Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Blaming the victims: The New York Times' sick coverage

I had not realized how truly sick the New York Times' coverage of the terror attack was. In the very first paragraph:

The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations.

The New York Times is agreeing with Hamas - Jews living on their historic homeland are the main evil in the Middle East, and this terror attack highlights the "disruptive role" of their communities.

The terror attack itself is not disruptive. Hell, that's expected. If only those uppity Jews would give in to Hamas' reasonable demands to leave or get slaughtered, then peace would reign.

Also, the New York Times highlights the victims as 'settlers' in the first sentence - not Israelis, not civilians, not travelers. No, the NYT defines them in terms of their pejorative term for proud Jews who exercise their free will and choose to live in a place that has the most spiritual meaning for them.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “atrocious murder,” which Israeli officials said seemed calculated by Hamas to upset the negotiations, which it virulently opposes. ...

The Palestinian Authority also condemned the attacks.... A Palestinian spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the attack by Hamas, the authority’s rival, underlined “the need to proceed quickly toward a just and lasting peace agreement,” which he said would “put an end to these acts.”

The article equates Netanyahu's clear and unequivocal condemnation of an utterly immoral act with the PA's formulaic and passionless statement that is entirely meant to soothe Western sensibilities and get useful idiots New York Times reporters to believe them without the least bit of skepticism.

It also quotes, without irony, the completely inane idea that a peace agreement - that Hamas and practically every other Palestinian Arab political and militant group adamantly opposes - would stop terror attacks.

Even before the attack, settlements were looming as a potential deal-breaker in the peace process.

The NYT underscores its sickening point from the first paragraph that this terror attack was a reasonable response to evil settlements. Nowhere does the Times characterize terrorism as an obstacle topeace, only the settlements. In this way, the paper has completely co-opted the false Arab narrative as its own.

Mr. Netanyahu has steadfastly refused to commit to extending a partial moratorium on construction in the West Bank, which expires Sept. 26, while Mr. Abbas has said it will be very hard to keep talking if construction resumes.

Yet the New York Times doesn't bother mentioning that the freeze started last December, and for all that time Abbas refused to negotiate. Instead, it ignores Palestinian Arab intransigence and takes for granted that the temporary freeze must become permanent, forcing tens of thousands of people to not be able to add a bathroom to their houses. Because that's the real obstacle to peace, not execution-style shootings of pregnant women.

A senior Israeli official said that the West Bank attack, the deadliest on Israeli citizens in more than two years, would inevitably heighten the emphasis on Israel’s security in the negotiations. But Palestinian officials noted that the attack took place in an area of the West Bank that is under full Israeli security control, and where the Palestinian security forces have no responsibility and are not allowed to operate.

OK, thought experiment. Let's say that Israel kept up the roadblocks and checkpoints that were there a couple of years ago, and this had prevented the terror attack. Would the Times have praised Israel for its effective defense, or blamed Israel for its stifling checkpoints?

In this case, the "But" indicates that the reporters are more inclined to say that Israel's lack of checkpoints means that Israel is to blame. No matter that the terrorists are, right now, safe inside Palestinian Arab territory.

The victims came from Beit Hagai, a small settlement in the hills south of Hebron, an area known for particularly militant settlers.

Meaning? That Talya Imas deserved to die? Does Hamas distinguish between the "particularly militant" Jews who live in the area and the ones who aren't? This is a very, very sick attempt to justify the attack.

Finally, in a gratuitous paragraph that seems to have no reason to exist except to vilify Israel's right wing, the Times report end with:

The stop-and-go Israeli-Palestinian peace process has often taken place in the shadow of bloody attacks. Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who led the Oslo peace process in the early and mid-1990s, said his philosophy was “to fight terror as if there were no negotiations and conduct the negotiations as if there was no terror.” Mr. Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli right-wing extremist in 1995.

The New York Times is saying, pretty clearly, that the only people who must be stopped are Israeli right-wingers. Hamas terror isn't even an issue or an impediment to peace - it's a mere symptom of the awful conditions placed on Palestinian Arabs by Israel's right wing.

This article is, frankly, Palestinian Arab propaganda. It exactly mirrors Palestinian Arab talking points and does not even imply that terrorism (or Israel's concomitant desire for security) is an issue at all. On the heels of the NYT giving a platform to a person who glorifies the "intifada," it shows how the Newspaper of Record has become a simple mouthpiece for Palestinian Arabs whose only problem with terror attacks is that they cause bad PR.

UPDATE: More NYT bias

What Israel should do

The victims of the terror attack last night were residents of Beit Haggai. Beit Haggai gets its name from the initials of three victims of a previous terror attack (Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman.)

