Meshaal brags to Gazans that his hotel costs more than a hospital and three tunnels
No, even Khaled Meshaal is not dumb enough to brag to Gazans about how much his hotel costs. Or is he?
In a video obtained by The Jerusalem Post, a speech by
Mashaal is distorted to bring Gazans a message that the Hamas leader is a
corrupt politician who lives a lavish life abroad, while benifitting
from the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
"In the name of Allah, most gracious, most compassionate," says
Mashaal in the mock video. "I want to start by thanking the excellent
staff of the kitchen at my hotel."
Later, the leader speaks about hearing about what is happening in
Gaza and adds: "The hotel cost me the same as the price of a hospital
and three tunnels in Gaza."
Messages of this sort, according to reports on Palestinian social
media, are an almost daily occurrence. Israel gains control of TV
stations and broadcasts numerous videos mocking Hamas leaders.
Hamas
has also attempted to psychologically affect the citizens of Israel
through hacking during the more than two weeks of hostilities.
The
organization has released a series of threatening videos on Youtube,
mocking the Israeli government in Hebrew and touting the strength of
Hamas. Pro-Hamas hackers succeeded last week in interrupting a live
Channel 10 news broadcast with their own propaganda.
And of course, let's go to the videotape... with English subtitles.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Friday, May 10.
1) When is news not really news?
The Newseum - a museum devoted to the news business - recently held an
event to honor journalists killed in the line of duty. Included in that
honor members of Hamas who were killed by Israel this past November.
Newseum honoring Hamas employees is an insult to brave legit journos killed in duty bit.ly/12lE3ev
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) May 10, 2013
Does this mean that the @newseum will honor the memory of contributors to Inspire Magazine as well? buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/pro-… cc: rosiegray
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) May 10, 2013
BuzzFeed covers the story and includes this from Cliff May:
May said that a decision would not be made before speaking with the CEO of the Newseum.
"Let me be fair and give them an opportunity to answer my questions (I
have more than a few)," he said. "As I said: Perhaps there's been a
misunderstanding or perhaps some re-thinking is taking place in light of
additional information they have received."
"But I will say this: I spent most of my adult life as a journalist – at
the New York Times and other media organizations," May said. "I know
the difference between a reporter and a terrorist propagandist. I'm
hopeful that the folks at the Newseum also are able to make such
distinctions."
Does the New York Times know the difference between a reporter and propagandist?
I bring you former public editor of the New York Times, Clark Hoyt, defending the paper's decision to publish an op-ed by a spokesman for Hamas in 2007:
Many readers were outraged, complaining that The Times had provided a
platform for a terrorist. One, Jon Pensak of Sherborn, Mass., said that
allowing Yousef space in The Times “isn’t balanced journalism, it is
more the dissemination of propaganda in the spirit of advocacy
journalism.”
Well, yes. The point of the op-ed page is advocacy. And, Rosenthal said,
“we do not feel the obligation to provide the kind of balance you find
in news coverage, because it is opinion.”
David Shipley, one of Rosenthal’s deputies and the man in charge of the
op-ed page, said: “The news of the Hamas takeover of Gaza was one of the
most important stories of the week. ... This was our opportunity to
hear what Hamas had to say.”
True, the New York Times didn't presume that Yousef was a reporter. But
if the Hamas view was really necessary, it could have been included in a
news article. The New York Times elected to give a terrorist
organization an unchallenged platform for its propaganda and passed it
off as "debate."
Fortunately the Treasury Department isn't given over to such ambiguity. The department's press release designating Al Aqsa TV as a terrorist organization reads:
Hamas leadership raised the initial capital for the station shortly
after the January 2006 Palestinian elections. At that time, donors
contributed half a million dollars for the channel, which was to be
headed by members of Hamas, and shortly thereafter, Hamas leaders
negotiated broadcasting arrangements with a satellite television
provider. As of late 2009, the Hamas headquarters in Damascus, Syria,
allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars for Al-Aqsa TV's budget, and
senior Hamas officials continued to control the station's operations.
Fathi Hammad, the former director of Al-Aqsa TV, currently serves as the
Hamas interior minister in Gaza, is a former senior member of Hamas's
military wing in Gaza, and as of 2007, was a member of the Hamas Shura
Council. Hammad has supervised the construction of smuggling tunnels
for Hamas and has encouraged the building and use of homemade weapons
for use against Israel. In May 2009, Dr. Mahmud Abu-Daf replaced
Hammad as the head of Al-Aqsa TV. Abu-Daf is a senior Hamas figure who
served as a member of the Hamas Shura Council and Political Bureau.
