Yet Another Unpublished Letter-to-the-Editor

Sent on March 3:

In Isabel Kershner's despatch regarding Israel's High Court decision on property ownership in a Jerusalem neighborhood, she wrote "Israel captured the eastern part of the city, including Sheikh Jarrah, from Jordan in the 1967 war, then annexed it" ("Palestinians Threatened With Eviction Can Stay in Their Homes — for Now", March 1).

The term "annexation", as defined in international law, means "the forcible acquisition of territory by one State at the expense of another State". In 1967, the eastern districts of Jerusalem had been illegally occupied by Jordan, which had invaded the city in 1948. Israel but reunited the city, in a defensive war against Jordanian aggression, which, except for those 19 years of Jordanian occupation, had been but one city, not two, for some 3000 years.

Published? 

Naw.

^

Jabotinsky in the New York Times, 1915

I learned from reading a JTA archived news item, while looking from something else entirely (I love researching), that sent me to another source that:

On 2 February 1915, the New York Times headlined an article “Zionist in Peril of Turkish Attack.” The source was “a well-known Moscow journalist” named Vladimir Jabotinski,, whose name would become associated with Revisionist Zionism. Jabotinski reported that there was the “gravest fear” for fifteen thousand Jewish colonists in “Galilee, Judea, Samaria” because the Turks were ‘inciting’ the Arabs to violence.  

I contacted a friend, EOZ, who managed to obtain for me this:

There it is: Jabotinsky in the New York Times, 1915.

^

New York Times Owner/Publisher in Palestine Trip

 It took place in April 1922, Passover time.

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The New York Times Goes Cockamamie

Only in the New York Times would one find such a cockamamie* defense of anti-Semitism

...critics have complained that such a policy could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism++. The definition of anti-Semitism to be used in the order, which matches the one used by the State Department, has been criticized as too open-ended and sweeping.  For instance, it describes as anti-Semitic “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” and offers as an example of such behavior “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

If that isn't wacky enough, this follows:

opponents of the definition fear that it could be used to declare any defense of Palestinian autonomy to be anti-Semitic, with federal education funding as a cudgel.

Autonomy is granted by the sovereign power within its own territory.  By agreement. So campaigning for autonomy cannot be anti-Semitic as all it is is a political arrangement that does not deny Jewish nationality.

I am presuming that radical Jewish anti-Zionists are at work here, supplying the NYT with nonsensical reasoning. I need be careful here as anti-Semitism is actually non-sensical itself which could lead to all sorts of misinterpretations and misrepresentations.

The order, once signed, is to protect Jews and also non-Jews who seek to defend Israel on campuses without being threatened with actual violence, their events shut down, their dorm rooms targeted by fellow students, off-campus activists as well as by their own lecturers and administration officials.


UPDATE

Read Joel Pollock on another NYT cockup in reporting on Donald Trump's Executive Order.

++  What is happening is that free speech and legitimate opposition to Arab terror, incitement, defense of Zionism & Israel, etc. is being stifled by Arabs and their fellow-travelers. That is the horrific situation on campuses and what the EO will combat.

The order, I understand, prohibits discrimination based on "perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics".
In other words, the crime is what the anti-Semite presumes, not necessarily what Jews think of themselves.

SECOND UPDATE

Initial reporting indicated that the order would include language defining Judaism as a “national origin,” setting off a frenzy among major Jewish organizations, activists and lawmakers. The draft text of the order obtained by JI makes no such reference.

Of note: There is no mention of Israel in the text of the executive order draft shared with JI. However, IHRA includes as contemporary examples of antisemitism the accusation of dual loyalty, using symbols associated with antisemitism to characterize Israel or Israelis and “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” IHRA also notes in its working definition that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

______________


*  cockamamie


^

Thank You (Really), New York Times

The New York Times illustrates, inadvertently, Israel security needs for the retention of Judea and Samaria.

In a story in the New York Times on the rape case and the suspect being a resident of Deir Qaddis, this photograph was included

And this is its caption:

The view from Mahmoud Qattousa’s house in Deir Qaddis, with Tel Aviv in the background.Samar Hazboun for The New York Times 

Let's do that again, with an arrow pointing to Tel Aviv in the background:

Buildings easily seen and identified.  Layed out as if on the palm of your hand.

