Robert Berstein has an Op-Ed in today’s Washington Post that shows just how truly desperate Israel’s cheerleaders have become. Bernstein, a founder of Human Rights Watch who now seems to hate human rights, responds to the push for Palestinian statehood by recycling the tired argument that it is Palestinian words that are driving the conflict, not the Israeli boot on their necks. Here’s the nut:
The real obstacle to long-term peace is the endless and overwhelming words of hate and incitement to genocide effectively spread to Arabs and Palestinians. One example is the textbooks given to millions of children in Saudi Arabia, distributed in the Arab world and beyond, that label Jews “monkeys and pigs.” This continues to foment discord, radicalism and violence.
The “monkeys and pigs” link goes to a 2008 article about a book used in the UK. It’s unclear whether they are still being used today, or how exactly this is relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is too bad Bernstein doesn’t mention that current Israeli school books do much the same thing.
Most notable in the piece is Bernstein’s source. He commends the reader to “be aware of the work of Palestinian Media Watch,” explaining, “the group, an Israeli research institute focused on monitoring the messages of all aspects of Palestinian media, has detailed some of the deception of the Palestinian Authority, even during moments of peace talks.” What Bernstein doesn’t mention is that Palestinian Media Watch is run by the Islamophobic settler Itamar Marcus.
Marcus has worked for years to present the Palestinian people as a homicidal death cult in an effort to derail a negotiated settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His work has been debunked multiple times, and he is quite open about his agenda. As he told the Daily Bruin:
The Palestinian media is the window to Palestinian society. We want to understand their society. What the teachers are telling the children is the way the next generation is going to see Israel – either as a neighbor or as an enemy to be fought. That’s why we study what we do and why we put so much focus on things like sporting events for children and summer camps for children. If the kids are growing up with the belief that Allah wants them to kill Jews, then the border adjustments today and the peace treaty are not going to hold water when these kids grow up.
He continues:
When you tell your children that their role is to die in this conflict, young children, that is child abuse. Particularly when you understand the political goals here: to make Israel look bad. You tell your children to get killed so you can … then say, “Look! The Israelis are killing our children.”
Sounds like a reputable source to me.
Well the Economist isn’t buying Bernstein’s article, and hopefully other readers aren’t either. Having already made his biases known, it’s no surprise Bernstein would rely on Israeli settlers for his sources. The scandal here is that the Washington Post gave him a platform to do so.
Not unlike Britain’s Guardian warning readers away from anti-Semites of a certain type.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/28/the-dangerous-cult-of-the-guardian/
Both Bernstein and the organisation he founded have given me pause recently. (Bernstein broke with HRW because he felt it should not report on “open societies” like Israel – they were somehow above criticism).
I was taken aback by this Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/18/gaddafi-brutal-regime-exposed-lost-archive
It is important to study Peter Bouckaert’s “bait and switch” presentation of this video, dramatic discovery of documents and film then a quick switch to the real subject – a video tape brought to him by the brother of the condemned who “wants it digitised so he can view it” (a service available in any Tripoli neighbourhood prior to the “rebellion”).
Bouckaert then shows the video pointing out the children in the crowd and “Huda the executioner”.
I was very surprised to find a different version of the video on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zybm3iaHcmc
In it you will see a different crowd. No children, an all male audience as far as I can tell and a different auditorium.
This raises a number of questions about Peter Bouckaert and Human Rights Watch.
Was he not aware that the video, far from being secret, had been screened on Channel 7 in 1984?
Did he or his organisation insert the (probably sports fan) crowd scenes being roused by Huda – the Minister of Sports? Notice that the angle of seating in the auditorium is much less acute than the almost vertical bleachers in the Buckaert version.
It could be that Bouckaert has been duped but HRW has been the leading the charge against Gaddafi with their “Abu Salim Massacre” story which, in their fine print, they admit is based on just one witness and “cannot be verified”. This is touted as the primary motivation for NATO’s action which, by all accounts, has now cost something like 30,000 lives.
Having often relied on HRW reports in the past, I find their recent activities rather disturbing and would appreciate other opinions on the above.
When the NYT began charging viewers for viewing, I bolted. Yet nominally progressive WaPo is the last place I can find refuge. It’s difficult to tell WaPo from the Washington Times these days, at least on I/P.
RE: “The real obstacle to long-term peace is the endless and overwhelming words of hate and incitement to genocide effectively spread to Arabs and Palestinians. One example is the textbooks given to millions of children in Saudi Arabia, distributed in the Arab world and beyond, that label Jews ‘monkeys and pigs’.” ~ Robert Berstein
FROM TED KOPPEL, in the Wall Street Journal, 04/29/11:
SOURCE – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2011/05/the-only-democracy-israel-has-urged-us-to-intervene-to-prop-up-saudi-monarchy.html
In his conversations with Alan Hart, Ilan Pappe discusses, with despair, how Israeli school children are taught zionism from a very early age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBVkvP0YkNY