Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter misrepresented a key Middle East issue yet again, this time in a CNN appearance. He has done this often in the past regarding Israel (examples – here and here). This time the ex-President erroneously blamed Israel for the flight of Palestinian Arab Christians from “Palestine.”

Carter told CNN interviewer Piers Morgan on Jan. 18. 2012:

When I first went to Israel, about 15 percent of the Palestinians were Christians and they were my friends and they were my soul mates in the worship of the same god in the same way. Now they’ve almost been removed from Palestine because of some pressures and encouragement from the Israelis.

Carter, unchallenged by Morgan, offers no substantiation for this allegation. But in blaming Israel for the flight of Palestinian Arab Christians, he is wrong again about Israel and the Middle East.

A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) report, Christians Flee Growing Islamic Fundamentalism in the Holy Land, documents the central cause of the flight. Muslim intimidation of Christian Arabs includes assaults by Muslim men upon Christian women, demands for “protection” money and illegitimate land seizures.

Carter’s false claim is also contradicted by the facts about Israel’s growing Christian population (in absolute numbers).

Morgan could have shed light on Carter’s persistent Israel-bashing by asking him about his connections to Arab oil money. But Carter, like so many other severe critics of Israel, once again sailed through with a free pass from the mainstream media.

On Point host Tom Ashbrook and Rami Khouri

Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of Lebanon’s Daily Star, appeared December 22 on the National Public Radio (NPR) syndicated program On Point (click here to listen) hosted by Tom Ashbrook. Mr. Khouri has appeared previously on the program. Khouri, quasi journalist, quasi anti-Israel propagandist, is a frequent NPR guest. The discussion, “The Arab Spring In Winter,” also included panelists Shadi Hamid (Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution) and Anthony Shadid (New York Times foreign correspondent). in this broadcast, Mr. Hamid and Mr. Shadid took neutral stances on Israel.

About half-way through the broadcast, Mr. Hamid frankly observed, “Let’s be honest about it. Arabs hate Israel. They would rather it not be there if they had the choice. That said, I think you have to distinguish between what people want in theory and what they’re willing to accept in reality.”

Ashbrook asked Khouri, “What makes you so sure that the Arab world is committed to a negotiated, peaceful path [with Israel]?” Khouri observed, repeating much of what he said earlier in this broadcast,

I think we see this from [Arab] public opinion polling, we’ve seen it from government positions but governments don’t always reflect the people. We’ve seen it from – you know I’ve lived here for the last 45 years around the region – people are willing to live with an Israeli state that is willing to live with a Palestinian state and resolve the Palestinian issue on the basis of equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. I think the question is not about the Arabs, the question is about the Israelis. They are the ones who are colonizing land and building settlements and imprisoning Palestinians. So, we really need to know from the Israelis, are they prepared to respond constructively.

But specifically, what Arab public opinion polling? Khouri is not asked.
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The syndicated National Public Radio (NPR) program On Point has broadcast numerous unbalanced talk shows dealing with the Middle East (examples — here, here, here, here, here and here). Such was the case in the Oct. 31, 2011 broadcast in which host Tom Ashbrook’s guest was Israeli writer Amos Oz, who is touring the United States promoting his new book, Scenes From Village Life.

Near the end of the program, during the call-in segment, listeners heard caller “Daniel’s” anti-Israel polemic:

I believe the mass expulsion of eighty percent of the Palestinian population in 1947, the destruction of 450 villages in Palestinian towns, the continued refusal to come to terms with that legacy is the guilt that is being (indistinct) in that digging [alluding to a metaphor in Oz’s new book] down below the structure of Israel.

Mr. Oz responded:

Well, I don’t believe in original sin. I think in 1947, hundreds of thousands of Arabs were uprooted by the Israelis because there was a massive attack from the Arab world and from the Palestinians aiming at murdering Israel the day it was born. So, if there is an original sin it is divided between the two parties…

While Mr. Oz is correct in characterizing the intent of the Arab world to destroy Israel, he (as well as the caller) is mistaken in asserting that the majority of Arabs who fled in 1947-48 were expelled or “uprooted” by the Israelis.
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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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With the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) pursuing a declaration of recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations in September, little is heard from most major news media about the questionable legality and diplomatic contradictions such a declaration would entail.

Meanwhile, the U.N. will not consider the case for Kurdish statehood, which is far stronger than that for the Palestinian Arabs. Not surprisingly, mainstream media have all but ignored this glaring contrast.

New York Sun columnist Hillel Halkin put it succinctly:

The Palestinians have many friends, the Kurds have none. And so, viva Palestinian statehood — and down with statehood for the Kurds. Since principles have nothing to do with it, it may be beside the point to observe that, in principle, the Kurds have a far better case for statehood than do the Palestinians. They have their own unique language and culture, which the Palestinians do not have. They have had a sense of themselves as a distinct people for many centuries, which the Palestinians have not had. They have been betrayed repeatedly in the past 100 years by the international community and its promises, while the Palestinians have been betrayed only by their fellow Arabs.

The charters of both wings of the Palestinians — Fatah and Hamas — call for the elimination of Israel. This puts them on the wrong side of the U.N. charter since they vow enmity toward a member of the U.N. But the U.N. cares not about this.

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C-SPAN’s Washington Journal host on the July 10 broadcast, Libby Casey, took quick exception to a derogatory comment by a caller referring to Vice President Biden as “retarded.” Casey admonished a 7:22 AM caller responding to the topic, Speaker Boehner scales back scope of deficit talks:

Well, I’m going to say, Charlie, please be careful when you use that word [“retarded”]. We don’t want to insult any of our viewers when we talk about this by saying things that might be considered to be insulting.