And where is Deir Qaddis on a map?

Thank you New York Times for providing an illustration, a stark one, of Israel's security needs.

An independent Arab state of Palestine poses a unique and real security threat.

It's as clear as a photograph in the New York Times.

^

New York Times An Agent for Peace Now's Obfuscation

Obfuscation, we all should know, is

the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language

or making

something less clear and harder to understand, especially intentionally

Here is from the website of Americans for Peace Now

The headline's exact wording:

In West Bank, 99.7% of Public Land Grants by Israel Go to Settlers

 Here's a comment of mine at Twitter:

How much of 100% is Area A & B? Area C under full Israeli administration is only 60% of JS/WB & within that are Arab villages.Well, maybe it is confusing for some.

Another:

Another point to the story:"Israel has marked out hundreds of thousands of acres as public land".No. State land status existed since at least 1858 & 1873 Ottoman laws. Israel just confirms that. And "state" means "government", not State of Israel". A bit confusing for sure.

Added:

How much state land was awarded to Jews 

during 1948-1967?

From Lenny Ben-David. 

 I asked the reporter:

You quote in your story Shawan Jabarin. Is he the same Jabarin who was convicted for PFLP activities some years ago?

And, of course, the Mandate's Article 6 is not included (nor a response from a Yesha Council figure and if they refused, that should have been noted):

The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.

You've been obfuscated by the New York Times in league with Peace Now.

And an Arab former terrorist.

__________

Elie Pieprz tweets:

No attempt to get response from @odedrevivi or the federal gvt No context of Area A & B under complete PA municipal control 88% of residents are Pal? Really? There are 3.6M Pals in WB?No context of Area A & B under complete PA municipal control88% of residents are Pal? Really? There are 3.6M Pals in WB?

Another.

__________

Received regarding the population stats therein:

the PA always insists on the largest possible figure for the settler population, and OCHA only managed to scrape together a Palestinian population of less than 300,000 for area C by including Palestinian residents of A and B whose municipalities cross over in any part with area C. (Of those, only 67,102 live in municipalities that are entirely in area C, while most live in municipalities whose land is majority areas A/B). The EU estimate of settler population last year was 399,000.
 If you cut the settler population in half, or doubled the Palestinian population of area C, Palestinians would still be in the minority.

^

Hamas, NYT's Mark Thompson and Twitter

The New York Times' CEO Mark Thompson (who, incidentally, was a guest at my home in Shiloh for a long discussion) spoke at a June 12 event sponsored by New America’s Open Markets Institute and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and addressed a new development in the media which is tech companies closely trusting algorithms to help determine which news stories are fraudulent or misleading. 

One example he provided was indicative.

As he said:

But with some examples of apparent censorship, it’s not clear if the removal or restriction of content is due to human moderators or the automated algorithms.Twitter recently blocked a user who posted harsh criticism of Hamas, the militant and political Islamist organization regarded by much of the international community as a terrorist group. The social media company told The Daily Caller News Foundation it was an “error,” but wouldn’t clarify if the mistake was directly human, or indirectly human-induced through the way of the “hateful conduct” detection algorithm.

What the real problem in this instance, I hope, is not that the person who tweeted the criticism was reinstated, or even the original blockage even though Thompson makes the false case that Hamas is rally two organizational entities, one non-terror and the other a social welfare agency.

The real problem is that, well, Hamas itself is on Twitter, openly.

Its TV station AlQuds. 

A second TV station.

Its newspaper.

A front news agency.

Izzat Risheq is on Twitter and he's a senior Hamas leader.

Mosa Abumarzook has a Twitter account and he is a senior member of Hamas.

I could on and on.  They recruit through social media outlets.  And they punish independent-thinking Gaza social media activists.

The AlQassam Brigades had their account suspended, though.

So the real problem is why does a terror group and its members get a Twitter account?

It's not a new question.

Twitter?

^

Another Letter That Was Not Published

On April 18th, I submitted this letter to the New York Times:

Ayman Oudeh, member of Israel's Knesset, writes that "Seventy years ago, the world changed" for his family ("Israel Celebrates Its Independence, We Mourn Our Loss", April 18). Nowhere in that article can one learn why that happened.  

