The Media is the Message
January 4, 2012 | Tzvi Fleischer
A young Italian journalist named Ruben Salvadori has prepared a film about how he and other photojournalists reporting from the West Bank not only report what they see but help to create the clashes and dramatic scenes which helps them sell photographs…
Don’t throw stones!
December 23, 2011
Two recent stories in the Australian newspaper by Middle East correspondent John Lyons – “Stone cold justice” (Weekend Australian Magazine, Nov. 26) http://tinyurl.com/6puavp9 and “Rudd seeks action on torture allegations involving Palestinian children” (Australian, Dec. 17) http://tinyurl.com/6rdzqjr – have generated a degree of controversy about Israel’s judicial treatment of Palestinian minors in the West Bank accused of using stones and rocks as weapons.
On Dec. 3, the Australian published an opinion piece from NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg that provides context for the treatment of Palestinian minors and largely disputes the substance of the claims made in Lyons’ stories. Steinberg’s article can be read here – http://tinyurl.com/7m6j3wf…
Antisemitism in the Middle East in 1835
December 22, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
In the editorial in the current January edition of the Australia/Israel Review, Colin Rubenstein takes on the false belief that antisemitism in the Middle East comes almost solely from the conflict with Israel and will disappear if there is an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
In the course of the editorial, Colin noted:
It is true that, in medieval times, Jews in Muslim societies tended on the whole to be better off than in Christian Europe, but this is hardly to suggest that their human rights were fully respected.
Now, some material has come to light which illustrates this point brilliantly.
PA continues to glorify terrorists
December 22, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
Despite its claimed opposition to terrorism, the PA continues to glorify terrorists.
This was reinforced again when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met with freed Palestinian terrorist Amna Muna in Turkey on December 21, along with ten other Palestinians freed and exiled to Turkey as part of the deal to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in October.
Muna is a 35-year-old West Bank woman who was serving a life sentence for using an Internet promise of romance to lure 16-year-old Israeli Ophir Rahum to the West Bank, where he was killed by waiting militants in 2001.
According to a PA statement Abbas “praised the prisoners for remaining steadfast in the face of Israeli wardens’ mastery.”
Palestinian Choices
December 22, 2011
Today’s Update features three pieces looking at the choices currently being made by the Palestinian political leadership – both those associated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah in the West Bank, and with Hamas in Gaza.
First up is veteran Israeli Palestinian affairs analyst Pinhas Inbari, who looks at the push by Fatah and PA head Mahmoud Abbas for preparations for the election scheduled for May in which he says he will not run. Inbari notes that Fatah seems to be resisting Abbas’ call to name a successor candidate and argues this is because Fatah is totally ill-prepared for either succession or elections.
Can anti-Israel, antisemitic Hamas change its spots?
December 21, 2011 | Allon Lee
There is good reason for being sceptical of reports suggesting Hamas is shifting from armed resistance to non-violent resistance and will settle for a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders.
Media Week – Unpromising
December 21, 2011 | Jamie Hyams
In recent “Media Week” columns, I have reviewed the first three episodes of the British/French drama, “The Promise”, shown on SBS TV. This series has been characterised throughout by rampant and crudely propagandistic political messages directed against Israel and Jews and selective, distorted portrayals of history, and it really hit its straps in the final episode (18/12).
Why can’t Israelis and Palestinians “get back to the damn table”?
December 20, 2011 | Tzvi Fleischer
There has been much written about the impasse in restarting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in recent years. Most recently, US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta sparked controversy at the Brookings Institute on Dec. 2 when, following a speech, he was asked about what steps Israel “should take now” to move toward peace and replied “Just get to the damn table.”
Israel, gender and Iran
December 20, 2011 | Sharyn Mittelman
Recently the issue of public female discrimination in Israel has received significant media attention following recent controversies including over women singing in a ceremony for the Israeli army which was boycotted by religious soldiers, and the informal gender segregation on some buses in Ultra orthodox (haredi) areas. According to one stream of ultra-Orthodox tradition men should not listen to women sing. More commonly, Ultra-orthodox men attempt to avoid mingling with women who are not members of their family.
While any form of alleged public gender discrimination must be condemned and addressed, the incidents have been unfairly exaggerated as reflecting a general problem in all of Israeli society…
When the media becomes the story
December 20, 2011 | Allon Lee
It wasn’t even close. In fact it was a “landslide”. That is how pro-Israel media watchdog Honest Reporting describes its decision to bestow the Guardian newspaper the 2011 “Dishonest Reporting Award” for its relentless anti-Israel coverage.
Readers of Fairfax newspapers will be familiar with the Guardian‘s news stories and one-sided selection of opinion pieces via their regular appearance in the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times.
