WESTERN MEDIA & EU OFFICIALS FREQUENTLY PURVEY BIASED, HYPOCRITICAL VIEWS OF ISRAEL AND “PALESTINIANS”

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Contents:

A European Open Letter to the EU Foreign Affairs Chief: Carla Komarin, Arutz Sheva, Nov. 11, 2014 — Endowed with the authority of a Top Diplomat as EU Foreign Affairs Chief, you travelled to the Holy Land. 

Small Experiences With Big Media: Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 10, 2014 — When one publishes about subjects such as Israel and Europe or anti-Semitism, one is regularly contacted by journalists.

Not Telling it Like It Is: Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 13, 2014— For hours after last week’s vehicular terror in Jerusalem (capped by an attack on passersby with a metal rod), Sky News persisted in not telling it like it is.

Rare Canadian Jewish Comic Book Turns up in Toronto: Renee Ghert-Zand, Times of Israel, Nov. 11, 2014— Thanks to a curious library volunteer, Canadians learned of the discovery of a rare comic book honoring Jewish World War II heroes in time for the country’s Remembrance Day, November 11.

On Topic Links

A Quiet Clash at the Swedish Foreign Ministry: Daniel Pipes, Washington Times, Nov. 13, 2014

Demonstrators Bring 100 Wheelchairs to Protest The Death of Klinghoffer Opera (Video): Linda Lovitch, Jerusalem Online, Nov. 1, 2014

I Shed The Myths of My Childhood, But Gaza Made Me Love Israel Again: Robert Phillips, International Business Times, Nov. 3, 2014

Holocaust Survivor Moved by 'Fear of Forgetting': Monique Muise, Montreal Gazette, Nov. 10, 2014

Book Review: ‘My Grandfather’s Gallery’ by Anne Sinclair: Hugh Eakin, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 11, 2014

A EUROPEAN OPEN LETTER TO THE EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHIEF         

Carla Komarin                                                                                                    

Arutz Sheva, Nov. 11, 2014

Endowed with the authority of a Top Diplomat as EU Foreign Affairs Chief, you travelled to the Holy Land.  There you called to divide Jerusalem and demanded the partition of Israel. Your words were: "I think Jerusalem can be and should be the capital of two states."  You also said: "We need a Palestinian state – that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union." And then — what?  What does the EU expect to happen next?  After the partition?  Do you expect the Palestinians will stop their incitement and all attacks against Jews once they have a state?

You said: "We need a Palestinian state – that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union."  Fact is, not even the Palestinians themselves think they need one, or they would have accepted the numerous offers for a state from the Israeli side.  All the Palestinians need is the destruction of Israel.  Even during your visit to Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Saturday for the destruction of Israel, whereby he used the term an end date for "Israeli occupation." In case you had not known:  The end of the "Israeli occupation" is the term the Palestinian Arab world uses to describe the destruction of the state of Israel.  With the use of the term  "Israeli occupation" they mean the entire state of Israel.  Before June 1967 the Arabs were attacking Israel and fighting against what they called "Israeli occupation", even though before 1967 there did not exist a single "Israeli settlement".  The Arab attacks culminated in the Six-Day-War in June 1967.

All the partition of Jerusalem and Israel would bring about, is an easier way for the Arab world to try to destroy the state of Israel. Is there at least one indication that a Palestinian State will bring about peace? If so, what is it? According to a recent survey almost 2/3 of Palestinians want a two-state solution to be part of “a program of stages” to liberate all Palestine "from the river to the sea" (Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 25, 2014).  A clear majority (60% overall, including 55% in the ;West Bank; and 68% in Gaza) say that the five-year goal 'should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.'  These are remarkable findings.

Fatah refers to all Israelis as "settlers"; Palestinian Authority TV on a regular basis refers to all of Israel as "occupied Palestine" and depicts a world without Israel.  The Palestinian Authority makes no attempt to educate its people towards peace and coexistence with Israel.  On the contrary, from every possible platform it repeatedly rejects Israel's right to exist, presents the conflict as a religious battle for Islam and perpetuates a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. Israel's destruction is presented as both inevitable and a Palestinian Arab obligation. These are well-known facts.  The Palestinian Arabs do not even bother to hide their true intentions.  What exactly makes the EU think the opposite?  What is the basis for the hypothesis of the EU that a partition of Jerusalem and Israel will bring about peace?  Is there at least one indication that a Palestinian State will bring about peace?  If so, what is it?

