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West Coast Memorial celebrating the life and work of Alexander Cockburn
Alexander Cockburn
June 06, 1941 – July 21, 2012
Master of Ceremonies – Jeffrey St. Clair
Speakers
Joseph Paff
Conn Hallinan
Alison Weir
Scott Handleman
David Yearsley
Fred Gardner, with guitar
Becky Grant
Jack Heyman
Justin Raimondo
Zach Blue
Sheryl Chard
Frank Bardacke
Bruce Anderson
Daisy Cockburn*
COUNTERPUNCH, Weekend Edition September 14-16, 2012Cockburn, the Israel Lobby and the Palestinians
Ripping Open the Curtain on the Forbidden
Alexander Cockburn was a brilliant, witty, and courageous opponent of falsehoods and injustice. He stood on the side of the oppressed, the weak, and the victimized – even those victims that many writers and human rights defenders chose to ignore.
With his scathing intellect, engaging talent, far ranging knowledge, and quick humor, the Oxford-educated Cockburn could have become a celebrated, wealthy journalist – the kind whose lucrative articles are consistently published in top journals, whose best-selling books are reviewed widely throughout the media, and whose commentary is in demand by the top television and radio news programs.
Instead, he used his extraordinary abilities to skewer dishonesty, expose cruelty and hypocrisy, and spread facts that many wished to remain hidden.
Although he was not known as an activist on Israel-Palestine, I believe that history will show Alexander Cockburn to have been one of the most important figures in the quest for justice in Palestine. While most others on the left were largely ignoring, obscuring, or misrepresenting the facts on this issue, Cockburn was exposing them.In fact, he lost his first major position in the U.S., as a writer for the Village Voice, because of his articles discussing Israel-Palestine and Israel’s ruthless invasion of Lebanon. His pieces earned the enmity of both Zionists and those who claimed they weren’t, but who had what former Voice writer James Wolcott describes as a “gravitational pull to Israel.”
When Cockburn received a $10,000 research grant from the Massachusetts-based Institute for Arab Studies to investigate Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Israel partisans saw this as a way to get rid of him. (He had been recommended for the grant by Columbia professor Edward Said.)
An article published by the Boston Phoenix after Cockburn’s death, “How the Boston Phoenix Got Alexander Cockburn Fired from the Village Voice,” gives some of the details.
The Phoenix, which was then published by Israel partisan Stephen Mindich (and now by his son), reported on the grant in an article written by Alan Lupo, a writer with a record of consistent pro-Israel bias in his articles. The piece was headlined “Alexander Cockburn’s $10,000 Arab connection” and subtitled “A question of propriety.” For his story Lupo phoned Village Voice Editor David Schneiderman, who eventually suspended Cockburn because of an alleged “conflict of interest.”
Other pro-Israel journalists gleefully took up the refrain, suggesting that Cockburn had acted improperly in accepting money from “the Arabs.” Recent obituaries mentioned the incident and continued this spin.
The validity of this charge, however, is significantly diminished by the fact that receiving a grant from an American foundation is normal, acceptable, and standard practice, as evidenced by the multitude of books in which author acknowledgements thank the various foundations that have funded their research.
As James Wolcott pointed out in his Vanity Fair blog: “Much handwringing to-do was made at the time of the incident about the need for journalistic transparency and accountability and such but let’s be honest — if it had been a Jewish-American organization or Israel front forking off the relative piddling sum of $10 thou, there hardly would have been this gummy uproar.”
Wolcott went on to note, “Imagine how many Beltway pundits, commentators, consultants and the like are on the take today via speaking fees, serving on panels, free fact-finding trips to the Mideast, etc. Alex’s sin was in aligning with the wrong team.”
The articles in 1984 and since that focused on Cockburn’s alleged “impropriety” failed to mention the fact that, according to prominent pro-Israel journalist Michael Kinsley, numerous journalists have gone to Israel on trips financed by the Israeli government – a far sketchier proposition. *
Governmental funding of journalism, in fact, is considered so problematic that a number of Israel Lobby organizations such as Act for Israel and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy have now stepped in to finance such journalistic junkets to Israel, removing the need for the Israeli government to be directly involved.
The fact that many journalists go on these Lobby-financed junkets also went unmentioned in the articles that brought up Cockburn’s allegedly improper grant and supposed conflict of interest. Also unmentioned was the fact that many journalists reporting on Israel-Palestine have close family – and sometimes personal – ties to the Israel military.
And there is still more to the story – which also is not referenced in recent obituaries. According to a 1992 article by former AIPAC insider Gregory Slabodkin, “AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] was the source of the original Phoenix story.” AIPAC is a leading institution in the Israel Lobby.
In his article, “The Secret Section in Israel’s U.S. Lobby That Stifles American Debate” published by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Slabodkin described how AIPAC secretly monitors individuals critical of Israel and feeds negative information about them to the media.
Slabodkin, who used to work for the section within AIPAC responsible for this surreptitious activity, reported that Lupo “said AIPAC had told him the Institute for Arab Studies was ‘linked to a $100 million campaign to sway U.S. policy against Israel.’” In reality, Slabodkin reported, “the Institute had U.S. tax-exempt status and listed individual contributors within the United States until it closed down in 1983 due to a lack of funds.”
Slabodkin discussed AIPAC’S promulgation of anti-Arab bigotry as a tactic to protect Israel: “AIPAC attempted to discredit critics of Israel not by refuting their arguments, but by trying to tie them to Arab money. Making an Arab connection can damage the victim’s reputation, the pro-Israel lobby believes, so long as it can encourage a mindset in the United States that anything Arab-related is tainted.”