Hamas, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist backed by Iran, has
intentionally killed hundreds of civilians, including U.S. citizens.
Its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007 has allowed continued rocket
attacks against Israeli cities and civilians within range of the
territory. As of this year, Hamas has continued to ignore demands from
the international community to renounce violence and accept the other
Quartet principles, including the recognition of Israel and a commitment
to abide by past diplomatic agreements. Moreover, statements by Hamas
leader Khaled Mish'al indicate that the group continues to produce and
smuggle weapons into Gaza.
The interior ministry in thugocracies like that of Hamas in charge of
internal security, in other words, the police and security forces. These
are the people who enforce the rule of Hamas.
The Newseum's self description is:
The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an
experience that blends five centuries of news history with
up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.
Unfortunately, as this exhibit shows, it reflects the mindset in too
many newsrooms nowadays. I suspect that no one bothered to check on the
Treasury's designation of Al Aqsa TV. The Newseum wouldn't acknowledge
that Mahmoud Al Kumi belonged to a terrorist organization. (I just noticed another "journalist" honored by the Museum, Ali Abbas.
Abbas, was an official of the SANA news agency in Syria. In other words
he was a mouthpiece for Bashar Assad. The Newseum really needs to learn
the difference between journalism and propaganda.)
So Stephen Hawking boycotts Israel but visited the Soviet Union under Brezhnev and Iran under Khamenei/A-jad? tinyurl.com/d7ev3rx
— Erick Stakelbeck (@staks33) May 10, 2013
Organizers of the fifth annual Israeli Presidential Conference, held
under the auspices of President Shimon Peres, said they had received a
letter over the weekend from Dr. Hawking, a longtime Cambridge
professor, announcing his decision.
Cambridge issued a statement indicating that Dr. Hawking had told the
Israelis that he would not be attending “based on advice from
Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott,” according to
The Associated Press.
...
Israel Maimon, the chairman of the conference, strongly criticized the
professor’s decision, saying in a statement, “The academic boycott of
Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for
whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic
mission.”
I wonder who Dr. Hawking's interlocutors are among "Palestinian
academics?" Are they professors who can freely explore new ideas without
fear of losing their jobs or freedom? Israel Maimon is correct. The
problem inst not just that Hawking, in embracing the boycott of Israel,
denies "the spirit of liberty." He came to his decision in consultation
with those who operate in an environment that deprives them of their
liberty to do their jobs and pursue inquiries without official
interference.
A new video from the founders of a celebrated advertising agency
features children “of the future” singing about the aftermath of a Mitt
Romney presidency: A world where sick people are required to “just die,”
the atmosphere is “frying,” gays can be “fixed” and “oil fills the
sea.”
The children, who stare blankly at the camera throughout the video,
even take pains to explicitly mention that they blame “mom and dad” for
all those horrors.
The video — produced by the founders of the advertising agencyGoodby Silverstein & Partners,
which came up with the famous tagline “Got milk?” and boasts clients
like Cheetos, Netflix, the National Basketball Association and Nintendo —
asks viewers, “What Would The Children Of The Future Say If We Let Them
Down This November?”
I expect that after the election we will see a lot more similar sour grapes.
Working in the interdisciplinary field of American studies, Amy Kaplan's scholarship and teaching focus on the culture of imperialism, comparative perspectives on the Americas, prison writing, the American novel, and mourning, memory and war. A past president of the American Studies Association, Kaplan received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University, with a specialty in late-nineteenth-century American literature. Her first book was The Social Construction of American Realism (U Chicago P, 1988). She co-edited, with Donald Pease, Cultures of U. S. Imperialism (Duke, 1993). In her book The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture (Harvard UP 2002) Kaplan shows how imperial expansion abroad--from the US-Mexico War of 1848 to the First World War--profoundly shaped key elements of American culture at home. She has received an NEH Fellowship and the Norman Forster prize for the best essay in American Literature in 1998 for "Manifest Domesticity." A wide-ranging critic of American culture and policy and of the language of empire today, Kaplan has published recent essays on academic life in occupied Palestine, the discourse of “homeland security” in response to 9/11, the place of Guantanamo Bay in American history, and analogies between the American and Roman Empires, as well as articles on Mark Twain and Herman Melville. She is currently exploring the persistent and powerful working of Zionism in American culture and politics.
And here’s information on the man behind her endowed chair if anyone wants to follow this further.
