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- Obama’s secret wars in Muslim world make Americans vulnerable 1
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- Biden says Jewish ‘influence’ behind American cultural politics is ‘immense… … 12
- The etymology of anti-Semitism 0
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- Israeli airport sorts passengers with ‘Jewish stickers’ and ‘Arab stickers’ 2239
- Washington state bus-ad campaign dares to state: ‘Equal rights for … 1716
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- ‘Newseum’ folds under pressure, will not include Gaza cameramen in … 1368
- Palestinian-American Raed Zidan plants flag on top of Everest, dedicates … 1339
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- International Criminal Court opens preliminary investigation into attack on Mavi … 96
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- Another ‘NYT’ piece buys Israel’s al-Dura report– which PA spox calls ‘fantastical’ racist propaganda http://t.co/PGFbErTIOK, 9 mins ago
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- Jewish philanthropies stay away from org dedicated to Yiddish culture b/c it doesn’t focus on Israel or the Holocaust http://t.co/1u2JxXnhTS, 53 mins ago
- .@RSF_RWB on Israeli al-Dura investigation: ‘nature & substance of rpt r questionable & give impression of smear op’ http://t.co/XgjVOMTapt, 2 hours ago
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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
The European settlers who came to "america" were not fleeing persecutions and pogroms.
The USA should be dismantled and the land given to Mexico.
@Biorabbi
I’ve heard much criticism about the zionist MEMRI’s associations over the years. I’ve never heard a single question regarding the veracity of the translations. Why is that?
Maybe you havn't searched properly? There is plenty of material showing how MEMRI mistranslates. Brian Whitaker from the Guardian, exposed MEMRI for their deliberate mistranslations and he tackled MEMRI's founder about them, see below.
US think tanks give lessons in foreign policy
Monday 19 August 2002
Brian Whitaker reports on the network of research institutes whose views and TV appearances are supplanting all other experts on Middle Eastern issues
link to guardian.co.uk
Mr Perle's close friend and political ally at AEI is David Wurmser, head of its Middle East studies department. Mr Perle helpfully wrote the introduction to Mr Wurmser's book, Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein.
Mr Wurmser's wife, Meyrav, is co-founder, along with Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence - of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), which specialises in translating and distributing articles that show Arabs in a bad light.
She also holds strong views on leftwing Israeli intellectuals, whom she regards as a threat to Israel (see "Selective Memri", Guardian Unlimited, August 12, 2002).
*
Selective Memri
Brian Whitaker – 12 August 2002
Brian Whitaker investigates whether the ‘independent’ media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems
link to guardian.co.uk
Earlier this year, Memri scored two significant propaganda successes against Saudi Arabia. The first was its translation of an article from al-Riyadh newspaper in which a columnist wrote that Jews use the blood of Christian or Muslim children in pastries for the Purim religious festival.
The writer, a university teacher, was apparently relying on an anti-semitic myth that dates back to the middle ages. What this demonstrated, more than anything, was the ignorance of many Arabs - even those highly educated - about Judaism and Israel, and their readiness to believe such ridiculous stories.
But Memri claimed al-Riyadh was a Saudi "government newspaper" - in fact it's privately owned - implying that the article had some form of official approval.
Al-Riyadh's editor said he had not seen the article before publication because he had been abroad. He apologised without hesitation and sacked his columnist, but by then the damage had been done.
Memri's next success came a month later when Saudi Arabia's ambassador to London wrote a poem entitled The Martyrs - about a young woman suicide bomber - which was published in al-Hayat newspaper.
Memri sent out translated extracts from the poem, which it described as "praising suicide bombers". Whether that was the poem's real message is a matter of interpretation. It could, perhaps more plausibly, be read as condemning the political ineffectiveness of Arab leaders, but Memri's interpretation was reported, almost without question, by the western media.
These incidents involving Saudi Arabia should not be viewed in isolation. They are part of building a case against the kingdom and persuading the United States to treat it as an enemy, rather than an ally.
It's a campaign that the Israeli government and American neo-conservatives have been pushing since early this year - one aspect of which was the bizarre anti-Saudi briefing at the Pentagon, hosted last month by Richard Perle.
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Email debate: Yigal Carmon and Brian Whitaker
Tuesday 28 January 2003
An article on Guardian Unlimited last year by Middle East editor Brian Whitaker questioned the impartiality of Memri, an organisation that translates articles from the Middle Eastern media. We subsequently published a response by Memri’s president Yigal Carmon, in which he vigorously defended his organisation. What follows is the text of a debate between the two men conducted subsequently by email. At the end of this exchange you will find links to the original articles that gave rise to the debate.
link to guardian.co.uk
Having misrepresented the original question, you then had to misrepresent the mufti's answer. There is no excuse for this sort of textual manipulation, and I can only surmise it was done for political reasons - to make his remarks look more anti-semitic than they actually were.
More recently, in Special Dispatch 407, you translated a poem from the Arab-American weekly, al-Watan, likening President Bush to an ape. Anyone reading your introduction could reasonably assume the poet was an Arab-American, when in fact the poet is a Palestinian.
The Arabic version made clear he was writing from the West Bank and included his location - "Ramallah" - immediately after his name. Memri cut the word "Ramallah" from its translation, enhancing the impression that the author was Arab-American.
Annoying, dishonest little tweaks like this seem to crop up quite a lot in Memri's work. Again, the only reason I can see for it is a political one - in this case to further denigrate Arab-Americans in the eyes of their fellow citizens.
Good work Phil, thank you.
Lobby groups are not illegal in the USA.
Why is this sort of nonsense tolerated here?
