Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #730, 12/28/14

To: Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From: Jerry Verlin, Editor (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj: Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #730, 12/28/14

WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: Most Jews may remember mainstream media (“MSM”) miscoverage of Israel in 2014 as centered on making ISIS seem civilized compared to Israel’s conduct of “the Gaza war” [as if it took place only in Gaza], but the deadliest poison the MSM injected into Westerners’ perception of Israel this year was its continued campaign of Jewish homeland delegitimization. Come look at what the MSM purveyed just this year in one American city’s mainstream daily, my hometown Philly Inquirer (“Inq”). [emphasis added throughout]

This Year In The Inq: Delegitimization of the Jewish Homeland of Israel

A Word-War Benchmark; Let’s start with a benchmark that reveals how far we’ve allowed the terminology of Arab-Jewish Palestine conflict discourse to be turned against us. The U.N. General Assembly’s attempted Palestine partition resolution of 1947 sought to divide western Palestine into an “Arab State” and a “Jewish State,” not to partition a place known as Palestine between “Palestinians” and others. It referred to the hill country of Samaria and Judea as “the hill country of Samaria and Judea,” Jewish-origin names by which it had been known throughout history, not as “the West Bank,” the, alas, almost universally used Jewish-connection-dissolving term Jordan had not yet invented. And the U.N. here called Palestine’s Jews and its Arabs “the two Palestinian peoples.”

Israel’s “Creation” and “Founding” in 1948: Our mainstream Western media, which has referred to Syria and Lebanon as having “gained independence” (8/13/08, AP in Inq), India and Pakistan as having “won their independence” (8/14/07, AP in Inq) in the same time frame as did Israel, insistently refers to Israel as having been “created” and “founded,” as though artificially ex nihilo, in 1948. AP this year (5/16/14) in the Inq: “Israel’s 1948 creation.” Washington Post this year (8/11/14) in the Inq: “Israel was founded in 1948.”

“Palestinians’ Displacement in the War that Followed Israel’s Creation”: The media doesn’t stop with making Israel seem sudden and artificial. Including in the “creation” and “founded” quotes cited in the paragraph just above, it goes on to attribute “Palestinians’ displacement” to “the war over” Israel’s “creation” and “founding.” AP in the Inq, 2/17/14: “About 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948.” AP in Inq, 5/16/14: “Palestinians marked their uprooting during the war over Israel’s 1948 creation.” AP in Inq5/21/14: “On that day [May 15, 2014], Palestinians marked the anniversary of their uprooting in the war over Israel’s 1948 creation.” Washington Post in Inq, 8/11/14: “. . . [The 2002 “Arab Peace Initiative”] was a take-it-or-leave-it deal, entailing concessions too painful for Israel to accept, such as a withdrawal from the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and ‘a right of return’ for Palestinians who fled when Israel was founded in 1948.”

Has mainstream Western media relentless reiterating this false Arab narrative of “Palestinians’ displacement by Israel’s founding” sunk into the minds of Western people? Here are the words of the President of the United States to the Whole World from Cairo in June 2009: “It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding.”

“Palestinian Refugee Issue”: Dove-tailing with mainstream media mischaracterization of the Arabs’ partition-rejecting 1948 multi-nation invasion for Israel’s destruction as “the war that followed Israel’s creation” is its mischaracterization of that “war over Israel’s creation’s” refugee issue as a consequent one-sided “Palestinian refugee issue.” Israel absorbed more indigenously Middle-eastern Jewish refugees from vast Muslim lands than Arabs left tiny Israel in the 1948 war and its wake, but they don’t fit into that narrative. AP this year in the Inq, 2/17/14: “The fate of the Palestinian refugees is one of the most emotional issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” AP in Inq, 5/16/14: “… the dispute over the fate of the Palestinian refugees remains at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

