Palestinian Ma'an News: 2 Stories - one in Arabic, one in English

Netherlands and Denmark fund terror glorification, hate language of Palestinian news agency

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 

 

A Palestinian news agency that receives financial support from the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark glorifies terrorists, releases news stories using hate language and is a highly politicized, hate-promoting news organization. Paradoxically, Ma'an News claims to be "objective, accurate, balanced" and to "increase Palestinian media credibility," according to its web site.

1- Ma'an Honoring Terrorists and Murderers as Shahids

 

Ma'an has glorified the recent Palestinian murderer of eight Israeli yeshiva students, the Dimona suicide terrorist, the killers of the two Israeli hikers and the terrorists who attacked a boys' high school with the very highest Islamic status attainable, elevating them to the status of "Shahids" or "Martyrs for Allah." According to the accepted Palestinian interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a Muslim can achieve today than that of Shahid. In defining terrorist murderers as "Shahids," Ma'an is by definition sending its readers a straightforward message of honor for the killers, and approval for the many murders. Negative or dishonorable actions could not elevate an individual to Shahid status. (See below for full sources.)

 

In its English versions of these reports, Ma'an did not honor the terrorists  as "Shahids" or use the similar English term "Martyrs."Note, for example, the difference in Ma'an reporting on the murder of the two hikers:

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Two of the operatives died as Shahids."  [Dec. 28, 2007]	"Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron."

 

The explanation for this and all other discrepancies between Ma'an's English and Arabic reporting is that this politically-charged Arabic terminology, together with the examples of Ma'an's use of hate-language (below), would readily expose Ma'an's lack of professionalism and messages of approval of terror if repeated in English. In addition, it must be assumed that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark would be outraged to know they are funding terror glorification and hate journalism.

 

2 - Suicide Bombers: Ma'an uses term of higher honor: Shahada-Seekers

 

With regard to suicide terrorists Ma'an goes even further. According to Islam, someone who intentionally seeks Shahada - death for Allah - is greater than someone who achieves Shahada while not actively hoping to die. The Arabic term Istishhadi - Shahada- Seeker- is used by terror organizations to define and add a higher status of honor specifically to suicide terrorists .

 

Ma'an has followed this lead in its Arabic reporting of the Dimona suicide bombing that killed one Israeli woman and critically injured her husband. Note the apolitical report by Ma'an in English, where the suicide bomber is reported to be just that, "a bomber," followed by the Arabic Ma'an reports that use the term of highest honor, "Shahada-Seekers."

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Ma'an - Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action... Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc ..."  [February 5, 2008]	"Al-Aqsa Brigades dispel doubts about identity of second Dimona bomber... Speaking to Ma'an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat ... Israeli security officials had expressed doubt about the validity of the image of the second bomber."

 

 

Note also that under similar pictures of the mothers of the bombers, Ma'an uses the objective caption in English: "Mother of suspected bomber," and the honor caption in Arabic: "Mothers of the Shahada-Seekers".

Ma'an Arabic caption	Ma'an English caption
"Mothers of Shahada-Seekers"	"Mother of suspected bomber"

 

3- Ma'an denies Israel's right to exist- all Israel is "Occupation"

Ma'an uses very politicized hate language to routinely reject Israel's right to exist, and even to deny Israel's existence. For example, when reporting on Israeli Arab doctors who visited Gaza, Ma'an defined them in Arabic as "Palestinian doctors from inside 'Occupied Palestine'," Ma'an's term for Israel. In this case, Ma'an's English language report on this story followed similar hate language:

"Palestinian doctors from 1948 territories [another Ma'an euphemism for Israel] visit Gaza... A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line, visited the Gaza Strip."  [February 29, 2008]

 In this article to deny Israel's legitimacy on its land, Ma'an went out of its way to use a particularly awkward hate expression. Instead of using the simple, accurate and apolitical wording, "doctors from Israel," Ma'an used 13 cumbersome, politically-charged hate words to describe the doctors' origins:

Ma'an political language	Accurate apolitical language
"doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line"	"doctors from Israel"

 

It is also important to note that later in the same article, Ma'an used the term "Israel" as follows: "...crippling siege led by Israel." The difference is striking. When referring to the land or location - Ma'an called Israel "Occupied Palestine."  In referring to the government of Israel or criticizing Israeli policy Ma'an used "Israel." (See other examples below.)

 

Finally, since Israel's very existence is presented by Ma'an as an "Occupation," the Israeli army in Arabic is referred to with hate language identical to that used by the terrorist organizations: "the occupation forces." Here, as in some of the cases above, Ma'an avoids the hate language in English. One example is a Ma'an report after Israel arrested three suspected terrorists.

 

Ma'an Arabic News	Ma'an English News
"Occupation forces arrest ..."  [March 25, 2008]	"Israeli forces raid ..."

 

See below a list of examples where Ma'an glorifies terrorists and uses hate language.

 

PMW comment:

Last year PMW documented that Ma'an used this politicized hate language after the suicide terror attack in the Israeli city of Eilat. [See PMW Bulletin]

In Arabic, Ma'an had reported that Eilat was "in the south of occupied Palestine," the mother of the terrorist was said to be from the "occupied city of Jaffa", though Jaffa is part of Tel Aviv, and Ma'an had honored the suicide bomber as a Shahid.