While Voice Editor Schneiderman at first defended Cockburn, he eventually went along with the charges, suspending him for what he claimed was a conflict of interest, and Cockburn left.
Schneiderman, who had originally been hired to edit the Voice by Rupert Murdoch, went into increasingly lucrative directions, eventually making tens of millions of dollars by turning the Village Voice and its offspring into advertising money machines, largely through classified ads, some of which eventually got the paper sued for the grotesque sex trafficking they enabled. He is currently employed at a PR firm advising global corporations on corporate communications, crises, antitrust and other regulatory matters, labor relations, and environmental issues.
Cockburn, on the other hand, continued to skewer the powerful, mendacious, hypocritical, and cruel. His biting and occasionally very funny essays were published in periodicals from the Nation to the Wall Street Journal, both of which employed him as a columnist, and collected in his book Corruptions of Empire and others.
A scan of these reveals that in the 1980s he was already exposing the neocons and their appaling agenda. In “The Gospel According to Ali Agca,” originally published in the Nation in 1985, he described the CBS documentary “Terrorism: War in the Shadows,” and reported the implied challenge by alleged “terrorism expert” Robert Kupperman not to let TV images of “charred babies” and our guilt over Vietnam interfere with our commitment to fighting “terrorists.”
CounterPunch
Most important, in 1998 Cockburn and co-editor Jeffrey St. Clair brought CounterPunch online. In subsequent years they created an extraordinarily non-doctrinaire muckraking website where independent writers could cover a wide variety of topics fully, accurately, and without being constrained by positions decreed by political orthodoxy.
CounterPunch has covered Israel-Palestine with a thoroughness and honesty that few if any other non-specialty publications have approached. Moreover, it has been uniquely open to pieces by writers from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
I am personally indebted to CounterPunch, which was the first general interest publication to publish my pieces on the topic. Without CounterPunch, I think it is quite likely that my articles on Israel-Palestine would never have made it into the small, fairly closed world of highly regarded progressive general interest publications.
While most other media were covering Israel-Palestine very little, if at all – and were frequently obscuring such central issues as the Palestinian right of return, the systemic discrimination within Israel itself, the power of the Israel Lobby in the U.S., and Israel partisans’ direct connections to the invasion of Iraq – CounterPunch contributors were exposing all in meticulous, principled detail.
When former Zionists worked on a campaign to blackball some writers, including two Israeli anti-Zionist authors, for allegedly going too far in their subject matter, CounterPunch refused to bow to the attempted party line and continued to publish their thought provoking, often highly informative pieces.
The importance of what Cockburn and co-editor St. Clair have achieved in CounterPunch cannot be overstated. Without CounterPunch, it is quite likely that essential information on Israel-Palestine would have remained largely hidden from progressive American readers. CounterPunch not only published critical facts itself; by carrying thoroughly cited articles on information that had previously been buried, it also pushed other American publications and individuals into discussing Palestine with greater depth, frequency, and honesty.
The censorship on Israel-Palestine has been far more serious and profound than most people realize. It has pervaded both the left and the right and has long worked to minimize informed discussion on the subject and prevent effective work for justice and peace.
CounterPunch ripped open the curtain.
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* Kinsley’s revelation about this came in his essay “Cockburn the Barbarian: Lessons in journalistic ethics from a veteran of an infamous Israeli junket,” Washington Monthly, April 1984. Online at http://www.unz.org/Pub/WashingtonMonthly-1984apr-00035** Robert Kupperman was in on the ground floor of building the war against certain types of terror. He created the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism under President Richard Nixon. This was in response to Palestinian fighters who had taken eleven Israeli athletes hostage to use in an exchange to free Palestinian men and women held (and tortured) in Israeli prisons. When Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir refused to consider such an exchange, a bungled rescue attempt resulted in the hostages being killed. The next day Israel launched air attacks against Lebanon and Syria, killing between 200 and 500 Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians, mostly civilians.”
When the UN Security Council tried to pass a resolution condemning these raids, the U.S. vetoed it, only the second time that the U.S. had vetoed a Security Council resolution in its history. This was the beginning of a long string of vetoes perpetrated to shield Israel from international condemnation of various massacres and other human rights abuses, creating extreme hostility toward the U.S. and escalating Americans’ risk from retaliatory “terror.” For more information see “The U.S. Cast the First of 29 Security Council Vetoes to Shield Israel” by Donald Neff, Washington Report on Middlel East Affairs Sept-Oct, 1993, p. 82. Also in Fifty Years of Israel, by Donald Neff, published by the American Educational Trust. Online at http://www.wrmea.org/archives/150-washington-report-archives-1988-1993/september-october-1993/7306-the-us-cast-the-first-of-29-security-council-vetoes-to-shield-israel.html
For information on American journalists’ ties to the Israeli military see Alison Weir’s article “US Media and Israeli Military: All in the Family”.
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AP again skews the story, this time about Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers
…It’s interesting to examine how the Associated Press reported on a recent statement by the UN envoy to Israel-Palestine demanding that Israel protect Palestinian farmers from daily attacks by Israeli settlers.
The situation is dire for Palestinian farmers. In the first weeks of the olive harvest, a critical period for sustaining their families, Palestinian farmers have suffered daily attacks by Israelis (often armed) living in nearby settlements…
Settlements are illegal colonies on confiscated Palestinian land that not only bar the Palestinians from whom the land has been confiscated, they also bar citizens of Israel who are Christian and Muslim from living in them.
