Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld

So unbridled is much of the Norwegian media in leveling false charges that a special award has been created by Norwegian businessman Stray Spetalen — himself a victim of bias. The Stray Spetalen Award recognizes the individual on the receiving end of the most outrageous, distorted, shoddy and unprofessional treatment by the Norwegian media.

High in the running this year is Manfred Gerstenfeld, a PhD in environmental studies who also holds an advanced degree in Judaism from the Dutch Jewish Seminary. Editor of Behind The Humanitarian Mask, a collection of essays about the Nordic countries’ attitudes toward Israel, Gerstenfeld notes in that work’s introduction:

[I]n recent years part of the societal elites, particularly in Sweden and Norway, have been responsible for many pioneering efforts to demonize Israel. Prominent among the perpetrators are leading socialist and other leftist politicians, journalists, clergy, and employees of NGOs. This demonization is based on the classic motifs of anti-Semitism, which often also accompany its new mutation of anti-Israelism.

(CAMERA is also all too aware of the astounding shoddiness of Sweden’s — and Scandanavia’s — largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, publishers of 2009’s blood libel charging Israelis shoot Palestinians to harvest and traffic their organs.)

As chronicled on Norway, Israel and the Jews Gerstenfeld’s unmasking of Norwegian biases against Israel and Jews has prompted near-hysterical media response:

Aftenposten’s Harald Stanghelle has called him “a blinded fanatic”. NRK’s Sidsel Wold has called him a “Norway-hater”. NTB has called him an “aging, right-wing Israeli”. He is known throughout Scandinavia for statements he has never made and beliefs he has never harbored. For the sin of writing a book on anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism in the Nordic countries, he has been vilified, ridiculed and demonized. If anyone is eligible for Stray Spetalen’s ‘media victim’ award, it is Manfred Gerstenfeld

The blog goes to say:

If you support the nomination of Manfred Gerstenfeld for Stray Spetalen’s “media victim award”, write a polite and informative e-mail to: [email protected] — secretary at Schjødt legal firm.

Breaking: The PC(USA)’s General Assembly approved a significantly altered version of the Middle East Study Committee Report. More details will follow, but here is CAMERA’s response signed by CAMERA Executive Director Andrea Levin:

The Committee for Accuracy In Middle East Reporting in America has been paying close attention to the events at the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly in Minneapolis, with a particular emphasis on the report submitted by the Middle East Study Committee (MESC). The original version of this report offered a highly partisan and distorted view of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This is not what the PC(USA)’s General Assembly asked for when it created the Middle East Study Committee in 2008.

CAMERA is heartened by the General Assembly’s efforts to perfect the report. The General Assembly’s committee on Middle East Peacemaking engaged in a good-faith effort to correct the problems with the MESC report. Problems remain, but if PC(USA) leaders follow the process outlined in the overture passed by the General Assembly today, the church will embark on a process by which it can arrive at a comprehensive—and factual—understanding of all the factors contributing to the continued existence of this tragic conflict.

This is what the PC(USA)’s General Assembly asked for in 2008.

CAMERA hopes that this is what the church will receive in the years ahead.

A June 21 editorial in The Nation about Israeli restrictions on Gaza draws heat in a letter-to-the-editor by, of all people, The Nation columnist Eric Alterman.

Alterman, himself a harsh critic of Israel, noted Hamas’s illiberal philosophy before asserting that the magazine’s editorial, “like most Nation editorials, assumes Israel is 100 percent at fault in this conflict and that whoever opposes it is 100 percent correct. … As such, it can have no relevance to the views of anyone who takes the complications of the conflict seriously in hopes of finding a solution that might one day be acceptable to the country The Nation consistently demonizes.”

The magazine’s editors hit back, arguing that for all its faults, Hamas’s leaders “have stated repeatedly that they will accept a two-state solution.” (You can read the entire exchange here.)

Perhaps we should turn to Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar to sort out this dispute. On June 15, Zahar was interviewed on Lebanon’s Future TV. MEMRI translated:

We have liberated Gaza, but have we recognized Israel? Have we given up our lands occupied in 1948? We demand the liberation of the West Bank, and the establishment of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital – but without recognizing [Israel]. This is the key – without recognizing the Israeli enemy on a single inch of land.

“This is our plan for this stage – to liberate the West Bank and Gaza, without recognizing Israel’s right to a single inch of land, and without giving up the Right of Return for a single Palestinian refugee.

[…]

“Our plan for this stage is to liberate any inch of Palestinian land, and to establish a state on it. Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy. ”

And there you have it.

To claim, as does The Nation editors, that Hamas leaders have “stated repeatedly that they will accept” a state in the West Bank and Gaza, without also noting that these leaders repeatedly make clear they don’t see this as the “solution” but rather as a partial step toward their ultimate of destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state, is brazenly unethical and, in effect, a lie.

As previously noted by CAMERA, here and here, comments by CNN Senior Middle East Editor Octavia Nasr praising former Lebanese Shiite cleric Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah reflected poorly on the credibility of CNNs Middle East coverage, prompting the network to dismiss her. But among commenters at the Huffington Post , one of the largest and most influential news blogs in the world, there was sympathy for Nasr. Her firing was widely attributed to the nefarious Jewish control of the media.

