Apologies to Arianna Huffington. A better reader than me points out that Arianna did go to the West Bank, as Bruce Wolman doubted, in his post of yesterday. And what did she have to say?
I left Bialik Rogozin energized and inspired. So it was particularly jarring to
drive straight from the school to the West Bank to see the Jewish settlements
that have become a flashpoint of the stalled peace process.The security wall. The roadblocks and barbed wire. The separate roads that the
Palestinians have to use. The checkpoints and "buffer zones." The very large,
sprawling, and very permanent-looking Israeli settlements carved out on
Palestinian land. No wonder Palestinians feel like strangers in their own land.Taking it all in, it’s hard not to feel weighed down by a sense of hopelessness
over the divisions that seem even more entrenched and permanent than the
intruding settlements themselves.
It’s better than nothing perhaps. But we should expect better still. And one can perhaps see an Israeli-lobby talking point when AH describes those settlements as “very permanent-looking”. That’s what jewish colonial chauvinists want you to think.
After two days of reports from Israel, which included a glowing interview with President Peres, a visit to Garage Geeks of Israel, and dinner with Defense Minister Edud Barak and his wife (also attended by Avital Leibovich, the spokesperson for the Foreign Press Division of the Israeli military), Arianna provided a third report.
It started with a trip to the Wailing Wall and then a visit to the Bialik Rogozin School in Tel Aviv. The Rogozin school we were told receives a lot of support from Martin Karp, of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, and educates poor Israeli students from 48 countries, including 21 orphans from Darfur.
After six paragraphs about the Wall and the school, there are the three paragraphs that Phil quoted above and the one paragraph conclusion, which I quoted.
I never doubted that Arianna went to the West Bank, as I actually read all three of her postings. She went “to see the Jewish settlements.” And her one paragraph description of what she saw is not what I consider a report even if Phil and a better reader think otherwise. It was more like a one paragraph description in a travel review.
Today Arianna has her Sunday Roundup. Until now, no report from the West Bank. Maybe that will change next week. Hence, no apology to Arianna from me so far.
I wonder if Arianna even got of the car on her trip to see the Jewish settlements. We wait to hear more from her journey.
Well good. Maybe Ms. Huffington could kindly do something about the staffers — comment moderators especially — on her site that are blatantly tampering with the discussion. There was a definite, noticable change in who gets priority and carte blanche, and whose posts get blocked or outright banned.
Substantial change starts in one’s own backyard.
Fat chance. Check out her political director: Hilary Rosen.
I mean editor, not director. Rosen ran the other Hillary’s campaign in some capacity I’ve forgotten and too lazy to look up. Also fundraiser for her.
Wow. Arianna threw a sop to the other side. This bagatelle hardly excuses the extreme Zionist slant of her site, not to mention her censorship of opposing views.
Arianna is clearly a Zionist or Zionist sympathizer; and an airhead to boot.
Arianna is many things but an airhead she is not. One thing to take into account is that she is in thrall to those who produced the influx of funding her site received last year. As they say – “he who pays the piper sets the tune”.
There are others who dug into who and how the funding was arranged (have no link to provide now. maybe later – in any case this was brought up on this site). What I do recall is that the trail went weaving in and around zionistics. the HP managed to stay non-neconian (so far – not too much iran war drum beating) but the max blumental videos were removed and the imbalance in the comments screams to high heaven – as bruce notes.
So she gives a nod to her conscience with one paragraph. Then spends 10 bowing to the money. And so life moves on.
Not Exactly slamming the colonies. Justin Raimando [link at Amer Frst] explains who her piper-daddy is.
The Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory
link to original.antiwar.com
ARIANNA IS A MORON PLAIN AND SIMPLE, HOW can she pass judgement on making someone “strangers” DOES SHE NEED GLASSES TO SEE THE APARTHIED AND THE CONDITIONS THAT ARE WORSE THAN THE WW2 YEARS….THIS IN PALESTINE HAS GONE ON FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME 110 YEARS APPROX. WITH ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE USA PRESIDENTS AND BRANCHES. THE USA IS COMPLICITE ALONG SIDE THE APARTHIED JUST AS THEY DID IT THEMSELVES. PAYBACK IS GONNA BE A B-TCH. UNLESS ALL THE SUPPORTERS ARE ARMED TOO. WHICH SOME ALREADY ARE HERE IN CHITOWN. WHAT A PATHETIC WASTE OF A PEOPLE.