Neither you nor any other EU-official has ever answered that question as yet. Actually, Mrs. Mogherini, your speech as EU foreign Affairs Chief was cryptical, when it dealt with the consequences of a partitioned and divided Israel.  For you used the term "challenge":  "The challenge is to show that Jerusalem can be shared in peace and respect." In 2006 Gaza was a challenge too.  And an experiment.  A challenge is always an experiment.  If there ever was a political challenge and an experiment, then the disengagement from Gaza was one.  How peaceful has Gaza become after that experiment? Furthermore, when in Israel, you pointed out that the world "cannot afford" another war in Gaza.  Indeed, the world should not afford another war in Gaza.  That is why financial support for Gaza should always be linked to a disarmament of Gaza and to no more digging of terror-tunnels from Gaza into Israel.  I missed that part in your press conferences.

When speaking with Israeli politicians, you called for a return to peace talks. You said: "It is also worrying that after the ceasefire was reached in Cairo in August, we are still having difficulties in advancing with the direct talks." Whom are you calling to the negotiating table?  Do you not know that the Palestinians do not want to negotiate with Israel? And this leads back to the initial question:  Why exactly does the EU believe that land-for-peace should work?  In other words:  What is the basis of your faith that peace will be brought about by a divided Holy City Jerusalem and by the partition of the state of Israel?

This is a clear and simple question, and those who care for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel have every right to expect answers. Meanwhile even Israel's rejection to divide the capital Jerusalem is held against her, when the opposite should be the case.  For you see, no one who really loves Jerusalem would want the Holy City to be divided. There is a story in the Bible called the verdict of King Solomon.  In that story the question was asked, who is the real mother of the baby child.  The real mother did not want her child divided, the false pretentious mother wanted the child to be divided. The same applies to Jerusalem:  Those who really love and care for the Holy City would never want Jerusalem to be divided.

Contents     

SMALL EXPERIENCES WITH BIG MEDIA                                                           

Manfred Gerstenfeld

Jerusalem Post, Nov. 10, 2014

When one publishes about subjects such as Israel and Europe or anti-Semitism, one is regularly contacted by journalists. It sometimes leads to bizarre experiences. Several such experiences resulted from my 2013 book, Demonizing Israel and the Jews. The book brought to light the fact that, based on opinion polls – the main one from the German University of Bielefeld – 150 million out of 400 million European Union citizens aged 16 years and older believe in the conspiracy theory that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.

In March 2013, when my first article appeared in the Netherlands pointing out that in view of these polls, there are five million Dutch who believe in this anti-Semitic conspiracy theory against Israel, I was contacted by the local office of Dutch RTL television. Their reporter wanted an interview with me as soon as possible. We made an appointment for the very next day, and the reporter arrived accompanied with a camera man. When I explained the unpleasant findings about his native country, the reporter rapidly became emotional and irritated. After five minutes, he sent his camera man away. We continued our conversation while I tried to calm him down. I gave him a copy of the book and never heard from him again. The next journalist who came to interview me about the book had no difficulties whatsoever with my statements. They seemed to him to be well-substantiated. This journalist represented one of the largest German papers. I’ll not disclose his name, in order to avoid unpleasantness for him. He interviewed me for two hours, and later on we had lunch for another two hours. His editors never published the article. A few months later I spoke to a colleague of his. She said that one of the editors had stated, “We cannot insult our readers.”

Thereafter I was interviewed by telephone by a journalist from a major Dutch daily, whom I had known for several years. He sent me a copy of the interview for verification, and I made a few small corrections. It never appeared in print. Many months later, I was interviewed by a journalist of the large German economic paper, Handelsblatt. He inquired about several things, including my findings in Demonizing Israel and the Jews. As promised, he sent me the draft interview. I made some minor suggestions, but afterwards, when I didn’t hear from him, I tried to reach him a number of times, unsuccessfully. The interview was never published. A few of the smaller European papers and blogs in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands have given some attention to the book, but the major media remain silent. It is not so difficult to understand why. The book’s conclusions destroy much of the humanitarian image of post-war Europe. How very false that image actually is has become much clearer throughout the summer of 2014, with the outburst of anti-Semitic incidents and the multiple demonstrations in favor of the Hamas Islamo-Nazi movement in many European countries.

