It appears that someone working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) sent a hostile email to Honest Reporting — calling the organization “Dishonest Reporting.”

The letter complains about the “big lies of the Zionists.”

Honest Reporting has apparently tracked the email to an UNRWA employee working in Jordan.

UNRWA has a long and shameful history of ties to Palestinian terror groups, mismanagement of funds, and failure to repatriate Palestinian refugees. Here is a round up of materials about UNRWA.

This article by Arlene Kushner, published in Azure in 2005, is well worth a full read.

Note: The following is a slightly edited version of an essay by CAMERA’s Christian Media Analyst, Dexter Van Zile. The piece, which was originally posted on Facebook, can also be seen here and here.

In the course of my work, I have become increasingly worried about the message offered by mainline Protestant churches (and some quarters of the Roman Catholic Church) about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Not only is the narrative offered by these institutions distorted, it has a negative impact on the safety of Jews throughout the world.

My concerns, which are still coalescing, can currently be summarized as follows:

1. There is a continuum of anti-Israel rhetoric. One end of the continuum is marked by hate toward Israel and Jews rooted in deeply hostile beliefs about the nature of the Jewish people. The other end is marked by polite de-legitimization through an obsession with Israeli policies and silence about the behavior of its adversaries.
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In the on-line Jewish journal, Tablet Magazine, Lee Smith provides a compelling indictment of how “media companies are using the internet to make anti-Semitism respectable.” Smith describes a growing community of anti-Israel commenters who flock to blogs hosted by mainstream media companies to defame Israel and promote conspiracy theories about Jewish influence in America. Smith points to the likes of Stephen Walt, Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan and Philip Weiss as the “cesspool’s avatars” who lend an air of respectability to hateful fantasies about Jews found on the political fringes.

Smith draws attention to the example of the Washington Post hosting a site, ForeignPolicy.com, that regularly features a blog by Harvard professor, Stephen Walt. Walt was the co-author of a notorious and poorly researched book , “The Israel Lobby,” which alleges that neo-cons (among whose ranks the Jewish names are always prominently cited) and other supporters of Israel are intentionally deceiving Americans and acting for the benefit of Israel against American interests. (See CAMERA’s analyses here and here and critiques by other well-known authors. ) Smith observes ” the bulk of the book’s research was based on secondary sources, most of which came from the web.”

The charges coming out of Walt and Mearsheimer’s book and from the “cesspool” of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish invective on the web are not new according to Smith, “they are throwbacks to the 1930s and earlier.” But what is new is the medium being used and the acquiescence of mainstream media companies to host these forums. Smith observes,

Walt and his anti-Israel blogging colleagues have become the respectable face of Jew-baiting.

Their immediate goal is clear, as Smith spells it out:

They tried very hard to marginalize American citizens of the Jewish faith by questioning their loyalty.

Where does this lead? Well, Smith doesn’t mention the comments made by the co-author of Walt’s book, U. of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer, who labels supporters of Israel as racists. At a recent speech at the Palestine Center in Washington, Mearsheimer revealed a penchant for selecting and categorizing Jews into “righteous Jews” and “new Afrikaaners” and those in-between. Of course the “righteous Jews” were those willing to villify Israel and its supporters, including the obscene Norman Finkelstein, who uses the Holocaust to sadistically chide Jews. The “new Afrikaaners” would include the bulk of the nation’s Jews who support Israel.

The critical issue Smith’s piece highlights, though, is the acquiescence and even encouragement of this vitriol against Jews by major media companies. Smith observes,

What’s original, what makes this period alarming, is that The Washington Post Company would give a Jew-baiter a platform.

Palestinian Authority TV – controlled by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – disregarded President Obama’s July 6, 2010 demand to stop inciting the Palestinian populace against Israel.

But will mainstream media entities pay any attention?