This history points to what would undoubtedly be the best reaction to any terror attack.

Israel should immediately announce a new town in the West Bank to be built in the memory of Yitzchak and Talya Imas, Kokhava Even-Chaim and Avishai Shindler.

It can be built in an area that "everyone knows" would be part of Israel in the event of an agreement. It can even be a new neighborhood in an existing settlement, within the existing boundaries that had been "frozen." But the important thing is that it should be done automatically and irrevocably in reaction to every terror attack.

If the terrorists know that their attacks have the direct effect of strengthening Israel's hold on the disputed land, there would be a backlash against the attacks that is much greater than the lukewarm "condemnations" that most Palestinian Arabs do not subscribe to.

The "settlement freeze" did not make the PA the least bit more flexible - on the contrary, it caused them to become far more intransigent. For nearly ten months during the freeze itself, Abbas dug in his heels and stubbornly refused to even talk. The "goodwill gesture" made Abbas even less interested in peace than he was before. Only serious pressure by the US managed to get him to the negotiating table.

Israeli concessions do not make the Palestinian Arabs more flexible. It makes them demand more. Only pressure makes them act towards peace.

And nothing would pressure them more than the knowledge that their intransigence is counterproductive to their purported cause.

Things are not too bad for Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank. Abbas said so himself. "[I]n the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life." It sure doesn't sound like a state is his highest priority, rather it is to kick Jews out of their homes.

Peace will never occur unless the Arabs feel they have something to lose by its absence. The freeze has taken that incentive away. Time to unfreeze the building, and the place to begin is with a new settlement in the name of the terror victims.

The importance of shaming Hamas (Zvi)

From Zvi:

If you consider the honor/shame obsession that evidently runs rampant among many of Hamas' supporters, and Hamas' need to remain a menacing shadow in order to keep their own people enslaved, then insulting the honor and courage of terrorists who butchered a pregnant woman is a very sensible thing to do.

Terrorists try to make themselves seem like heroes in the Arab world by causing fear and anger among Israeli civilians. They positively salivate when competent Israeli generals and ministers and foreign leaders notice them and call them a threat or a military force, and their sponsor states and supporters crow about their supposed "achievements" and "great operations."

But they can't stand humiliation. They, and their foreign sponsors (Assad, Khamenei, Muslim Brotherhood) have an obsessive need to be threatening, a menace. Why is this?

These terrorists, and the people who support them, have a secret fear. They are terrified that the world will realize that they are simply pathetic, whinging, bullying losers.

These are the kind of losers who ambush a car containing an unarmed father, mother and hitchikers. They slaughter these four helpless civilians, evidently indulging in blood-drunkedness. And their so-called "military leaders" and their so-called "political leadership" jump up and down with excitement as they claim "credit" for murdering a pregnant woman. Because that is exactly the kind of emotionally dysfunctional, worthless cannon fodder that they are.

They are the kind of losers who attack a hotel or blow up a pizza restaurant. I mean, a pizza restaurant. Such amazing heroism! Such a "military" operation!

The reason that these losers pretend that they think that killing unarmed civilians is a brilliant military success is because they are simply emasculated gutter trash armed with guns and explosives. They can murder civilians, but they are worthless when it comes to doing anything useful in society. They are a historic dead end, a bunch of mercenary traitors to their own people, in the pay of foreign dictators. They are supported by a bunch of ignorant losers whose sense of morals and humanity is as stunted as their own.

Those who support and perpetrate terrorism are worthless cowards, but they don't want to be recognized as such.

Call them on it.

I would add that the job of shaming Hamas should properly go to the so-called "moderate" Arab world, where it could get some traction among the Arabs who really are sickened by these sorts of attacks but fear saying so out loud.

However, if even Abbas and Fayyad cannot find it in themselves to denounce the terror attacks in terms of morality, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that they secretly admire Hamas as well and their "condemnations" are purely for Western consumption. Indeed, the West reports these fake condemnations as if they are on par with the condemnations from Israel, the US and the EU, all of which describe the attack in terms that reflect its horror and depravity.

Shaming the terrorists is the best and most effective strategy to get them to stop. We have seen this happen before, when Hamas was shamed by no less than Al Qaeda's second in command for attacking civilians. Hamas responded, incongruously, that they do not intend to kill women and children.

This proves that Hamas would be embarrassed if the Arab world shames them. The problem is that the Arab street, by and large, applauds them and therefore strengthens them instead.

The problem is far deeper than just Hamas.

