Fouda  and Andrew Gutierrez along with other charter members of the “moral outrage as a lifestyle choice” club.

 Hassan Fouda  and Andrew Gutierrez of JVP

After all, being Jewish is optional for "Jewish" Voice for Peace members. 

At the Jewish Voice for Peace booth the usual variety of widely debunked anti-Israel propaganda was distributed.

In addition to the “Maps of Disappearing Palestine”, distributed OUTSIDE the booth in direct violation of the festival guidelines, JVP distributed a newsprint propaganda piece,

 made up to look like a copy of the  New York Times.

This is in a clear violation of the New York Times Trademark

This isn’t the first time JVP  has tried this stunt.  According to Times spokesperson  Eileen Murphy, in February, the Times shut down online versions of the fake paper because it was

 “deliberately designed to trade on our name and mislead users.....We are extremely protective of our brand and other intellectual property and object to these two groups - or any other groups - attempting to cloak their political views under the banner of The New York Times... It is our firm belief that those advocating for political positions are best served by speaking openly, in their own voice.”

The New York Times has tolerated this repeated disregard for their trademark, and allowed the dilution of their brand for over half the year. In spite of their words, the print copies are still being distributed with impunity.

Why would Jewish Voice for Peace betray their ally in the propaganda war against the Jewish State? The New York Times anti-Israel bias is so pronounced that media watchdog CAMERA has launched a billboard campaign calling them to task for their skewed coverage and biased reporting.

  
Once again, truth, morality and fair play have fallen prey to JVP's anti-Israel zeal. Not even a family friendly street fair or the once well regarded "newspaper of record" is safe from their lies.

Hamas, ISIS and Iran kill Gays like me

NEW YORK – Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, executive director of This World: The Values Network, and Israel advocacy group Stand With Us have taken out a full page ad in The New York Times this week exposing the repression and persecution of LGBT communities throughout the Middle East

The text of the ad follows, via  Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

 

 

My name is Rennick Remley. I’m a gay American. And I support Israel.

If I lived in Gaza or Israel’s neighboring states, I would be thrown in jail, mutilated or killed.

Though I am not Jewish, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where I can live without fear. I am free to adopt children, serve openly in the military, advocate for my community’s rights and be accepted as a human being.

I visited Israel and marched with thousands of people from around the globe in Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade, and all were treated with dignity. The freedom I experienced made me feel at home.

That’s why I’m appalled that so many in the Western world – including the media, Hollywood, and self-proclaimed human rights activists – fail to hold terrorist organizations like Hamas and autocratic governments like Iran accountable for their persecution of LGBT communities.

Have you no decency?

Hamas calls homosexuals subhuman, accusing us of engaging in a “filthy practice” that is punishable by death.

It’s not an empty threat. Gay Palestinians have been tortured and killed. That’s why many gay Palestinian men risk their lives to cross the border and seek refuge in Israel.
If I lived in Iran, or under Hamas’ ideological cousin ISIS, chances are you’d be seeing my picture.

Not in this ad, but hanging from a crane in a public square. That’s a regular practice against gay men by the Iranian regime.

The only way for gays to avoid persecution in Iran is to undergo a forced sex change operation.

To those who scapegoat Israel while pretending to care about human rights yet remain silent about the oppression and violence Hamas, Iran and other Middle East countries inflict on the gay community:

Shame on you. You are letting them murder us, literally.

Your misguided actions ensure that LGBT people in the Middle East continue to live in hiding under constant threat of violent death.

It’s time to hold oppressive dictators and religious fanatics accountable for their homophobia and violence against LGBT communities.

As a nation that respects the rights and humanity of every citizen, Israel is a model for the rest of the region. Speak up for Israel. You don’t have to be Jewish to love the only democracy in the Middle East.

Join the fight for justice and human rights in the Middle East at shmuley.com, thisworld.com and StandWithUs.com.

In Israel, I am free.

CAMERA exposes New York Times bias

 The New York Times is the newspaper of record in America.  Its website is one of the most popular news sites in the country,  yet when it comes to reporting on the Middle East, the quality of the journalism has been lacking.   As documented by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting, there is a strong anti-Israel bias that goes back years

New York Times staff and New Yorkers  will be reminded of this bias for the next 6 months. CAMERA has just purchased space on a billboard just outside the New York Times headquarters

To contribute to CAMERA's billboard and its  many other efforts, visit their website

No REAL Plan for Israel

NOTE TO READER: While the idea that assigning the United Nations as the premier, international body to adjudicate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is appealing, can the writer truly be on earth to NOT know the vehement, anti-Israelism that exists among Arab and Muslim UN member states today which sours any fair treatment? One need only to look at the UN Human Rights Commission which Alejandro Wolff, former Deputy Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations (2005-2010), accused of having "a pathological obsession with Israel" for focusing resolution after resolution against the Jewish State but ignoring violators such as Cuba and Belarus.

