Questions, which side? journalist or soldier?

POSTED ON AUGUST 3, 2014 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN ARAB ISRAEL CONFLICT, MEDIA

EYELESS IN GAZA: 40 QUESTIONS FOR THE MEDIA

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/08/eyeless-in-gaza-40-questions-for-the-media.php

Professor David Bernstein posts the “40 questions for the international media in Gaza” posed by Saul O. at Harry’s Place. Professor Bernstein writes for the Volokh Conspiracy, now hosted by the Washington Post. The questions posted by Bernstein are properly addressed to the Washington Post itself, as well as to the Wall Street Journal, FOX News and CNN and the rest of the American media.

In the case of the Washington Post, the questions would be addressed to Sudarsan Raghavan et al. In the case of the Journal, the questions would be addressed to Nick Casey and Tamer El-Ghobashy. At FOX News they would be addressed to Conor Powell. At CNN they would be addressed to Karl Penhaul. Each of these gentlemen reports from Gaza. But the questions apply equally to the Post’s and the Journal’s editors and the anchors/producers/management of CNN and FOX. They are all aware of the facts and the issues and, so far as I am aware, have said nothing, as though there is no issue.

Some of the questions are predicated on assumptions that may be arguable, but most of the questions are based on solidly sourced reports and deserving of answers. Here are the questions posed in their entirety verbatim:

1. Have you or any of your colleagues been intimidated by Hamas?

2. Do you feel restricted in your ability to ‘say what you see’ in Gaza?

3. How do you feel about the Spanish journalist who said Hamas would kill any journalist if they filmed rocket fire?

4. Has Hamas pressured you to delete anything you have published?

5. Has Hamas ever threatened to take your phone, laptop or camera?

6. Has Hamas ever taken the phone, laptop or camera of a colleague in Gaza?

7. Have you seen Hamas fighters in Gaza?

8. If yes, why have you not directly reported Hamas fighting activity when you are eye-witnesses in Gaza, but rather indirectly reported about what the IDF says they Hamas has done?

9. Are you scared to publish photos of Hamas operatives on your Twitter page, or broadcast images of Hamas fighting and aggression on your news channel?

10. Have you published any photos of terrorists launching rockets in Gaza? If so, are these images being turned down by your newspaper or broadcaster?

11. Have you thought of interviewing the traumatised residents of southern Israel?

12. When Israeli authorities say that most of the dead in Gaza are terrorists, and Hamas says most of the dead in Gaza are civilians, how do you differentiate?

13. When Hamas Health Ministry statistics contradict Hamas’ own propaganda and reveal that mostly men of fighting age have died so far in Gaza, does it give you pause for thought?

14. Is an underage armed terrorist still counted as a terrorist or a child when killed? Or both? Do you explain to your readers how this is possible?

15. Have you put to Hamas spokespersons that firing rockets from civilian areas in a war situation will draw return fire and lead to the death of civilians?

16. Nick Casey of the Wall Street Journal tweeted: “you have to wonder with the shelling, how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a safe place to see media.” Never mind wondering; did you ask any patients how they feel?

17. And how do you feel about the fact that Casey subsequently deleted his tweet?

18. Russia Today journalist Harry Fear mentioned rocket-launching sites near his hotel. Have you noticed any terrorists or terror bases near your hotel?

19. How do you feel about Fear’s expulsion from Gaza, for tweeting about the rocket launches from civilian areas? Are you worried that you might also be expelled from Gaza?

20. Did you see any Hamas terror personnel inside Al-Shifa hospital?

21. Have you interviewed a Hamas spokesperson inside Al-Shifa?

22. Have you seen any rocket-launching sites in or around the vicinity of a hospital?

23. Have you interviewed hospital staff or patients as to how they feel about their buildings being used for terror activity?

24. Hamas’ command and control bunker is underneath Al Shifa hospital. Is this worth reporting? Have you asked to gain access to it, so you can interview Hamas commanders?

25. French newspaper Liberation reported that Hamas’ Al Qassam offices are next to the emergency room at Shifa hospital, before deleting the article. Was the reporter right to delete the article, and will the information appear in the media at some point still?