We find it surprising and unfortunate that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark continue to fund this hate journalism without demanding a change. Hate incitement, including denial of Israel's existence and glorifying terror, is universally accepted as a paramount cause of continued Palestinian terror. These governments, together with governments who have blindly funded Palestinian schoolbooks, bear direct moral responsibility for the continued hatred that is being ingrained into future Palestinian generations, and bear a moral responsibility for the terror and its victims.

  

The following are additional examples of Ma'an using hate language and honoring terrorists.

Ma'an grants Shahid status to all terrorists in recent terror attacks. The following are in addition to examples above.

 

1. Jerusalem Yeshiva terror attack - 8 students killed:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"8 dead and two Shahids in the Jerusalem Operation. The operatives were from [village of] Jabal Mukbar..."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 6, 2008]

 

2. Terror attack in High School in Kfar Ezion:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Ma'an discloses the identity of the two Shahids from the Ezion operation."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, January 24 , 2008]

 

3. Two hikers ambushed and murdered as they strolled on nature walk

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Two of the operatives died as Shahids, two more were injured and two Israeli soldiers were killed."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, December 28, 2007]

 

Ma'an English News:

"Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron."

[Ma'an, English news, December 28, 2007]

 

4. Suicide Terror attack in Dimona- one woman killed:

Ma'an Arabic News:

"Ma'an - Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action... Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc ..."  

 

Ma'an English News:

"Speaking to Ma'an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat"    [ English news, February 5, 2008]

 

Ma'an news releases promote the hate message that Israel has no right to exist, calling Israel "Occupied Palestine" or "territories occupied after 1948," Israel's government the "Occupation Authority" and its soldiers the "Occupation forces." Note also when Israel is mentioned it is often put within quotation marks- a common linguistic method to express non-recognition.

 

1."The Occupation authorities [editor: replaces 'Israeli authorities'] have been enforcing severe restrictions since the morning hours on the entrance of residents to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and even on the entrance into the city of Jerusalem within the borders of the occupation municipality [editor: replaces 'Jerusalem']. They have prevented hundreds of the residents of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, [editor: replaces 'Israel'] who hold blue "Israeli" identity cards from..."

[Ma'an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

 

2."He said that 72 prisoners have died as Shahids during the al-Aqsa intifada, 58 of them from the West Bank, one from the territories occupied since 1948 [editor: replaces 'Israel'] and 13 from the Gaza Strip..."       [Ma'an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

 

3."In a research paper he published on the issue of the number of prisoners of Palestine which has been occupied since 1948 (The "inside" prisoners) [editor: replaces 'Israeli prisoners'], he emphasized that this number is an important number in the equation of the historical and cultural struggle against the Israeli occupier..."    [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 15, 2008]

 

Note in this previous example that instead of just writing the single word "Israel," Ma"an used a very long term: Palestine which has been occupied since 1948. However, Ma"an itself felt the need to further explain its own cumbersome usage by adding in parentheses, ("inside" prisoners) meaning 'Israeli Arab prisoners.'  It shows again that Ma"an is willing to burden its readers with linguistic contortions, rather than use simple and accurate language which would indicate recognition of Israel. In this case the language it avoided writing was "Arab prisoners from Israel."

 

4. "Dr. al-Asta did not compare the outlook... to one who lives in the racist Ghetto in Occupied Palestine..."   [Ma'an, Arabic news, February 24, 2008]

 

5. "A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948... visited the Gaza Strip." [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 17, 2008]

 

6. Discrepancies between English and Arabic reports:

Ma'an Arabic Report:

"The occupation forces" detained 3 residents in Bethlehem and al-Duha".    [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 25, 2008]

Ma'an English Report:

"Israeli forces raid Bethlehem and seize 3 Palestinians"

[Ma'an, English news, March 25, 2008]

Ma'an Arabic Report:

"The Israeli occupation army seized the town of Kafin afternoon today, Wednesday..."  [Ma'an, Arabic news, March 26, 2008]

Ma'an EnglishReport:

"Israeli forces stormed the town of Kafin in the West Bank Wednesday..."  [Ma'an, English news, March 26, 2008]

Continued (Permanent Link)

Right Wing Rabbis and anti-Israel extremists agree: Hang Olmert

For once, there is unanimous agreement on an issue. Attendees at a conference of Rabbis agreed enthusiastically to Rabbi Wolpe's call to hang Israeli leaders, including Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Haim Ramon and Ehud Barak. Anarchists have a similar idea it seems

 

In a discussion of the death penalty at the Al-Jazeera Web site, Minsa from Hampstead England wrote, "

. Yeah, right - so go hang Olmert for the terrorist murder of over 1000 innocent Lebanese civilians."

 

We were in this movie once before. We know how it ends...

 

Ami Isseroff

Right-wing rabbi calls for PM's death

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Government leaders should be hanged for negotiating with the Palestinians, Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe told an audience of rabbis in Tel Aviv, according to a Channel 1 report aired Wednesday night.

"The terrible traitor, [Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert, who gives these Nazis weapons, who gives money, who frees their murderous terrorists, this man, like Ariel Sharon, collaborates with the Nazis," Wolpe told a conference of rabbis who oppose transferring parts of the West Bank or Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

"[Olmert's punishment], and the punishment of [Vice Premier] Haim Ramon, and the punishment of [Foreign Minister] Tzipi Livni, and all these people, like [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak, should be to hang from the gallows," Wolpe said to the cheering crowd.

The comment came after news circulated during the conference that one of the terrorists who killed two Israelis in the South Hebron Hills last Friday was a PA security officer.