The following are a sampling of comments from the Huffington Post piece on July 8, 2010 blaming the Jews for Nasr’s firing:

BassguyGG 1 hour ago (12:41 PM)
There is no freedom of speech in this country for anyone in public life anymore when it comes to the Middle East. Anyone who disagrees with Israel or says anything good about their enemies is immediately and summarily destroyed. First Helen Thomas now Nasr.

gigli 1 hour ago (12:35 PM)
Wow. Fired for a political opinion. One not in favor of Israel.
Shock. Any wonder why the Muslim world thinks we hate them and are waging a war against Islam?
It’s never going to stop while this kind of nonsense keeps going on.

sparky73 1 hour ago (12:22 PM)
Ofcourse she was right to praise this man but since the J*ws control the media there was no way she was going to be able to keep her job.

(more…)

Since 1830, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has forced Palestinians to abandon their homes and live in caves. Oh wait…

IMRA catches ABC’s George Stephanopoulos misrepresenting President Obama’s statement on the settlement freeze, set to expire in September:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos has a novel solution to the “problem” President Obama created yesterday for those interested in continuing the pressure for an extension of the freeze – he simply misrepresented what Obama said:

“MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: How about extending the settlement freeze? The president said yesterday he hopes that there will be enough progress in the peace talks for the freeze to be extended past September. ”

Now here is what the president actually said: “”And my hope is, is that once direct talks have begun, well before the moratorium has expired, that that will create a climate in which everybody feels a greater investment in
success. Not every action by one party or the other is taken as a reason for not engaging in talks.”

In other words: The ending of the freeze by Israel isn’t a reason for the Palestinians not to engage talks.]

CNN’s Middle East editor Octavia Nasr was fired after the brouhaha surrounding her tweet mourning the death of a Hezollah leader and praising him as one of the organizations’ “giants” whom she respects. According to Mediaite, an internal CNN memo acknowledged that Nasr’s credibility as Middle East editor was compromised. Mediaite reproduces the memo:

From Parisa Khosravi – SVP CNN International Newsgathering

I had a conversation with Octavia this morning and I want to share with you that we have decided that she will be leaving the company. As you know, her tweet over the weekend created a wide reaction. As she has stated in her blog on CNN.com, she fully accepts that she should not have made such a simplistic comment without any context whatsoever. However, at this point, we believe that her credibility in her position as senior editor for Middle Eastern affairs has been compromised going forward.
As a colleague and friend we’re going to miss seeing Octavia everyday. She has been an extremely dedicated and committed part of our team. We thank Octavia for all of her hard work and we certainly wish her all the best.
Parisa.

An AFP photo caption identifies the Munich massacre as “daring:”

A file photo of Palestinian leader Abu Daoud, taken in Damascus on December 11, 2005. Daoud, whose real name was Mohammed Daoud Odeh, was the mastermind behind the daring deadly attack against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, died on July 3, 2010, at the age of 73 from an illness, Palestinian officials said. AFP PHOTO/LOUAI BESHARA

Yes, I’d imagine that being responsible for the murder of world-class athletes, including a fencer, wrestlers, and weight lifters — dangerous foes — must have been a very scary and risky undertaking for Mr. Odeh. Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, didn’t miss a chance to praise Oudeh for his daring feat.

The Middle East Peacemaking Committee of the PC(USA)’s General Assembly has finished with its recommendations that will be forwarded to the full assembly sometime in the next few days. (The General Assembly ends on Saturday morning.) The recommendations and the amendments formulated by the committee can be found here. (Click on “committees” and then click on Committee 14 on the left.)

The committee approved a modified version of overture 14-08 (The Middle East Study Committee report) and used this resolution to “answer” other overtures before the committee.

The overtures can still be amended on the floor of the General Assembly, which will be voting on a number of items, most of them not related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, over the next few days.

Snapshots will provide a summary of the General Assembly’s actions on all the relevant overtures after they are voted on.

Several journalists have noted that CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, proclaimed her respect for Hezbollah’s spiritual guru, Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah after his recent death. On her Twitter page, Nasr wrote:

Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.. One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot.

Daniel Halper points out on the Weekly Standard blog that Fadlallah “famously justified suicide bombing.”

Aaron Klein of World Net Daily gives examples of Fadlallah’s “long history of supporting terrorism against the U.S. and Israel” including the seizure and hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Both point out that Fadlallah is believed to have masterminded the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks which killed 241 U.S. Marines, and was a Holocaust minimizer.

HonestReporting questions whether “Fadlallah’s praise for the massacre of eight Israeli students at Mercaz Ha-Rav Yeshiva in Jerusalem on March 6, 2008,” his “fatwa to the suicide bomber who attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983,” his support for “the seizure and hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979,” his backing of ”suicide bombing attacks in 2002″, or his praise for “Iran’s efforts to build long-range missiles…in 2008” are among the actions that Nasr admires?

According to CNN, Nasr “serves as an on-air and off-air analyst across all platforms of CNN Worldwide” and is a “leader in integrating social media with newsgathering and reporting.” And her twitter page demonstrates how Nasr integrates social media with reporting. By expressing her admiration for a terrorist inciter, she provides a public display of the bias that cannot help but inform her analysis of events in the Middle East – a display that should be disturbing to all who value objective reporting.