Could it have been caused when the Arabs of Mandate Palestine, following their violent terror campaign against any Jewish national revival in their historic national homeland since 1920, rejected the UN-proposed partition plan of November 29, 1947 which the Zionists accepted? And then, on the morrow of that UN vote, initiated a war to eradicate the Jewish community? A war they lost? A war in which they inflicted heavy casualties and loss of Jewish communities and the ethnic cleansing of parts of the Mandate territory?

It was not published.

This one, from November 10, 2004 was:

To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman writes that if Yasir Arafat had "ever adopted the nonviolence of Gandhi," he would have had his Palestinian state -- "Israel's reckless settlements notwithstanding" ("Footprints in the Sand," column, Nov. 7). Mr. Friedman places the cart before the horse.

Yasir Arafat adopted the path of terror and violence years before any Jewish community had been built in the disputed territories, indeed, years before those territories came under Israeli administration in 1967.

Yisrael Medad Shiloh, West Bank, Nov. 8, 2004

 And I have been quoted:

Yisrael Medad, a spokesman for the Yesha Council, the body that represents settlers, urged Mr. Olmert to focus initially on social issues, rather than push an evacuation plan that is certain to face resistance and create division among Israelis.

"We should say to Olmert: hold off for two years, fix up the economic and social problems, and then let's see where we are," said Mr. Medad, who lives in Shiloh, a settlement that is also beyond the separation barrier. "If you start to move against the communities here, you will get demonstrations and protests."            

And more than once as on July 20, 2006:

“We’ve given over territory so our Arab enemies can now hit Haifa,” said Yisrael Medad, a spokesman for the Yesha Council, the main group representing settlers. “To put them even closer, where they could literally hit us by spitting over the fence, would be crazy.” [think Gaza and it's Great Return March - YM]

“Unilateral moves will never work,” he added, “because if you don’t have a mechanism in place to maintain security, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will simply say, ‘We don’t have an agreement with you, and we will do what we like.’ ” [which they have done after the disengagement - YM]

 Maybe, just perhaps, my opinions and analysis are just not what the NYT wants to be read?

^

Being Religious and a NYT Letter to the Editor

I delayed responding to this letter of Leon as, to be honest, I couldn't find a reference to him on social media outlets which, for me, is a sign that a person doesn't exist.  It was the spelling, which he informs me " I have it spelled differently [Karyem] on Facebook. The Times has it how I write it in person."

But he found me.  And now to his letter in the New York Times:

Re “Israeli Wants to Name Train Station for Trump” (news article, Dec. 28):

Rarely have my religious sensibilities been so offended as they were by the Israeli transportation minister’s plan to name a new train station in the Jewish Quarter, near the Western Wall, after Donald Trump. Mr. Trump has made a political career out of closing America’s doors to the widow, the orphan and the stranger. He ran a campaign vilifying religious minorities, but as president referred to those marching alongside neo-Nazis in a Charlottesville, Va., rally last summer as “very fine people.”

As a Zionist and a current Jerusalem resident, I appreciate the president’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over its capital. But that does not mitigate the profanity of slapping his name on this sacred site.

The Western Wall is not a casino, and it is a desecration to associate the Temple Mount with that gilded, tacky brand that has already brought one great nation so low.

LEON KRAIEM, JERUSALEM

Leon is studying at a rabbinical seminary, and it is the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He had wanted to vote for moderate progressive New York candidate for mayor Sal Albanese, who was endorsed by the...Jewish Press! I hope he is one that Daniel Gordis would not be wary of, as a rabbinical student, or a member of Conservative Judaism.

And to Leon's letter.

First of all, congratulations on being published. I have had letters published there but my batting average is quite low.  But that is not because of my writing ability but because of my opinions.  So, Leon, take that into consideration.  If you had written in support of the naming of a train station after Trump, I'd bet you wouldn't have gotten in (there was no pro-letter, was there?).

Second, good vocabulary: sensibilities, offended the widow, the orphan and the stranger, vilifying, mitigate the profanity of slapping his name, gilded, tacky.  Good future sermon potential.

Third, writing, though, that you are "a current Jerusalem resident" is a bit of a sleight-of-hand. Really now. You were passing along a misrepresentation of your Jerusalem status? Are you earning a living here? Are you making Aliyah? Why not write "currently a rabbinical student on a year's (two years?) program"? 