This professorship was established through a gift from Edward W. Kane, C ’71, to recruit or retain a preeminent scholar and teacher in the Department of English.
This professorship was established through a gift from Edward W. Kane, C ’71, and Martha Wallace, parents. Mr. Kane is a founder and senior managing director of HarbourVest Partners, LLC, a global private equity investment firm. He graduated cum laude from Penn and earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1975. During his term as a University trustee, from 1996-2001, he worked on a project to help distribute faculty books to alumni.
Another name under which the organization does business. Also used for trade names, chapter names, or local numbers for subordinate organizations of group rulings.
Secondary Name
KANE EDWARD W TTEE
Section 501(c) of the federal tax code defines and explains what type of organizations is eligible for tax exemption. There are more then 25 classifications of nonprofit organizations,
Nonprofit Classification
Charitable Organization
Affiliation
Independent
Organization Type
Trust
Deductibility Code signifies whether contributions made to an organization are deductible.
Deductibility Code
Contributions are deductible.
Purpose
An organization has a purpose, which is generally known as its mission or goal.
I wouldn't blame Ed Kane for this. Harbourvest sounded like a familiar name, so I looked up their SEC filing for the end of 2010, and they have (or had then) at least one investment in Israel that I recognized.
But if someone can explain to me what Professor Kaplan's scholarship has to do with English Literature, I'd really appreciate it. It sounds more like History or Political Science to me.
Video: Penn professor explains how to demonize Israel in every class
When I was a student at Bir Zeit on the Hudson, I had a number of friends who were an hour and a half south at Penn. I would never allow any of my children to go there today. Penn teaches Jew-hatred.
At the PennBDS conference last weekend, there was a breakout session on the "Academic Boycott of Israel."
One of the panelists was Amy Kaplan, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the Q&A session, another teacher asked Kaplan how to incorporate the BDS memes of demonizing Israel into college courses, even when the course has nothing to do with "Palestine."
If your children are studying at most universities in the United States or Israel today (not to mention Europe), this is what they are being taught even if they don't take a single political science course. I'd think about sending my kids elsewhere.
Think about it.
Penn's President really did look comfortable with that guy dressed as a suicide bomber, didn't she? Let's have another look at the top of this post. That's Penn President Amy Gutmann with a 'Palestinian' kid dressed as a suicide bomber. The picture was taken on Halloween 2006, but Gutmann is still the President. Do you have kids at Penn? Are you an alumnus of Penn? Are you angry enough about this to do something about it (like at least stop donating money)?
Today it was announced that Press TV, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian regime, had its Ofcom license revoked owning to multiple violations of the broadcasting code. In 2009, the station aired an "interview" that was in fact a prison interrogation of a Newsweek journalist arrested for chronicling the Green Revolution. In December, Henry Jackson Society Research Fellow Houriya Ahmed called for the shuttering of Press TV after a regime-sponsored mob sacked the British embassy in Tehran.
I understand from contacts in the UK that this is not quite the big deal it's being made out to be. You can still access Press TV online in the UK, and its absence from the telly is just going to make it more likely that people watch the BBC, which is not exactly pro-Israel either.
Jewish News 1 (JN1) was born as an alternative to the world's leading news networks – CNN, Fox News and Sky News. But its main goal is to serve as the Jewish version of al-Jazeera, which has won the hearts of tens of millions of Arab viewers over the past 15 years.
According to the Makor Rishon newspaper, the channel will be broadcast via satellite to Europe, North America and the Middle East. In Israel it will be offered by the Yes satellite company.
"Jewish News 1" will broadcast news from Israel and the world 24/7. The network has already set up studios in Tel Aviv, Brussels and Kiev, and additional studios will be opened in Washington, Paris and London in the coming months.
The network has 12 correspondents, all foreigners, who are currently deployed in six countries. The casting of reporters to cover the news in Israel, Europe and Russia will be completed in the coming days.
The network will begin its broadcasts in English, but its managers seek to offer news in seven additional languages, including Hebrew, French, Italian, Russian and German.
"We'll broadcast everything that is newsworthy," says Alexander Zanzer, the channel's editor-in-chief in Brussels, where the station is based. "Alongside general news, we'll offer economic and cultural items, as well as a peek into educational projects. Everything you can see on other global news channels, you'll be able to see on our channel as well."
But here's the real question: Will they advocate propagandize in our favor as strongly as al-Jazeera propagandizes against us? Somehow, I doubt it.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
