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Israeli Rightist Ad Assaulting New Israel Fund, Too Much Even for Hagee

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

I feel a bit like I’m Alice in Wonderland and John Hagee is the Mad Hatter. Today, he conceded that there is pro-Israel nationalist rhetoric that even embarrasses HIM. He was referring to this Der Shturmer-like ad smearing Naomi Hazan. Apparently, he didn’t cotton to J Street’s tying his previous anti-Semitic remarks to Im Tirtzu’s hateful anti-peace rhetoric via a $200,000 gift to the latter from his Christians United for Israel:

Im Tirtzu’s political leanings are clear. This is a pro-settler group, with $100,000 of funding from Christians United For Israel, a conservative Christian Zionist organization run by Pastor John Hagee, who once stated that God sent Hitler to drive Jews to Israel.

JTA is the source of this fascinating news. But not willing to earn credit for breaking such a great story, it typically puts its foot into it by being far too credulous in accepting the veracity of right-wing Jewish sources. Clearly, the CUFI publicist, Ari Morgenstern, fed the JTA reporter a pro-Hagee line and he accepted it hook line and sinker.

First, the reporter alleges that J Street’s attack on CUFI for its gift to Im Tirtzu is the same type of “guilt by association” used by Im Tirtzu against the New Israel Fund (i.e. blaming NIF for the actions of its grantees in cooperating with Goldstone). This is utter nonsense and clearly fed to JTA by CUFI. J Street’s goal was to indict Im Tirtzu. CUFI was merely a tool for it to do so. If J Street had intended to impugn CUFI there are far more powerful tools than a $200,000 donation to use–like Hagee’s own misbegotten words.

JTA’s second error caused by accepting CUFI’s PR line, is this inaccurate rebuttal of the J Street quotation above:

The [J Street] statement cit[ed] an eschatological analysis from the late 1990s that Hagee has since repudiated.

Bruce Wilson and Rachel Tabachnick, the activist founders of Talk2Action, rebut this claim by noting that Hagee made this statement in 2005 and has never repudiated it. In fact, they have the video to prove it. The only ‘repudiation’ that happened was John McCain renouncing Hagee’s presidential candidacy endorsement just after Talk2Action released the video footage. I have also blogged about this Hagee sermon here.

CUFI’s Ari Morgenstern seems to be the PR flack of choice for the far-right pro-Israel lobby groups. He mixed it up here with a Shelly Adelson-funded former client by claiming the latter promoted the film Obsession, only to have the client deny it, after which Morgenstern dropped a dime on her. I love it when the pro-Israel right turns on each other and (proverbial) blood runs in the streets.

I and all the things I stand for are under attack (judaismwithoutborders.org)

Tags: ari morgenstern pro israel pr flack, christians-united-for-israel, cufi $200K donation to im tirtzu, hagee anti semite, j street, jewish telegraphic agency wrong again, jta, new-israel-fund, talk2action
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 1 Comment »

JTA Attacks Israel-Palestine Blogger Panel

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Eric Fingerhut wrote a story for JTA today about the controversies swirling around J Street’s decision to cancel a performance by Josh Healy, a Jewish poet and performance artist, because of his likening of Palestinian suffering to the Holocaust. In the course of the article, Fingerhut writes this:

Another a [sic] session, which is not officially part of the conference but to which J Street is giving hotel space during the event, will include writers who have harshly criticized Israel and questioned its right to exist as a Jewish state. It is sponsored by blogger Richard Silverstein; J Street officials said they have nothing to do with the program.

Unfortunately, Fingerhut did not call me or even e mail to verify the statements with which he described our session. That actually would’ve been fair. Apparently, that’s not a value Fingerhut or JTA observes when it comes to Jews like us. If he had contacted me I would have told him that the luncheon meeting was devised by me and Jerry Haber of Magnes Zionist. While I cannot speak for every member of our panel, I know that I make very clear that I criticize Israel POLICY and not Israel itself. This is an important distinction which the Jewish right (within which I include Fingerhut) conveniently omits. As for the claim about questioning Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state–yes, there are such panel members. We have a Gazan blogger who likely doesn’t feel much sympathy for this concept. I imagine from what I know of Phil Weiss’ views, he’s quite ambivalent on this issue. Helena Cobban likely feels the same.