Four, why at all should your religious sensibilities be offended?  What has a train station to do with religion?  It has to do with Trump's declaration regarding Jerusalem:

...today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.  This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality.  It is also the right thing to do.  It’s something that has to be done.

If your religious sensibilities were offended it should have been this part of his words:

a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall...In the meantime, I call on all parties to maintain the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites, including the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif.

Why cannot Jews pray on the Temple Mount, which is a religious act and some think an obligation?  If you demur, I would point out that that is probably because of a political outlook. You do know that there's a Conservative psak on the matter permitting entrance (although Reuven Hammer, supporting entrance, disagrees as to actual Jewish prayer)?  The law of Israel is on the side of those who seek freedom of religion although the High Court of Justice discriminates against Jews in this matter. Even the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty lends support to this request (Article 9).

Fifth, is it "profanity" in naming a train station after President Trump?  Truly? Of course, if it is Trump himself that bothers you, rather than naming the station after a person, a non-Jew, then we are left with a political dispute.  But is it proper for you to disagree, in the name of "a Jerusalem resident", "Jerusalem, Israel", as if you are now representing 800,00+ Jerusalemites and millions of Israelis, without a smidgen of veracity or authority, to that act? That the NYTimes can wave you about, albeit in the letters section? After all, you must know how they would exploit that letter.

I cannot argue on the grounds of whether Minister Katz made to correct decision.  We do have a King George V Avenue - and he didn't do a thing.  He happened to be king when the Balfour Declaration was made.  There is French Hill, after a Colonel French or perhaps French nuns.

But if it is the proximity to Jewish holy sites that sets you off, you do know this, yes?

R. Johanan said: Why did Omri merit sovereignty? Because he added a region to Eretz-Yisrael, as it is written, And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill Samaria,[I Kings 16:24]  R. Johanan said: Why did Ahab merit royalty for twenty-two years? — Because he honoured the Torah, which was given in twenty-two letters...R. Judah says: Manasheh has a portion therein..."because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah" [Jeremiah 15:4], One Master  maintains, 'Because of Manasseh' who repented..."

So, from a religious, or theological Rabbinic standpoint, Trump should be thought of having some positive merit - at least as regards the train station being named after him: he made a major contribution to Israel's sovereignty and the raising up of the worth of the Land of Israel, the Jewish national home; he gave honor to the Jewish connection to Israel and Jerusalem and he still can yet repent.

In other words, you not only were interfering but your religiosity, as regards your political viewpoint is questionable, at the least.  As to the matter of your Jerusalem residency, well, maybe you will stay and not go back to the lands of Dispersion and Exile but will be a good religious Jew and stay.  And use the train.

^

Today's NYTimes English Instruction Lesson

New York Times' Isabel Kershner reports:

three men armed with guns and knives attacked Israeli police officers early Friday in the vicinity of what Jews call the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, Jerusalem’s holiest site for both faiths and an emotional and volatile focal point of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Well, actually Christians know the site as the Temple Mount as well.  There was no mosque there or any Islamic structure until over 600 years after the Second Temple was destroyed. Jesus visited the Temple, not some Muslim Sanctuary.

Why not simply write - instead of injecting in a straightforward news item a NYT's semantic bias - this: 

"in the vicinity of the Temple Mount also called the Haram A-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary)"?

Or this

"in the vicinity of the Temple Mount also known to the Muslims as Bayt Al-Maqdas [House of the Temple], which they call the Haram A-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary)"?

^

When the Mufti Had a NYTimes Problem

Who ever said the New York Times was always pro-Arab?

Jerusalem Grand Mufti Makes Sensational Attack on American Press
Jerusalem (Oct. 16)

The Arab newspaper “Felestin,” controlled by the Jerusalem Grand Mufti, made a sensational onslaught on American newspapers yesterday, singling out the “New York Times.” The paper asked: “Is there no honesty in the American press?”

The Mufti denied interviews with Joseph Levy, “New York Times” correspondent, Ketchum of the “London Daily Express,” and Pierre Van Paassen, representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The Mufti charges misrepresentation and distortion, but makes no specific references. Of his interview with Mr. Van Paassen, the Mufti wrote in the English edition of the “Felestin” that it was merely an informal talk.