In its lead paragraph AP reported, “The U.N. Middle East envoy says he’s alarmed by attacks blamed on Israeli settlers against Palestinian farmers and their olive trees.”
The AP headline said: “UN envoy alarmed by attacks on Palestinian trees.”
Somehow the word “farmers” didn’t make the cut, implying that the UN envoy was alarmed about what could seem a minimal concern and playing into Israeli claims that the UN is unduly picking on Israel.
While the headline might sound like the UN envoy is quibbling over Palestinian trees while people (Israelis) are suffering, the true situation is lost entirely: that these trees are the livelihood for entire village communities whose subsistence is at stake.
Also, AP’s paraphrase of the envoy’s statement is far milder than his actual words: “I am alarmed at recent reports that Israeli settlers in the West Bank have repeatedly attacked Palestinian farmers and destroyed hundreds of their olive trees at the height of the harvest season.”
The envoy, Robert Serry, also said:
“These acts are reprehensible and I call on the Government of Israel to bring those responsible to justice.”
AP left that out.
Serry also said:
“Israel must live up to its commitments under international law to protect Palestinians and their property in the occupied territory so that the olive harvest – a crucial component of Palestinian livelihoods and the Palestinian economy – can proceed unhindered and in peace.”
AP also left that out.
Two Israeli human rights groups had released reports on the Israeli attacks a few days earlier.
One, B’Tselem, said that it had documented five such settler attacks on Palestinian farmers in the previous four days, and called on the Israeli army and police “to investigate each incident,” as well as complaints that Israeli soldiers, who are legally required to protect the civilian population under their control, “did not intervene to prevent attacks.”
AP also left that out.
The report by the other Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, stated that of 162 attacks on Palestinian trees since 2005, only one case had led to charges.
AP also left that out.
The Yesh Din report also stated that the Israeli failure to investigate the attacks is “only one aspect of its continuous and broad failure to enforce the law against ideological crimes by Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the occupied territories.”
AP also left that out.
A recent story in Ma’an News reports that over 7,500 Palestinian olive trees were destroyed by Israelis throughout 2011, according to The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs.
AP also left that out.
Below is the AP story found on US newspaper websites in its entirety. Below that is the AP story in an Israeli newspaper.
Note that there are two significant paragraphs in the middle of the Israeli story that are not in the US version. I am placing them in boldface.
AP sends different versions of its articles to its different wires and in my experience generally sends milder articles on this topic to its US wire than to other wires.
Whether AP omitted those significant paragraphs from its US version of the story or the Israeli editors added them, we know that AP had easy access to that important context – and chose not to include it in its report to American audiences.
AP story for US news media:
UN envoy alarmed by attacks on Palestinian trees
The U.N. Middle East envoy says he’s alarmed by attacks blamed on Israeli settlers against Palestinian farmers and their olive trees.
Robert Serry says Israel must do more to protect Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, in a statement sent to reporters Sunday. Israel’s military had no immediate comment. The West Bank, claimed by the Palestinians for a state, is under Israeli military rule.
An Israeli rights organization, B’Tselem, counts 450 Palestinian-owned trees either damaged or uprooted since the harvest season began on October 10.
Every year a small number of extremist Jewish settlers carry out attacks during harvest season. Most attacks occur close to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olive groves provide crucial income for Palestinian farmers.
AP story in Israeli newspaper:
UN envoy alarmed by attacks on Palestinian trees
The UN’s Middle East envoy said on Sunday that he’s alarmed by attacks blamed on Israeli settlers against Palestinian farmers and their olive trees.
Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said that Israel must do more to protect Palestinians and their property in the West Bank in a statement sent to reporters.
Israel’s military had no immediate comment. The West Bank, claimed by the Palestinians for a state, is under Israeli military rule.
“I am alarmed at recent reports that Israeli settlers in the West Bank have repeatedly attacked Palestinian farmers and destroyed hundreds of their olive trees at the height of the harvest season,” Serry wrote. “These acts are reprehensible and I call on the Government of Israel to bring those responsible to justice.”
He continued: “Israel must live up to its commitments under international law to protect Palestinians and their property in the occupied territory so that the olive harvest – a crucial component of Palestinian livelihoods and the Palestinian economy – can proceed unhindered and in peace.”
An Israeli rights organization, B’Tselem, counts 450 Palestinian-owned trees either damaged or uprooted since the harvest season began on October 10.
Every year a small number of extremist Jewish settlers carry out attacks during harvest season. Most attacks occur close to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olive groves provide crucial income for Palestinian farmers.
A 2006 study of AP’s coverage of Israel-Palestine found that AP covered Israeli children’s deaths at a rate over seven times greater than it reported on Palestinian children’s deaths.
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Hoax or true? Blog: ‘I was a paid Internet shill for Israel’
The following blog posting seems plausible. A number of articles in recent years have come out desribing projects by Israel and by Israeli partisans to assume false identities on the Internet.
However, despite its plausibility, the piece below is unconfirmed and may be a hoax. I’m posting it here so that people can investigate it for themselves:
I Was a Paid Internet Shill,Topic started on 3-4-2012 @ 10:30 PM by ExShill
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Alice Rothchild: “The Big Hats”
I was just forwarded the following blog posting, written by Alice Rothchild, who apparently is in Palestine with the DCI Delegation (http://www.dorothycottoninstitute.org/ ). (I hope she isn’t now “disavowed” for her subject matter!)