26. When the missile hit Al-Shati hospital where children were killed, did you see Hamas operatives collecting the debris of the fallen Palestinian rocket, as Gabriel Barbati reported? Did Barbati pick up on something you missed?

27. Barbati prefaced his tweet by writing “Out of Gaza, far from Hamas retaliation.” Will you also report differently about Gaza when you are out of Gaza, far from Hamas retaliation?

28. Can live journalism by reporters who are scared of retaliation from the authorities they are reporting about really count as pure journalism, or is journalism in that context fundamentally compromised?

29. Have you seen or heard evidence of Hamas using civilians as human shields, by forcing or “encouraging” them to stay inside or enter into a building that has received a knock on the roof?

30. Have you seen or heard evidence of Hamas storing weapons inside schools, houses, flats, mosques or hospitals?

31. Have you interviewed Gazan residents to find out if they have – or know someone who has – a tunnel dug underneath their house? How do they feel about this?

32. Have you tried to interview any of the parents of the 160 Palestinian children who died building the terror tunnels?

33. Have you asked Hamas spokespersons why they are setting out to murder children by firing rockets towards civilian populations?

34. Have you interviewed any UNRWA officials about why Hamas are storing weapons in their schools, and how the weapons got there?

35. Are you currently investigating how Hamas rockets ended up in UNRWA schools?

36. Are you currently investigating why UNRWA returned rockets to Hamas and their police force?

37. When Hamas breaks a ceasefire with Israel – as it has done 6 times – how easy is it to report on this from Gaza?

38. Is there any anti-Hamas sentiment in Gaza, and how is it expressed?

39. Were you aware that Hamas chose to execute dozens of anti-war protesters in Gaza, and did you not consider this to be worth reporting?

40. Is international media reporting from Gaza free from pressure and intimidation, or is there a real problem – and if so, how will you address it?

Interested observers await the answers to these questions.

"Political Correctness" or is it really "Political Cowardice"?

Speech by President of the Republic at the reception on the occasion of Independence Day of the State of Israel

Date: 26th 5th 2014

A google translation of Czech,

http://www.hrad.cz/cs/prezident-cr/soucasny-prezident-cr-milos-zeman/vybrane-projevy-a-rozhovory/581.shtml

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the invitation to celebrate Israel's Independence Day. Public holidays celebrating independence in the Czech Republic held annually tens. Some can be, some may not, but the only holiday of independence, which I can never leave out is the feast of the independence of the Jewish State of Israel. States are, with whom we share the same values, whether it's political horizon of freedom of choice or the market economy. But those States not threatening nobody deleted from the map. Nobody shoots at the border of the city, no one does not want the citizens of this State from leaving his country. There is a term called political correctness, and I this term as a euphemism for political cowardice, so let me not cowardly. should be clearly name the enemy of human civilization, and this enemy is international terrorism coupled with religious fundamentalism and religious intolerance. This fanaticism does not focus on a single state, as we have to record after September 11. Muslim fanatics in Nigeria recently captured 200 young Christian girls. A Flower in Europe in the heart of the European Union recently played abominable assassination of the Jewish Museum in Brussels. I will not be reassuring statements that it is only a small fringe groups, I believe, on the contrary, that this xenophobia and say that racism or anti-Semitism of the very nature of ideology, of which these fanatical groups are based.And let me give a proof of this assertion quoted one of the sacred texts, "Strom (tree) calls, hiding a Jew behind me, go and kill him. Stone calls, hiding a Jew behind me, go and kill him. "'d Criticized those who call for the killing of Arabs, but I do not know of any movement that called for massive slaughter of Arabs, while I know anticivilizačním movement that calls for massive murder Jews. Ultimately one article of the Statute of Hamas says, "Kill any Jew that you'll see." We want to really pretend that this is extreme? Do we really want to be politically correct and say that everyone is good and only a small portion of extremists and fundamentalists committing these crimes? One of my favorite essayists Michel de Montaigne once wrote: "It is terrible to think that the evil must necessarily come good. It may come in the other evil. "We started the Arab Spring, which became the Arab winter, and the fight against secular dictatorships have become battle, run by Al-Qaeda. Throw it against the political correctness and let's call a spade a spade. Yes, we have friends in the world who express solidarity, but this solidarity us nothing, because these friends are nothing and nobody threatened.actual sense of solidarity: solidarity with a friend who is in trouble and in danger, and that's why I'm here.  