Among those attending the conference were MK Arye Eldad (National Union/National Religious Party), MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism), Kiryat Arba-Hebron Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, Kise Rahamin Yeshiva head Rabbi Meir Mazuz, and former MK Elyakim Haeztni, who joined in the accusations that Olmert was responsible for the deaths of the two Israelis last Friday.

Ramon issued a statement condemning the speeches at the conference: "It is regretful and worrying that more than a decade after the murder of a prime minister in Israel, these people haven't learned a thing, and still continue down the path of incitement that endangers the foundations of democracy in Israel," he said.

Also according to Channel 1, an anarchist group recently uploaded pictures onto their Web site depicting Olmert with a picture of a grenade on his head and the words: "He deserves it."

There was no comment from the Prime Minister's Office.

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

Sex, Lies, Fascism and clitoridectomy

Some people will do anything to get attention and smear the "opposition" as they see it. For much of the Zionist right, the real enemy is not Ahmadinejad in Iran, or Haniyeh in Gaza, but rather other Jews and Zionists who do not think as they do. In their war against these others, any weapon and any tactics are OK.

Israpundit, (israpundit.com/2006/?p=5887) posted an article by Steven Plaut. citing Israel National News (israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/2274) . It regales us with a canard that insists that Education Minister Yuli Tami supports clitoridectomy - female circumcision. Israpundit includes this intelligent and mannerly comment,

QUOTE:

{Leftist bitch]

UNQUOTE.

Mismatched parentheses are in the original.

The Israbluff/Steven Plaut wisdom and the Israel National News enlightenment are based on an article Tamir wrote in 1996. What Tamir actually wrote in her article was:

Clitoridectomy is obviously a deplorable practice. It is, among other things, an extremely painful, traumatizing mutilation of young girls that leaves them permanently disfigured and deprived of sexual enjoyment. We should express no sympathy toward those who practice it, and support those who struggle to end it.

That doesn't look like Tamir supports clitoridectomy, does it? For the benefit of Steven Plaut, who has difficulties with the English language, we should perhaps explain that "deplorable, painful, traumatizing" are not words of praise. "Bitch" is not the only word that can be used to express disapproval. Get a dictionary, Steven Plaut.

But Israel National News, Israpundit and Plaut don't care much about facts, if they can have an occassion to attack a "leftist bitch."

Let's see what Tamir wrote again:

We should express no sympathy toward those who practice it, and support those who struggle to end it.

What part of that don't you understand, Steven Plaut, Israpundit and Israel National News?? Apparently you understood none of it. You wrote:

She is a great fan of clitoridectomy.

As Tamir points out:

My purpose, however, is not to justify clitoridectomy, but to expose the roots of the deep hostility to it -- to reveal the smug, unjustified self-satisfaction lurking behind the current condemnation of clitoridectomy. Referring to clitoridectomy, and emphasizing the distance of the practice from our own conventions, allows us to condemn them for what they do to their women, support the struggle of their women against their primitive, inhuman culture, and remain silent on the status of women in our society.

I won't call names. You can figure out your own names for these people. Next time you read anything in Israel National News, anything by Steven Plaut, or anything in Israpundit, remember the relation between what they write and the actual facts.

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hezbollah: Dissent over the party of God

"Let's have a party" - Party of God that is. Intentional blindness about the declared genocidal intent of both Hezbollah and Hamas is amazing. They say "genocide" "right on the label, in their charter documents.

Goodheart takes London Review of Books to task for refusing to acknowledge anti-Semitic statements by Hassan Nasrallah. But Hezbollah program, like the Hamas Charter, openly proclaims their intent:

Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated.

Allah hu Akbar!

Don't forget that Al Andalus (Spain) is also built on lands wrested from their Muslim owners -- with far less justice, and much more brutally. Anyhow, one doesn't need to scrutinize the sayings of Nasrallah to understand that Hezbollah is a genocidal organization, and it was so from its inception.

Ami Isseroff


The London Review of Hezbollah
By Eugene Goodheart
Dissent Magazine
Winter 2007
(excerpted)

Critics, mostly though not exclusively European, who hammer away at Israeli misbehavior often show no concern about the dangers that beset Israel. Their one-sided animus verges on scandal. Criticism of Israeli behavior may be justified, but it loses credit when it is not balanced by an unequivocal repudiation of the rhetoric and actions of Islamic fundamentalists: Holocaust denial, fantasies of genocidal anti-Semitism, the elimination of the state of Israel, suicide bombings, and indiscriminate killing of civilians.

The London Review of Books is an egregious instance of this one-sidedness. Almost every issue contains several articles devoted to attacks on Israel, and the target is not simply the governing party, but the whole spectrum of Israeli political life. Absent from the columns of the Review are the injustices and cruelties of political Islam. In an article by Charles Glass, Lebanon's Hezbollah is eulogized for its capacity to learn from mistakes, its decency in treating prisoners, "its refusal to murder collaborators," its intelligent use of "car bombs, ambushes, small rockets and suicide bombers." Glass speaks of Hezbollah's uncompromising political program, of which he apparently approves, without mentioning that at its core is the destruction of Israel...In a letter to LRB printed in the September 7, 2006, issue, I pointed out that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is not simply a resistance fighter, he is also an anti-Semite with genocidal fantasies. I cited the following statements attributed to him: "If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." "They [the Jews] are a cancer which is liable to spread at any moment." I also noted that the name "Party of God," should worry anyone of enlightened, democratic persuasion, but does not seem to bother Glass. (Would he be equally indulgent of the religious fanatics in Israel who assert their divine right to Greater Israel?) Parties of God, wherever they are to be found, mean tyranny should they ever acquire power. In the article, Glass mentions the fact that he had been kidnapped by Hezbollah at a Syrian checkpoint. Wanting to prove that the movement was independent of Syrian control, he writes that when "Syria insisted that I be released to show that Syrian control of Lebanon could not be flouted [1] Hezbollah, unfortunately, ignored the request." What virtue! In my letter, I wondered whether he had not succumbed to Stockholm syndrome.