Mr. Van Paassen stated before his departure that when he called on the Mufti for the interview, the head of the Moslem Supreme Council offered him inducements, including women, if he would take the Mufti’s side and color the news according to his personal views and ambitions.

^

Truth? In the New York Times? (Multiple Updated Version)

Read this.

And this.

And this.

And read Netanyahu's remarks below.

All on the New York Times publishing an op-ed by a terrorist murderer without identifying him as such.

P.S.

Nothing new, really.

In 2007 Hamas also had an op-ed published.


By a "political advisor".

Note:

Speaking to Army Radio, Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren called the opinion piece a "journalistic terror attack." The former ambassador to the U.S. said that Israel should consider action against the New York Times for publishing something "full of lies," especially if it turns out the paper helped Barghouti smuggle his article out of prison.

_______________________

And now this:

And also read Public Editor's remarks:

I asked Jim Dao, editor of the Op-Ed pages, about the decision not to include Barghouti’s crimes.Dao noted that the piece does say the author received multiple life sentences but he acknowledged that it doesn’t state the crimes for which he was convicted. “We are drafting an editors’ note that will provide that information,” he said.
...This isn’t a new issue for the Opinion section. I have written before on the need to more fully identify the biography and credentials of authors, especially details that help people make judgments about the opinions they’re reading. Do the authors of the pieces have any conflicts of interest that could challenge their credibility? Are they who they say they are, and can editors vouch for their fidelity?

I see no reason to skimp on this, while failing to do so risks the credibility of the author and the Op-Ed pages.

In this case, I’m pleased to see the editors responding to the complaints, and moving to correct the issue rather than resist it. Hopefully, it’s a sign that fuller disclosure will become regular practice.

_______________________________________

And just now:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (18 April 2017), at Maimouna festivities in Dimona, made the following remarks: "I read, on Sunday, the article in the New York Times that presents arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti as a 'parliamentarian and leader'. The paper recanted after we pointed it out to them. Calling Barghouti a 'political leader' is like calling Assad a 'pediatrician.' They are murderers and terrorists. We will never lose our sense of clarity because we are on the side of justice and they are on the side that is neither just nor moral. This moral clarity, the readiness to defend our country, the readiness to fight those who would destroy us, is one of our greatest strengths, alongside love of Israel. Love of Israel is expressed in this abundance, this beauty and this heat. We will continue to develop our country and we will continue to safeguard it.

^

Wondering About NYTimes Terminology

I wondered after reading this in the New York Times:

“Altogether, we are moving on a very good vector. We are close to half a million people in Judea and Samaria,” said Shilo Adler, the head of the Yesha Council advocacy group, using biblical names for the West Bank."

if, when the NYT quotes someone who says "in the West Bank", it will add

"using the 1950 terminology of Jordan when it illegally annexed the region"

^

The NYTimes Terms It "Quietly"

First, local patriotism:

The outposts are strategically located alongside more than 120 settlements that were formally approved by Israel, and are home to a fraction of the West Bank’s 350,000 Jewish settlers.

One group stretches east of Shilo, like beads on a chain: Shvut Rahel, Adei Ad, Ahiya, Kida, Esh Kodesh. These outposts command the hilltops between Palestinian villages like Qusra, Jalud, Al-Mughayyer and Duma, the scene of last year’s deadly arson attack in which one young Israeli has been charged with murder and another with conspiracy.

Rabbah Hazameh, a Palestinian whose family owns olive orchards and agricultural fields in the area, said that settlers prevented him and his relatives from working their land close to Adei Ad, and that trees had been damaged and poisoned [untrue]. He said that his uncle had submitted 86 complaints to the Israeli police over the years, but “nothing happened.” [Jewish trees were damaged and cut down]

While most of the world considers all of these settlements a violation of international law, Israel itself makes distinctions, including whether they sit on privately owned Palestinian land and whether they had government approval for construction.

Now, back to the main theme via the story's headline:

Israel Quietly Legalizes Pirate

Outposts in the West Bank

Quietly?

Oh, come on.

It's been in the media for months and more.

Earlier this month.

In July in Haaretz (how could she have missed that?).

June.

In March, Mondoweiss published a Yesh Din report on 'kosherization' which was published in February.

In August 2015, even the UN discussed it (see Section B).