But let me tell Eric Fingerhut a thing or two about what this panel is meant (and not meant) to do: it is NOT meant to be carefully circumscribed as much of the political discourse on Israel within the organized Jewish community is. I don’t want to talk only to bloggers who follow a party line or who make Eric Fingerhut comfortable. I want to talk to a Gazan blogger. And davka, I want to do it during a J Street conference to give other conference guests a chance to get outside their Jewish comfort zone and hear how the other side sees things.

Will I agree with everything Laila El-Haddad says? Probably not. Will she agree with everything I say? I doubt it. But I’d rather be sitting and talking to her and 11 other provocative I-P bloggers than to Ami Eden or Eric Fingerhut or Jeffrey Goldberg. I’ll learn more from these panelists than I would from the latter three any day.

While I am a progressive Zionist, I don’t want to talk only to Zionists about critical issues facing Israel and the Jewish people. I often disagree with Phil Weiss, who does not consider himself a Zionist. I even disagree quite often with Dan Sieradski, who is a Zionist. But I refuse to put Phil Weiss in herem because he has a different view than I do on these issues. Phil Weiss deserves to be heard within the Jewish community as much as I or even Eric Fingerhut does. His views on some issues may not be at the heart of the current consensus among American Jews, but many ideas which later became commonly accepted started out at the fringes of social discourse. If we’d excommunicated Galileo and Spinoza and “disappeared” their ideas, where would intellectual thought be today?

Similarly, my friend Zvi Solow, professor at Ben Gurion University, reminds me that the political slogan shtey medinot l’shney amim (“two states for two peoples”) was first coined by Rakah, the Israeli Communist party, in the 1970s. At the time, this concept was considered politically outlandish by most Israelis. Now, even Bibi Netanyhau claims to believe in it. Does that make him an Israeli Communist? In 1972, I attended a political rally in Jerusalem advocating Israeli negotations with the PLO (which was a criminal offense). I was stoned by right-wing demonstrators. Isn’t it funny how what is treasonous in one era becomes commonplace in another. Eric Fingerhut should remember that.

JTA is part of corporate American Jewry. They would like to tell us what we can and can’t discuss within the community. But I reject this notion. They are not going to tell me who is kosher for this panel or what subjects are treif. The very reason I blog is to avoid this notion like the plague. So if you want a free-flowing debate about these ideas, come to the blogger panel and tell Eric Fingerhut and JTA that your ideas about Israel can’t be confined or controlled.

A few of the issues Jerry and I hope to cover during the discussion:

How have blogs impacted &/or changed the debate over the Israeli-Arab conflict in Israel, Palestine & the U.S.
What can we do to have a bigger impact
Iran: how can bloggers influence the debate over Iranian nukes and what can/should we do if there is a military attack
Goldstone Report, human rights & BDS

There may be other hot issues that come up bet. now and Oct. 26^th that could be added to the agenda. If you have any other issues important to you, pls. let me know. We would like to keep the issues to a small, manageable number due to the large panel & short time allotted to it.

Tags: eric fingerhut, israel palestine blogger session, j street conference, jerry-haber, jta, laila el haddad
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 2 Comments »

Bush Appoints Cheryl Halpern to UN Post

Monday, December 8th, 2008

Cheryl Halpern, Jewish neocon to the UN, Bushs' gift to Susan Rice?

I sometimes find JTA the source of unintentional humor, sometimes of a slightly dark and clammy variety. A perfect example is this item noting that George Bush has appointed one of his most loyal Jewish neocon supporters to a senior UN post. Cheryl Halpern, while she was at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting searched for anti-Semites under every NPR/PBS bed. Along with the hoch pro-Israel Rep. Brad Sherman, she sought to uproot anti-Israel bias wherever she found it. And she found it everywhere, infecting the news like a cancer. Further, she never met a UN program she couldn’t label anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. It’s people like Cheryl who were responsible–though perhaps indirectly in her case since Ken Tomlinson was more directly the culprit here–for Bill Moyers’ leaving PBS a few years back.

