Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #733, 1/18/15

To: Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From: Jerry Verlin, Editor (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj: Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #733, 1/18/15

WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: What does the mainstream media (“MSM”) have in store for Israel reporting in 2015? A good clue can be gleaned from insistent perspectives purveyed through the years through 2014. Of all the areas – the Israel-Hamas war, terrorism, the “peace process,” etc. – that saw MSM misreporting last year, the one doing the most distortion of Western publics’ perceptions of Jewish and Arab Palestine equities is the MSM’s continued misportrayal of “Palestinians” as natives, and Jews as outsiders, not just “over the green line,” but in “green line” Israel itself. Here’s what we saw and likely will see.

This Year In The Inq: What 2014 Coverage Suggests We Should Look For In 2015 – Continued Relentless Misportrayal of “Palestinians” as Palestine Natives, Jews as Outsiders

Inside “The Green Line”

“The Palestinians”: The most fundamental misportrayal, in which we ourselves are collaborators, is that of universal mischaracterization of Palestinian Arabs as “the Palestinians.” It was not always this way. The U.N. itself in 1947 called Palestine’s Jews and Arabs “the two Palestinian peoples,” and, e.g., David Bar-Illan, late editor of The Jerusalem [still incorporated as “The Palestine”] Post, repeatedly cited that term’s use during the Mandate as primarily referencing Palestine’s Jews. But the media reinforced that misperception through other “inside-the-green-line” mischaracterizations in 2014, and likely will continue to do so in 2015.

Israel’s 1948 “Creation” and “Founding”: Our mainstream Western media, which has cited Syria and Lebanon, India and Pakistan as having “gained independence … won their independence” (AP in Inq, 8/13/08, Chicago Tribune in Inq, 8/14/08, AP in Inq, 8/14/07), insistently references Israel having been “created” and “founded,” as though artificially and out-of-the-blue, in that same general timeframe. This continued in 2014.

*** AP in Inq, 5/16/14: “… the war over Israel’s 1948 creation … the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation”; AP in Inq, 5/21/14: “ … the war over Israel’s 1948 creation”; Washington Post in Inq, 8/11/14: “… Israel was founded in 1948”

“Palestinians’ Displacement by War Over Israel’s Creation”: Although the MSM years ago stopped misinforming Western publics of “millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants from the war over Israel’s creation,” the only part of that misleading statement the MSM has stopped purveying is “millions.” Purveying the misimpression that a native population was displaced by a new nation’s “creation” continues. Palestine’s 1948 population was less than 2 million, a good third of it Jews; Israel’s independence was met with a multi-nation Arab invasion for its annihilation, which was thrown back by a homeland army of homeland Jews; more Jewish refugees fled vast Muslim lands for Israel in that war and its wake than Arabs [not yet called “the Palestinians] fled tiny Israel.

*** AP in Inq, 5/16/14: “Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to commemorate their displacement in the Mideast war over Israel’s 1948 creation”; AP Inq, 5/21/14: “… Palestinians marked the anniversary of their uprooting in the war over Israel’s 1948 creation”

Misportrayal of “Palestinian”Refugee Issue: The MSM greatly misleads Western publics through defining the Arab-Israeli conflict’s refugee issue as exclusively pertaining to Arab (“Palestinian”) refugees and their descendants. In the war begun by the 1948 partition-rejecting multi-nation Arab invasion for Israel’s destruction, a greater number of indigenous Middle Eastern Jews fled vast Arab and other Muslim lands than Arabs fled tiny Israel. That Israel absorbed the bulk of these Jews, who’ve had descendants too, does not forfeit their inclusion in that conflict’s refugee issue, except to Israel’s foes and the media:

*** AP in 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.”

Israel officially recognized its Jewish refugees from Muslim lands in 2014. The deep significance of this greater number of Israel-absorbed indigenously Middle Eastern Jews, some with roots extending back thousands of years, goes beyond balancing the Arab refugee claim. Together with the homeland Jewish Yishuv, the core that never abandoned the ancient home, this major segment of Israel’s Jewish population dispels the notion that Israel is a colonial European implant in an “Arab’ Middle East. Jews have always been indigenous to the Mideast.

“Jewish” State Bill Added “Complication”: Beyond 3,000 years’ continuous homeland-claiming presence, and modern Israel becoming in 1948 the land of Israel’s next native state after Jewish Judaea, which had been defeated by Rome in 135 (every ruler in between having been a foreign invader, and mostly non-Arab at that), the relevant twentieth century international documents – Balfour, San Remo, the Palestine Mandate, the U.N.’s 1947 partition resolution – all recognized the Jewish people’s connection to Israel and contemplated rebirth of a Jewish National Home, a Jewish State. The 1947 partition resolution referenced “the Jewish State” and “the Arab [not “Palestinian”] State” over and over. British Foreign Minister Bevin (no friend of ours) told Parliament in 1947 that the “essential point of principle” for the Jews was attainment of a sovereign Jewish state, and for the Arabs trying to stop it. Yet, when Israel asserts its raison d etre, the MSM lashes out Israel’s creating a “stumbling block” (Inq headline, 10/24/10), an “added complication.”

*** AP in Inq, 11/17/14: “Also Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s pushing forward a bill that enshrines in law that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, adding a complication to tense relations with Arab-Israelis and Palestinians.” (emphasis added); LA Times in Inq, 12/3/14: “… controversial nationality bill declaring Israel to be Jewish state.”

[Compare Wikipedia quoting Palestinian Authority’s Palestine Basic Law: “Islam is the official religion in Palestine ….”]

Judea-Samaria and “East” Jerusalem

Jewish Connection to Judea-Samaria, Heart of Jerusalem is “Capture” in 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 in Inq, 1/31/14: “… Maale Adumim, a Jewish settlement on land that Israel seized in the 1967 war”; AP in Inq, 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 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.”

“Palestinians” as “Villagers,” Jews as “Settlers” in “the West Bank”: A 6/16/14 Inq-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). But one 2014 AP article took the cake:

*** 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 [and here I thought ‘Palestinians’ were the ‘militants’] 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.”

“East” Jerusalem “Jewish Settlements”: An issue on which most Jews across the political spectrum (e.g., the U.S. Reform movement’s Rabbi Eric Yoffie and Bibi Netanyahu) agree is that Jews are not “settlers” in the heart of Jerusalem. Compare MSM in 2014:

*** 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.”

Just in case there was any doubt left as to ownership equity in much of the remaining 22% of the Palestine Mandate for the Jewish National Home that wasn’t lopped off for all-Arab Transjordan:

*** 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.” (emphasis added); AP in Inq, 11/30/14: “[proposed resolution] setting a November 2016 deadline to end the Israeli occupation,” with Inq photo caption: “Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wants to end Israeli occupation.”

So, as you wade through the mainstream media’s Israel miscoverage, as purveyed through the Inq et ilk, in 2015, keep a keen eye out for distortions undercutting the Jewish people’s homeland connection to Israel. E.g.:

*** Israel’s “creation” and “founding” in 1948;
*** “Palestinians displaced in the war over Israel’s creation, Israel’s 1948 founding”;
*** “the Palestinian refugee issue”;
*** any “controversial nationality bill declaring Israel to be a Jewish state”;
*** Israel’s “capture/seizure” of “East” Jerusalem and “the West Bank” in 1967;
*** “Palestinians” as “villagers,” Jews as “settlers” in “the West Bank”;
*** “continued Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem”;
*** “deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.”

Regards,
Jerry