Below is an excerpt from President Obama’s July 6 press conference (held jointly with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu):

I think it’s very important that the Palestinians not look for excuses for incitement; that they are not engaging in provocative language; that at the international level, they are maintaining a constructive talk, as opposed to looking for opportunities to embarrass Israel.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) provides video clip and translation of part of PA TV broadcast aired at least twice subsequent to July 6. Palestinian child is shown saying he was taught to be a future combatant against Israel:

I came here following the conference elections. I hope that there will be more conferences like the Sixth Fatah Conference [in August 2009]. These conferences are important for us because it makes us aware of leadership and that we will be combatants and wage resistance (violence) against the Israelis.

PMW’s Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook:

PMW reported on Fatah’s Sixth General Conference in August 2009 which was as a unique opportunity for Fatah under PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to join the peace process by renouncing Fatah principles and platforms that call for Israel’s destruction. As PMW has documented, the Fatah leaders rejected the world’s demands to recognize Israel, and continued to promote armed struggle as central to the movement’s aims. The Fatah charter still calls for Israel’s destruction, and can be viewed in Arabic on Fatah’s website. The English version of the Fatah charter that used to appear at Fatah’s website has been removed. [Note: An English translation of the Fatah charter is available at the CAMERA Web site. Chapter 1, Article 12 (Goals section) of the Fatah charter states the first goal: “Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.”]

Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er was permitted to play in the Barclay’s Dubai Tennis Championships in February with help from women’s professional tour star Venus Williams. After Pe’er was denied entrance to the United Arab Emirates for the 2009 championship, Williams spoke out, saying that she would not participate in the following year’s Dubai competition if Pe’er were denied entrance again. The Anti-Defamation League subsequently honored Williams for her efforts.

This year, Dubai officials granted Pe’er a visa, allowing her to compete. Nevertheless, the Israeli was separated completely from the other Women’s Tennis Association competitors and, for security reasons, allowed movement only from her hotel room to the tennis courts. Pe’er also was the only player to not appear on the center court for a match.

Ironically, Williams defeated Pe’er 6-1, 6-4 in a semi-finals match . But Williams again spoke up for Pe’er, saying, “She’s just brave. She’s got so much character. I can’t imagine being in her shoes.” The seven-time Grand Slam winner continued, “I can’t imagine playing so well with these kinds of circumstances. I just have to give her congratulations and props. She’s courageous. I don’t think anyone else on the WTA Tour could do what she’s doing.”

Despite being competitors on the court, the two tennis stars had only kind words for each other. “I told her I really appreciate her support this week and last year,” Pe’er said at the time of Williams. — Traci Siegel

Elder of Ziyon has posted many pictures and a video of the new luxury Gaza Mall– complete with indoor fountains.

Two videos posted to the IDF Spokesperson’s Web site detail what happened on the Mavi Marmara and other ships attempting to sail to Gaza.

By now, most people understand that Jeff Halper and the organization he leads, the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD), are not trustworthy sources of information about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This doesn’t stop him from being invited to speak to Christian audiences in the U.S., nor does it stop so-called Christian peace activists from distributing ICAHD materials in the U.S.

Halper was present at the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent General Assembly in Minneapolis and anyone who missed his presentation (organized by the Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), could visit Sabeel’s table in the convention center and purchase “Counter-Rhetoric: Challenging ‘convention wisdom’ & reframing the conflict,” a 41-page booklet published by ICAHD in 2006. Sabeel activists were selling the booklet for $3.

Predictably, this booklet has a couple of what can be politely be characterized as “howlers.”
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The final gavel will drop sometime on Saturday, but it appears that the PC(USA)’s 2010 General Assembly has concluded its deliberations regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The upshot of the proceedings is that while the anti-Israel activists within the denomination still have some ability to influence the church’s “prophetic witness” about the conflict, an important part of the church’s establishment — pastors of “Big Steeple” churches within the denomination — has woken up to the threat that anti-Zionism poses to the credibility of the PC(USA). This group weighed in with a pastoral letter signed by a number of pastors including Rev. John Buchanan and issued in the weeks before the General Assembly.
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