Because of her squelching of speech, a PBS station like KQED actually refused to accept sponsorships from as politely liberal an organization as the New Israel Fund.

I can’t tell if this is merely a reward from Bush to a loyal Jewish pro-Israel toady or a poke in the eye to the incoming Administration. All I can say is thank God and “goodbye to all that.” A new day is dawning.

I was a little alarmed by this though:

Halpern, who formerly chaired the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, would serve in the position through September, when the U.N. General Assembly’s 63rd session ends.

Can you imagine how the incoming UN ambassador Susan Rice will feel having this Islamophobic harpy on her staff? I feel like the guy fighting against Count Dracula in those old Hollywood movies–you can drive a stake through the heart of these old neocons, but they still refuse to die (politically, that is).

If there’s the faintest chance this woman is in her post after January 20th I’ll make it my personal crusade to hound her out of office if that’s at all possible. I’d like her letter of resignation tomorrow. But I’ll settle for January 20th.

Thanks for the tip from RM.

Tags: cheryl halpern, corporation for public broadcasting, jta, un
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 2 Comments »

JTA’s Ace Reporting on Kosher Slaughterhouses

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

I just received a fundraising appeal from JTA, the leading national Jewish news agency. In it, Mark Joffe, the publisher, boasts of the most important reporting achievement he can muster to inspire donors to open their pocketbooks. This tells you a lot about where JTA sees its core audience:

When federal agents raided the country’s largest kosher meat plant, arresting hundreds of workers and bringing the operation to a halt, JTA was quick to notify the Jewish world of both the alleged mistreatment of workers and the threat to the kosher meat supply.

JTA was the only Jewish news organization to fly a reporter to Iowa to cover the unfolding story on the ground.

That type of special coverage costs money. As an independent non-profit, JTA relies on donations from readers like you to make it possible. Our mission is to foster an ongoing conversation in the Jewish community and bring the Jewish world a little bit closer together.

I don’t want to demean meat-eating kosher Jews for whom such news is undoubtedly important. But this is the best that JTA can offer its readers in terms of its achievements? This is where it sinks its staff time and travel budget?

And note, highlighting a story that impacts at best a small minority of the Jewish community is designed to “foster an ongoing conversation in the Jewish community and bring the Jewish world a little bit closer together.” I’d say rather it’s an attempt to curry favor with the Orthodox community for whom kosher slaughterhouses may be big news.

JTA’s coverage of Israel does not foster a conversation or bring the Jewish world closer together. It merely reinforces the corporate Jewish message that we are supposedly one, one with Israel, one with each other. It’s Israel coverage challenges nothing, questions nothing, and informs hardly at all.

I truly wish JTA was the kind of journalistic organization I COULD support with a gift. I’d be delighted to do so. But until their reporting better reflects the diversity of Israeli and American Jewish opinion on the Israeli-Arab conflict, it’s too hard for me to justify such giving. I’d rather support organizations that are promoting peace in the Middle East.

Tags: jta, kosher slaughterhouse
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 6 Comments »

JTA Publishes Foxman Fictions

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Just about everyone knows about Abe Foxman’s one track mind. Well, maybe two tracks. One track is anti-Semitism and the other is his conservative pro-Israel politics. In a JTA essay, Abe has tried to branch out into new territory with disastrous results. The result should embarrass Abe as well as JTA, though I doubt it will. I call it JTA enabling Foxman’s fictions and follies.

In his piece, Foxman attempts to cast aspersion on Switzerland’s recent energy deal with Iran. He claims that the former has broken with the international community in its effort to isolate the Persian supposed nuclear state-in-the-making.