Phil? You were questioning why Daily Kos banned linking and commenting? I suggest you do a comment review. Many of your commentators do nothing for the credibility of your site.
Walid I don't know what kind of perverse logic you are propogating here.
The fact that the USA does not currently regard MEMRI as a dubious outfit, doesn't mean that we cannot present the facts to those in a position to review.
The billions in aid given to Israel is not connected to this, nor was it the issue here. If the USA want's to give funds to a source, it should be a source that doens't alter translations for an agenda.
Saleema,
That was not the reason, nor were they required to convert. They sided with the Qureysh when their own wealth and power was threatened. by the growing faith.
davidsc
“ Antisemitism goes back to the time of Muhammed (link to en.wikipedia.org
Get your facts straight.
Islamic Antisemitism And Its Nazi RootsBy Matthias Küntzel
link to matthiaskuentzel.de
Daniel Pipes who is an Islamophobe concludes:
The Politics of Muslim Anti-Semitism
link to danielpipes.org
The Nazis also did much to familiarize Muslims with anti-Semitism. Exploiting Middle Eastern resentment against the Allied government in the 1930s and 1940s, they established close bonds with leading political elements in Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere. Nazi sponsorship of anti-Semitism made it a live ideology in the Arab world; ex-Nazis then held important positions in 'Abd an-Nasir's government during the 1950s.
To a large degree anti-Semitism followed political hostilities with Israel - it did not cause them. This is an important distinction: while it was anti-Zionism (that is to say, a horror of Jewish sovereignty over lands once belonging to Muslims) which impelled the Arab states to fight Israel originally, anti-Zionism alone cannot account for the extraordinary role played by Israel in Arab political life since then. Credit for that must go to anti-Semitism. The Arab obsession with Israel during the past thirty years depends for its sustenance on the fund of anti-Semitic ideas imported from Christian Europe. Without this ideology, the Arabs could not have sustained their opposition at such fever pitch. (Even at the height of the Algerian war, Arabs did not vilify the French people as they do the Jews, though that was a far more protracted and brutal conflict against a much more powerful enemy.) While hostility to Israel has indigenous roots, its transformation into the single overriding Arab cause has depended on the availability of an anti-Semitic ideology. Having no such ideology of their own, the Muslims borrowed the one invented by Christians.
oops, I omitted the first link above, here it is:
link to guardian.co.uk
US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy
Phil, could you include email contact details on posts like this, so that we can write and make our objections known. How about campaign type posts where readers can fill in their emails and send them immediately, you know the types I mean?
To everyone else, I'd advise sending a firm but polite email, to the State Dept. voicing your objections.
Brian Whitaker from the Guardian, wrote a series of exclusives exposing MEMRI for their deliberate mistranslations. The State Dept need to see the below:
US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy
Monday 19 August 2002
Brian Whitaker reports on the network of research institutes whose views and TV appearances are supplanting all other experts on Middle Eastern issues
Selective Memri
Brian Whitaker - 12 August 2002
link to guardian.co.uk
Brian Whitaker investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems
Email debate: Yigal Carmon and Brian Whitaker
Tuesday 28 January 2003
link to guardian.co.uk
An article on Guardian Unlimited last year by Middle East editor Brian Whitaker questioned the impartiality of Memri, an organisation that translates articles from the Middle Eastern media. We subsequently published a response by Memri's president Yigal Carmon, in which he vigorously defended his organisation. What follows is the text of a debate between the two men conducted subsequently by email. At the end of this exchange you will find links to the original articles that gave rise to the debate.
Aren't they exaggerating a little?
Obama can win a second term even if American Jews won't vote for him as a majority group.
Any dates set for the visit? It would obviously need to be near election time, if his goal is the "jewish vote", but I think this is exaggerated. Obama doesn't need to court it, it's there for the taking.
Carlos Slim is Muslim.
Europes richest man (Reenat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian) is also a Muslim.
I meant to say above that the richest minority group in the USA by religion are the Hindu Indians (collecltively)
The Forbes Rich list, is something separate.
This ban ain't right.
Can't we start some sort of campaign to get Daily Kos to lift it? People may think it's not important, but Daily Kos is important. People there should be able to link to it.
I also think the comments should be more discerning. Those who have nothing useful to contribute other than to vent hate, should not be allowed to get through.
Phil
Was it because of your own editorials, or because of the comments? I have a feeling it's the latter more than the former.
By the way this:-
I have never argued that Jews should be pushed out of the establishment, or deprived of our status as the richest group by religion in the U.S.
Actually, it's the Hindu Indians who are the richest religious minority.
@yours truly
Could you please to learn to write properly, your posts make for an irritating read, as you have to scroll down.
@ Phil and Adam
We plan to hire a part-time editorial assistant with the money raised during this fundraising drive to help us keep up as the site continues to grow in size and influence.
If I may suggest, someone loyal to the cause may be the best option, as they'd be less concerned with the salary. Maybe even an intern.
Phil and Adam
I hope the donations won't make "enemy" contributors, try to influence content.
Also, it may be an idea for you to consider postal donations, for those who want to remain anonymous donors. These may be the best, as they will not try to influence content in any way.
Congratulations, Phil and Adam :)
May you go from strength to strength, Inshallah.
Latest: David Cameron, the British Prime Minister disassociated himself from the JNF
@Kathleen,
Feith, Wolfowitz and other neo cons are discredited. They took the flak for the failed war, though there were other criminals like Cheney, whose oil company Haliburton benefitted from the war.
Don't compare that situation with this one today. Israel is not going to strike Iran, nor will the USA. That would be suicidal.