[When I have the url for these posts, I’ll add it so that people can go directly to the source.]The Big Hats
I am traveling to Israel/Palestine with a group of African-American civil rights leaders, theologians, scholars, activists, feminists, and fellow travelers under the guidance and affirmation of the Dorothy Cotton Institute. We are guided by the words and deeds of Martin Luther King and the men and women who continue to walk in his footsteps. This is a powerful legacy to examine the world, not particularly Jewish or Christian or secular, but breathing with a love and respect for human and civil rights, expansion of democracy, and the uncompromising fight for justice.
But before we even step into the hot Mediterranean sun, the troubles start in the waiting area of the JFK Airport in New York. For me, it is something about the clusters of men with tall brimmed hats perched on top of their heads, (concealing their yarmulkes,) the long black coats, the various frizzy beards , the tsitzit dancing from their shirts. We are in this jumble of travelers and I am horrified to think I am beginning this momentous delegation with a moment of ethnic profiling. Women with wigs or scarves (in my vernacular, schmatas,) tied at the napes of their necks, herd quantities of children (often ages one, two, three on up…) while their men bend and pray in the central waiting area, davening methodically, hands pressed to their faces, noses deep in prayer books. For reasons I can’t quite explain, I am awash in this weird blend of embarrassment and hostility. I am filled with an urge to apologize to my non-Jewish comrades for the behavior of my landsmen.
First , I try pretending they are Amish, or Sikh, or devoutly Muslim, but the body language does not work and I am still searching for my tolerance. Is it too much self-entitlement and too little of the humble supplicant? Is it the spatial dominance? The men do not even acknowledge a brazen hussy like I am beginning to feel. Only men pray, while their women manage the progeny; the feminist in me begins to squirm. During the three hour wait for the nonstop to Tel Aviv, we line up an hour early, bodies crushed together for the second round of security, (does any other country do this?); this time shoes off, but keep your one gallon sealed bag of liquids in the backpack, but yes you take off your jacket: keeping us off balance, conveying that sense of danger lurking, but those Israelis sure know how to protect us.
I suspect Delta already understands this is a difficult group to get into their seats. Many of our delegation are asked to change seats, “I need to be near my husband.” “I do not sit next to women, (not actually spoken but gestured.)” (Are there racial overtones?). The tenor is generally argumentative, though there are certainly lovely travelers to be found, but it is clear that the ultra-Orthodox are running this plane and their sense of dominance of the space is palpable. There were 150 kosher meals out of 400+, but the overriding accommodation of need went to the men in hats. I will ignore the praying in the aisles, the drawn shades so that morning would not come at an inconvenient time which would only require more praying and more tefillin and blocked aisles. Let’s just talk hats.
After switching my seat, I watched the endless dance of the hats, each perched in the overhead compartment, demanding space of its own, rearranged countless times with each new piece of overhead luggage; a level of pushing and shoving and entitlement that I have unfortunately come to associate with the caricature of Israelis, an old joke with the punch line, “ the people who do not know how to say, ‘I’m sorry.’”
By now I am torturing myself. Would I be so critical if I was observing some African customs or conservative Muslims turning towards Mecca and praying five times a day or am I angry because these folks are part of my own tribe and I feel responsible? I keep repeating my new mantras: Practice loving kindness. Speak truth with grace. This will be my greatest challenge on this trip, to be an active member of the” beloved community,” to feel nonviolence and kindness in my heart when I much more likely to be enraged.
Delta Airlines, on the other hand, has flown to Tel Aviv with these folks before. There is a rule (danger lurking everywhere) that when we enter Israeli airspace, everyone must be seated. We get a 30 minute warning to finish with the rituals and the bathroom (they have just filled us with coffee). This warning is repeated at five minute intervals building to a crescendo. This goes on for the 30 minutes before we are confined to our seats, as if the stewardesses knew this crowd has a mind of its own. (I think of my children when they were young enough to be testing the limits of parental control: three minute warning, followed by, if you don’t sit down I am counting to ten.) In my sleep deprived state I picture the stewardesses tackling a tall bearded man lost in prayer, wrestling him to his seat, knocking his hat to the floor.
And then a moment of clarity as the caffeine hits my brain: how can I separate the entitlement in the airport, the claiming of space in the airplane, from Jewish behavior in Jerusalem/Al Quds, in the West Bank, in Israeli society. These ultra-Orthodox Hassidim have come to symbolize for me the arrogant power of Zionism that is making Israel the militaristic, nationalistic country that has broken my heart and made my ashamed.
I look out as the Mediterranean coast sweeps into view. High rises start to sprout from the haze and palm trees come into focus and I am weeping.
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Reports reflect the views of the individuals writing them and do not necessarily represent the Dorothy Cotton Institute, the Center for Transformative Action, Interfaith Peace Builders or other delegates or the organizations with which they are affiliated.
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CNN seems to consider damaged motorcycle more important than injured Palestinian children
CNN’s choice of a photo for its latest online news story on Israel-Palestine is revealing.
In its report on the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, “Palestinians: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 1, wound 15,” CNN features one photo. It is a picture of a charred motorcycle.
CNN reports: “Palestinian militants say they have fired 20 mortar rounds from Gaza into Israel in retaliation for airstrikes that killed one person and wounded 15 others.”
Later in the story CNN mentions that some of the “others” were children but gives no additional details. According to reports from other sources, at least five of the injured were children, including one infant.
There are a number of photographs of these children.
Yet, CNN didn’t publish any of them, and instead used a photo of a motorcycle.
Below are some of the photos CNN missed. (Click on each photo to see the source.)