The only problem with Foxman’s argument is that Israel too has energy dealings with Iran, albeit ones it tries to disguise as best it can. Writing in the Swiss newspaper Sonntag, Shraga Elam reveals (in German) that Israel purchases large amounts of Iranian oil through European third parties. With Shraga’s cooperation I reported his story at Comment is Free last week. In European ports like Rotterdam, the oil’s paperwork is changed so that it can be imported into Israel without any markings indicating its real origin.

This oil trade takes place through a joint Iranian-Israeli company established during the Shah’s reign and now controlled by Israel. Iran has demanded the return of the firm’s assets and claimed they were worth $5-billion as of 1998. You can imagine how much more the firm is worth ten years later. This sum is an indication of the size of Israel’s oil trade with Iran.

So come off it, Abe. What are you and Israel complaining about? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. And may I ask Abe to explain this statement by Israeli energy minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer defending the oil trade (followed by Elam’s summary of the foreign ministry’s attitude toward the dealings):

“Every attempt for contact with an enemy state that serves Israeli business and economic interests, strengthens the stability of the region.” And from the Israeli foreign ministry one could hear that it is not their business to inquire where the oil comes from.

Ben Eliezer has no problem buying Iranian oil. The foreign ministry casts a blind eye. But Abe Foxman is in high moral dudgeon over it. Where does Abe get off being holier than the Pope on this?

Such Iran-Israel trade is technically legal since Iran is not defined under Israel law as an enemy country. However, it smacks of the utmost hypocrisy for Israel and the Israel lobby to be complaining about the Swiss when Israel itself can’t get rid of its sweet tooth for high-quality Iranian crude. I should add that Iran itself displays equal hypocrisy because it has imposed its own boycott of Israeli trade which it is violating.

Next, Foxman really goes to town on the Swiss for their extraordinary temerity in advocating for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Geneva Accords are the focus of Abe’s wrath:

[Swiss foreign minister] Calmy-Rey has also tried to undercut Israel’s diplomacy. Brazenly disregarding Israel’s sovereignty and democratically elected government, Switzerland sponsored negotiations between private Israeli and Palestinian individuals, known as the Geneva Accord.

Unlike the Oslo negotiations, which were backed by the Israeli government after the first couple of private meetings, the Swiss project was officially rejected by Israel and the Swiss ambassador summoned to receive a protest.

Regardless of the content of the resulting document, the Swiss action represented an inexcusable intrusion by a foreign government in the peace process and an end run around the “road map” that reflected the will of the international community and demanded an end to Palestinian terrorism as a condition of further Israeli steps.

Foxman is really off the deep end here. Instead of welcoming any nation’s sincere efforts at advancing the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace, Foxman sees Geneva and the Swiss involvement in it as intended to harm Israel’s interests. It doesn’t matter that former Israeli and Palestinian government ministers participated in the talks. They were still, to Foxman’s mind, hostile to Israel. This is beyond far-fetched.

You knew that Abe couldn’t leave this subject without his other bete-noire, anti-Semitism, rearing its ugly head. Because Switzerland trades with the Iran and hosted the Geneva Accords this means they are somehow continuing their tacit historic support for Nazism and anti-Semitism:

In the battles against the Nazi regime during World War II and communism during the Cold War, Switzerland pursued its narrow self-interest by professing neutrality.

Today the Swiss appear to be taking the same approach in the current global war against the radical Islamist threat, spearheaded by Iran, which menaces Israel’s existence and the security of the West.

But let’s get to Foxman’s fictions. Anyone who follows the Israeli press accounts of the incident in question will immediately smell a rat:

In one egregious example, Israel’s raid on a Jericho prison in 2006 was denounced for “violat[ing] the principle of proportionality.” In that incident, Israeli soldiers had surrounded the prison, which five armed terrorists, including the assassins of an Israeli government minister, had taken over.