Hamas distributes candy to celebrate heroic murder of pregnant woman (updated)

The New York Times briefly mentions:

In the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, hundreds of Hamas supporters took to the streets after the evening prayer to celebrate the news of the attack, urged on by the calls of an imam over the loudspeaker even before Hamas had officially said it was behind the killings.

This is a gross understatement of the ecstasy that has accompanied the news that Hamas managed to kill four unarmed civilians, two of them women.

The Hamas-affiliated Palestine Times goes into detail.

Thousands of supporters of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas on Tuesday night participated in a massive march called for by the movement to celebrate the heroic operation carried out by the Mujahideen of al-Qassam Brigades in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, which killed four Zionist settlers.

The rally began after Taraweeh prayers, directly in front of the mosque in the camp in the northern Gaza Strip, with people chanting slogans in support of the resistance and the Qassam Brigades and slogans demanding more quality operations and to respond to the continued Zionist escalation against the holy sites and the Palestinian people.

The participants in the rally prostrated to thank God for the success of the Qassam Brigades and distributed sweets in celebration of the guerrilla operation.

Lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said in the speech during the march: "The heroic Hebron operation came as a natural reaction on the launch of direct negotiations, and the operation was a response to the continued coordination Israeli-Palestinian security and that this was the Qassam Brigades' and Hamas' response to stop the negotiations through this process, a message to both Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. "

Al-Masri added, "At a time when Abbas and Barak were sitting in Jordan, the al-Qassam Brigades wee sitting down with the settlers, but on their own [terms]."

Hamas consistently jeered Abbas' and Fayyad's pseudo-condemnations of the terror attack.

Another article describes how the writer went to multiple rallies to celebrate this attack, which Hamas entitled "torrent of fire," and described how proud he was and how candy was being distributed.

Yet another article takes the form of a prayer of thanks that such an operation, appropriately timed in Ramadan, was successful and that God should save Muslims from any counterattack.

(Update: Reuters photo added, hotlinked from Boker Tov Boulder)

Yitzchak and Talya Imas were the parents of six children, the eldest one being 24 years old and the youngest one being a year and a half old. Talya Imas was nine months' pregnant when she was killed by the terrorists.

They will be buried in the ancient Mt. of Olives cemetery opposite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Their home was a heart-breaking sight last night and this morning, where six orphans aged 2 to 24 were gathered: Daniel (married with a six-month-old son), Ruth, Ariel, Hodaya, Ruhama and Oz-David. Talia was in her ninth month of pregnancy.

A friend and neighbor of the family, Yehuda Glick, related last night with tears in his eyes: “I have known them for over 20 years, even when they were still in Moscow, having discovered Judaism and working for Aliyah. They came to Israel, to Gush Etzion, 19 years ago, with a sense of national mission for the Jewish People… They were gentle, regal people… He was a man of letters, who published a book last year on the Shiltei Giborim – though he also worked with his hands, gardening and the like; Talia was an accountant, and together they educated their family, six children..."

Kokhava Even-Chaim, 37, who taught in Efrat, is survived by her husband Maimon – a Zaka volunteer who discovered that his wife was one of the victims when he arrived on the scene to offer help – and an 8-year-old daughter. She will be buried in Ashdod.

Avishai Shindler, 24, newly-married and a recent arrival to Beit Haggai, will be buried in the Segulah cemetery in Petah Tikva.

Or, as the New York Times calls them, "settlers." The exact same word that Hamas used to describe them when they took credit for the vicious, cowardly attack in English.

My review of the Emmys

Well, not really.

But I did see that there were many awards given to the HBO movie, "Temple Grandin," about an autistic woman who is a world-class expert on animal behavior and humane slaughtering methods.

I had heard of Grandin before. She has worked tirelessly to improve Jewish ritual slaughter (shechita,) and she is in fact an expert on the halachot (Jewish laws) of shechita. (It is said that she read the entire Talmudic tractate of Chullin in English translation to learn all of the halachot.)

She had found that kosher slaughterhouses were doing a horrendous job, abusing and scaring the animals. She spoke to rabbis worldwide and designed far more effective systems. As she writes,

When shechitah was performed on each steer, I was amazed that the animal did not move. To find out if shechitah was really painless, I started holding the head of each animal with less and less pressure to see if it would move during shechitah. Even big bulls stayed still when the head holder was so loose they could have easily pulled their heads out.

I also observed that some shochets were better than others in their ability to cause rapid unconsciousness. All of the cuts were correct from a religious standpoint, but some shochets were more biologically effective. A swift cut was more effective than a slower one. In the hands of the best shochets, the animal does not make a sound or flinch, and drops unconscious in eight to 10 seconds.

