Category Archives: Media

Glenn Greenwald on the Woolwich attack and blowback from the ‘war on terror’

Glenn Greenwald wrote another of his important blowback articles this morning in the Guardian; Was the London killing of a British soldier ‘terrorism’? He asks an essential question concerning the definition and use of the term “terrorism”. The media in western societies should be scrutinizing this definition and the hypocrisy with which the term is applied.

Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 25 Comments

Reporters Without Borders on the Israeli al-Dura investigation: ‘the nature and substance of this report are questionable and give the impression of a smear operation’

Reporters Without Borders just released a statement on recently released Israeli investigation into the death of Muhammad al-Dura.

Posted in Activism, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Occupation | 9 Comments

Jim from Newport Township, Illinois asks the wrong question

When a listener asks a question about public broadcasting’s debt to Zionist funders, the Diane Rehm show cuts him off

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 11 Comments

Press Release: Isabel Kershner chosen to reveal future Israeli exonerations

Fresh from its triumph in exposing the Mohammed al-Dura death hoax, a secret Israeli Government Commission is nearing the completion of an even more comprehensive investigation absolving the IDF of all deaths of civilians in Lebanon in 2006, Gaza in 2008-2009, the Mavi Marmara in 2010, and Gaza in November, 2012.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Occupation | 13 Comments

Both Massad, and ‘Open Zion’, ignore the experience of Middle Eastern Jews

In the current media discourse the actual culture and history of the Arab Jews is completely ignored in favor of a bare-knuckles political approach that marks Jews and Arabs as separate categories. The narrative is one that has been constructed by the Zionists and leaves out the existential and cultural substance of the Sephardic community.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel/Palestine, Media, Middle East | 44 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Disappearing Massad, disappearing Palestine

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Al Jazeera pulled Joseph Massad’s article – “The Last of the Anti-Semites” – from their website yesterday. Massad’s article is disappearing. Like disappearing Palestine, it will reappear. Neither are going away.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 12 Comments

Anthony Bourdain heads to Israel/Palestine

CNN’s Anthony Bourdain is going to Israel and that is a really good thing.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 36 Comments

‘NY Times’ relays Israeli threat to attack Syria

Mark Landler said the New York Times received a telephone call today (May 15) from an unnamed Israeli official who threatened more airstrikes against Syria and warned that if the Assad regime retaliates it would face “crippling consequences.” When contacted by the newspaper, Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesperson, refused to comment on the allegation.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 42 Comments

Newseum honors newsman who ran guns for ethnic cleansing of Palestine

Newseum glorifies the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by honoring Hank Greenspun’s gun-running to Israel in the 1940s.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, Nakba | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

The Newseum’s ‘further investigation’ must be public, credible, and thorough – and what we should do if it isn’t

An impartial investigation by the Newseum into the deaths of Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama should be welcomed, but if the investigation is secretive, partisan, or perfunctory, or if the same conclusions already reached by every other responsible body fail to produce equivalent tribute to al-Kumi and Salama – some response will be demanded.

Posted in Activism, Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 9 Comments

Glenn Greenwald brings facts and reason to ‘Real Time’, ruins Bill Maher’s night

Last night Bill Maher had Glenn Greenwald on his show. Maher, a self-professed atheist who thinks religion is poison but thinks Israel is wonderful got a big surprise.

Posted in Media, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 88 Comments

‘Newseum’ comes under pressure from Israel supporters for honoring Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza

On May 13th, the Newseum in Washington, DC will be holding an event to honor “newspeople who died or were killed in the pursuit of news” in the past year. Among the 84 journalists who died are Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama who were killed in Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip this past winter. Their inclusion in the ceremony has sent parts of the Israel lobby into overdrive as both worked for Al-Aqsa television which is affiliated with Hamas. The neocon think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is threatening pull an annual policy summit out of the venue in protest.

Posted in Gaza, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics | 19 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Getting Israel ‘right’

I love it when American pundits talk about American intervention just shy of American boots on the ground – as if everyone else’s suffering is unimportant in comparison.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, Middle East, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 4 Comments

Syria wrap: Grumbling This won’t be easy, NYT’s Bill Keller suits up for another Mid-East war

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US has accused Syrian regime of using chemical weapons, but UN investigator says rebels have used them. At the New York Times, Bill Keller, who pushed the Iraq war, advises, “Syria Is Not Iraq,” and that “getting Syria right starts with getting over Iraq.” The columnist ascribes great power to the U.S. to be able to fix things over there– on what basis?

