Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Monday 7 January 2013

Jeremy Bowen's 2013 To-Do List

CAMERA's candid quota of New Year resolutions it would like the mainstream media to make is something that the BBC's "Middle East editor" (as the representative of a news organisation that's obligated by the terms of its much-flouted Charter to be objective) should most certainly heed.  The fact that CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting) aims its remarks principally at media outlets in the United States, where it is based, by no means dilutes the relevance of its remarks to the BBC (and for that matter other Western media):

1. Stop misreporting on Gaza.
Gaza is not occupied, not a “prison camp” and the people are allowed to fish. The Palestinians in Gaza rank above average in the Arab world by all indicators: health care, immunizations, education, nutrition, longevity, and low childhood mortality ....
2. Stop calling Mahmoud Abbas a “moderate”. 
.... Arafat and a few colleagues founded Fatah in 1959 to “liberate” Israel, not the West Bank (then occupied by Jordan) or the Gaza Strip (then held by Egypt); ''' Abbas continues to incite his people against Israel; that he refuses to even negotiate with Israel....

His PA TV and other media outlets continue to praise terrorist killers as “heroes” and describe Israeli cities as part of “Palestine.” What is moderate about this? 

3. Call terrorists “terrorists,” not “militants”.
Terrorism ... is “... premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents....”....“Militant,” on the other hand ...  suggests vehemence and persistence but not illegal violence. Farmers farm, lawyers practice law, and terrorists commit terrorism – they don't advocate causes. 

4. Report accurately on the security barrier.
The security fence is a nonviolent way to reduce terrorism and it has been extremely effective in saving lives – both Jewish and non-Jewish. It was constructed in response to the second “intifada” and has significantly reduced terror attacks originating from the West Bank. It does not “completely surround Bethlehem”, it is not “a wall” nor an “iron curtain.” Furthermore, there are security and separation barriers all over the world that get no criticism – or coverage – whatsoever. 


5. Report that it is the Palestinian Arabs – not Israel – who refuse to negotiate peace.
While Israel has repeatedly invited Palestinian leaders to return to the negotiating table for peace talks, they have insisted they won't do so unless Israel first satisfies their preconditions. Even after Israel in 2009 announced a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction, Mahmoud Abbas avoided talks until just weeks before the moratorium was set to expire. And when the moratorium did expire, he again spurned negotiations.


6. Report on the constant incitement to hatred of Jews and Israel in Palestinian media, schools and the public square. 
.... Blood libel, the false accusation that Jews murder children, is a favorite theme of Arab media, used as the story line for comedy sketches and dramatic programming. Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous instances of Palestinian Authority dehumanization and vilification of Jews and Israelis.... According to ... his brother ... the [perpetrator of the]Toulouse massacre early last year [carried it out]because he was exposed to “hatred, racism and anti-semitism ... from a very young age.”... 

7. Report on the Jewish refugees from Arab lands. 
[O]f the 850,000 Jews living in Arab countries who were dispossessed and forced out between 1947 and 1972, almost nothing is said. Ancient Jewish communities had existed in Arab countries for millennia until the Arab League defined all Jews as enemies of the state in 1947. State-sanctioned violence, arbitrary arrests, and forced expulsions followed. Arab governments confiscated billions of dollars of Jewish property. The total area of land seized from these Jews is five times the size of the state of Israel. ...

8. Shed the false narrative that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of all the problems in the Middle East.
The phrases “the Middle East conflict” and “the Middle East peace process,” as applied to Israeli-Palestinian affairs, always have been more exaggerations than synonyms. The Iran-Iraq war and Algerian civil war are examples of inter-Arab bloodshed that dwarfs the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....Of course, the “Arab Spring” demonstrated clearly that turmoil in the Middle East frequently has nothing whatever to do with Israel.

9. Report on the real suffering of women, homosexuals, religious and ethnic minorities in Arab and Muslim countries.
Women's rights are grossly constrained in Arab countries.....  In Gaza, homosexual acts are illegal and punishable by up to ten years in prison. Palestinian Christians, like other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, are the target of mistreatment, harassment and in some instances, violent oppression at the hands of their Muslim neighbors.


10. Report that both the Hamas charter and Fatah constitution call for the destruction of Israel.
The Hamas charter calls for Jihad against Israel and dismisses any political solution. “Israel will exist, and will continue to exist, until Islam abolishes it,” reads an introductory quote on the document. It also asserts genocidally that that Hamas' battle with the Jews extends beyond Israel. The constitution of the Fatah movement also calls for the “complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence” through violence, and similarly dismisses political solutions.


11. Stop suggesting that Israel's democracy is under threat.
At this very moment, the Syrian regime is murdering its own citizens. Lebanon is run by a terrorist group, Hezbollah. Jordan is an absolute monarchy that recently revoked the citizenship of thousands of residents of Palestinian descent. Gaza is run by Hamas, a terrorist group that hasn't had elections in years and the West Bank is run by a corrupt kleptocracy whose term also expired years ago and continues to hold office illegally. These governments are truly embattled and their citizens suffer, yet Israel's internal politics attracts the lion's share of media scrutiny and, usually, criticism.

12. Focus less on Israel.
If the media were not obsessed with hectoring Israel, imagine the column-inches and airtime that could be freed up for coverage of... the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the continued imprisonment of Christians in Iran, deadly Turkish attacks on the Kurds, police brutality throughout the Arab Middle East .... not to mention world-leading breakthroughs in medicine, agriculture, communications, microtechnology and other fields by Israelis ...


13. Follow the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics....

Read CAMERA's entire remarks here

7 comments:

  1. Bowen would be better served just admitting he's in the pocket of Muslim fascist tyrants. Or he's a fool. Either admission is fine.

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    1. Not in their pocket, Trudy, just a tad out of his depth!
      Tim Marshall of Sky News is a much preferable and more sophisticated analyst.

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  2. During 'Operation Pillar of Cloud', we gave up watching BBC 24-Hour News and switched to Sky News instead. We were rewarded with an apparently more honest reporting scenarion: journalists embedded in Gaza City reporting that rockets were being fired from close by them, actually within the built-up area. Althought they didn't actually say it, they were reporting a war crime and a crime against humanity. Which is more than the BBC do.

    I have taken the liberty of posting a link to this post (plus a favourable comment from me) to simplyjews.blogpost.com. Hope you don't mind, Daphne.

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    1. No, Brian, of course I don't mind.
      Thanks!

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    2. I'm pleased to make the acquaintance of your website, btw

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    3. You're most kind, but actually the site's run by Snoopy the Goon and Gideon Swort. They kindly post pretty well all of the items I seek out on the net and send them. I do this on the basis that no-one can read everything, but we can it easier for as much of the good stuff as possible to get out to a wider audience.

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    4. I tried adding the site to my blogroll but the URL wouldn't register. Will try again later.

      Delete

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