Another sign of despair, that the battle is now joined inside the castle gates: Israel lobby group Camera is taking on CNN senior Jerusalem correspondent Ben Wedeman, trying to do to him what was done to Octavia Nasr. Seham tells me, "Wedeman has great politics. His reporting on the war on Gaza was the only reporting by the western media that I could watch. I am sure he was expecting this." From Camera:
In a June 29, 2010 tweet, Wedeman directed his followers to an "excellent" article, as he put it, by the harshly anti-Israel professor/blogger Juan Cole. Judging by that warm praise, Wedeman embraces, and thinks his readers should likewise subscribe to, the radical and facile narrative put forth by Cole in the recommended piece. Cole's article claimed:
"[Israel's] isolation derives from Israeli policies, of illegal blockades ... and systematic land theft and displacement of occupied civilians under its control, along with aggressive wars on neighbors, which target infrastructure and civilians and are clearly intended to keep neighbors poor and backward."In other words, Cole and Wedeman promote the argument that Israelis send their sons and daughters to war not for the country's security and preservation, but out of sheer malice. The Six-Day War, according to this view, did not stem from Egyptian acts of war and threats of annihilation.
Why don’t these people take on the Israeli journalists? Their criticism of Israel is far more harsh than anything to be found in the US.
My opinion, because it’s the money. CAMERA needs to make sure only positive info gets out, otherwise people might question why their tax dollars go to another country, especially during bad economic times.
They don’t care about the Israeli’s tax dollars, just ours.
There is that, and there is also the fact that, sadly, Israeli journalists don’t really matter. Israeli society can already turn a blind eye to pretty much any atrocity their military and government commits; has documenting it thus far made any practical impact on correcting Israeli society?
Cole and Wedeman are correct, and Camera is wrong for implying otherwise: The Six-Day War did not stem from Egyptian acts of war and threats of annihilation. Israeli’s own leaders and generals said it themselves. From Alan Hart’s reporting:
RE: “…Camera is wrong for implying otherwise: The Six-Day War did not stem from Egyptian acts of war and threats of annihilation. Israeli’s own leaders and generals said it themselves.” – MRW
MY REPLY:
“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway* us.” ~ Neocon Creed
* or “deter” – I can’t decide.
It’s not just the neocons, as H.W. Bush evidenced when he said:
I love Ben Wedeman. He’s one of the only mainstream journalists covering Israel/Palestine who even has a clue (and as a result, he’s usually pretty much buried in the human interest section — only the most vapid are allowed to do actual analysis and interviews with figures in the news). Without him, any smidgen of respect for CNN is gone.
But I thought Israel and the US have shared values like freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The harder The Lobby and its agents try to subvert democracy in the US, the more exposed their goals and values become. If it were up to AIPAC, the US would be a nation of laborers, slaving away every day in shackles for the benefit of Israel. In essence, AIPAC has no compunction creating a dictatorship for the purpose of supporting a democratic state for Jews, the non-Jewish citizens of Israel could join those slave laborers, as far as The Lobby is concerned – so long as Jewish Americans are in a collective position of power.
This is a very important point: How free are we if our message is unpopular? To my mind, not very.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, like most penman, he underestimates the power of the sword.
Remember the German film Mephisto from the 70′s? The main character of the film tried to work with the nazis and influence them with regard to his friends. That is the basics, there was a lot more involved, such as the character’s personal ambition and desire to be seen as important and influential. In the end, he was instructed to just play his role and shut up, or he would be joining his friends.
The old saying, when one dines with wolves, it’s a moot question whether on is guest or the main course.
Excellent film!
That’s Orwellian. Juan Cole didn’t write about the 67-war in his article. But CAMERA does slam Ben Wedeman for recommending Juan Cole based on the 67-war, accusing Juan Cole to spread lies, though not Juan Cole, but CAMERA lies.
I would suggest, CAMERA shall also try to make this guy silent due to his opinion on the six-day-war:
Oops, done that. Rabin is already silenced. So better to report, that this war was “a war of self-defence in the noblest sense of the term”:
If it wasn’t so sadly powerful, CAMERA woud be just ridiculous.
When are they preparing for the the house investigation for unIsraeli activity in the USA? [Call it: HCUIA]
This is reminiscent of blacklisting. (after the Octavia Nasr incident)
-I can see it now.” Mr. Sestak were you ever a member of the the Hamas/Hezbollah alliance.”