Tag: Media/ Academia

Channel Nine’s “60 Minutes’” latest Israel bashing report titled “Unholy real estate”, broadcast on May 20, followed a well-worn template... The report from Tom Steinfort blamed the on-going conflict almost wholly on settlement construction. 

In contrast to the tepid response to Hamas’ war crime, Israel’s killing of a Palestinian medic during the riots saw the ABC spring into action, filing several website and TV reports on the incident

The vast range of his humanist erudition, his mastery of difficult languages, and his command of every nuance of English, inspired veneration and envy. Bernard tended kindly to generations of students, rewarded friendship with loyalty, imparted his wisdom to statesmen, and fought many good fights. He loved his adopted country, America, and his ancestral land, Israel. And he had an abiding respect and empathy for the civilisation of Islam.

Dr Matthew Levitt, the Director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, recently completed a successful visit to Australia and New Zealand as a guest of AIJAC.

In addition to briefing politicians, think tanks and law enforcement officials, Dr Levitt's busy schedule also included several media appearances, which can be streamed below.

AIJAC policy analysts have, on numerous occasions in recent months, published research showing that Israel is not responsible for the well-publicised delays in rebuilding housing in Gaza that had been destroyed in fighting between Hamas and Israel in last year's Gaza war. That research has cited sources as diverse as the Arab League, the International Monetary Fund and UN officials (See here, here, here, here, and here).

Yet to this day, politicised NGOs continue to promote the canard - unsupported by facts - that Israel's limited blockade on Gaza is to blame and must therefore be ended in order for reconstruction to take place.

Now, the New York Times - quoting Palestinian officials in Gaza and ordinary Gazans alike - confirms what AIJAC has been saying all along: The genuine obstacles to reconstruction have been: lack of funds thanks to delinquent payment of pledges from donor countries, misappropriation of building materials to the black market and towards the reconstruction of Hamas' military infrastructure, including terror tunnels, and intra-Palestinian corruption, rivalries, and mismanagement.

 

During the coverage of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, many officials, experts, and other personalities have been called on to offer reports, insights and analysis to the public. Unfortunately and puzzlingly, one such voice making its way into the media has been that of Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert. So just who is Dr. Gilbert?

HAMAS is not just targeting Israeli civilians, threatening Gazans and using them as humans shields. It has another terror tactic: intimidating foreign journalists.

Journalists who have taken pictures of Hamas operatives preparing to shoot rockets from civilian structures and/or fighting in civilian clothing have been threatened by Hamas operatives and had their equipment confiscated.

Reporter Peter Stefanovic, of the Nine Network's news, stationed in Gaza, received a surge of abuse and threats when he tweeted that he had seen rockets fired into Israel from near his hotel, in a civilian area.

Claims that al-Jazeera, the Qatari-based media outlet, is biased would hardly be considered news to those who follow Middle East media coverage. Al-Jazeera in Arabic has been preaching anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-Western "analysis" masked as journalism for a while now, and is facing criticism around the world, often from its own former employees. Al Jazeera in English has attempted to be more subtle in the way it slants its reporting and thus distance itself from the obvious advocacy of its Arabic counterpart.