One prisoner and one prison guard were killed in an exchange of fire…

Palestinian prisoners arrested in jericho jail attack

Here’s what really happened: several Palestinian militants associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were imprisoned for their involvement in the assassination of Israeli minister Rehevam Zeevi. They were guarded by British and U.S. personnel. When those nations decided their security guards were not receiving the protection they expected they withdrew them. The PA (then controlled by Hamas) made noises about releasing the prisoners, though it did not do so. Ehud Olmert, then in the thick of an election campaign, decided to take advantage of the situation by orchestrating what I called a “jailbreak in reverse.” He sent massive amounts of firepower to Jericho, bulldozed the jail, arrested (“kidnapped” might be a better word for it) the PFLP prisoners, spirited them back to Israel. The Palestinian prisoners were paraded in their skivvies before a world audience to their utter humiliation. Israelis loved the spectable and Olmert promptly watched as his poll numbers skyrocketed.

Contrary to Foxman, Haaretz reports that three PA security guards were killed. By the way, these guards were supervising the prisoners. At no time were the latter either armed or in control of the prison as Foxman claims. No prisoners were reported killed as Foxman claims.

You can see that Foxman’s description is nothing like what actually happened. But he relies on his readers’ implict trust that what he purveys is truth when it is at best slanted and at worst lies. Which leads one to question his credibility in general. I’ve written extensively here about JTA errors involved in its Israel reporting. The last time I wrote about one, JTA even issued a correction (but only after another journalist picked up on my post). In this case, the error is only secondarily that of JTA since it merely enabled Foxman’s falsehoods by publishing them without properly vetting them. But it’s still a shoddy piece of journalism whatever way you look at it.

Thanks to Sol Salbe for his usual eagle eye in spotting this story.

Tags: abe-foxman, israel attacks jericho jail, israel buys iranian oil, jewish-telegraphic-agency, jta, pflp, shraga elam, Swiss foreign policy blunders on Iran and Israel positi, swiss violate iran boycott
Posted in Mideast Peace | 2 Comments »

JTA Acknowledges Error Claiming 20% of East Jerusalem Arabs Involved in Terror

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Commenting at Gershom Gorenberg’s South Jerusalem blog, Ruth Abrams reveals that JTA has issued a correction to its subscribers saying that Leslie Susser’s report that Israeli police sources claimed 20% of East Jerusalem Palestinians were implicated in terrorism was wrong. I’d reported the error to Ami Eden of JTA. Given our rocky history, Ami didn’t see fit to communicate directly to me the correction. Probably doesn’t want to admit to me that this happened.

Of course, the damage has been done and few if any Jewish papers carrying the original report will note the serious error. That will mean that countless America Jews will carry in their minds the idea that 45,000 East Jerusalem Arabs are terrorists.

If only JTA’s Israel-related stories adhered to standards of other good Jewish journalism like that practiced at The Forward or Jewish Week.

Gershom, being the good journalist he is, followed up on the JTA report with the interior ministry’s office and discovered that at most a few hundred East Jerusalem residents are implicated in even the remotest way with terrorism. That’s a far sight better than 45,000!

Tags: false claim 20 percent east jerusalem arabs involved in, gershom-gorenberg, jta, south-jerusalem
Posted in Mideast Peace | No Comments »

JTA Dredges Up More Obamaphobia

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Apparently, some right-wing Jewish individual or group (this smacks of Mort Klein and ZOA or someone of that ilk) has fed yet a new Obama smear story to JTA with which to regale American Jews and plant new doubts in their mind. The latest example of Jewish Obamaphobia involves, you guessed it, Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Apparently his Church’s newsletter reprinted an L.A. Times op-ed column written by a Hamas representative arguing that Hamas should not be expected to recognize Israel before negotiating with it.

Let’s get real here. Many Israeli and American Jewish analysts (including a former Mossad director) agree with the Hamas position here. So what’s the problem? If the L.A. Times didn’t find it was fomenting terrorism and Israel hatred by publishing the original column why can’t the Pastor’s church republish it?

