Crowds participate in the Occupy Wall Street campaign

The ADL reports the tenor of the Occupy Wall Street protests is unclear — noting some commentators describe attending numerous benign gatherings, free of anti-Semitism, while others cite the rabid anti-Jewish ravings seen on the internet.

Whether anti-Jewish rhetoric is on the fringe or more commonplace, it’s clear publicity about the presence of bigots raises concern — including with certain extreme left, anti-Israel elements among OWS advocates.

An interview with anti-Israel radical Arun Gupta on the RT network (Russian Television) illustrates the effort to dispel any stigma of anti-Semitism. Gupta, who contributed, for instance, to a volume of anti-Israel essays about the 2010 effort to land a flotilla in Gaza (Midnight on the Mavi Marmara) along with Noam Chomsky, Rashid Khalidi and Norman Finkelstein, among others, understands crude attacks on Jews are repugnant to most Americans, including, needless to say, Jewish Americans,some of whom might be active with OWS.

Gupta ducked discussion of one troublesome matter — reports the far-left, anti-Israel Adbusters magazine was an originator of the anti-Wall Street effort. Adbuster editor Kalle Lasen publishes a lot of crude material, some of it anti-Jewish and a lot of it anti-Israel, including an article comparing Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto and various others.

While there are mixed feelings in Israel about the prisoner exchange deal to release Gilad Shalit–setting free over 1000 Palestinian prisoners — Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal proclaimed the deal “a great victory” and already, a spokesman for Izzadin Kassam, the armed wing of Hamas, announced that Shalit “will not be the last soldier kidnapped by Hamas as long as Israel keeps Palestinian prisoners detained.”

Meanwhile Israel at least partially acceded to Hamas’ demand that it not target any of the realeased prisoners. Israel agreed not to target anyone unless they are involved in new terror attacks.

Among the terrorists said to be released are those involved with the planning and execution of the Sbarro attack, the Dolphinarium disco attack, the Passover massacre at the Park Hotel, the Moment Cafe attack, Ramallah lynching, among others.

While bereaved families of the terror victims are appalled and outraged, and more and more are petitioning the court not to release these unrepetant terrorists, still others are fighting against the petition not to release the prisoners.

Al Neuharth
USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108
(public relations office: 703-854-5304)

Dear Mr. Neuharth,

Concerning your commentary in USA Today, Friday, October 7, 2011 – “C-SPAN founder lets you judge the news” – regarding Brian Lamb, founder and CEO of C-SPAN, you wrote:

Many or most TV cable news personalities put their own slant on things. From right-wingers on Fox to left-wingers on MSNBC, they often mislead you with slanted stuff. One longtime major exception, who thinks you should get news straight so that you can make your own judgments, was honored here Thursday night at my alma mater, the University of South Dakota. He’s the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of C-SPAN, Brian Lamb.

For more than 32 years, C-SPAN has given you fair and unfiltered coverage of top government and political news. When Lamb started C-SPAN in 1979, he had a staff of four. Now the staff numbers 275. Among its innovations is gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Congress. Lamb is the 25th winner of the Al Neuharth Annual Award presented for “A Lifetime of Excellence in Journalism.”

However, there’s a major problem at C-SPAN of which you were apparently unaware. The problem was addressed recently by the Washington Director of CAMERA, Eric Rozenman, writing to Washington Post Columnist Thomas Heath regarding Heath’s generous praise for C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb:
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One of the most troubling aspects about the witness offered by the World Council of Churches about life in the Middle East is the double standard it uses to assess the actions of Israel and its neighbors.

It has become axiomatic that when the WCC feels it necessary to condemn Israel, it speaks loudly and unequivocally about the terrible things done by the Jewish state. There is no confusion about what the WCC is trying to say.

By way of comparison, when one of Israel’s neighbors does something obviously wrong, the WCC descends into pious incomprehensibility that leaves readers wondering exactly who did what to who?
(more…)

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue reportedly during a demonstration (pictured here) against the desecration of Arab graves (Photo by Daniel Bar-On)

While we’re on CNN’s coverage of attacks on holy sites in Israel, an article today on desecrations of Muslim and Christian graves in Jaffa ignores a Molotov cocktail attack on a synagogue in the very same city. Thus, Dan Morgan and Kevin Flower report:

Less than a week after the arson of a mosque in northern Israel, dozens of Christian and Muslim graves were vandalized in an Arab section of the Israeli city of Jaffa.

More thahan 100 graves were vandalized in the Muslim cemetery of al-Kazakhana and at a nearby Christian cemetery in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, according to residents and a CNN producer who visited the locations.

Some of the graves were spray painted with graffiti while others were smashed.

Meanwhile, CNN completely ignores last night’s attack on the Ba’al Hanes synagogue, a rather relevant incident in the context of an article about attacks on sacred sites in Jaffa. As Ha’aretz reports:

About 200 Arabs and Jews gathered in Jaffa on Saturday night to protest the desecration at the cemetery and calling for an end to violence and racism. At one point during the demonstration, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the roof of Rabbi Meir Ba’al Hanes synagogue in Jaffa. The building was empty at the time and there were no reports of casualties. Firefighters, police and medical teams were rushed to the scene.