In the last paragraph of its story, CNN reports: “On the Israeli side, there were no injuries and only minor property damage…”
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Below is the CNN story:
Palestinians: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 1, wound 15
updated 12:19 PM EDT, Mon October 8, 2012(CNN) — Palestinian militants say they have fired 20 mortar rounds from Gaza into Israel in retaliation for airstrikes that killed one person and wounded 15 others.
The Israel Defense Force said an airstrike Sunday evening targeted two members of a Gaza-based jihad network who were suspected in a June attack that left an Israeli Arab citizen dead.
Two militants and nine civilians, including children, were injured when a rocket hit a motorcycle in Rafah, a town on the Gaza-Egypt border, said Ashraf al-Qidra, a Gaza Health Ministry spokesman. One of those victims died of his wounds Monday.
The IDF, meanwhile, said it targeted terror operations in southern Gaza on Monday following another round of mortars.
The IDF said it responded to the rockets by launching tank shells, though a Health Ministry official in Gaza said it was an airstrike.
Five more people were injured in that operation, the Health Ministry spokesman said Monday.
On the Israeli side, there were no injuries and only minor property damage reported in the barrage, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
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Related story:
NY Times headline reverses chronology, story leaves out important information: Does the New York Times consider Israeli goats more important than Palestinian children?
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NY Times headline reverses chronology, story leaves out important information
Does the New York Times consider Israeli goats more important than Palestinian children?
Today’s New York Times features a headline that reverses the sequence of events described in the story it is allegedly representing. It also omits significant information.The headline reads: “Israel Launches Airstrikes After Attacks From Gaza” in a story bylined by Isabel Kershner. In other words, in its usual fashion, the New York Times headline tells readers that Israeli violence is defensive and came after Palestinians initiated the violence.
In reality, it was the opposite, as the lead paragraph states: “ militants from fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells into Israeli territory on Monday, causing no casualties but some property damage, AFTER an Israeli airstrike wounded at least 10 Palestinians in southern Gaza on Sunday [emphasis added].”
Farther down, the story reports, “The latest flare-up began with the [Israeli] missile strike on Sunday against two men who Israel said were members of jihadist groups…. at least eight passers-by were also injured.”
In addition to reversing the party responsible for the initiation of violence, the Times‘ story also omits information about the 8 people who were “also injured.” Were they old men? Women? Children? What is the nature of their injuries? Will any be permanent?
The Times doesn’t tell us. Yet, while reporter Isabel Kershner didn’t bother to obtain or convey this information, she does tell us, “Several goats were killed in a petting zoo in an Israeli communal farm…”
Other news media provide some of the missing information. According to the Middle East Media Center (IMEMC), an infant and four other children were among the injured. Three of the injured are in serious condition. IMEMC reports that the missiles were fired into a crowded area that included school students heading home from evening school.The New York Times story also doesn’t disclose the fact that the reporter, Isabel
Kershner, is an Israeli citizen. (The Times refuses to answer questions about whether she has served in the Israeli military, or whether she has family members currently serving in the Israeli military or that served in it in the past.)[UPDATE, Aug. 8, 2018: Two years after I wrote this blog post it came out that Kershner’s son is in the Israeli military and her husband, Hirsh Goodman, worked for an Israeli thinktank where his work was to help shape Israel’s image in news media.]
The previous New York Times bureau chief for the region, Ethan Bronner, had a son serving in the Israeli army, and many of the journalists in the area have similar personal connections to the Israeli military. The New York Times has a history of appointing bureau chiefs with ties to Israel.
A 2005 study found that the Times had reported on Israeli children’s deaths at a rate seven times greater than it reported on Palestinian children’s deaths.
While the New York Times and other US media frequently report that Palestinian violence has interrupted what the media call “a period of calm,” a 2009 study by an MIT professor revealed, “[I]t is overwhelmingly Israel that kills first after a pause in the conflict.”
The study found, “79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day).
In addition, the researchers stated, “…of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days.”
An alternative headline, and story, could have been something like: “Israeli airstrikes injure infant and 4 other children.” This might be the kind of reporting we would get if the Times would ever stop assigning partisans to cover the conflict.
A man shows the leg of a wounded boy in a hospital following an
Israeli air strike in Rafah camp in the southern Gaza Strip October
7, 2012. (Reuters/Ahmed Zakot)#
UPDATE: It appears that one of the people reported as injured has now died. The Times has now modified its lead paragraph and the story a bit from the original online version I discuss above. (I don’t yet know what is in the print version.)
Update: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 6:11AM
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights now has more details about the attack. It turns out that among those injured in the Israeli assault were a one month old, a two year old, a three year old and a 10 year old. The New York Times has still failed to even mention that children were among those injured in the attack.
Below is the IMEMC report:
1 Palestinian Man Assassinated, Another Wounded
8 civilians, including 4 children and 1 woman, Injured In The Attack
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the assassination, on Sunday, 07 October 2012, of 1 Palestinian man and the severe injury of another. 8 civilian bystanders, including 4 children and 1 woman, were also wounded in the attack.
PCHR calls upon the international community to immediately act to stop these actions by Israel’s forces and renews its call for the Higher Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 of the Convention to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 17:10 on Sunday, an Israeli warplane fired two missiles at two men in civilian clothing who were riding a motorcycle, as they were passing by Taha Hussain Elementary School in the Al-Brazil neighborhood, south of Rafah.
It should be noted that the attack was carried out at the end of the school day, moments before the students began to leave the school.