In April 2015, sixteen months ago, we all read this at the +972 website:

In 2011 there was a change in the State’s position, when it told the courts that intends to pursue a course of partial enforcement. It would remove outposts built on private land, but will examine the possibility of legalizing those built on public land (which it prefers to call “state land” in order to create the impression that it owns them).
But this position also changed. In 2012, the government ordered the formation of the Levi Commission. It ruled that the outposts should be legalized, while rejecting the Partition Decision of 1947 and returning to the Balfour Declaration.

Quietly? Like in a conspiracy? Secretively?

In Israel?!

NYT, what were you thinking?

___________

UPDATE

^

On Ruth Margalit's NYT Op-ed

In addition to our column (here) reacting to Ruth Margalit's hit-piece on Netanyahu, read:

ElderofZion

Liel Lebovitz

Ira Stoll

This letter:

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Spokesman, on Press Freedom in Israel

AUG. 1, 2016

To the Editor:

Ruth Margalit’s argument that Israel’s prime minister is taking control of the press (“How Netanyahu Is Crushing Israel’s Free Press,” Sunday Review, July 31) is absurd. Anyone who spends a day in Israel knows that the Israeli press does not pull any punches when it comes to the prime minister, and this is not about to change.

Ms. Margalit’s attack obscures the real story: A longstanding media monopoly in Israel with one-sided views seeks to shut out alternative voices by stifling market competition that would give choices to viewers and readers.

The introduction of the newspaper Israel Today broke this enduring monopoly in the print media and gave Israelis the same choice that readers have in other democracies.

Broadcast journalism reform in Israel remains well behind print. Israel has just two main television channels — and both espouse similar editorial views. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to introduce to the broadcast market the same reform that he introduced into other sectors of Israel’s economy with spectacular results: competition, the very opposite of control.

The opening of the media market is one of the healthiest things for Israeli democracy. Israelis should be able to vote with their remotes — just as Americans do.

DAVID KEYES
Jerusalem

The writer is a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu.

Another letter in the NYTimes:

Israel and Free Press Debated

AUG. 8, 2016

To the Editor:

Ruth Margalit’s Israel where the media is being “crushed” is simply one I don’t recognize (“Netanyahu crushed Israel’s free press,” Opinion, Aug. 1).

The day after her piece appeared, the left-wing daily Haaretz published a column by Gideon Levy entitled “Stop Living in Denial, Israel Is an Evil State.” Far from fearing a knock at the door in the middle of the night, Levy is one of the paper’s star columnists, and is translated into English for a global audience.

Margalit also dramatically overstates what she calls “the outsize influence” of the free newspaper Israel Hayom, owned by Sheldon Adelson. Circulation figures show that the paper has a 40 percent market share, but it’s very closely followed by Yediot Ahronot at 35 percent, which she admits has taken a “decidedly anti-Netanyahu line.” Left also unmentioned are the numerous other newspapers, radio stations and news websites, in Hebrew, Arabic and English, offering a multiplicity of views in Israel’s hotly contested public space.

Finally, Margalit undermines her own argument by quoting the popular host of a “60 Minutes”-style investigative program, who says that despite any pressure or attacks from the government: “Israeli media remains very critical, very aggressive ... It’s a kind of basic instinct that’s part of our DNA.”

That’s the true picture of Israel’s press.

GAVIN GROSS
Jerusalem

^

Not The Muslim, Not Even The Knife

What killed the French priest today?

Not the Muslim, not even the knife:-

According to the New York Times, it was the "attack".

By the way, "attack" has 6 letters.

"Muslim" also has 6 letters.

More than enough room.

_____________

(Sarcastic) UPDATE

^

An Example of the New York Times' Subtle Bias

This New York Times story on a debate in Israel over the role of ‘People’s Army’ (pssst, Israel seems to be the only liberal democratic country whose cultured and educated elites, the media, the academia and the literati are pushing for a military coup in the name of ... democracy and liberalism) also carries a pic with the caption:

"Israeli girls at a traditional weapons display near a West Bank settlement on Israel’s Independence Day."

Here:

Those displays are done all over the country at an "Open Day" at army bases. This one happened to be in the "West Bank" but the implication of fascist militarization is imparted..

That's an example of the NYT's subtle anti-Israel bias.

P.S. A major player on media anti-Israel bias thinks:

"I don't see this as actionable."

Honest Reporting had another take.

^