The facts above present a rather sad description of the censorship in major European media. Yet I cannot complain about the publicity which my book received. The big national Canadian daily, The National Post, devoted a column to it. The important American Jewish weekly The Jewish Week dedicated an editorial on its front page to it. Sizable American websites published lengthy interviews with me, which garnered many reactions. The Jerusalem Post and some other English-language Israeli media gave it much attention. The Jewish media in about 13 countries wrote about the book. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), based in Los Angeles, raised the issue in a meeting with Pope Francis I. The SWC and The Gatestone Institute sent the book, accompanied with a letter, to the leaders of several countries as well as to the leaders of the European Union. The German president’s office answered that a major study on anti-Semitism in Germany will soon be initiated, which will also include a study of German anti-Israelism. The associate dean of the SWC, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, thereafter met with a deputy German minister on this issue. All in all, quite nice for an author.

My strange experiences with journalists are not limited to the reactions to this book. One day in 2012, a journalist from a Belgian state television station came to interview me. He wanted my opinion about a fourpart Israeli television program called Allah-Islam, the Spread of Islam in Europe, which had been broadcast by Israel’s Channel 10 TV. An Israeli journalist, Zvi Yehezkeli, had presented himself in Europe as a Palestinian. He filmed the Muslim ghettos in a number of European countries. The program paid attention to the violence, drugs and weapons possession, as well as other criminal activities occurring in parts of the Muslim communities. Yehezkeli mentioned the religious fanaticism, the intimidation of dissenting Muslims, the discrimination against women, and the honor killings. He also devoted attention to the widespread anti-Semitism in these communities. The rare European programs that discuss such issues usually only deal with one particular aspect in a single country. The Belgian journalist asked me what I thought about this program. I said that my first reaction was that Channel 10 should not have made this program. The many problems with parts of the European Muslim communities was a major European issue. It would have been normal if Channel 10 could have purchased such a program from European sources, but there were no such programs available, I said. The journalist admitted that I had a point, but added, “I am not convinced that my bosses want to broadcast this.” And indeed, they did not…

The most surreal experiences I had, though, were with the Norwegian media. An interview by journalist Fredrik Graesvik was aired in March 2009 by the major Norwegian commercial TV station TV2. He translated most of what I said correctly. Graesvik, however, interjected that I considered all Norwegians to be “barbarians and un-intellectual” because they killed whales and seals. This was a major distortion of my words. The individual at TV2 who transcribed this distorted interview for the station’s website maltreated my quotes even further, falsely claiming that I had said that “Norwegians are unintelligent and barbaric” and that “Norway is the most anti-Semitic country in Europe.” The Norwegian press agency NTB spread these false quotes even further. They were taken up by many Norwegian and even some Swedish papers. As a result, I now own a representative collection of hate emails from Norwegians.

Sidsel Wold, who was at the time the Israel correspondent from Norwegian state radio NRK, succeeding in outdoing TV2. She interviewed me and afterwards claimed that she had mistakenly deleted the interview. Instead of interviewing me anew, she fabricated a false interview. She culled some recorded text of mine off the Internet. Thereafter, she aired an invented interview with me, full of distortions, and then criticized the text she had falsely attributed to me. In 2010, the Media Watch organization Honest Reporting selected Wold for a special dishonorable mention among journalists all over the globe. Wold thus was the one Norwegian journalist which got any international attention for her overall work.