“The West Bank” and “East” Jerusalem as “Occupied Palestinian Territories”: That Jews as well as Arabs have legitimate claim to Judea-Samaria and the heart of Jerusalem, which are contested, not “occupied,” didn’t make the MSM’s coverage in 2014. Washington Post in the Inq, 4/24/14: “… Israel, which occupies the West Bank”; Washington Post in Inq, 8/11/14: “… the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem….”; AP in Inq 11/30/14: “[Abbas to seek Security Council resolution] setting a November 2016 deadline to end the Israeli occupation,” with Inq photo caption: “Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wants to end the Israeli occupation.” AP in Inq, 9/27/14: “Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he would ask the U.N. Security Council to dictate the ground rules for any talks with Israel, including setting a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.”
Jews [of all peoples on earth] as heart-of-Jerusalem “Settlers”: AP in Inq, 6/6/14: “… nearly 1,500 homes in Jewish settlements … 900 homes in the West Bank and about 560 in east Jerusalem”; AP in Inq 11/4/14: “Israeli officials pushed forward Monday with plans to build new apartments in an east Jerusalem settlement ….”; AP in Inq, 11/6/14: “… stepped-up Jewish settlement construction in the eastern sector [of Jerusalem]”; AP in Inq 11/13/14: “… continued Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem.” AP in Inq, 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.”

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.”

Jewish Jerusalem Neighborhoods as “West Bank Settlements”: The media takes an even dimmer view of Jewish presence in “the occupied West Bank.” The Inq’s 3/20/14 Reuters piece was about Israel planning “for 184 new homes in two Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank,” but in point of fact those two communities, Pisgat Ze’ev and Har Homa, are Jerusalem communities of 50,000 and 25,000 residents, respectively, the former built on land bought in the 1930’s by Jews and the latter on uninhabited land owned by Jews.

Jewish “Settlers” vs. Arab “Farmers” and “Villagers”: AP in Inq 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.”

And again, Inq 6/16/14 Inq-crafted photo caption (emphasis added): “Israeli soldiers search the West Bank village of Beit Einun, near Hebron. They were looking for three teenagers who went missing near a settlement.”

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.

MSM dates Jewish connection to Judea, Samaria, heart of Jerusalem to “1967”: Jewish connection to the land of Israel, including Judea-Samaria dates to c. 1200 BCE and to historic Jerusalem to c. 1000 BCE, not to their “capture” [the LA Times, e.g., 1/31/14 in Inq, sneeringly says “seized”] by Israel in “1967”, and “Jewish settlement” presence thereafter. But AP in Inq, 6/2/14: “The Palestinians seek the West Bank and Gaza, along with Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, for their state. Israel captured the three areas in the 1967 Mideast war.” Bloomberg News in Inq, 10/23/14: “… east Jerusalem, captured by Israel from Jordan, along with the West Bank, in a 1967 war.” AP in Inq. 10/23/14: “… east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city captured by Israel in 1967 ….”; AP in Inq, 10/31/14: “East Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967 ….”
MSM calls “Jewish state” bill “controversial,” Silent on nature of “Palestinian” state: LA Times in Inq, 12/3/14: “… controversial nationality bill declaring Israel to be a Jewish state.” Compare U.S. vision of “two-state solution” as “two states for two peoples”:

President Bush at 2003 Aqaba Two-States “Road Map” summit:

America is strongly committed and I am strongly committed to Israel’s security as a vibrant Jewish state.

? U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell (A.P., 4/17/09, Inq.):
“U.S. policy favors…a two-state solution, which would have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel,” Mitchell said.

And compare Wikipedia statement of Article 4 of “Palestine Basic Law”:

According to Article 4:
1. Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.
2. The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
3. Arabic shall be the official language.

So that’s my assessment of how the MSM delegitimized the Jewish homeland of Israel in 2014, as foisted on Americans through one big city’s [alas, exclusive] driveway-delivered daily newspaper, the Philly Inquirer.

This BSMW #730 completes 14 years of Brith Sholom Media Watch, which began January 7, 2001. If you’re going out reveling, as I hope to do, New Year’s Eve, include in your toasts Best Wishes For 2015 to those organizations in Israel and the Diaspora on the front lines of our struggle for balanced international media coverage of our Jewish homeland of Israel. A handful which I, for one, commend to your gesture: the independent Israeli news agency Tazpit, which made major strides this year toward its goal of becoming a full competitor to the AP in international media Israel reporting, and works with aspiring journalists; CAMERA and HonestReporting, butting heads every day with leading news sources that revel in anti-Israel imbalance; and TomGrossMedia.com, and its like if out there, a ray of light in the darkness.

All the best for 2015.
Regards,
Jerry