His response, printed in the October 5, 2006, issue, focused on the anti-Semitic statements attributed to Nasrallah, which he dismissed as fabrications, "circulated widely on neo-conservative web sites." ...

I wrote back to the LRB, first noting that in invoking the nefarious neocons as the vehicles of fabrication, Glass reminded me of the apologists for the Soviet Union who denied the existence of anti-Semitism in their beloved country, because the reports of its existence came from the bourgeois press. I challenged the LRB to make a disinterested effort to determine whether these statements were fabrications. Its animus against Israel was clear and bad enough; a willingness to indulge anti-Semitism, a much more serious matter. If they are not fabrications, the journal has a moral obligation to say so and to repudiate the kind of article that Glass has written.

While waiting for a reply, I decided to look into the literature on Hezbollah, and what I found left no doubt about its view of the Jews. Here is Nasrallah in one of his diatribes against Israel: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli." [1]
Quoted in Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion, University of Michigan Press, 2001, p. 170. Original source, televised interview, Muhammad Fnayash. Wuhhat Nazar Future Television (FTV, July 2, 1997).

Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, author of Inside Hezbollah, which Charles Glass cites for its humane view of how collaborators with Israel should be treated, has this to say: "The history of the Jews has proven that, regardless of the Zionist proposal, they are a people who are evil in their ideas" (Quoted in Saad-Ghorayeb, p. 174; original source, Abbas al-Mussawi, Amiru'l-Zakira, Dhu al-Hujja 1406). Hezbollah's denial of the existence of the Holocaust takes many forms. "The Jews have never been able to prove the existence of the infamous gas chambers." Only "160,000 civilians died [and this was] as a result of US bombing of Germany." Jews collaborated with the Nazis in killing their brethren: "From what we know about the Jews, their tricks and their deception, we do not think it unlikely that they partook in the planning of the Holocaust." Saad-Ghorayeb, the source of these quotes, is a Briton of Muslim Lebanese extraction, who is sympathetic to Hezbollah. "As a Lebanese, I was appalled by the apparent ease with which this movement was accused of sundry terrorist activities by Western journalists and policy-makers, and on their insistence on referring to its guerrilla fighters, who were practicing their legitimate right to resist a foreign occupation, as terrorists." She writes favorably of Hezbollah's political evolution in Lebanese society, so there is no reason to doubt the scholarly accuracy of her representation of the movement's unreconstructed view of Israel and the Jews. (As I write this, I am pleased to see a letter to the LRB from the distinguished lawyer and literary scholar Anthony Julius, citing Saad-Ghorayeb as evidence for Hezbollah's anti-Judaism. Julius invited Glass to confirm the implication of his response to my letter that I am wrong in attributing anti-Semitism to Hezbollah and to comment on the "material assembled by Saad-Ghorayeb." So far there has been no reply from Glass, nor any statement from the editors on the matter.)

Unlike Bernard Lewis, Saad-Ghorayeb characterizes Hezbollah's view of the Jews as anti-Judaism rather than anti-Semitism. She contends that unlike Christian anti-Semitism, the radical Islamic animus against Jews, which has its source in the Koran, is not racialist. And yet she speaks of the "scriptural basis" of Hezbollah's depiction of the Jews as a people "whose blood [a racialist trope] is full of enmity towards mankind." In any event, it is not clear to me that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism makes any practical difference. What is interesting is that Saad-Ghorayeb sees Hezbollah's animus against Jewry as not deriving from its anti-Zionism (Lewis's view), but from a deeper source: its inveterate hostility to Judaism. The enemies of the movement are Jews who adhere to Judaism and to Zionism, which, Hezbollah believes, has its source in Judaism, despite the existence of secular Zionists. Because they believe that Jews who have no commitment either to Judaism or Zionism are a negligible constituency, they have no inhibitions about demonizing Jewry as a whole. Saad-Ghorayeb cites passage after passage demonstrating Hezbollah's hatred of Judaism and its desire for its disappearance. The movement arose as a reaction to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, but its hostility is not confined to Israel and its supporters. Can we then take seriously Glass's benign view that the movement, in becoming "a sophisticated and successful political party . . . [has] jettisoned its early rhetoric about making Lebanon an Islamic Republic," and now speaks "of Christians, Muslims and Druze living in harmony"? Apparently the Jews, having no place in this harmony, will simply disappear.

