Archive for the 'media' Category

Tuvia Grossman, 10 Years On

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on August 31, 2010
in Israel and media
. 0 Comments

Via Honest Reporting:

On September 30, 2000, The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man — bloodied and battered — crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of Israeli brutality – with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier was the one who beat him.

That young man was, in fact, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago, who was beaten within inches of his life before being rescued by the Israeli border policeman in the photo.

The resulting outrage generated by the gross distortion of the photo “launched” Honest Reporting.

Now, ten years later, we caught up with Tuvia in an exclusive interview.

Walt, Weiss et al.: Mainstreaming Hate

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on July 21, 2010
in anti-Zionism, antisemitism, media and recommended reading
. 3 Comments
“Walt is a throwback to the 1930s,” says Goldberg. “In the ’30s the isolationists rode the Jews as a hobby horse. They tried very hard to marginalize American citizens of the Jewish faith by questioning their loyalty. These guys don’t even understand what ancient terror they’re tapping into. What’s original, what makes this period alarming, is that The Washington Post Company would give a Jew-baiter a platform.”

From a must-read piece by Lee Smith on Tablet.

(H/T: Michael G.)

More on Libya’s Reputation Laundering

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on July 15, 2010
in Gaza, Libya and media
. 0 Comments

I gave an interview to broadcaster RT based on my recent Huffington Post article, in which I argued that the Libyan regime’s decision to dispatch a ship to Gaza is the political equivalent of money laundering; instead of washing dirty notes, you wash a bloodstained reputation in the name of humanitarianism.

German Broadcasters Romance Press TV

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on July 14, 2010
in Germany, Iran and media
. 4 Comments

Periodically, I’ve written about the loathsome Holocaust denial outfit Press TV (see here and here and here, for example,) a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime that masquerades as a legitimate broadcaster.

In the Jerusalem Post, Benny Weinthal reports the following:

Executives from two public TV channels last week hosted Ezzatollah Zarghami, the president of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, who allegedly has ties to the Revolutionary Guards, prompting criticism on Monday.

Continue reading ‘German Broadcasters Romance Press TV’

Progressive? Then Don’t Boycott Israel

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on June 25, 2010
in anti-Zionism, antisemitism, boycotts and media
. 5 Comments

The Nation magazine has become the house journal of the BDS movement in America. But it wasn’t always that way. Back in 1981, The Nation published a brilliant piece of investigative journalism exposing the role of US corporations in complying with the Arab boycott; in doing so, the writers offered some vital insights into why the boycott movement is so irredeemably and wretchedly reactionary. I explain more in my latest piece for The Huffington Post.

Z Word at HuffPo

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on June 11, 2010
in Z word blog, blogging and media
. 0 Comments

Just a short note to say that I’ve started writing over at the Huffington Post. You can read my first piece, on Iran and the UN Human Rights Council, here.

More Thoughts on Helen Thomas

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on June 11, 2010
in Britain, US Jews, USA, anti-Zionism, antisemitism and media
. 2 Comments

This is a guest post by Winston Pickett.

For media watchers familiar with the White House Press Corps, the saga of Helen Thomas is has served up a pungent lesson on how antisemitic ideas can pollute and ultimately force a 58-year career to crash, burn and splutter to an inglorious conclusion.

Continue reading ‘More Thoughts on Helen Thomas’

Farewell Helen Thomas

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on June 7, 2010
in Middle East, antisemitism and media
. 8 Comments

Helen Thomas is retiring. Now wait for the usual chorus of Jewish/ZOG/Israel lobby conspiracy theorists who will claim that Helen was the victim here, and that her bloodcurding demand that Jews “return” to the lands from which  most of them were physically eliminated in the middle of the last century was simply… criticism of Israel.

Here’s Adam Holland with an interesting item about the Ron Paulistas support for Thomas.

And here’s how Helen will be remembered:

Mavi Marmara Myths 1

Published
by
Eamonn McDonagh
on June 7, 2010
in Gaza Flotilla, Spain and media
. 5 Comments

Yesterday’s El País ran an op-ed piece by Juan Carlos Sanz about the fallout from the flotilla. It begins by quoting an (unnamed) eye witness on the Mavi Marmara who claimed that the Israeli commandos shouted “One Minute! One Minute!” as they opened fire.

Continue reading ‘Mavi Marmara Myths 1′

Gaza Flotilla: “This Was Pre-Planned Violence”

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on June 1, 2010
in Gaza Flotilla, IDF and media
. 0 Comments

Here are excerpts from an interview I gave to Al Arabiya on the Gaza flotilla.

Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País V

Published
by
Eamonn McDonagh
on April 21, 2010
in Spain, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, antisemitism in the Spanish press and media
. 1 Comment

7. Conclusion

There are far more similarities than differences in the two papers coverage of the crisis. Both see Israel as entirely at fault, whether through malevolence or incompetence, and both would probably like the crisis to get worse and for the Israelis to get their comeuppance from Washington, but neither can quite bring itself to believe this might be possible. Both share a view of the Palestinians as generally passive, with Israel bearing practically the whole responsibility for the absence of a Palestinian state, almost as if it was something it possessed and perversely refused to hand over, as if the only obstacle to the creation of a state was Israel’s refusal to allow it. Their view of the conflict is an Israel-obsessed one and it sees the Palestinians as having, at best, a partial political subjectivity, waiting for others, principally Israel but also the Americans, to do the right thing and vindicate their rights for them. They both see Israel, in both its existence and its actions as the sole motor of history in the conflict and have a very thin view of the history of the conflict. Despite their evident sympathy for the Palestinians neither paper treats them with the seriousness it treats the Israelis.

Continue reading ‘Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País V’

Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País III

Published
by
Eamonn McDonagh
on April 19, 2010
in "progressive" antimsemitism, Spain, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, antisemitism in the Spanish press and media
. 1 Comment

5. El País (i)

The March 14th editorial in El Páis dealing with fallout from Biden’s visit is titled “Dark Horizon”, and starts like this,

The U.S. Vice President, Joseph Biden, arrived in Tel Aviv last week with the intention of promoting a rapprochement between Israelis and Palestinians, but he was received by the Netanyahu Government with the announcement of new settlement projects: 112 housing units in the West Bank and 1,600 in East Jerusalem.

Continue reading ‘Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País III’

Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País II

Published
by
Eamonn McDonagh
on April 18, 2010
in "progressive" antimsemitism, Spain, Z word blog, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, antisemitism in the Spanish press and media
. 2 Comments

3. The Facts

The controversy arose from the fact that during a visit in early March from Vice President Biden, Israel announced its intention to build 1600 new housing units in a part of the city of Jerusalem captured from the Kingdom of Jordan during the Six Day War. Given that Biden was in the country to make encouraging noises to both sides in the then approaching proximity peace talks, the timing of the  announcement was unfortunate to say the very least. Biden himself immediately condemned the move while Secretary of State Hilary Clinton described it as “deeply negative” and David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, described it both as an “affront” and an “insult”.  Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Sates, is alleged to have said that the row amounted to the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations in 35 years, though he later claimed to have been misquoted. Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed that he was unaware that the announcement was to be made during Biden’s visit, expressed regret about its timing and set up a committee to ensure that such a decision would not be made public without his approval in the future. The Palestinian side reacted by threatening not to participate in the proximity talks.

Continue reading ‘Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País II’

Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País I

Published
by
Eamonn McDonagh
on April 17, 2010
in "progressive" antimsemitism, Spain, Z word blog and media
. 5 Comments

1.         Introduction

The purpose of this piece is to compare some aspects of the coverage of the recent diplomatic tension between the United States and Israel arising from Israel’s announcement of its intention to build new homes in a disputed part of Jerusalem during the recent visit to Israel of United States Vice President Joe Biden.  The Guardian, of London and El País, of Madrid were the newspapers chosen for examination because they are usually regarded as leaders in the advocacy of liberal and progressive politics in their respective countries and progressive and liberal opinion in some democratic nations has in recent years taken a sharp turn against Israel. Putting it very roughly, when Israel was  frequently involved in large-scale conventional warfare and expanding the territory under its control it was generally seen in sympathetic terms. Now that it has withdrawn from huge extensions of territory conquered in war, made comprehensive peace deals with two of countries that border it and abandoned fantasies of remaking the map of the Middle East to suit its proposes, it is increasingly seen as a uniquely evil state, illegitimate from birth, perverse in its policies, cruel in its behavior and ruled by a nefarious ideology, Zionism.

Continue reading ‘Biden’s Visit in The Guardian and El País I’

US-Israel Relations: Where Now?

Published
by
Ben Cohen
on March 23, 2010
in media
. 0 Comments

Here I am on NPR’s AirTalk with Larry Mantle. My segment comes in at 9′15,” but do have a listen to the State Department’s P.J. Crowley, who’s interviewed before me.