S_Settlements If Jewish, Neighborhoods or Villages If Arab
The Jerusalem Post’s 1/10/15 “Words Matter” editorial, noting that “some terms have evolved in peculiar ways,” observed that “settlers,” the pioneers who established pre-State agricultural settlements, used to be “national heroes,” but “today the term ‘settler’ is used pejoratively to refer to a member of a Jewish community in the so-called West Bank (Judea & Samaria), and is usually associated with the labels of extremism or racism.”
[1] Media Enlistment of Moses Against “Settlements”
An April 1, 2015, Philadelphia Inquirer editorial cartoon manifested the mainstream Western media’s derisive view of Jewish “settlements.” It showed Moses, standing on one side of the parted Red Sea and Netanyahu completing an Israeli-flag-topped house on the other. The caption has Moses admonishing, “Bibi!! Enough with the settlements already!!”
Never mind that such reference to Moses we have makes him the Last Person who’d have told this to Bibi over the past 3,000-plus years:
Deuteronomy 34, 1-4: “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, even Gilead as far as Dan; and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, as far as the hinder sea; and the South and the Plain, even the valley of Jericho the city of palm-trees, as far as Zoar. And the Lord said unto him: ‘This is the land that I swore unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying: I will give it unto thy seed; I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.’”
Wikipedia: “Mount Nebo … is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 817 metres (2,680 ft) above sea level, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited view of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.”
[2] “West Bank and East Jerusalem Settlements”
A fundamental part of journalizing Jews out of Judea-Samaria and heart of Jerusalem is rechristening these places with non-Hebrew names – “the West Bank” and “East Jerusalem.” Then Jews can be more easily seen there as outsider “settlers.”
*** Los Angeles Times, 4/21/15, reported that Netanyahu’s coalition-building efforts were mired in “a wide range of issues, such as the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
*** AP, 11/13/14: “continued Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem.”
*** AP, 11/6/14: “stepped-up Jewish settlement construction in the eastern sector [of Jerusalem]”;
*** AP, 11/4/14: “Israeli officials pushed forward Monday with plans to build new apartments in an east Jerusalem settlement”;
*** AP, 11/1/14: “… more and more Jews have been visiting the site [Temple Mount] in recent months, prompting strong opposition from Muslms who fear greater Israeli influence in Jerusalem, amid accelerated Jewish settlement in the Palestinian part of the city.”
*** Chronology stood on its head: LA Times in Inq, 6/14/14: “… the southern West Bank area that Israel calls Gush Etzyon.” Never mind that Jews settled [an appropriate use of the term] Gush Etzyon in 1927 and Jordan invented “West Bank” in 1950.
*** AP, 6/6/14: “… nearly 1,500 homes in Jewish settlements … 900 homes in the West Bank and about 560 in east Jerusalem”;
Compare Israeli Foreign Minister quoted in Times of Israel, 11/16/14: “We will never accept the definition of building in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem as settlement activity.” Netanyahu and even the Reform movement’s Rabbi Yoffie have strongly voiced similar sentiments. The media has an obligation to inform readers that Israel strongly rejects Jewish Jerusalem presence as that of “settlers.”
[3] Jewish Connection to Judea-Samaria, Heart of Jerusalem Dates to “1967”
The MSM insistently links the Jewish people’s connection to “East” Jerusalem and to Judea-Samaria to their having been captured by Israel [the Los Angeles Times lovingly says “seized”] in 1967. The term “West Bank” was invented by the invader, Jordan, in 1950, for the same reason the Romans had renamed Judaea as “Palestine,” to disassociate it from Jews. The U.N. itself said in 1947 “… the hill country of Samaria and Judea.” The MSM continued its omission of 3,000 years Jewish homeland history in “east” Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria during 2014:
*** LA Times, 1/31/14: “… Maale Adumim, a Jewish settlement on land that Israel seized in the 1967 war”;
*** AP, 6/2/14: “Israel captured the three areas [“the West Bank and Gaza, along with Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem”] in the 1967 Mideast war”;
*** Bloomberg New, 10/23/14: “… east Jerusalem, captured by Israel from Jordan, along with the West Bank, in a 1967 war”;
*** AP, 10/23/14: “… east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city captured by Israel in 1967”;
*** AP, 10/31/14: “East Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967.”
[4] “Palestinians” as “Villagers,” Jews as “Settlers” in “the West Bank”
*** 6/16/14 Philadelphia Inquirer-crafted photo caption neatly encapsulated how the MSM contrasts Jews and Arabs living in “the West Bank”: “Israeli soldiers search the West Bank village of Beit Einun, near Hebron. They were looking for three teenagers who went missing near a settlement” (emphasis added).
*** AP, 1/8/14: “Palestinians … Israeli settlers … Palestinian farmers … West Bank village … settlers … settlers … settlers … [Arab] people … people kicked and spit at the settlers … attacks by militant settlers on Palestinians … settlers were captured and held by Palestinians … a stone-throwing clash between settlers and Palestinian farmers … settlers … West Bank village … village council … settlers .. [Arab] farmers … farmers … farmers … village … the settlers ran away and the villagers gave chase … village resident … settlers … village … villagers … settlers.”