Alas, Charles Glass appears to be either ignorant about his subject or writing in bad faith. He is an example of moral obtuseness or callousness (it is hard to find the right word for it) in what has become an influential view among a group of American and European intellectuals. The moral logic of this view goes something like this. Israel is militarily powerful, supported by the United States, the most powerful nation in the world. Its adversaries in the Islamic world are weak, and when one measures the relative devastations caused by confrontations between the powerful and the weak, the burden of guilt falls on the most powerful. Whatever violence or cruelties issue from the weak are then morally justified by weakness. Here is Glass again: "Like Israel's previous enemies, Hezbollah relies on the weapons of the weak: car bombs, ambushes, occasional flurries or small rockets and suicide bombers. The difference is that it uses them intelligently, in conjunction with an uncompromising programme." Glass says nothing about the devastation caused by weapons of the weak. He ignores the fact that the strength of "the weak" lies in elusiveness, in the capacity to hide behind the civilian population, and in the code of martyrdom. In placing a lower valuation on human life than does the adversary, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups have a distinct strategic advantage. How do you deter a person willing to die for his cause from committing an act of violence?

What, one might ask, is accomplished by the glib and unthinking support of the use of "the weapons of the weak"? Sympathy for terrorist groups only encourages war-perpetuating intransigence on both sides. Has Israel been guilty of the use of disproportionate use of military power? I believe it has and should be held to account. Israeli power has been a response to the provocations of "the weapons of the weak," and the response has too often been destructive and self-destructive in its excesses. In its recent incursion in Lebanon, it has achieved a result similar to our misadventure in Iraq: a large number of civilian casualties, widespread devastation of the land, burgeoning resentment from a large portion of the Lebanese population that had been angered by Hezbollah's provocations. Israel failed to achieve its aims at great cost to Lebanon and to itself.

But then the question arises, "What should be the appropriate response to suicide bombings and Katyusha rockets?" There is no easy answer to this. But it is a mark of callous indifference to the fate of a country, indeed of one's own country, when another contributor to the London Review of Books, Yitzhak Laor, chastises two of Israel's most prominent critics of their own government, Amos Oz and David Grossman, for asserting the right of Israel to respond to violence against it. Grossman, for example, writes, "There is no justification for the large-scale violence that Hezbollah unleashed this week, from Lebanese territory, on dozens of peaceful Israeli villages, towns and cities. No country in the world could remain silent and abandon its citizens when its neighbor strikes without provocation." To which Laor replies irrelevantly, "We can bomb, but if they respond they are responsible for both their suffering and ours" ( LRB, August 17, 2006, p. 11). What would Laor advise as a response to such an attack? He does not say. Apparently, all that is required is for Israel to flagellate itself for what it has inflicted on others.

Let us say that Israel did not respond to provocations. Would that change Hezbollah's behavior toward Israel? Not if, as Glass tells us, its program is uncompromising. Nothing that Israel can offer the Palestinians short of its self-eradication will satisfy Hezbollah. Indeed, it has even expressed a preference for a hard-line, Likud-led government to that of the Labor Party—for that would justify its intransigence. The movement has a long view. "Even if hundreds of years pass by, Israel's existence will continue to be an illegal existence" (Saad-Ghorayeb, p. 135). It is hard to fathom what sympathy for Hezbollah by critics of Israel like Glass and Laor can accomplish in the way of achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict. On the contrary, they would seem only to foster a hardening of attitudes on all sides. In all the talk about the asymmetry between powerful Israel and its weak adversaries, what is overlooked is the asymmetry that strongly favors its adversaries. Israel has only one war to lose for its existence to come to an end. Its adversaries, miserable as their condition is, can survive war after war. In its one-sided obsession with Israeli transgressions, the London Review of Books, offering no constructive advice for ending the conflict, contributes to its perpetuation by supporting one side of the intransigence. Its indulgence of a virulently anti-Semitic movement is simply shameful.



Eugene Goodheart is Edythe Macy Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Brandeis University. He is the author of many books of literary and cultural criticism as well as a memoir, Confessions of a Secular Jew .




Footnotes:

1.) Quoted in Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion, University of Michigan Press, 2001, p. 170. Original source, televised interview, Muhammad Fnayash. Wuhhat Nazar Future Television (FTV, July 2, 1997).

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hamas TV drops militant Mickey Mouse

Who's the little rodent, who's gonna blow up you and me?
Mickey Militant, Mickey Militant,
Forever may we hold your banners high high Hi Hi!

As Mickey says:
""You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists,""

M*i*c - See you in Hell, Zionist Dog

K*e*y - Why? 'Cause we hate you.

"Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs."

Well you won't have Militant Mouse to kick around for a while.
---
Update and PS: The Hamas TV drops militant Mickey Mouse

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Opinion: Fine-tuning Arab television

Barghouti wrote that following a request from his ministry, the program was pulled from the Hamas-affiliated Al Aksa TV and "placed under review."

In the statement, Barghouti said his ministry "would continue to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but that media outlets breaking the law would be penalized."

Barghouti complained that the Mickey Mouse story continued to receive attention by "some American television stations" after it was resolved, and that media did not broadcast video of Israeli human rights violations supplied by his ministry in recent weeks.

Israel has long complained that the Palestinian airwaves are filled with incitement.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," the cartoon character squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is titled "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.

Continued (Permanent Link)

Anniversaries: The Jenin Massacre Myth, the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt and the lie of Zionists as Nazis

Manfred Gerstenfeld has written an excellent article about the demonic demonization of Zionists as Nazis. Georges Sarfaty noted the same phenomenon in his article about the linguistics of hate. The theme is repeated over and over in many ways, and with no foundation in truth whatever.