The targeted persons, Abd-Allah Hassan Mikawy (24) and Tal’at Khalil Al-Darbi (23), both from Rafah, sustained burns and shrapnel wounds throughout their bodies. Their condition was described as critical.
Abd-Allah Hassan Mikawy was transported to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. His leg was amputated but he died of his wounds on Monday evening. Tal’at Khalil Al-Darbi was transported to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where his leg was amputated, according to medical sources.
8 civilian bystanders were wounded in the attack, including 4 children and 1 woman, the mother of 2 of the wounded children.
They were visiting the woman’s family home at the time of the attack. The wounded were transported to Abu-Yousif Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, and their wounds were described as moderate. The victims were identified as:
1- Sabrin Hussain Al-Qatrous (Al-Maqousi) (23), from Jabalia Camp, who was wounded inside her parents’ house;
2- Bisan Muhammad Al-Maqousi, (1 month), from Jabalia Camp, who was wounded inside her grandparents’ house;
3- Nassim Muhammad Al-Maqousi (2), from Jabalia Camp, who was wounded inside his grandparents’ house;
4- Malak Hisham Abu-Jazar (3), from Al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah, who was wounded in front of her family home;
5- Bashir Mustafa Keshta (10), from Al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah, who was wounded while walking in the street;
6- ‘Awad Muhammad Abu-‘Armana (30), from Al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah, who was wounded in front of his house;
7- Juhad Housni Al-Qatrous (27), from Al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah, who was wounded in front of his house; and
8- Abdul-Hadi Mahmoud Abu-Mor (56), from Al-Salam neighborhood in Rafah, who was wounded while on his way to the mosque attend Al-Maghreb (Sunset) prayer.
Israeli radio quoted military sources, reporting that the raid had targeted two alleged members of the Global Jihad organization. The report alleged that the men were planning a complex military attack in Sinai that was scheduled to be carried out in the coming period.
PCHR reiterates condemnation of these crimes, expresses utmost concern over such escalation, and:
1- Stresses that these crimes form part of systematic violations perpetrated in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, which reflect Israeli forces’ disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians; and
2- Calls upon the international community to immediately take an action to put an end to such crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 which stipulates “the High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances,” and their obligation under Article 146 which requires that the Contracting Parties prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and under Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.
Public Document
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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza , Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage
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We’re Tired of Pretend Democracy
At the end of my recent article, The Democrats’ Jerusalem Arithmetic: When Israel is Concerned, Half = Two-Thirds, (the Republicans previously did the same thing) I wrote of my outrage at what’s going on. If you have similar thoughts, please comment below and share this post with others.
We’re tired of wars and killing, and of being sold a pack of goods by both parties using lies, deception, and manipulation.
We’re tired of power brokers running roughshod over what we want
We’re tired of “alternative” institutions such as MoveOn that enable the charade, and of candidate puppets of “change” who continue cruel policies while spouting high-minded words that they hope will hide their unconscionable actions.
We’re tired of scripted conventions, of bullying special interests, of lying politicians, of manipulative media, and of partisan politics that set us against one another, in which both sides push falsehoods about the other, and about themselves.
We’re tired of pretend democracy.
More and more of us are demanding real change, not computer generated simulations. Instead of responding by refusing to vote, and thus forfeiting this life-and-death game, many of us are going to cast votes that will displease those used to running things.
And if in this election we choose to” throw our votes away,” as party cheerleaders scornfully call it, on candidates who would end our serial, suicidal wars and stop the killing of children – thus saving the lives of our own as well – then I feel we will have a shot at a future election in which we aren’t once again expected to choose between a proven war criminal and a competitor who might, astonishingly enough, be even worse.
Instead of throwing our votes away, I believe we will have started the process of throwing the bums out – this time for real. And of keeping our republic, or our democracy, whichever you choose to call it.
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A look at Sandy Tolan’s criticism of my article on Anthony Shadid
I’ve belatedly learned that author and USC journalism professor Sandy Tolan posted a complaint about my article “Did the New York Times Lead Anthony Shadid to His Death? Burying the Story along with the Body” at the CNI website, which was also posted on his facebook page.
While I’m glad that Tolan thus alerted people to my piece, I’m disappointed that he did this in an inaccurate and negative way. (I wonder if he has previously alerted people to my other articles and media studies.)
Tolan wrote:
“The night before he left on his fatal trip into Syria, Anthony Shadid told his wife: “‘If anything happens to me, I want the world to know the New York Times killed me.’”
This is reported as fact and yet it is at most a claim by one person that absolutely no one else in the family has come forward to repeat. It’s worth having a look at this piece:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-anthony-shadid-cousin-20120625,0,5148602.story
In a follow-up comment to a person who had questioned him, Tolan wrote:
My issue was with the Alison Weir article (not the LA Times article) taking the claim of a single person, not backed publicly by anyone else in the family, and stating it as fact.
Tolan’s comments are strange and perhaps revealing of bias. The fact is that I did quite clearly attribute Anthony Shadid’s quote to his cousin, Dr. Edward Shadid, writing:
At this point, Dr. Shadid said, Anthony called his wife and “gave his last haunting directive: ‘If anything happens to me, I want the world to know the New York Times killed me.’”
He said that after Anthony’s death, the Times put out a story saying that Anthony “died of asthma and that his body was carried out heroically by a journalist.” According to Dr. Shadid, “That never happened.”
He provided details about the immediate circumstances of Anthony’s death that he said were omitted from the Times narrative. [emphasis added]
In my article, contrary to Tolan’s comment, I reported that his family had not publicly confirmed these statements (most have refused to comment). I did point out that none has denied Dr. Shadid’s statements, which is perhaps the part that displeases Professor Tolan.
