#747 Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert

To:       Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From:   Jerry Verlin, Editor  (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj:    Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #747, 4/26/15

This Week In The Inq:  “… the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem”:  If that doesn’t make you want to scream, well, it should

I don’t know about you, but when I read recently that the representative sent by the U.S. administration to the recent “J Street” confab told it “the occupation must end,” I wanted to scream, not “no, the occupation can continue!”, but “no, it’s not ‘occupation’ at all!”

Similarly, when my hometown Philly Inquirer (Inq) ran a cartoon early this month that depicted Moses, circa 1200-something BCE, leading the Israelites across the parted Red Sea, in which a house topped with an Israeli flag was shown being built in the middle, that had Moses shouting, “Bibi, enough with the settlements already!”, I wanted to scream, not “Bibi, On with the settlements!”, but “Jews aren’t ‘settlers’ in the Jewish homeland of Israel, [which is not defined by Israel-Jordan military ceasefire line of CE 1949].”

And, finally, when I read in this Tuesday morning’s Inq its Los Angeles Times article (Inq, Tue, 4/21/15, A2, Los Angeles Times, “Netanyahu Gets More Time to Form Coalition”) that Bibi’s coalition-building efforts are mired in “a wide range of issues, such as the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem ….”  [emphasis added], I wanted to scream “Jews aren’t ‘settlers’ in Judea, Samaria and, of all places, heart of Jerusalem!”

What makes me want to scream is not that most of world, with the Western media leading the charge – “Occupation is an international term, Mr. Bennett” – religiously propagates the question-foreclosing Arab narrative that we Jews are “settlers” in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem’s heart [and, by some, Tel Aviv and Sderot], but that we ourselves actively join in using these Jewish homeland-delegitimizing terms, not least “the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” lovingly mouthed by the LA Times This Week In The Inq.

I’m not alone in “wanting to scream.”  Indeed, I first saw that expression, I think, in a “Philologos” column in The Forward back in 2010.  A brief excerpt from Lee’s and my book Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed from A-to-Z:

Citing mid-September 2010 articles by Jackson Diehl in the Washington Post and Roger Cohen in the N.Y. Times which called “Judea and Samaria” the “Israeli nationalist term” and a “biblical reference,” respectively, the Forward columnist, “Philologos,” wrote that when he sees this, “I want to scream.”  Philologos went on:

“One would like to ask the Diehls, the Cohens and all the others a simple question:  In the long centuries after the final redaction of the Hebrew Bible, which took place sometime in the second or first century BCE, what, in their humble opinion, was the hill country south and north of Jerusalem called?”

“It certainly wasn’t ‘the West Bank,’” he wrote, “a term that is barely 60 years old” and was “introduced in the early 1950’s to denote the area of Palestine west of the Jordan River that was annexed by [the invading Hashemite Arab kingdom of] Transjordan” in the 1948 war.

Here’s what “the hill country south and north of Jerusalem” was called in the mid-twentieth century by no less an institution than the U.N. in the very act of attempting partition of the remaining [post-Transjordanian lopoff] Palestine Mandate in CE 1947:

The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River ….

And let there be no doubt why Philologos and I, when we hear “West Bank,” want to scream.  In that Forward article, Philologos went on:

Judea and Samaria, although they derive from the Hebrew biblical terms Yehuda and Shomron, have been part of the geographical vocabulary of Christian Europe since the time of Jesus.  “The West Bank” has not been.  To refuse to refer to the [so-called] West Bank as Judea and Samaria is, whether deliberately or not, to declare that Jews and Christians have no historical connection to these areas.  To malign others for calling them that is even worse.  [emphasis added]

And here’s Israel’s Amb. Ettinger in Israel Hayom (12/16/11) the following year:

In April, 1950, the Jordanian occupation renamed Judea/Samaria as “the West Bank” to assert Jordanian rule and to expunge Jewish connection to the cradle of Jewish history.  Until 1950, all official Ottoman, British and prior records referred to “Judea and Samaria” and not to the “West Bank.”  [emphasis added]

Lee and I begin our media-bias Powerpoint talk with a different picture of Moses [well, all right, Charleton Heston] than that purveyed to readers in the cartoon this month in the Inq.  We show him holding the Tablets of the Law and make the point that, as with “West Bank,” the Jewish homeland-delegitimizing terms with which mainstream media Israel reporting is liberally sprinkled weren’t written in stone thirty-three hundred years ago, but are post modern-Israel independence creations.  E.g., all through the post-biblical millennia in which Jews insistently returned to Jerusalem following eviction by its succession of exclusively foreign-conqueror rulers, again becoming its majority still during nineteenth-century foreign Ottoman Empire rule, nobody called Jews in Jerusalem “settlers.”

