Today’s Top Stories
1. According to the latest batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department, Hezbollah seeks to establish a base in Cuba from which it can attack Israeli targets in Latin America.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post responded to an attack in other Clinton e-mails calling the paper a ‘Likud organ.’
2. Jerusalem Post: The Austrian parliament cancelled an event honoring female Holocaust survivors. One of the honorees, Hedy Epstein, who fled Germany in the Kindertransport, has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, defended Hamas, and even sailed with a Free Gaza flotilla, among other things:
Reached by telephone from her home in St. Louis on Saturday, the 91-year-old Epstein told the Post: “I wish Israel didn’t come about but it is reality.” . . .
Asked if she has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, she said: “There are similarities between Israel and the Nazis but they are separate entities.” However, she insisted that she has not made a direct comparison between the Hitler movement and Israel.
3. AP bureau chief Joe Federman weighed in on the testy state of affairs between Israel and the foreign media. The Jerusalem Post was on hand as Federman discussed the situation with a visiting delegation of American Jewish leaders.
Such complaints “have begun to border on incitement against the foreign media,” Federman said last week, referencing criticism of coverage of recent terrorist attacks around the country, including the Government Press Office’s threat to revoke CBS’s press credentials over a controversial headline.
Other media figures speaking out include The Times of London and The Economist’s Gregg Carlstrom, and The Guardian’s readers’s editor, Chris Elliott. I found Elliott’s column wanting; see this reaction at Harry’s Place.
4. HonestReporting at Limmud Winnipeg: Our very own Gary Kenzer will be appearing at Limmud Winnipeg in March. If you’re in “The Peg,” area, don’t miss him. Click for more info.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
5. We just released a new E-book I wrote. Red Lines: The Eight Categories of Media Bias will inform and empower you to become a savvier news consumer. The principles behind the eight categories apply to all areas of news coverage, so by understanding these objective journalistic standards, you can raise your own level of news literacy.
Red Lines is available for purchase as an e-book for a small fee on Amazon, where you can also see a short preview.
Israel and the Palestinians
• The IDF is looking for a Palestinian who tried to stab soldiers at a West Bank junction near Nablus, then escaped.
• Israel indicted a 16-year-old Palestinian accused of murdering Dafna Meir in her home last month. Police also arrested a third Palestinian suspect in Thursday’s fatal stabbing of Tuvia Weissman in a supermarket north of Jerusalem.
• Thumbs up to Raf Sanchez of the Daily Telegraph for visiting Israeli towns and kibbutzim along the Gaza border to learn more about the threat of Hamas terror tunnels. Sanchez even uploaded onto YouTube a recording of strange noises recorded in one family’s house, which residents insist are the sounds of tunneling underneath their homes.
Dalia Levy, the woman who recorded noises on her mobile, asked to be identified by a pseudonym because of her frustration that the military was not taking her claims seriously.
• Feel the love:
Greek Defense Minister speaks out forcefully in alliance with Israel
• Secretary of State John Kerry visited Mahmoud Abbas to urge calm and reiterate US support for a two-state solution. Just how low are the expectations?
Huh? In mtg w/#Palestine leader #Abbas, @JohnKerry calls for "decrease," not "end," to "violence and incitement." https://t.co/PWwoZmsgvE
— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) February 21, 2016
Around the World
• Iraqis and the rest of the Mideast are breathing a collective sigh of relief after a case of missing radioactive material was found — apparently intact and undamaged. The disappearance of a laptop-sized case of Iridium-192 sparked fears that Islamic State or other terror groups would use the material to create a radioactive bomb.
• According to the Jewish Chronicle’s Marcus Dysch, anti-Israel posters that appeared around the London Underground are to be taken down.
Breaking: @TfL says anti-Israel posters on tube are "unauthorised… fly-posting, act of vandalism", being removed pic.twitter.com/5IGknFNnsM
— Marcus Dysch (@MarcusDysch) February 22, 2016
• Advertising company to remove Chicago billboard calling for boycott of Israel.
• Israel-bashers at the University of Chicago repeatedly interrupted a lecture by Bassam Eid, a Palestinian human rights activist known for his criticism of the PA. Eid posted this video of the incident.
Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, expressed this sentiment on Facebook, after his speech, critical of the Palestinian Authority, was interrupted by angry protesters, questioning why he was talking about human rights abuses in the PA, while letting Israel off the hook for the “occupation.” One individual in the audience — a former student at Chicago’s Columbia College who said he was from Gaza — even threatened him physically.
Commentary/Analysis
• After visiting Israel and the PA, South African academic Lesiba Bapela came away outraged at the Palestinian use of the term, “Israeli apartheid.”
In summary, “variety is the spice of life,” thus I believe that people should not rely on what is portrayed and projected by the media, because, when it comes to Israel, it presents one-sided information and propaganda. I recommend that other South Africans take the time and make the effort to ensure that they visit Israel and Palestine, or at least make the effort to investigate both sides, before making decisions about Israel.
I decided to write this article because I, personally, will no longer allow other people to use our tragedy, as the survivors of apartheid, for their own agenda.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Kerry and the game of obfuscation
– Norman Bailey: The Syrian threat to Israel
– Peter Berkowitz: Why Israeli rule of Golan is lawful — and wise
Featured image: CC BY Pedro Ribeiro Simoes; Epstein via YouTube/Warren Biggs;
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