Interestingly, Tolan states that there is no problem with the LA Times blog. Yet, the LA Times article does exactly what Tolan considers problematic: reports an individual’s statement as fact:
The clearest picture on what happened to Anthony Shadid on his final days comes from Tyler Hicks, the New York Times staff photographer…
This is a considerably categorical statement. The fact is that Hicks’ version of events may or may not be true and benefits both Hicks himself and his employer, the New York Times.
According to Dr. Shadid, the New York Times’ version is inaccurate in a number of details. At this point it is impossible for the rest of us to know whether Hick’s statements are true in their entirety or whether they contain spin, errors, exaggeration, or omission.
Dr. Shadid stated in his speech that the Times‘ story that Anthony’s body had been carried out heroically by a journalist” [Hicks] in actuality “never happened.” (Interestingly, in an earlier interview it appeared that Anthony’s wife was also about to correct this, but was interrupted by her interviewer.)
It is disappointing but probably not surprising that Sandy Tolan – who, despite much good writing on Palestine, is very much a journalism insider – seems to tilt toward the New York Times over Dr. Shadid.
The point of my article was that there were highly newsworthy statements about Anthony Shadid’s death that the public deserved to learn, and that these had the potential to better protect future journalists from harm. For example, Dr. Shadid felt there was an untreated “epidemic of PTSD” throughout the media industry.
Another commentator on the article provided corroborating, troubling information:
…Several times, reporters have told me after seeing colleagues in war zones that they shouldn’t be there. I remember specifically that a reporter said to me upon returning from an assignment in the Middle East and encountering a colleague, ”Shame on them, he/she is in no condition to be there and they know it.”
I wrote in the conclusion of my piece:
Saddest of all, is the likelihood that the burying of this story, along with recommendations of how news corporations could better protect their journalists, will lead to future burials of brilliant, courageous young journalists seeking to follow in Anthony’s footsteps – and who follow him in ways they did not expect or deserve.
I felt when I wrote the article, and still strongly feel, that it was wrong for AP and others to refuse to report on Dr. Shadid’s statements.
If they had done so, in addition to potentially leading to an improvement in conditions for journalists working in war zones, such coverage would have given readers the opportunity to consider for themselves what they think happened in regard to Anthony Shadid’s tragic death.
What do I personally suspect?
I find it highly implausible that Dr. Shadid fabricated the statement that he says Anthony said to his wife. I feel it is telling that despite her clear discomfort with the subject matter and her stated opposition to the controversy, she has not denied the validity of Dr. Shadid’s statement.
I also find it highly unlikely that Dr. Shadid fabricated the other statements he made about the circumstances of Anthony’s death and the lead up to it. I expect that many of his assertions can be independently confirmed, which is perhaps why the official New York Times response addresses none of his details.
Shadid is an eminent physician and a member of the Oklahoma City Council. His speech was quiet and thoughtful (I was there and heard it in person; others can see it in the video we posted with the article). While Tolan may wish to believe that for some reason Dr. Shadid made up these details, I find that deeply improbable.
Others may disagree. But by burying the story, AP and others withheld from readers the chance to decide for themselves.
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JTA: U.S. college heads visit Israel, seek collaboration opportunities
Once again, Israel is recruiting university presidents and chancellors. I wonder how these academics can justify not meeting with Palestinians, who have suffered diverse academic assaults from Israel – from ethnic/religious discrimination to their schools being shelled and students killed – while they’re over there. Think of the astronomical wealth of the Israel Lobby, which can fund a multitude of such trips.
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A delegation of U.S. university presidents is in Israel to explore opportunities for academic and research collaboration.
The seminar, which ends July 9, is sponsored by Project Interchange, an educational institute of the American Jewish Committee.
A president of a historically Black college and university, Spelman College President Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, is participating in the program the first time.
The delegation was scheduled to meet with senior Israeli government and academic officials and leaders of civil society across the social and political spectrum, and to travel to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian leaders. They were scheduled to network with their counterparts at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute, among others.
The group was also set to travel to Sderot, to view the city that has been under fire from rockets from Gaza.
“As chancellor of a top American public research university with a strong international presence and
aspirations to build on our existing global relationships, it is important that that I have a deep understanding of Israel and its neighbors,” said seminar delegation chair, University of California Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.[Some may recall that Katehi was part of scandals at the University of Illinois awhile back in which rich, well-connected students were getting admissions preferences over better qualified applicants, and at Davis, where police pepper sprayed peaceful students.]