But the demographic challenge which is used to taunt Jews in Israel with such conundrums as do they want a democratic country or do they want a Jewish country (as if the two were mutually exclusive) may not be true at all. The population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip totals no more than 2.7 million people, according to Bennett Zimmerman and Michael Wise in "Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb" ( 2008). A simple fact check at the United Nations website reveals that fertility rates ranks the Gaza Strip at 20th and the West Bank at 50th in birth rates. An American University of Beirut study also corroborates a significant decline in Palestinian fertility levels, especially in the West Bank, based on extensive and large-scale household interviews and registration records of births. The Palestinian birthrate has not kept pace with expectations. Add in double-counted persons and Palestinians that live abroad, and the "demographic threat" disappears. ---- Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

A U.N. Plan for Israel

By ROBERT WRIGHT
December 13, 2010

found online at:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/a-u-n-plan-for-israel/?emc=eta1

The blogger Andrew Sullivan has called America’s policy toward Israel “assisted suicide.” That may be an exaggeration, but on Friday it became less of one. The occasion was a speech by Hillary Clinton, much anticipated after the collapse of talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The good news is that Clinton sees the peril that Israel is moving toward. “The ever-evolving technology of war” means that, in the absence of a peace deal, “it will be increasingly difficult to guarantee the security of Israeli families.”

Further, “long-term population trends … are endangering the Zionist vision of a Jewish and democratic state.”Translation (with embellishment): If there is no two-state solution, Israel can either

(a) give Palestinians in the occupied territories the vote and watch as the Arab birth rate turns Israeli Jews into a minority; or
(b) keep denying the vote to Arabs it has ruled for decades, thus incurring charges of apartheid, moving toward pariah status among nations, continuing to give propaganda fuel to regional troublemakers and raising the chances of disastrous war.

Sadly, here is the policy Clinton unveiled to avert this catastrophe: America will talk to the two sides about what they might say should they ever talk to each other. As The New York Times headline put it, “Clinton Says U.S. Is Committed to Mideast Peace but Reverting to Old Strategy.” You’re familiar with how well that strategy worked?There is a strategy that could actually work.

It would take boldness on President Obama’s part, but it could win him a place in history and the enduring gratitude of most Jews and Palestinians. Seizing the opportunity involves first seeing the flaw in one premise of our current policy. As Clinton put that premise on Friday, “The United States and the international community cannot impose a solution. Sometimes I think both parties seem to think we can. We cannot.”

Yes we can.The United Nations created a Jewish state six decades ago, and it can create a Palestinian state now. It can define the borders, set the timetable and lay down the rules for Palestinian elections (specifying, for example, that the winners must swear allegiance to a constitution that acknowledges Israel’s right to exist).

Establishing such a state would involve more tricky issues than can be addressed in this space. (I take a stab at some of them atwww.progressiverealist.org/UN2states.) But, however messy this solution may seem, it looks pretty good when you realize how hopeless the current process is.

Palestinians and Israelis have taken turns impeding this process, and lately Israel has been in the lead. A raft of American inducements failed to get Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forgo for even three months the construction of Israeli settlements that are banned under international law. It would be nice to think that this is just a phase, the product of an ephemeral far-right coalition. But there are signs that Israel’s drift to the right runs deep.

Only last week the chief rabbis in dozens of Israeli municipalities — who get government salaries — decreed that landlords shouldn’t rent to non-Jews. Meanwhile, hard-line settlers are systematically populating the upper levels of the military. And moderates seem to be heading for the exits. From 2000 to 2009 the number of Israelis applying for permanent residence in America nearly doubled.

Every day, settlement construction — especially in East Jerusalem — makes it harder to imagine two-state borders that would leave Palestinians with the minimal dignity necessary for lasting peace. As chances of a deal shrink, international impatience grows. This month Brazil and Argentina recognized a Palestinian state with 1967 borders.

By comparison, a United Nations solution looks Israel-friendly. Borders could be drawn to accommodate some of the thickest Israeli settlements along the 1967 lines (while giving the new Palestinian state land in exchange). But perhaps the biggest advantage is the political cover this approach would give President Obama.

Sure, he’d have to endure some noise from America’s Israel lobby. But at least he’d have to put on his noise-canceling headphones only twice: (1) when he agreed to explore this path with other members of the “quartet” — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations; (2) when the quartet, having produced a plan, handed it to the Security Council, at which point America would vote for it, or at least not veto it.

By contrast, the current path involves Obama taking political heat every time he tries to move Netanyahu a few inches toward the goal line. And there are 97 yards to go.

A prediction: if the United Nations does take the initiative, domestic resistance will be largely confined to the right wing of American Jewish opinion. Vast numbers of American (and Israeli) Jews will rally to the plan, because lasting peace will finally be within reach.

This Op-Ed column appeared in print on December 14, 2010. Postscript: Several months ago Amjad Atallah and Bassma Kodmani proposed that, in the event that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations collapsed, as they now have, the United Nations should take action different from what I’m advocating: “to obtain United Nations membership for [a Palestinian] state along with a Security Council resolution in which it assumes responsibility for finalizing the terms of a two-state deal.” For an argument that the collapse of negotiations could be a “potentially useful, clarifying moment,” see this very smart essay by Daniel Levy (who was on the Israeli negotiating team at the Taba talks in 2001) in The National Interest.