Before there was even a suspect, the BBC blamed the Tuba Zanghariya mosque arson attack, in northern Israel, on a settler. Now, it has been reported that a suspect has been arrested, and that he is not a settler, but a youth from northern Israel who studies in the West Bank yeshiva of Yitzhar.

But that hasn’t stopped CNN from falsely reporting:

Israeli media sources said he is a Jewish yeshiva student from the northern West Bank.

Writing in Ha’aretz, James Kirchick of the New Republic notes a media cover up which transforms Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in a progressive reformer promoting feminism:

To fully appreciate the king’s liberalism, witness his latest announcement, made before the Shura council of advisers. “We refuse to marginalize the role of women in Saudi society,” the king declared. And so he took the bold step of granting his women (the possessive pronoun is crucial; neither Saudi women, nor men, are “citizens” in the true sense of the word ) the right to vote – in meaningless municipal elections, in 2015, and only if they receive the permission of a male relative.

That last condition has gone practically unreported in the international media, which have covered these latest developments with the sort of gravity that is reserved for actual, people-driven upheavals in the rest of the Arab world. Indeed, one could be mistaken for thinking that King Abdullah is a genuine reformer, given all the favorable attention he has received of late.

Last December, Businessweek praised the king as a “vigorous and progressive leader.” A writer for the Global Post website, prompted by the king’s recent announcement, says that Abdullah is leader of the “progressive faction of the ruling family” (presumably, that’s the one that favors mere lashings, as opposed to decapitation, for homosexuals ). Reuters claimed that the king had “lived up to his reformist reputation” with his “liberal shift.”

The same press that lauds a man whose regime bans the construction of Christian churches and prohibits the entry of Jews into the kingdom sees Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman as the real fanatics of the Middle East.

To be sure, in the desert despotism of Saudi Arabia, words like “progressive” and “reformer” are relative. But they lose their meaning when applied to individuals who are religious fundamentalists. (Emphases added.)

As CAMERA reported, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria issued a correction of the incendiary statement made on his show by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan accusing Israel of killing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Zakaria says the problem was a faulty translation of Erdogan’s statement. While it is commendable that Zakaria issued the correction, by defining the problem as a faulty translation, he sidesteps his own responsibility as interviewer and host to directly challenge what at the time appeared to be a defamatory accusation.

Erdogan’s statement, as it was translated and broadcasted, accuses Israel of perpetrating massive and indiscriminate killing. Zakaria offered no challenge to Erdogan. If he had, Erdogan could have clarified or corrected what he said or Zakaria could have exposed his statement as libelous.

There are three possible explanations as to why Zakaria did not challenge Erdogan at the time. None of these explanations presents Zakaria in a favorable light.
1) He did not want to confront the Turkish Prime Minister while interviewing him. If that is true, then Zakaria’s reputation as an incisive interviewer who challenges his guests is diminished.
2) He did not know that Israel has not killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. If that is true, then his reputation as a maven of international politics has been dealt a blow.
3) He wasn’t paying attention or didn’t consider it important enough to challenge Erdogan. If that is true, then his competence and integrity as a journalist are open to question.

Rather than simply blame it on mistranslation, Zakaria should have been more forthcoming and admitted an error of judgement.

The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation of Columbia University upon the request of The Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR). The OCR is investigating allegations that university faculty “steered” a Jewish student away from taking a class.

In January, the student got some troubling guidance from Barnard’s Middle East studies department chair. The young woman told the chair that she was interested in taking a course on the Arab world with Prof. Massad, who is notorious for his animosity towards Zionism. Massad, whether fairly or not, has been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism. The chair looked at the young woman, whose Orthodox background is apparent in her modest attire. Then, as the student tells the story, the chair told her that she would not be “comfortable” in Massad’s class and that she should instead consider a course on Ancient Israel.

According to Professor Kenneth Marcus, the Director of IJCR and the former head of OCR, Columbia violated the Jewish student’s civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 by deterring the student from taking the class.

By suggesting that a Jewish student may feel uncomfortable in Professor Massad‘s class, Columbia faculty are implicitly acknowledging allegations that Massad creates a hostile environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students. But instead of creating classroom environments where all student feel welcome, Columbia seems to think segregation of Jews might be the solution.

At some media outlets, you can count on Jewish settlers being blamed for any wrongdoing, whether or not they were they were involved. There was the time, for instance, that the New York Times falsely blamed a settler for the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. Today, a BBC subheadline blames an arson attack in the Galilee, in northern Israel, not in the West Bank, on “settlers.”

Update: The BBC has amended it’s prejudicial wording. The subheadline now reads: “A mosque in northern Israel is torched and sprayed with graffiti in a suspected attack by Jewish extremists, triggering protests.”