      That is the most hardest, to be with some one that has troubles and in danger, and so risking your self, money, pride, time, energy, to put your own skin in the game, so endangering and troubling yourself, to learn and understand what are your principles and what price are they?

After the jump break is his response to his critics

Money to Who?? Really??

Fletch (4,500) Says: 
July 19th, 2013 at 11:02 am

A new report that Obama gave $8 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood (not Egypt) to guarantee that a large portion of the Sinai Peninsula be turned over to the terrorist organization Hamas. This was supposed to be secret, but the Egyptian military found the evidence and someone has leaked it.

The video (which has gone viral) below is in Arabic, but a description follows.

Summary:
• SECRET agreement between the Obama administration and the Muslim Brotherhood (not the Egyptian government) to give 40% of the Sinai and the annexation of that part of Egyptian territory in Gaza. The objective is to facilitate the conclusion of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians 

• This agreement was signed by Khairat el Shater (number 2 of the Brotherhood) by Morsi and the Supreme Guide FM. (FM stands for Muslim Brotherhood)

• A sum of U.S. $ 8 billion was paid to the FM. 

• The document was seized by the army following the deposition of Morsi. This is the army that has leaked the news. 

• An investigation is ongoing Morsi and El Shater. An arrest warrant was filed against the Guide to FM and other members of his office. 

• FM signatories to the agreement are liable to the death penalty for treason. 

• The Obama administration would try to reach an agreement with el Sissi (chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces): recognition of the legitimacy of the “coup” in exchange for his silence about the secret agreement. But el Sissi would be more interested in the conviction of FM and discredit their organization which is Egypt’s main source of danger. 

• The Republican members of Congress are seriously looking into the case. If proven, the process of Obama impeachment could be triggered.

Genuine Concern for Middle East People

Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy

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ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

Saturday 6 October 2012

Last Update 6 October 2012 2:53 am

http://www.arabnews.com/arab-spring-and-israeli-enemy

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967. 
The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.
I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East. 
The common thing among all what I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not done by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are done by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is that who is the real enemy of the Arab world?
The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people. 
These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars. 
In the past, we have talked about why some Israeli soldiers attack and mistreat Palestinians. Also, we saw Israeli planes and tanks attack various Arab countries. But, do these attacks match the current atrocities being committed by some Arab states against their own people. 
In Syria, the atrocities are beyond anybody’s imaginations? And, isn’t the Iraqis are the ones who are destroying their own country? Wasn’t it Tunisia’s dictator who was able to steal 13 billion dollars from the poor Tunisians? And how can a child starve in Yemen if their land is the most fertile land in the world? Why would Iraqi brains leave Iraq in a country that makes 110 billion dollars from oil export? Why do the Lebanese fail to govern one of the tiniest countries in the world? And what made the Arab states start sinking into chaos?
On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was declared. And just one day after that, on May 15, 1948 the Arabs declared war on Israel to get back Palestine. The war ended on March 10, 1949. It lasted for nine months, three weeks and two days. The Arabs lost the war and called this war Nakbah (catastrophic war). The Arabs gained nothing and thousands of Palestinians became refugees.
And on 1967, the Arabs led by Egypt under the rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser, went in war with Israel and lost more Palestinian land and made more Palestinian refugees who are now on the mercy of the countries that host them. The Arabs called this war Naksah (upset). The Arabs never admitted defeat in both wars and the Palestinian cause got more complicated. And now, with the never ending Arab Spring, the Arab world has no time for the Palestinians refugees or Palestinian cause, because many Arabs are refugees themselves and under constant attacks from their own forces. Syrians are leaving their own country, not because of the Israeli planes dropping bombs on them. It is the Syrian Air Force which is dropping the bombs. And now, Iraqi Arab Muslims, most intelligent brains, are leaving Iraq for the est. In Yemen, the world’s saddest human tragedy play is being written by the Yemenis. In Egypt, the people in Sinai are forgotten. 
Finally, if many of the Arab states are in such disarray, then what happened to the Arabs’ sworn enemy (Israel)? Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. Many Arabs don’t know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab World. Wasn’t one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail is an Israeli-Palestinian? 
The Arab Spring showed the world that the Palestinians are happier and in better situation than their Arab brothers who fought to liberate them from the Israelis. Now, it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for the future Arab generations.