Contrary to the charges of anti-Zionist extremists. Israel is not herding Palestinian Arabs into death camps. There is no genocide going on the West Bank or Gaza strip and none was ever planned. There are more Palestinian Arabs today than there ever were. There is no Palestinian "Holocaust." In all the years of its existence, Israel has not killed as many Arabs or Muslims as were killed by Muslims in Darfur or in the Iran-Iraq war.

It is particularly fitting to raise the problem of Zionists as Nazis in this season, which approaches the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, staged by an alliance of Jews led by Zionist Mordechai Anielewitz, and also the anniversary of the mythical Jenin "massacre" of 2002. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were herded together for the purpose of rounding them up and transporting them to death camps. 350,000 Jews were crowded into the ghetto. All but a few were ultimately sent to death camps, and the rest were murdered when the ghetto uprising was crushed. When a few remaining survivors revolted in desperation, the SS and the Wehrmacht moved in with massive force to kill off the remnant of Jews in the Ghetto who had not yet been sent to their deaths elsewhere. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto had done nothing at all to deserve their fate. They had harmed no German citizens, had attacked no German soldiers prior to being herded into the ghetto.

In 2002, a spate of Palestinian suicide attacks in ever-rising crescendo had reached a peak in March of 2002, when about 100 people were murdered, including diners at a seder celebration. The victims were not soldiers, they had done nothing to any Palestinians and they were leading peaceful lives in Israel. The Palestinians had been granted autonomous rule of Nablus, Jenin and other cities as part of the Oslo peace accords. Instead of negotiating peace, their leaders had started a campaign of terror and suicide bombings. The attacks in March were organized by cells of Palestinian "resistance" people in Jenin and Nablus, financed by the Palestinian authority with the approval of Chairman Yasser Arafat. All through 2001 and 2002 the attacks had continued. The international community and the Palestinian authority had done nothing to stop them. Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned violence publicly while privately signing the pay chits of terrorists. There was a debate in Israel about what to do. The final spate of attacks on eve of Passover 2002 made it irresponsible and politically impossible for the Israeli government to remain idle. Israeli forces entered the West Bank to remove the sources of the terror attacks in operation Defensive Shield. Civilian residents were warned repeatedly to leave the combat area. Most did. A few stayed out of "solidarity" with the terrorists or because no means could be found to transport them. In Jenin, IDF was greeted by gunfire of armed snipers in an ambush that killed about a dozen soldiers. It was decided that the only way to eliminate the terrorists, who would not surrender, was to destroy small area in the center of town. Civilians were once again asked to leave. In the operation, 56 Palestinians were killed, as a report by HRW subsequently found. Most of them were armed terrorists. Even one civilian death is too many, but the accidental death of about 20 civilians in a clearly defensive action cannot be compared with the intentional murder of 350,000 people. However, Palestinians and their supporters, aided by irresponsible and unprofessional international journalists, spread the myth that Israel had "massacred" 500 Palestinian Arabs in Jenin. Had it been true, it still would not have compared with the murder of 350,000 people. But it was a lie. The lie still exists and is perpetuated at numerous Web sites, in books and in movies. Because operation Defensive Shield occurred close to the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which occurred n Passover of 1943, Jewish and other anti-Zionists built the obscene comparison between the IDF and the Wehrmacht.

A particularly skillful and odious lie that is circulated, is that the IDF studied the tactics of the Wehrmacht and the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto and applied them in Jenin. There is no actual evidence that this occurred, but it is repeated in dozens of places. In the usual fashion of apocryphal "Zionist quotes." the lie quotes or paraphrases, out of context, an article that was written by Amir Oren in Haaretz in January of 2002. Oren was speculating regarding various options that Israel had to deal with the rising wave of terror, and the dreaded possibility of urban warfare. He wrote, among many other things:

In order to prepare properly for the next campaign, one of the Israeli officers in the territories said not long ago, it's justified and in fact essential to learn from every possible source. If the mission will be to seize a densely populated refugee camp, or take over the casbah in Nablus, and if the commander's obligation is to try to execute the mission without casualties on either side, then he must first analyze and internalize the lessons of earlier battles - even, however shocking it may sound, even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto.

The officer indeed succeeded in shocking others, not least because he is not alone in taking this approach. Many of his comrades agree that in order to save Israelis now, it is right to make use of knowledge that originated in that terrible war, whose victims were their kin. The Warsaw ghetto serves them only as an extreme example, not linked to the strategic dialogue that the defense establishments of Israel and Germany will hold next month.

The Warsaw ghetto was an example. Nobody in the IDF said that they were actually studying the tactics of Nazis, or that they would use the tactics of the Nazis. Amir Oren did not write that either. Every army studies the tactics of every other army in every battle. The IDF did NOT use the tactics of the Nazis, who used tanks and air support and artillery to blast the ghetto out of existence, and who did not give civilians a chance to escape to safety. If it were a sane world, I would not have to explain the obvious, but it is not a sane world, as the false and demented accusations of mendacious degenerates in dozens of places will attest.

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Lost in Translation Followup: Palestinians reply

Earlier, we posted a PMW expose that described differences between Arabic news stories of the Palestinian Maan news service, and their supposed translation into English.

Some examples:

Ma'an English: "…in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat."
Ma'an Arabic in first reference: "… in Eilat located in the south of occupied Palestine."
Ma'an Arabic in second reference: "…carried out a brave deed and for the first time in occupied Eilat.”

In the English the mother is referred to simply by her name and age: "Ruwaida Siksik, 42."

