Israel Matzav

Pamela is the media

Yesterday in Manhattan, Phillippe Karsenty held a press conference. Karsenty is the French media blogger who is responsible for exposing one of the biggest media frauds ever - the staged 'murder' of twelve-year old 'Palestinian' Muhammed al-Dura near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip that helped kick off the intifadeh seven years ago. You would have thought the media would have been beating down the door to interview Karsenty. You would be wrong. Only one reporter showed up to ask questions: Pamela of Atlas Shrugs.

What if you exposed a great lie, a lie so big that it set off a war - and you held a press conference to expose that lie and no one came? The worst blood libel of this young century.

Welcome to the 21st century.

The incitement for the violent second intifada and The justification of the cold blooded beheading of Daniel Pearl, the explosive allegations and detailed evidence blows the Pali ruse right out of the water.

The left wing jihad loving media covered the lie, perpetrated the charade - incited the jihad but scurry like rats when called to account.

And so today, Phillip Karsenty ,the journalist sued by France 2 for revealing their complicity, held a press conference and practically no one show. Yann Battefort , PR for the French Embassy showed (but of course, France 2 is owned by the state.) Damage control - or at least a mole to check out the outing of state manipulated news.

Pamela's post includes a video and a full accounting of the press conference in which she played the role of the media. Literally. She asked every question except for one.

I want to point out a few things that I noticed in the video. First, Karsenty points out two articles about the case in the media. One is Natan Sharansky's Wall Street Journal article. Here is the key passage of that article:

The defamation trial passed almost unnoticed in Israel, to the apparent detriment of Mr. Karsenty's case. In his ruling in favor of France 2, judge Joël Boyer five times cited the absence of any official Israeli support for Mr. Karsenty's claims as indication of their speciousness.

Israel's decision to stay on the sidelines was unfortunate because the truth always matters. The al-Dura incident wasn't the only media report to inflame passions against Israel in recent years, but it was the one with the highest profile. Moreover, if, as Mr. Karsenty and others have claimed persuasively, the al-Dura incident is part of the insidious trend in which Western media outlets allow themselves to be manipulated by dishonest and politically motivated sources (recall the Jenin "massacre" that never was, or the doctored Reuters photos from Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006), then France 2 must be held accountable.

It is important to note that the al-Dura news report profoundly influenced Western public opinion. When I served in the Israeli government as minister of Diaspora affairs from 2003 to 2005, I traveled frequently to North American college campuses. I heard firsthand how Mohammed al-Dura had shaped the perceptions of young people just beginning to follow events in the Middle East. For many Jewish students, the incident was a stain of dishonor that called into question their support for Israel. For anti-Israel students, the story reaffirmed their sense of Zionism's innately "racist" nature and became a tool for recruiting campus peers to the cause.

The second article he cited was Joanna Chandler's article in Front Page Magazine. Here are the key passages of that article:

The last few years have amply demonstrated that Jews and Israel are no longer terrorism’s principle target of choice. Islamic terror justified by imaginary victim-hood is laying waste to a substantial portion of the globe, and its reach is growing. If the Al Durah hoax is bad for Israel and Jews, it is no less toxic for the free world. The specter of raging mobs whipped into murderous frenzy on the basis of false charges propagated by government leaders and media institutions does not bode well for the rule of law, the keystone of constitutional democracy. However, the Al Durah scam lends itself perfectly to the model of government practiced ubiquitously in the Arab/Muslim world: namely, corrupt, authoritarian and ruthless dictatorships who posit an imaginary foe on which to channel the public rage that would otherwise be directed against themselves. We jeopardize our own freedoms by imbibing the unvarnished propaganda on which such dictatorial regimes rely in order to maintain their power.

...

Philippe Karsenty has been sued in France under a criminal statute for questioning the veracity of a news story that has caused extensive damage to the honor and dignity of the State of Israel, and has unleashed gratuitous violence and terrorism against Jews, not just in Israel, but the world over who are seen as representatives of an evil entity that must be targeted and punished. Though questions about the case are troubling and abundant, few journalists have elected to grapple with it. France 2’s case against Karsenty is an obvious attempt to silence and punish him for his determination to expose the Al Durah hoax to the light of reason and truth.

The Al Durah hoax is reminiscent of the Dreyfus Affair that occurred more than 100 years ago in France. A Jewish army captain was falsely accused and condemned for treason. Many years later, due to the intervention of writer and journalist, Emile Zola, the verdict was overturned and he was released from incarceration at the notorious Devil’s Island. But, the day Dreyfus was publicly relieved of his office, his honors ripped from his uniform, and his sword broken in two, thousands upon thousands of Frenchmen gathered to chant and cry hysterically in the lovely boulevards of Paris, “Death to the Jews!” A young Austrian journalist was there to report the story. At that moment, he knew that the Jews of Europe were doomed and that it was imperative that they leave the continent. His name was Theodore Herzl and the year was 1894. Less than 50 years later, his words proved prophetic. Seventy-five thousand French Jews perished at the hands of the Nazis and their French collaborators, and more than 6 million Jews died in Europe as a whole. It is a sad footnote to the Dreyfus Affair that France is the country that breathed life into the Al Durah hoax.

Though he is the one on trial, Philippe Karsenty is not Dreyfus. It is the State of Israel and the Jewish people who are Dreyfus today. Nor is Karsenty Zola. Why? Zola enjoyed wide acclaim as an important writer and was, thus, capable of stirring public opinion in support of Dreyfus. It was the storm of public outrage that finally won Dreyfus’ freedom. But, that outrage was the product of a journalist who was willing to publicly question the lies on which Dreyfus’ conviction was based. Karsenty is merely an ordinary citizen who, standing almost without allies, has elected to pit himself against yet another terrible lie. But, alas, there is not even one Emile Zola today. Nevertheless, the hope still remains that, even at this late hour, a new Zola will come forward to speak out, to demand justice, and to stake his honor and reputation on the truth.

Second, Karsenty notes that although the accusations that the al-Dura 'murder' is a hoax have been widely reported in the world media, they have not been reported at all in France. He terms France the 'new Soviet Union' where the government censors reports they don't want the people to hear. That ought to give pause to France's allies in the West.

Third, Karsenty is comparing this scandal to those of Dan Rather and Jayson Blair, and saying that those responsible must come clean and resign as Rather (despite his recent lawsuit against CBS) and Blair did. Karsenty is right, but given that France 2 is a government entity, that may be a tougher nut to crack.

Finally, Karsenty says that his case presents new French President Nicolas Sarcozy with a clear choice: Make a break from or continue with the anti-Semitic France of Jacques Chirac by turning over or attempting to avoid turning over the full tapes of the incident. Let's hope Sarcozy makes the right choice.

Make sure to read and watch the whole thing. Pamela is unbelievable.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:47 AM