— This article is exclusive to Arab News.
almulhimnavy@hotmail.com

Also interesting to peruse the comment section too, to gain the different perspectives

Did things change for the Better?

http://financialsense.com/contributors/jr-nyquist/the-implacable-enemy
The Implacable Enemy
Submitted by JR Nyquist on Fri, 10 Dec 2010
We don't want to believe in enemies, and if we grudgingly allow that they exist, we certainly will not admit they are implacable. It is odd, perhaps, but we live at a time in history when people believe in solutions to everything. In fact, men have solved so many problems in the last 200 years that we imagine all problems have solutions. Unfortunately, this is an error we must guard against. It is, in fact, an all-pervasive error which has serious consequences for our time.

Related to this subject, the Jerusalem Post recently published a column titled Editor's Notes: The Bleak Logic of Bennie Begin. The piece includes an interview with an Israeli politician who is unwilling to delude himself about Israel's present situation. The peace process is not going to work, Begin says. It does not take proper account of the Palestinian leadership. These sorry folk want to eradicate Israel, and the peace process is merely a cynical ploy on the part of a cynical foe. Grasping these fundamental points, Begin is a man of logic, a man of simple truth. He is not an ideologue, because ideology properly belongs to those who believe in dangerous fairy tales.

A few structural points stand out in Begin's discourse. First, people don't usually change, and that includes enemies; second, a peaceful solution is not always workable; and third, the aim of an implacable enemy is to eliminate you, and this is not merely a "problem" open to endless discussion. War is a reality, and you simply have to fight. In this situation talking to your enemy is always an exercise in self-deception. This last point has come to be universally rejected by Western politicians. They do not see how discussions of this kind effectively hypnotize the masses, and fill people's heads with false expectations. In reality, the only solution is the military solution. But those who dream of peace see military conflict as the problem.

It is no wonder that Begin was against the Oslo peace process, saying that the PLO leadership "will never change." In fact, they never have. The Palestinian leaders are implacable enemies of Israel. This is not so difficult to see, though it is difficult to admit for those who believe in peace. It is sad to say, but there cannot be a successful peace process with such an enemy. For such an enemy, peace is merely an interlude of talking, useful for setting up a future attack. And what makes the PLO implacable? The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964 by a body of Palestinian representatives handpicked by the Soviet KGB. The first PLO chairman, Ahmad Shukeiri, was a KGB agent. The Soviet Bloc trained the PLO cadre, providing them with weapons and strategic guidance. The current head of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, received his Ph.D. from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow.

What Who Why fights terror

MikeNZ (3,076) Says:

October 29th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

To stand up for something, you must believe in its worth. To stand up to something, you must believe that it is less worthy. If you don’t believe that, then it is easier to sit down, to give in and let them do whatever they want

A long article but this sentence highlights a problem or vacuum we have in Western society today.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2010/10/national-survival-for-america-and_4531.html

Sharing?: Blackmail: Reciprocity?

Fascinating. "Israel's Conflict as Game Theory," by Yisrael Aumann, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for his work on analyzing conflicts using game theory. This piece was posted at Israel Defender on October 23:
 http://israeldefender.com/?p=1492
Plus comments and thoughts from other blogs


Two men--let us call them Rick and Steve-- are put in a small room containing a suitcase filled with bills totaling $100,000. The owner of the suitcase announces the following:
"I will give you the money in the suitcase under one condition...you have to negotiate an agreement on how to divide it. That is the only way I will agree to give you the money."

Rick is a rational person and realizes the golden opportunity that has fallen his way. He turns to Steve with the obvious suggestion: "You take half and I'll take half, that way each of us will have $50,000."

To his surprise, Steve frowns at him and says, in a tone that leaves no room for doubt: "Look here, I don't know what your plans are for the money, but I don't intend to leave this room with less than $90,000. If you accept that, fine. If not, we can both go home without any of the money."

An Israeli perspective

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaeltotten/2010/08/04/the-greatest-collection-of-nightmares-on-earth/

Benjamin Kerstein