She is also an expert on Halal slaughter, and notes that Muslims use shorter knives that are generally much more painful for the animals.

Grandin's research and inventions have revolutionized the entire kosher slaughter industry, something that everyone can agree is a great accomplishment. She took what had become an inhumane method of slaughter and improved it so that it is orders of magnitude better for everyone involved.

That, by itself, is no small accomplishment. And she has done much, much more. She deserves lots of congratulations and thanks for her work.

Audio of the Herzog/Toynbee Debates

Last week, I posted an article from the Canadian Jewish Chronicle summarizing the 1961 debate on the morality of Israel between Arnold Toynbee and Dr. Yaacov Herzog.

An email correspondent managed to get a hold of the original audio of the debate. Now I am making it available on the Internet, in four parts.

Such a historic event should be available for everyone to hear.

(I've never used this audio service before, so I hope it works OK for everyone.)

(h/t Yair)

At least this way, he's a little more relevant, if harder to make out. (DoZ is too busy for me to get her to use her mad Photoshop skills and make this look better...)

"Rabbis for Human Rights" show where their loyalties lie

Here is the statement from "Rabbis for Human Rights:"

May God comfort the families of those murdered tonight, and also protect Palestinian families from attempts at revenge. There was already one attempt this evening, and security forces are protecting the family. In another location there is currently an attempt to uproot trees. If we hear of other such attempts we will try to send security forces to do their job. However, we also need volunteers who are willing to travel at anytime tonight if needed.

That's right - "Rabbis" for Human Rights spent a half of a sentence on four innocent murder victims, and 90% of their press release is concerned with potential reprisals against trees.

This, after Hamas announced that they are planning more attacks against Jews. Not a word about protecting those potential victims, or even acknowledging the possibility that the people that they are protecting might very well be themselves protecting current or potential murderers.

Apparently, they have forgotten the meaning of "human rights." Either that or they only think that some humans deserve rights.

These so called rabbis have forgotten a very basic concept in Judaism known by all fourth graders: אם אין אני לי, מי לי. If I am not for myself, who is for me?

Sickening.

Al Arabiya reader reaction to the murders

Al Arabiya's coverage of the terror attack immediately drew many comments - over 150 so far.

The initial responses from Al Arabiya readers in Arabic to the murders were ecstatic. The first reaction said "Mubarak (blessed) to you," and many more said simply "God is great."

The vast majority were very approving of the murders. There were, however, a few exceptions.

Commenter 5, from the West Bank, threw in a cautionary note, saying that now Israel will make life for people in the West Bank harder. Commenter 19 and others took him to task for being against such a wonderful operation.

#22 is disappointed, saying at the rate of killing only 4 Israelis in four years, it would take thousands of years to "liberate Palestine."

#24 says that the Palestinian Arabs who are negotiating are wimps - "God bless Hamas and Islamic Jihad."

The next few were happy, saying Allahu Akbar.

#33 was actually critical, calling Hamas terrorists. #34 says that the murders only help Israel.

#50 was an Israeli Arab who pointed out that one of the victims was pregnant and that the terrorists do not deserve to live. #84 insulted her, saying that for her to speak like that she is no Arab, but a Jew.

#80 was against the murders - but it was signed "cute Jewish boy."

#92 chastised the commenters for celebrating the murder of innocent people. #148 insulted him, calling him a Zionist and a spokesman for the Armies of Zion, saying ti is impossible for any Arab to even think that way.

#102 was an Egyptian who said that the operation was stupid and counterproductive.

#104, named Ali (is that our Ali?) said to the other commenters "Shame on you for rejoicing over the murder of a pregnant woman....just like you rejoiced over Samir Kuntar murdering a 4 year old girl."

#108 also sarcastically said "Congratulations - you kill women." #113 asks in killing pregnant women is OK "according to our religion."

But most of them were very, very happy.

And Al Arabiya is one of the more moderate Arab newspapers.

Fayyad's fake condemnation

Salam Fayyad, that darling of the West who is the most moderate quasi-leader that Palestinian Arabs are ever likely to have, is following in the footsteps of Mahmoud Abbas and Yasir Arafat.

His condemnation of the terror attack is the same as those given by Abbas and Arafat over the years. Not a word about how the attack is evil, or immoral, or wrong. Instead:

"What happened tonight in Hebron was timed to coincide with the PLO's decision to engage in negotiations to end the occupation and achieve freedom and independence for our people," Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.

"We condemn this operation, which runs counter to Palestinian interests and against efforts of Palestinian leadership to mobilize international support for the rights of our people as well as with previously signed agreements," Fayyad told Ma'an shortly after the attack.