Manfred Gerstenfeld is a CIJR Academic Fellow

Contents                                     

NOT TELLING IT LIKE IT IS                                                                                             

Sarah Honig       

Jerusalem Post, Nov. 13, 2014

For hours after last week’s vehicular terror in Jerusalem (capped by an attack on passersby with a metal rod), Sky News persisted in not telling it like it is. Its running news ticker at the bottom of the screen single-mindedly informed viewers that “Israeli police say a driver has rammed his car into pedestrians in East Jerusalem in an ‘intentional’ attack causing several injuries.” The very inclusion of the verb ‘say’ sufficed to cast doubt on Israeli communiqués. Then, to chip further away at residual Israeli credibility the word intentionally was tendentiously placed in quotation marks. This surely was overkill, considering that the reliability of the Israeli report was already challenged by the caveat of the opening phrase. If during the first few minutes of the incident Sky could somehow make excuses for what looked like thinly-veiled antagonism, it certainly couldn’t long after the event. Nevertheless, that hardly objective news bar was still featured, when any duty editor of even grudging goodwill or nominal neutrality should have known better.

In contrast, another report was cited with unadulterated acceptance. Sky’s above mentioned “breaking news” flash was accompanied throughout – for as many hours – by a bulletin that stated matter-of-factly (without any caveats this time) that “Israeli police have clashed with Palestinians inside Jerusalem’s al-Aksa Mosque compound after Jewish nationalists announced plans to visit the site.” The subliminal nuances were unmissable and there was no qualifying vocabulary. The al-Aksa Mosque compound designation suggested exclusive Muslim connections and no Jewish ones. Then came the unequivocal attribution of causality. The clashes occurred “after Jewish nationalists announced plans to visit,” i.e. Jews instigated the clashes. Not a word appeared about rocks and Molotov cocktails stored in the sacred spot and tossed at Jews praying below in front of the Western Wall.

Such facts may interfere with Sky’s insinuation that Jews are interlopers, trespassing in what has only ever been a Muslim shrine. The implication is that it’s Jews who disturb the peace along with their police “inside” the compound. The injection of the term nationalists sealed the negative connotation. Nationalists are villains in the lexicon of political correctness.The sentinels on Sky’s moral high ground know whom to distrust a priori and whom to trust inherently. Uninitiated audiences perceive the world through the broadcasters’ distorting glass. Their opinions are thereby at least partly shaped and their preexisting prejudices are subtly reinforced. To be sure, Sky isn’t the only overseas news outlet with an attitude. Almost all its purportedly pluralist and tolerant counterparts are equally disingenuous and almost all classify Temple Mount terminology as politically incorrect.

More often than not, anchors and reporters allude to Haram a-Sharif and lest the masses out there not be fully clued in, they add by way of elucidation that “the Haram” is where al-Aksa Mosque is located. At most, Temple Mount comes in as an aside meant to clarify what the commotion is about. “This is also where Jews claim that their ancient temples once stood,” some correspondents throw in with a pinch of skepticism. Alternative edification is that “this is also what Jews refer to as Temple Mount.” The undertones here are paramount. Jews invariably “claim.” Their version is hardly one that can be reasonably accorded credence. The Arab insistence that no Jewish temples or Jewish historical/religious ties to Jerusalem ever existed is thus amplified by media quibbling. Out of nowhere Jews seemingly invaded Jerusalem and out-of-the-blue they brazenly seek to overrun Muslim sanctuaries. The resort to an adverb like “also” isn’t incidental or insignificant. It imparts the impression of precedence and rightful ownership. The Arabs are treated as legitimate proprietors. Jewish claims are ancillary and unsubstantiated…

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

Contents          

RARE CANADIAN JEWISH COMIC BOOK TURNS UP IN TORONTO            

Renee Ghert-Zand           

Times of Israel, Nov. 11, 2014

Thanks to a curious library volunteer, Canadians learned of the discovery of a rare comic book honoring Jewish World War II heroes in time for the country’s Remembrance Day, November 11. The National Post reported on October 31 that the 1944 comic book, “Jewish War Heroes,” turned up in a box of books donated to the Kelly Library at the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College. The comic book was the first installment of a three-issue series published by the Canadian Jewish Congress to raise awareness about Jewish participation in the war effort against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers. The series was a means of combating the incorrect perception among some Canadians that Jewish citizens were shirking their national duty.