People, this is going too far. As a result of this lunacy, Obama feels compelled to get down on his knees and beg the Jewish community’s forgiveness for something that wasn’t his doing in the first place; and in the second, wasn’t even something that Wright should have to apologize for (unless that is the L.A. Times should also apologize for publishing it in the first place). Here’s Obama’s craven response:

“I have already condemned my former pastor’s views on Israel in the strongest possible terms, and I certainly wasn’t in church when that outrageously wrong Angeles Times piece was re-printed in the bulletin,” Obama said in a statement emailed to JTA late Thursday, and referring to critics who noted that Obama had been in church when Wright had made controversial statements. “Hamas is a terrorist organization, responsible for the deaths of many innocents, and dedicated to Israel’s destruction, as evidenced by their bombarding of Sderot in recent months. I support requiring Hamas to meet the international community’s conditions of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and abiding by past agreements before they are treated as a legitimate actor.”

This is a sorry statement which takes us back quite a ways in figuring a way to get Israel and the Palestinians (including Hamas) together to negotiate a way out of their impasse. The Jewish community is forcing Barack Obama to go through ever smaller hoops in order to get, or not to lose its support. Pretty soon the hoop will be as wide as the eye of a needle and neither Obama nor a camel can thread that.

It speaks volumes that JTA thought this story was newsworthy. They’re carrying water for Hillary, McCain or the Republican Jewish Coalition whether they know it or not.

Hat tip to Sam Smith for featuring this story at his blog.

Tags: Hamas stand, hamas-recognition-of-israel, jta, los-angeles-times, Obama blasts Hamas op-ed, obamaphobia
Posted in Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | No Comments »

Muzzlewatch-JTA Mutual Admiration Society

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Don’t get me wrong here. I like Muzzlewatch. I really do. And I understand that Muzzlewatch is different than Tikun Olam. It is the voice of Jewish Voice for Peace. As such it represents an organizational agenda where my blog represents a personal agenda.

JVP’s website’s weekly newsletter notes with pride that Ami Eden, JTA’s managing editor, would’ve included Cecilie Surasky, Muzzlewatch’s editor in the Forward’s Famous 50 list. I know as outsiders we Jewish progressives are all hankering to influence the mainstream political debate. We’re looking for that good word confirming that what we do impacts the mainstream. Hell, I’m even guilty of that myself. So I know how good it must’ve felt to JVP to get his praise. It means that maybe JVP could leverage such approbation to penetrate a wider audience–to get its voice heard by more people.

I mean it would be great to get onto the list–though you would share it with the likes of Michael Mukasey, Norman Podhoretz, Abe Foxman, Alan Dershowitz, Howard Kohr, Sheldon Adelson, Peter Deutsch (founder of the nation’s first “Jewish” public school), David Brog (Christians United for Israel), Charles Jacobs (David Project), Rita Katz (SITE Institute, anti-Muslim anti-terror group), Ronald Lauder, Michael Steinhardt, and Shlomo Cunin (Chabad). But I can’t help feeling awkward about Muzzelwatch basking in Ami Eden’s praise.

After all, this is the same JTA that published Mort Klein’s fake Desmond Tutu quote that supposedly equated Israel with Hitler. The same Ami Eden who called me a liar because I rightly noted that JTA had not apologized for smearing Tutu’s name. The same JTA which quoted a Maariv report which fraudulently claimed that Hamas called for the elimination of Jews from Palestine and never bothered to correct the report. The same JTA which couldn’t manage to find a single source to defend Danny Rubinstein’s use of the term apartheid to describe Israel’s Occupation policy. The same JTA which recycled fraudulent claims about the research of Barnard tenure candidate Nadia Abu El Haj and again couldn’t manage to find a single source to interview who would defend her. The same JTA which published a Ron Kampeas story about the Walt-Mearsheimer book asking whether they were “on drugs” when they wrote it.

It is really tempting to see Ami Eden’s comment as an indicator that Muzzlewatch has heft in the mainstream Jewish media. And it would be great news if this were so. But given JTA’s spotty (to say the least) journalistic record under Ami Eden–a record that predated him to be fair–the praise would give me as much pause as pleasure.

Tags: ami-eden, forward-famous-50, jta, muzzlewatch
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 6 Comments »