Killing Jewish civilians isn't inherently wrong, this moderate leader is saying. It is merely politically incorrect.

Should, at some other time, murdering pregnant women coincide with "Palestinian interests," it would be perfectly fine to do so.

This is one of the many reasons why a Palestinian Arab state would be a disaster for everyone. Their leaders are immoral to the core.

Spinning SpongeBob

My SpongeBob poll can be used as an object lesson on how the media can make any survey appear to support literally any position.

First, the facts. As of this writing, the poll results are:

Bring him back!	55 (39%)
Nah, we don't need him.	41 (29%)
Don't waste time. Work on a new design already!	27 (19%)
Who?	18 (12%)

The spin for pro-SpongeBob people:

By a commanding 10% margin, EoZ readers support the return of SpongeBob Squarepants to the Elder logo compared to those who oppose his return.

The spin for the anti-SpongeBob people:

In a recent survey carried out on the Elder of Ziyon blog, fully 61% of the respondents who voted refused to support bringing SpongeBob Squarepants back into the Elder logo.

The spin for the new design people:

A great number of EoZ readers support a new design of the site. While neither the pro-SpongeBob nor anti-SpongeBob crowds were able to gain close to a majority of the votes cast, the people who want a complete overhaul garnered some 60% of the non-partisan votes entered in the survey, and literally all of the non-partisan activists voted to redesign the site.

The spin for the don't know/don't care crowd:

In a lackadaisical survey carried out at the EoZ blog, no one managed to get very excited over the question of whether SpongeBob should return. None of the survey choices given managed to gather close to a majority of the votes, and many people were not familiar with the cartoon character in the first place. Most of EoZ's total daily readers didn't even bother to answer the question, making the entire dreary exercise moot.

All of these treatments are 100% true.

This is why, when you see survey results reported as news, you should try to get hold of the actual numbers.

(Right now I am leaning on bringing SpongeBob back, not only because of the votes but also because the pro-SBSP crowd were much more passionate in the comments.)

Terror attack in Kiryat Arba, 4 dead (updated)

From Ha'aretz:

Four Israelis were killed on Tuesday night when gunmen opened fire on their car at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, in the West Bank.

The attack occurred around 7:30 P.M. on Route 60. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Magen David Adom reported that the victims were two men aged 25 and 40 and two women, also aged 25 and 40. Channel 2 news reported that the victims were all members of the same family, and that one of the women was pregnant.

YNet says it was a well-planned ambush:

A Palestinian security official said that a Hamas cell is believed to be behind the lethal attacks. He noted that the last attack in the Hebron region, which left an Israeli police officer killed, was also the work of Hamas.

Ha'aretz Hebrew quotes a Magen Dovid adom paramedica as saying that he saw "a car riddled with dozens of bullets; inside were the four bodies and there was no chance to help them."

Haaretz:

The victims were all residents of the settlement of Beit Hagai in the southern Hebron Hills.

Beit Haggai was named for the initials of three yeshiva students who were killed in a terror attack in Kiryat Arba in 1980.

Hamas is not claiming responsibility at this time, but is saying that this is a "natural response to Israeli crimes."

Here is my essay on "natural responses" from 2008.

UPDATE: Israel Matzav says that it was a couple who left behind 7 children, plus two hitch-hikers.

UPDATE:

"When we arrived on the scene, all four doors of the car were open and four bodies were strewn on the road," Magen David Adom paramedic Guy Ronen told The Jerusalem Post. "We saw that the vital organs had been struck by a very large number of bullets, and that there was no chance of saving their lives," he added.

Backspin looks at the disgraceful way AP illustrates the story.

"Moderate" Arabs praise murders, proud that they are from the West Bank

Firas Press, which is oriented towards Fatah, so far has five comments on its story about the terror attack near Kiryat Arba.

All five are very happy about it.

Two of them are proud that the real resistance still exists in the West Bank (as opposed to those collaborators in Gaza.) It is sort of like rooting for a hometown sports team - which side can kill more Jews?

Others simply say "God is great."

A new one says that this must have been done by Netanyahu, because, in his logic, why have we not seen any terror attacks to defend Al Aqsa? Obviously this was staged by the Israelis.

Hamas praises murder of "four Zionist rapists"

The Al Qassam Brigades of Hams referred to the four civilians, including a pregnant woman, who were murdered near Kiryat Arba as "rapists."

They also praised the attack:

"Hamas praises the attack and regards it as a natural response to the crimes of the occupation," said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, adding that the attack was proof "of a failure of security coordination" between Israel and the Palestinians.

UPDATE: I am told that the Arabic word has a double meaning, and can also mean "usurper."