Each page of the found comic book was devoted to a different featured Jewish war hero. Yank Levy wrote a book on guerrilla warfare and appeared on the cover of Life magazine; Israel Fisanovitch was a Soviet submarine captain; and Brigadier Frederick Hermann Kisch and Alfred Brenner received the Distinguished Flying Cross. The first issue contained an informational page stating that 1.5 million Jews were known to be serving in the various Allied armies, navies and air forces — the bulk of them in the US and Soviet armed forces (500,000 each). There were at least 12,000 Jews in Canadian uniform, the same number as from Australia, New Zealand and Africa combined. Palestine and the UK each had 50,000 Jewish officers and enlisted men and women. “One out of every seven Jewish men and women all over the world are in uniform,” the narrative stated.

It is not known how many copies of “Jewish War Heroes” were originally printed. It is believed that only a small number have survived. Sylvia Lovegren, the library volunteer who found the comic book tucked between the pages of a book on WWII, did some research that turned up a few other existing original copies (computer scans and photocopies of the series are more common). “There are two library-bound copies in Toronto…Other than that, there is a copy in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC and one in the National Library of Israel,” Lovegren told The National Post. While most Canadians may not have been aware of this rare comic book, or of the extent of Jewish participation and valor in the WWII, the discovery of the “Jewish War Heroes” among the donated library books did not completely surprise Jewish comics aficionados. “I certainly knew about it,” Steven M. Bergson told The Times of Israel. In fact, the data processing specialist for the Toronto UJA and the editor of Jewish Comix Anthology has owned photocopies of “Jewish War Heroes” for some years.

For Jewish comic book fans and scholars, what makes “Jewish War Heroes” so special, however, is that it is an early example of Canadian Jewish involvement in comics. Although by 1944 comic books were becoming popular with kids and some adults, there were really no Jews involved in the comic book industry in Canada. A few Canadian Jews eventually ended up moving south of the border to the US, where the industry was more robust and noted Jewish creators, like Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, were associated with it. Ironically, the Canadian Jewish Congress-commissioned comic book series was drawn by a non-Jew. George Menendez Rae, who is best remembered for his national superhero, Canada Jack, illustrated the work. “No Jews worked on comics in Canada, in either writing or drawing until the 1980s,” said Bergson. According to Bergson, an auction house in Israel sold originals of issues 1 and 2 of the series for $800. The National Post quoted Peter Birkemoe, owner of Toronto comic book shop The Beguiling, as saying that he thought that the comic books would go for between $1,000 and a price “close to five figures” at auction now.

CIJR Wishes All Our Friends & Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!

Contents           

On Topic

A Quiet Clash at the Swedish Foreign Ministry: Daniel Pipes, Washington Times, Nov. 13, 2014 —Sweden is arguably the most "European" of European countries by virtue of its historically cohesive nationhood ("one big family"), militaristic and socialist legacies, untrammeled immigration, unmatched political correctness, and a supercilious claim to the status of a "moral superpower."

Demonstrators Bring 100 Wheelchairs to Protest The Death of Klinghoffer Opera (Video): Linda Lovitch, Jerusalem Online, Nov. 1, 2014 —The story portrays the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro by a group of Palestinian terrorists.  They murdered 69 year old Leon Klinghoffer, a New York Jew who was bound to a wheelchair. 

I Shed The Myths of My Childhood, But Gaza Made Me Love Israel Again: Robert Phillips, International Business Times, Nov. 3, 2014 —Another week brings more ugly Palestine headlines: illegal settlements, attempted murders and restricted access to holy sites in the name of "security".

Holocaust Survivor Moved by 'Fear of Forgetting': Monique Muise, Montreal Gazette, Nov. 10, 2014—Arthur Ney was only 12 years old in the spring of 1943 when he found himself, by chance, outside the walls of the Warsaw ghetto as it burned.

Book Review: ‘My Grandfather’s Gallery’ by Anne Sinclair: Hugh Eakin, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 11, 2014  —In November 2013, German tax authorities revealed that they had found more than 1,200 works of art, many of them looted from Jewish collections during World War II, in the Munich apartment of an elderly recluse named Cornelius Gurlitt.

Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/ L'institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme, www.isranet.org

Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284 ; ber@isranet.wpsitie.com