7/29 Links Part 2: Guardian Whitewashes The Ethnic cleansing of Jews, The PA's “radio terrorism"

From Ian:

---

The Guardian AGAIN whitewashes the ethnic cleansing of Jews

But, not only does Sherwood suggest, without evidence, an Israeli attempt to purge the city of Palestinians, but when in the course of her narrative there’s an opportunity to provide balance and context, and detail the expulsion of Jews from eastern Jerusalem in 1948, the Guardian reporter merely writes the following:

at the end of the war following the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, Jerusalem was divided, with the Old City on the Jordanian-controlled eastern side of the armistice line, known as the Green Line. The Jewish population within the ancient stone walls sank to zero.

Why the Jewish population “within the ancient stone walls” magically “sank to zero”, she of course doesn’t say.
Readers aren’t told that on May 28, 1948 the Jewish Quarter of the Old City fell to the Arab Legion and upon its capture Jews were expelled from eastern Jerusalem and barred from returning, or even visiting Jewish holy places – and that the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was all but destroyed.

BBC downplays Palestinian terrorists’ crimes yet again

The BBC is apparently afraid to tell its audiences the truth about these men. It whitewashes their crimes with euphemisms such as “militant attacks”, never mentioning their victims or details of their crimes and never informing its audiences of the effect that their release will have upon family members of those victims.
Clearly, to tell BBC audiences the accurate and impartial truth about these terrorists and the full meaning of their release would undermine the existing narrative on the subject of the Arab-Israeli conflict which the BBC has long gone out of its way to promote.

Majority of missile fire from Gaza Strip ignored by BBC

In other words, the majority of missile attacks targeting Israeli civilians continue to be ignored by the BBC, as was the case in the months before Operation Pillar of Cloud. It is of course difficult to imagine such patchy BBC reporting were those missiles directed at British citizens.
If and when Israel is forced to respond to the renewed attacks, BBC audiences will yet again lack the background information which would enable them to put the news into context.

Officials: If PA Doesn't Act, IDF Will Close Down Radio Stations

Israel threatened on Sunday to take military action if needed to protect its skies from PA “radio terrorism.” In a statement, the Communications Ministry said that it “took a very dim view” of the PA's attempts to wreck Israeli aviation at Ben Gurion Airport by not closing down illegal radio stations. The Ministry has filed an official complaint with the PA.
On Sunday, officials at Ben Gurion Airport said that they had experienced significant interference in communications with incoming planes, to the extent that some landings would have been dangerous had weather conditions been less stable. If such interruptions occur again, the officials said, they would have to shut down the airport, preventing planes from landing or taking off.

Egypt’s dilemma

Today Egypt has two major political and economic actors who are well organized but inexperienced at operating within democratic structures. On the one side there is the secular army and on the other the Muslim Brotherhood. Between these two extremes is the popular majority of moderate Egyptians who simply want political freedom and equal economic opportunities. This majority is well connected through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, useful social networks for organizing protests. But these online social networks have been unable to build a viable platform with political vision and leadership that can receive a mandate from the people and command real political power. Until that happens, Egypt’s future remains fragile.

Attack on Minya churches repelled by residents, security forces

Muslim youth and security forces protected Al-Azraa and Anba Ebram churches from attacks by alleged Morsi supporters in Minya on Saturday, spokesperson of the archbishop of Mawas monastery Amgad Ezzat has told state-owned MENA agency.
“They threw molotov cocktails at Al-Azraa and Anba Ebram churches but were not able to break in as nearby Muslims and Christians were securing the churches,” said Ishak Ibrahim, researcher at Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). He added that the protesters tried to storm in El-Eslah church but were prevented. “However, both El-Eslah church and an annex of the Catholic church were raided before, on 3 July,” he said.

The Region: How the Syrian civil war really affects Israel

Finally, Syria has done something momentous in regional terms. It has broken the myth of the “Israel card” or “linkage.”
You can still argue that an Arab ruler can make political capital by blaming Israel, or that solving the Arab-Israeli or Israel-Palestinian conflict will fix everything in the region, but no one in the region will take you seriously. No one, that is, except US Secretary of State John Kerry on his frequent, short but useless junkets.

One-upping EU, Gulf states blacklist all of Hezbollah

Six days after the European Union placed Hezbollah’s military wing on its list of terror organizations while leaving cooperation with the party’s political branch unaffected, a union of six Arab Gulf states has begun officially blacklisting all of Hezbollah.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic umbrella organization encompassing Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, has begun implementing a decision adopted by its foreign ministers on June 2 to place financial and security restrictions on Hezbollah, “making no distinction whatsoever between its military and political arms,” the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday.

Turkish Airlines investigated for alleged tax fraud in Israel

Turkish Airlines' Israeli office is currently being investigated for alleged tax evasion amounting to over 1.5 million shekels ($418,000), a statement by the Justice Ministry said Monday.
According to the statement, the Tel Aviv District Prosecution's Taxes and Economics Department is considering pressing criminal charges against the company as well as the head of its local office, Fatih Dogan, for failing to meet Israel's Tax Authority guidelines for foreign companies operating in Israel. The decision is pending a hearing before the head of the Taxes and Economics Department, attorney Mina Zamir.

NGO Monitor: How many Palestinians received medical care in Israel in 2012?

Almost 220,000 patients and their companions.
Political medical NGOs who condemn Israel are guilty of moral and informational malpractice. See NGO Monitor's monograph, NGO Malpractice – The Political Abuse of Medicine, Morality, and Science

IDF Blog: From the NYT Best-Seller List to the IDF

Best-selling American author and entrepreneur Harvey Mackay recently visited the IDF Home Front Command, where he discussed the importance of the IDF’s objectives, training and life-saving missions abroad, in an exclusive interview.

Cancer patient thanks Birthright for saving his life

"As far as I'm concerned, I received a gift in being able to participate in Taglit Birthright and now I am paying that gift forward," said 23-year-old Matthew Putterman from Houston, Texas after donating bone marrow to Michael Wiesner, a 65-year-old Jewish man from New Jersey, saving his life.
The two met for the first time on stage at a Taglit Birthright event held Wednesday evening. Participants of the program, which brings young Jews to Israel, are asked to give a blood sample to the Gift Of Life Jewish bone marrow database.

Max Brenner on US top milkshake list

The milkshake of Max Brenner, a restaurant chain owned by Israel's Strauss company, has been chosen as one of the best of its kind in America.
The chain has four restaurants and chocolate bars in the United States: In New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Las Vegas. Its fifth branch is expected to open next month in Bethesda, Maryland.
The USA Today daily has ranked the shake served at the company's New York restaurant as one of America's top 10 milkshakes.
The newspaper conducted a special examination of the popular ice cream drink, selecting 15 restaurants which serve the best milkshakes in the US. Getting "chocolate by the bald man" (Max Brenner's logo) was defined in the article as a New York experience.