In Arabic Ma'an adds: " Ruwaida Siksik, 42, whose family originated from the occupied city of Jaffa."

In English: The mother prayed that it may send a message to the fighting brothers in Hamas and Fatah, to stop and direct their weapons against the Israeli occupation.

In Arabic: the mother prayed that Allah will receive her son as a Shahid…

What did the mother really say? Who knows? The indirect quotes change, and the facts change too. Maan replies below that news must be written differently for Arabic speaking and English speaking audiences. Inventing quotes is part of professional journalism according to them, and they are proud of it, because, as they insist:

Our objective has been set from the very beginning: to be a credible, professional and high quality news agency.

Praise be to Allah. Perhaps a new school of linguistics should be opened in order to train people in this needed skill, according to a new lexicon.

In English:
"Palestinians want peace with Israel"
In Arabic:
"Death to the Zionist entity."

In English:
"Peace treaty"
In Arabic:
"Worthless document signed with Jewish sons of apes and dogs."

In English:
"We are pleased to cooperate with our honored European patrons."
In Arabic:
"May Allah rot the bones of the foreign infidel sons of pigs, but may he give us their money first."

Maan notes:

Ma'an's editor-in-chief, Nasser Al-Lahham... ascribed the reason for the
difference between the Arabic and the English versions as being merely
professional rather than political

Our national identity is well-known and publicly declared because we are
proud of that identity and we never conceal it.

And the Europeans of course fund this "professional" lying. One wonders what the European donors have to say about all this, since according to Maan, they can certainly read the original Arabic.

Ami Isseroff

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Israeli media watchdog accuses Ma'an of 'sterilizing' their 'hate terminology' in an attempt to please the donors
Date: 28 / 02 / 2007 Time: 16:16

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=19938
Bethlehem - Ma'an - An Israeli website has published an article in English accusing Ma'an News Agency of using "hate terminology" in their Arabic-language news and then 'sterilizing' the same news as part of the translation process into English.

The website, which is devoted to monitoring Palestinian media (Palestinian Media Watch) claimed that Ma'an uses "hate ideology espoused by the terror organizations" in its Arabic news, while avoiding this incitement when translated into English. PMW claims, "The same stories go through a sterilization process to hide from the English readers - and possibly from the two Western countries, the Netherlands and Denmark, who give them funding - the terrorist ideology Ma'an is helping to propagate."

Two Israeli writers, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, gave examples to prove their claim, namely with regards to Ma'an's coverage of the bombing operations and in the naming of places which are located within the internationally-recognized borders of Israel, but are also considered to be in pre-1948 historic Palestine.

Ma'an's editor-in-chief, Nasser Al-Lahham responded to the Israeli accusations as saying that several Israeli journalists object to Ma'an, especially the English version which has begun to spread across the world. He ascribed the reason for the difference between the Arabic and the English versions as being merely professional rather than political. There is a difference between editing English and Arabic news, he said, and there is no connection to any wish to conceal any secrets from the Danish and Dutch donors. He also added that the assumption that the donors monitor the English version and neglect the Arabic site is "stupid", since the Danish and Dutch embassies possess the ability to read Arabic-language media.

Lahham added, "Our national identity is well-known and publicly declared because we are proud of that identity and we never conceal it. Our professionalism is acknowledged and distinguished. Ma'an News Agency employs more than 100 journalists, including Muslims, Christians and Jews. Our objective has been set from the very beginning: to be a credible, professional and high quality news agency."

Lahham added that he does not give political directions to the department heads, including the English desk, regarding what they should and should not publish.

When Ma'an was established at the beginning of 2005, Ma'an News Agency hosted media experts from all over the world, including Israel, in order to discuss the terminology. Among the guests were the Israeli journalists, Miron Ropot and Zvika Yehezkely, along with dozens of media professors from Britain, Iran, Europe and the United States. All agreed that each language has its own terminology and special meanings, and that Ma'an will not stop using terms such as "martyr", "resistance" and equivalent terms, in Arabic.

Philippa N., chief English editor, said: "We have never tried to hide the fact that we cater to a different audience and therefore need to employ a different language. The most important thing for us is to deliver the facts and to portray the full extent of the harsh reality of life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, without causing incitement. The coverage is more important than the language. In regards to our choice of terminology, we aim to stick as close as possible to UN-accepted terms, while maintaining our Palestinian perspective."

An English news editor, Rashid Shahin, believes that what the Israeli website carried out was just an attempt at "opinion terrorism." He added, "The Israeli website has criticized almost every Arab media outlet. They seem to want to force Ma'an and others to reflect the Israeli point of view. They are indirectly asking the Palestinians and their media to view what is going on in the Palestinian territories through Israeli eyes and to choose terminology that matches the Israeli mood and mind and reflects their own vision about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict."

In regards to the captions of the images used by Ma'an News Agency, Ma'an's chief photographer, Magnus Johansson, said: "MaanImages is following international standards when it comes to the captions for the pictures. Since we supply images to more than 40 agencies around the world, we can't have incitement in the caption. This would immediately force a response from our clients. The caption is there to describe what is in the picture (who, what, why, where and when) without any personal comments or values. For MaanImages the quality of the pictures is the most important thing and it must reflect what was happening on the spot. It is then up to the viewer to make their own judgments on the event."

Continued (Permanent Link)

Palestinian incitement lost in the translation

Maan is funded by Europeans who apparently do not understand Arabic. So they have one story for their audience and a different story for the foreign khawajas.