It’s, of course, not enough that we who want to scream when we hear these Jewish homeland-delegitimizing terms spouted routinely by our Inq et ilk recognize, appreciate, understand that these terms are not Written In Stone.  We have to stop acting like they’re written in stone.  So, I’d have You-Who-Put-Up-With-Me-Weekly do two things:

Stop Using These Terms that are Loaded Against Us!

Tell Jewish Leaders and Writers Who Use These Loaded Terms: “Stop!”

Here’s the summary of loaded terms at the end of part 1 of our book:

1967 Borders” – They aren’t.  They were subsequent war-vitiated 1949-67 Israel-Jordan ceasefire lines.

“1948 Creation of Israel,” “1948 Founding of Israel” – No. Israel’s attainment of independence wasn’t artificial and out-of-the-blue.

“The War that Followed Israel’s Creation” – No, it wasn’t.  The 1948 war was a partition-rejecting multi-nation Arab invasion for Israel’s destruction.

“Palestinian Refugees From the War that Followed Israel’s Creation” – No, they weren’t.  There were multiple reasons why Arabs (not yet called “Palestinians”) left Israel, mainly encouragement by the invading Arab states.  And more Jewish refugees, mostly Israel-absorbed, left vast Muslim lands than Arabs left tiny Israel.

“East Jerusalem” – No, it’s not.  Except for Jordan’s 1948-1967 seizure, the Old City, City of David, and “eastern” residential areas have been just part of just plain “Jerusalem,” which has again had a Jewish majority since 19th century times.

“East Jerusalem Jewish Settlers” – No, they’re not.  Jews have lived in Jerusalem since ancient times, invariably returning whenever foreign conquerors kicked them out.  During the three millennia preceding 1967, nobody called Jews in Jerusalem alien “settlers.”

“Hamas is ‘Considered’ a Terrorist Group” – No, it’s not.  It is a terrorist group.

“Israel was Created Because of the Holocaust” – No, it wasn’t.  Israel’s independence is the natural culmination of the Jewish people’s continuous organized, openly-Jewish, homeland-claiming presence, recognized in the 20th century by pre-Holocaust international forums and documents.

“Palestinian Refugee Issue” – No, it’s not.  In the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war and its aftermath, a greater number of Middle Eastern Jews left vast Muslim lands than Arabs left tiny Israel.  Israel’s absorption of the Jewish refugees while “host” countries confined the Arabs to “refugee camps” does not remove the Jewish refugees (who’ve had descendants too) from the Arab-Israeli conflict’s refugee issue.

“‘Jewish State’ Recognition Demand is a New Stumbling Block” – No, it’s not.  The land of Israel as the Jewish people’s homeland has been central to Jewish peoplehood since Moses’ time.

“Palestinian Militants” – No, they’re not.  Mass murderers who prey on civilians using rockets, mortars and bombs are terrorists, period.

“Suicide Bombers” – No, they’re not.  They’re mass murderers of men, women and kids.

“Millions of Palestinian Refugees and Their Descendants” – No, there weren’t.  Palestine’s entire population, a third of it Jews, was less than two million.  Not all the Arabs lived in the part that became Israel, and not all of them left.  Some half-million Arabs left tiny Israel.  A greater number of (mostly Israel-absorbed) Jews left vast Muslim lands.

“Moderate Abbas and Fatah” – No, they’re not.  They demand Israel’s retreat to the 1949 ceasefire lines, removal of Jews from Judea, Samaria and all of Jerusalem, while demanding a “right of return” for millions of Arabs into shrunken Israel.  They reject “two states for two peoples.”  They demand peace-talk preconditions.

“Hard-Line Netanyahu” – No, he’s not.  He accepts the “two-state solution” with a Muslim Arab state alongside Jewish Israel.  He instituted a 10-month Judea-Samaria building ban.  He calls continuously for resumption of direct talks without preconditions. [His recent statement rejected realization of ‘two-states’ for now.  The P.A. has flatly rejected ‘two states for two peoples.’]

“Nakba” – No, it wasn’t, unless it’s your view that the homeland Jewish army throwing back a multi-nation Arab invasion for its destruction and annihilation of its people was a “catastrophe.”

“Occupied Territories,” “Palestinian Territories” – No, they’re not.  The League of Nations Palestine Mandate recognized the Jewish people’s right to reconstitute its Jewish National Home in Palestine (originally including Transjordan), and called for close settlement of the Jews on this land, where Jews had lived, claiming it as their homeland, for three thousand years.  They’re disputed, not “occupied” or “Palestinian” territories.

“Israeli Offensives in Gaza” – No, they’re not.  Israel eventually responding to near-daily rocket attacks on its civilians by going after the rocket-launching terrorists in their lairs is a defensive response to that rocketing, not an aggressive “Israeli offensive.”