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Others who are part of the delegation:
• Seminar Chair: Linda P.B. Katehi, Chancellor, University of California, Davis
• Louis Agnese, Jr., President, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX
• Lawrence Biondi, President, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
• Karen Haynes, President, California State University San Marcos
• Elliot Hirshman, President, San Diego State University
• Dorothy Leland, Chancellor, University of California, Merced
• Harvey Perlman, Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Beverly Tatum, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
• Randy Woodson, Chancellor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Targeting academics for pro-Israel propaganda began in the 1040s, if not earlier:
With its extraordinary funding, AZEC embarked on a campaign to target every sector of American society, ordering that local committees be set up in every Jewish community in the nation. In the words of AZEC organizer Sy Kenen, it launched “a political and public relations offensive to capture the support of Congressmen, clergy, editors, professors, business and labor.”[77] [78]
……Grassroots Zionist action groups were organized with more than 400 local committees under 76 state and regional branches. AZEC funded books, articles and academic studies; millions of pamphlets were distributed. There were massive petition and letter writing campaigns. AZEC targeted college presidents and deans, managing to get more than 150 to sign one petition.[80]
– The History of US-Israel Relations Part One: How the “special relationship” was created
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Below is the press release — read the members’ docile statements:
Leading US University Presidents to Explore Innovation & Academic Collaboration with Israel — press release
(Wednesday, June 27th, 2012)
To bolster their global relationships and bilateral academic exchange and cooperation, a US delegation of university presidents and chancellors will explore opportunities for academic and research collaboration, learn about state-of-the art research initiatives, and study the unique academia-industry ties that have turned Israel into the “Start Up Nation.” The delegation will be in Israel July 1-9, for the University Presidents Seminar sponsored by Project Interchange, an educational institute of AJC.“Israel is a leader in technical innovation,” said North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson. “Sharing information on the strong ties between higher education and industry will provide meaningful examples for NC State’s continued efforts to support a strong economy in North Carolina.”
Resonating with her colleague, California State University San Marcos President Dr. Karen Haynes said, “Cal State San Marcos is a young, 22-year-old, public university-one of very few actually built for the 21st century, with hallmarks of creativity and innovation. I look forward to learning more about how Israel has fostered national innovation and how that is developed and nurtured in its universities as lessons learned to bring home to my institution.”
For the first time, a president of a historically black college will be participating. Spelman College President Beverly Tatum, who heads America’s oldest historically black college for women, was instrumental in Atlanta’s Rabin-King initiative, which promotes Yitzhak Rabin’s and Martin Luther King’s ideals of equality, integration, peace, collaboration and the value of education.
The delegation will be meeting with senior Israeli government and academic officials and leaders of civil society across the social and political spectrum, and will be traveling to areas in Yehuda and Shomron to meet with PA (Palestinian Authority) leaders. They will network with their counterparts at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute, among others.
Seminar delegation chair, University of California Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi noted, “As chancellor of a top American public research university with a strong international presence and aspirations to build on our existing global relationships, it is important that I have a deep understanding of Israel and its neighbors. From what I have been told by peers who have already participated in Project Interchange, the program is an excellent way to learn a great deal about Israel and its place in the ever-changing Middle East. I look forward to our upcoming visit and seminar with tremendous anticipation.”
“This impressive delegation of university leaders opens the door to enhanced academic ties between Israel and a wide cross-section of US campuses,” said Project Interchange Executive Director Sam Witkin. “The interest Israeli world-class research and educational facilities have generated attests to the country’s role as a global player in education and innovation.”
Chancellor Harvey Perlman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, stated, “The Middle East plays a critical role in the world, and one cannot fully appreciate the issues it generates without being there. I am looking forward to visiting with our Israeli colleagues in higher education and others so that I can better understand their perspective, and also explore enhancing or facilitating the University of Nebraska’s relationships in Israel. UNL has a major initiative in the use of water in agriculture, and the Israelis, because of their circumstances, have been exceptionally creative in this field.”
Chancellor Dorothy Leland, University of California, Merced, noted, “I look forward to joining other higher education leaders to visit such a richly diverse country. Experiencing aspects of Israel firsthand will complement my knowledge of the region attained through my previous travels abroad. This visit will also open opportunities for academic and research collaborations in a country with a remarkable density of start-up technology companies.”
“I believe Project Interchange will allow me to gain a much better understanding of Israeli culture, especially from my position as president of the largest Catholic university in Texas,” said Dr. Louis Agnese, President, University of the Incarnate Word. “Specifically, I expect to gain a greater awareness of the complex issues facing Israel, particularly as they pertain to higher education. I would also like to explore reciprocal educational opportunities, which are known as sister school agreements. We have a strong desire to establish sister school opportunities between the University of the Incarnate Word and like-minded universities in Israel. I’m a firm believer these types of opportunities allow students from diverse backgrounds to engage in positive dialogue that can help close the cultural gaps that often separate them.”
The Project Interchange intensive seminar will offer the group broad exposure to the complex issues facing Israel and the region, with briefings by Israeli and Palestinian thought leaders and experts. Venture capitalist Jon Medved will share insights into what makes Israel the Startup Nation. The delegation will also visit Sderot to get a first-hand look at life under rocket fire.
Recent Project Interchange delegations have included US energy experts, French and German political leaders, Chinese and Indian-American academic leaders, Latina students, college newspaper editors, counter-terrorism experts from Europe and the United States, and journalists from across the world, with upcoming seminars planned for Indian parliamentarians and American civil rights leaders.
The University Presidents and Chancellors delegation includes:
• Seminar Chair: Linda P.B. Katehi, Chancellor, University of California, Davis
• Louis Agnese, Jr., President, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX
• Lawrence Biondi, President, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
• Karen Haynes, President, California State University San Marcos
• Elliot Hirshman, President, San Diego State University
• Dorothy Leland, Chancellor, University of California, Merced
• Harvey Perlman, Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Beverly Tatum, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
• Randy Woodson, Chancellor, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
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The truth about “Hate Studies”
It looks like the new “academic” discipline of “hate studies,” is often a front to accuse people of “anti-Semitism.” A researcher thoroughly documents its neglect of Zionism as a source of hate, and the Hate Studies Journal, of course, rejects his paper.
See “Hate Studies” Ignores Certain Types of Hate and tell others about what’s going on. Be sure not to miss the additional articles at the end of the article that expose the Southern Poverty Law Center, an institution that many of us long respected…