Casey’s swift intervention was in reaction to a call from “Charlie” of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Charlie remarked that he and his 12-year-old daughter recently watched Vice-President Joe Biden speaking on C-SPAN: “’We’ve got to keep spending to keep from going bankrupt’ [Biden said] and my daughter looked at me and asked if he [Biden] was retarded.”

C-SPAN’s prompt action here is in stark contrast to the chronic silence of hosts who allow the spewing of extreme anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish invective on Washington Journal. Often the language is not only insulting but is blatantly bigoted and incites prejudice. For example, a caller on June 15, 2011 at 7:25 AM defamed Jews with a classic anti-Semitic stereotype:

I would like to see him [President Obama] get out of the wars that we are in. That would be good. And maybe some of the rich Jews could finance the wars, they are the ones who pushed us into most of it.

C-SPAN was indifferent and silent, the smearing of Jews continuing on the network.

C-SPAN can be contacted about its selective sensitivity at (202) 737-3220, [email protected], [email protected].

Washington Journal host Steve Scully confirmed the existence of a new call-control policy during the Journal broadcast of June 26, 2011 at 8:26 AM:

To your [a caller’s] point about unblocking, we try our very best to make sure that everyone gets through but to those who do so — abide by our 30-day policy. We also want to make sure that some people who in the past have been able to get through with their own profanities or degradation — I should say — of some of the words they use — we want to make sure they don’t get through in the future because they really bring down what we think is the quality of the conversation that we want to have here on C-SPAN.

But caller James Morris, an habitual anti-Israel, “blame-the-Jews” C-SPAN caller cited by the Iranian propaganda outlet Press TV (see below) and frequent Washington Journal 30-day violator, was not only aired (July 2, 2011 – 9:17 AM) but also indulged by host Pedro Echevarria during a “U.S. strategy in Afghanistan” segment. Caller James Morris:

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CAIR, a self-described American Muslim civil rights groups, but one whose extensive ties to Islamic extremists have been documented by CAMERA here and here, is in the news again. This time it’s for revocation of its tax-exempt IRS status and hiring Hassan Shibly, an Israelphobe and apologist for terrorists, as chief of its Tampa chapter.

News media that continue to cite CAIR and its officials without putting the council in its extremist context would seem to undermine their own credibility.

In yet another of the numerous unbalanced On Point NPR talk show broadcasts dealing with the Middle East (examples — here, here, here, here, here and here), host Tom Ashbrook discussed The U.S., the Arab Spring and Mideast Peace (May 23 ). The panel consisted of Michelle Dunne of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with an Arabist tilt, and Daniel Kurtzer, who despite being an Orthodox Jew and the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, is known for his opposition to the Israeli government’s policies.

Kurtzer ostensibly was there to provide a counterpoint to Dunne, but made no effort to demur when Dunne commented negatively about Israel. Neither her summary statement that “The Netanyahu government is not interested in making peace,” nor her lumping of “the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza” together with “human rights abuses” and “authoritarian regimes” as the issues that “raise the stakes” in the Middle East warranted any counterpoint from Kurtzer.

Indeed, the attempt to equate Israel’s alleged “occupation of the West Bank and Gaza” with the brutal dictatorships in the Middle East is both biased and counterfactual. Israel gained control of those territories as the result of a defensive war against Arab aggression. Despite the right to the territories being disputed, Israel completely withdrew its citizens and forces from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. The status of the West Bank remains to be determined through a negotiated settlement. No mention was made of this point.

Neither was there any mention of a major factor that negatively impacts the likelihood of a genuine peace — that is, the continuous incitement of Palestinians to violence and hate against Israelis. This indoctrination (examples — here and here)
emanates from Palestinian media, mosques, schools and Websites. No such indoctrination exists on the Israeli side against Palestinians.

When will On Point feature a panel to discuss these issues? Ashbrook and On Point can be
contacted or e-mailed at [email protected].

Diane Rehm has frequently stacked the deck against Israel in her NPR talk show. The latest example is her May 23 show, “President Obama, the Middle East, and the Arab Spring,” where she provided a platform for the anti-Israel rhetoric of Hisham Melhem, an anti-Israel polemicist employed as an Arab newspaper/television journalist. Melhem took advantage of his platform, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the most unprofessional way:

Look, this is Netanyahu. We know where Netanyahu comes from… President Bill Clinton … used the F-word [in the 1990s].

Melhem stridently warned:

If the Israelis don’t withdraw and allow a Palestinian state, in 20 years — let me tell you something in terms of demography — the majority of people who live in what is today Jordan, what is today West Bank and Gaza and Israel itself will be Palestinians. So you can kiss your Jewish state goodbye in that sense. It’s going to be ipso facto bi-national state, whether you like it or not. And engaging in ethnic cleansing today is not going to be easy.

Melhem’s premise of a Middle East demographic doomsday scenario where Arabs will greatly out-populate Jews, like his other assertions, was accepted without question. But an important challenge to this scenario was ignored (“[According to] United Nations’ population forecasts: At constant fertility, Israel will have more young people by the end of this century than either Turkey or Iran, and more than Germany, Italy or Spain…[and] if present trends continue, Israel will be able to field the largest land army in the Middle East.”).

Who represented Israeli views here? Certainly not any of the other guests: Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, which erroneously presents itself as a pro-Israel organization, Lisa Anderson, president of American University in Cairo or David Sanger, New York Times Middle East reporter.

It was another typical day at the office for Rehm and company – no one representing the Israeli position in a discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Diane Rehm show can be contacted at 202-885-1231 or [email protected].