“The Palestinians” – No, they’re not.  Palestine is a place, not a people.  Palestine’s Arabs are Palestinian Arabs, just as Israeli Jews are Palestinian Jews.  The media acknowledges that during the Mandate Christians, Muslims and Jews in the land were all called Palestinians.  In fact, until the 1960’s “Palestinian” was used mainly in reference to Palestine’s Jews.

“Retaliation” – No, it’s not.  To “retaliate” is to return injury-for-injury, like-for-like.  Labeling Israel’s response against terrorists who rocket and bomb Israeli civilians “Israeli retaliation” drags Israel’s obligatory, justified protection of its citizens down to the moral mud of the rocketers’ intentional attacks on civilians.

“Road Map Requires Palestinian Authority To Rein In Militants” – No, it doesn’t.  It requires the Palestinian Authority to confront all those engaged in terror and to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure.

“Rockets Fired At Israel, Into Israel” – No, they’re not.  They’re fired at civilians in towns and cities in Israel, using target shifting and volleying to try to evade Israel’s new Iron Dome interception.

“Israeli Said ‘Militants’” – He almost certainly didn’t.  If he did, print the direct quote of him saying so.

“Seized By Israel in June 1967” – Don’t say that to Jews who remember the anguish Israeli and Diaspora Jews went through in May 1967.

“‘Jewish Settlements’ Versus ‘Palestinian’ Neighborhoods … Towns … Villages” – No, they’re not.  Wherever the eventual political border will run, Jews are not outsiders, but actually have far longer connection to the land of Israel, including Judea, Samaria and “East” Jerusalem, than Arabs.

“Suspected Militants” – Don’t use that expression for those who blew themselves up seeking martyrdom.

“P.A. Is For and Israel Against the ‘Two-State Solution’” – Wrong on both counts.  Israel agrees with the U.S. on “two states for two peoples, Jewish and Arab.”  Abbas and other P.A. leaders have said over and over “We shall never recognize a Jewish state.”

“Israel’s Deadly Raid On an Aid Flotilla Bound for Gaza” – No, it wasn’t.  It was Israeli enforcement of a legal blockade against seaborne armaments for the terrorist Gaza regime of Hamas, which “claims responsibility” for relentlessly rocketing civilians in Israel.

“The Cave of the Patriarchs is a ‘West Bank Shrine,’ and Rachel’s Tomb is ‘a Mosque’ “ – No, they’re not.

“The West Bank” – No, it’s not.  “Judea and Samaria” are not just “biblical names,” but the names the Israeli hill country of Israel was known by from ancient times, including in the U.N.’s 1947 partition resolution, until after Transjordan invaded in 1948 (as was ousted by Israel in 1967).

“‘Whistle-Blower’ Vanunu” – No, he’s not.  He betrayed and endangered his countrymen, surrounded as they are by enemies sworn to their destruction, by revealing his country’s military secrets.

“Israel is Xenophobic” – No, it’s not.  Israeli Arabs are full Israeli citizens.  The xenophobes are the Palestinian Arabs, who would expel every last Jew from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

“Israel Is a Colonialist Zionist Entity With No Place In The Islamic Middle East” – No, it’s not.  The Jewish people, as such, has lived in the land of Israel without interruption for longer than 3,000 years.  The Zionist movement is a modern expression of a diaspora connection to the land, including through aliyah, that never ceased.  Much of Israel’s population today is descended from Jews expelled in the mid-20th century from Middle East lands in which they had unbroken family roots going back hundreds and even thousands of years.

The Jewish state of Israel is none of the dark, depraved things its enemies and the media paint it.  It is a miraculous revival of sovereign dignity of a people which never relinquished its ancient homeland connection to its land.  Surrounded by foes dedicated to its total destruction, it has accomplished much that is good for itself and the world.

Regards,
Jerry

PS1:  Tomorrow night (Monday, 4/27) Aish is presenting a talk by an Israeli soldier who was wounded in last summer’s Israel-Hamas war, followed by a brief presentation by Lee and me on media bias in covering that war.  $15.  The Deaconess, 801 Merion Square Rd, Gladwynne.

PS2:  Is it really true that “the Jews never left”?  Given claims like former President Carter’s inaccurate assertion in his book that on defeating the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, the Romans “exiled” almost all of Judaea’s surviving Jews, I wrote a layman’s book tracing Jewish homeland presence through three millennia:  Israel 3000 Years: The Jewish people’s 3,000 Year Presence in Palestine.  The tale’s more readable than perhaps it sounds.  Historian Parkes called it one of “heroic endurance” in the face of every discouragement.  Worth a read?  Enter ‘Verlin’ on Amazon, or more directly, the publisher:  www.pavilionpress.com.