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Hate terminology in Arabic sanitized in English translations by Palestinian news service

http://pmw.org.il/bulletins_feb2007.htm#b270207
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Feb 27, 2007

The Ma’an News Service publishes numerous daily announcements in Arabic, which it subsequently translates and releases in English. In recent stories, PMW has noted that the Ma'an releases in Arabic include the hate ideology espoused by the terror organizations that deny Israel's right to exist, express reverence for suicide terrorists and justify terrorist murder as "resistance." But when translated into English, the same stories go through a sterilization process to hide from the English readers – and possibly from the two Western countries, the Netherlands and Denmark, who give them funding – the terrorist ideology Ma'an is helping to propagate.

The following are two examples:

1 – On Jan. 29, 2007, a suicide terrorist killed three Israelis in the city of Eilat. The Ma'an Arabic report included the language of the terror organizations, while the English was cleansed with changes and omissions, including changes to the language of direct quotes. The differences are striking:

Denial of Israel's right to exist
In English Ma'an accurately reports that the event happened "in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat." But in the original Arabic, Eilat is changed from an Israeli city to a Palestinian city occupied by Israel – reflecting the terrorist assertion that all of Israel is “occupied Palestine.

Ma'an English: "…in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat."
Ma'an Arabic in first reference: "… in Eilat located in the south of occupied Palestine."
Ma'an Arabic in second reference: "…carried out a brave deed and for the first time in occupied Eilat.”

In the English the mother is referred to simply by her name and age: "Ruwaida Siksik, 42."
In Arabic Ma'an adds: " Ruwaida Siksik, 42, whose family originated from the occupied city of Jaffa."

The routine definition in a news story of Jaffa, a part of southern Tel Aviv, as "occupied" and Eilat as "occupied Palestine" is a way to linguistically express denial of Israel's right to exist, and is the terminology used by the terror organizations.

Glorifying suicide terror as Shahada – revered Martyrdom
The act of the suicide bombing is likewise reported differently in the English and the Arabic. The English refers to a "bombing," while the Arabic gives it an idyllic Islamic categorization of an "Amaliyyah Ishtish'hadyyah" - a Shahada-seeking action. This is not merely a positive categorization, but is defining the suicide bombing as an honored Islamic action. The perpetrator is given the status of a Ishtish'hadi- Shahada-seeker, who becomes after his death a Shahid – a revered holy Martyr.

In Arabic:
"She heard the news on Monday morning that he died as a Shahid …
In English:
"Family of Eilat bomber"
In Arabic:
"mother of the Shahada-seeker"

Another interesting difference is that in the Arabic, the brother of the bomber admits to knowing that his brother was leaving on a terror operation. This is omitted from the English version.

2- The second article demonstrating the terror support by Ma'an is its release yesterday about the murder of Erez Levanon, a 42-year-old Israeli musician and father of three children, who was attacked and stabbed to death by two Palestinians while praying in a field.

The Ma'an English:
"Palestinian sources told Ma'an that armed Palestinian men ambushed an Israeli …"

The Ma'an Arabic:
"Palestinian sources told Ma'an that Palestinian resistance men ambushed an Israeli …"

This is not just semantics. In choosing to categorize murder as "resistance," Ma'an is choosing the language used by terror organizations to justify murder.

The following is the chart of the changes in the translation of the suicide bombing story, followed by the visuals of yesterday's story.

Ma’an in English Family of Eilat bomber speak to Ma'an..	Ma’an in Arabic [PMW translation to English] Mother of the Shahada-seeker [Martrydom Seeker - Islamic term of honor for suicide bomber] and his wife speak …
She heard the news on Monday morning that he had blown himself up	She heard the news on Monday morning that he died as a shahid [Islamic term for revered Martyr]
in an unprecedented operation in the southern Israeli resort of Eilat…	in an unprecedented operation in Eilat located in the south of occupied Palestine…
Did his mother, Ruwaida Siksik, 42,	Did his mother, Ruwaida Siksik, 42, whose family originated from the occupied city of Jaffa,
know about her fourth son's intention to operate in Israel?	know about her fourth son's intention to carry out a Shahada – Seeking operation in Israel?
She said: "I knew he wished for Shahada …”	She said: "I knew he wished for Shahada -Seeking and for Shahada…"
On Monday 29th January, the son's identity was reported as being the bomber of Eilat.	On Monday, was reported the death as a Shahid of (her) son, and
The mother prayed that it may send a message to the fighting brothers in Hamas and Fatah, to stop and direct their weapons against the Israeli occupation.	the mother prayed that Allah will receive her son as a Shahid…
She added that she is ready to sacrifice all of her nine sons and daughters for Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque…	She added that she is ready to sacrifice all of her nine sons and daughters for Palestine and Al-Aqsa mosque, and that she will not be stingy with them…
Muhammad's brother, Na'im, 26, said: "What my brother has done is dignifying for all of us…”	Muhammad's brother, Na'im, 26, said: "I knew he was leaving and I wished him that he would achieve Shahada as he wants. When I heard the news about his Shahada-seeking, I prayed for him, that Allah will receive him. What my brother has done is dignifying for all of us…”
Nadia Siksik, wife of the deceased bomber, expressed pride over her husband's operation. She said: “… after what he has done for Palestine, I am proud…"	Nadia Siksik, wife of the Shahada-seeker expressed pride over her husband's operation. She said: “… after I was informed of his d