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, syria, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 38 Comments

Islamophobic ‘Foreign Policy’ article compares Boston bombing and Palestinian resistance to occupation

Yair Shamir’s May 1, Foreign Policy article “Our Shared Islamist Enemy: From Boston to Israel, radicals are attempting to destroy Western culture” endeavors to draw baseless parallels between the Boston Marathon bombings and the resistance of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, what he inaccurately portrays as an “aggressive and offensive jihad, unconnected to any particular conflict or borders, which conjoins Islamist terror groups around the world.” His unabashedly Zionist agenda rears its head through this opportunistic attempt to play into the media circus surrounding the Boston bombings.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, US Politics, War on Terror | 16 Comments

Anonymous sources in the Israeli US Embassy don’t like what they see on television

Ynet has an oddly anonymously-sourced story on a trend the Israeli embassy in Washington has noticed in American popular culture – Israel and the Israel lobby are increasingly portrayed as the bad guy.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, US Politics | 58 Comments

Israel supporters use Boston bombing to call for firing of UN Rapporteur

A smear campaign against UN Rapporteur Richard Falk distorts his words to claim that he blames Israel and the US for the Boston bombing—and that he believes the vicitms had it coming. Yet Falk never made the comments he was accused of making. Above, Falk talks at the United Nations.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media | Tagged | 90 Comments

Exile and the prophetic: Farewell to Salam Fayyad and American innocence

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is gone–and with him goes the Palestinian Arab Spring, according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. The author is innocent about American politics and its relation to the politics he sees rampant in the Arab world. Friedman ignores the repression and corruption everywhere–even among the leaders of our American empire.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, US Politics | 9 Comments

‘This American Life’ shines some light on that Palestinian life

Last week’s episode of “This American Life,” the popular public-radio show hosted by Ira Glass, included a striking 23-minute segment about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The piece was reported by Nancy Updike, an award-winning producer who’s been with the show since it began in 1995. Updike explores the routinized harassment of villagers in Nabi Saleh by the Israeli military. Above, Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian from the village.

Posted in Activism, Israel/Palestine, Media, Occupation, US Politics | Tagged | 15 Comments

Boston Marathon bombings unleash a new wave of Islamophobia

It’s happening again: another collective freakout steeped in Islamophobia. The Boston Marathon bombings have unleashed a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment. It’s easy to find on the right-wing. But it’s also being perpetuated by mainstream institutions and figures.

Posted in Media, US Politics | 84 Comments

Innocent until proven Muslim

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The blood has not yet dried on the streets of Boston after a horrific attack which left three dead and dozens injured, yet the question for many now is not the identity of the perpetrator but how long his beard is. The local authorities have not identified any suspects yet a plethora of minds have clearly been made up as to who committed this abhorrent act; the hashtag #Muslims went on to trend for hours alongside #MuslimsDidIt.

Posted in Media, US Politics | Tagged | 40 Comments

We need to look to the Palestinian leaders on the ground, not more diplomats — Noura Erakat on MSNBC

Chris Hayes dares to mention the dreaded one-state outcome on MSNBC, and says the left includes anti-Zionists

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, Occupation, US Politics | 28 Comments

Returning to Iraq after war and exile

Ten years ago today, Banen Al-Sheemary remembers sitting in front of the television watching the sky turn bright yellow from the massive blasts as the US invaded Iraq. She had left the country with her family during the 1991 U.S. invasion. She returned to Iraq in 2012.

Posted in Iraq, Media, Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics, War on Terror | 36 Comments

On Art/Violence at the Berlin International Film Festival

Almost two years have passed since the murder. Two of Juliano’s brilliant and brave students, Mariam Abu Khaled and Batoul Taleb, stand together with Juliano’s talented 12-year-old daughter, Milay. We receive a prestigious award at the Berlin International Film Festival for the film we made together, Art/Violence. The film is dedicated to Jul, and his spirit guides it from start to finish. Art/Violence is not about the life and work of Jul, nor is it a realist documentary about these three young women whose lives he forever changed (that film remains to be made, when the time is ripe). Instead, our film is the story, told through art and literature, of how the wild, artistic and political spirit of Jul –our teacher, father and friend– matured and developed in the souls of these three women, who continue and shape his path as young artists.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media | 2 Comments

Covering Hamas and Palestinian society: A response to Peter Beinart

A response to Peter Beinart’s Open Zion post “The Pro-Palestinian Left’s Hamas Blindspot.”

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Occupation, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 206 Comments