Israel


All the Media Lies about Israel

I started to do this in 2008 and meant to keep it up but forgot to put all the news articles onto the same place, so I had to start over a number of years later.  While some of these are old stories, and some are as late as last year, I hope that by reading some of these stories, or just skimming through it, that people will see that it’s quite the norm for the news media to lie about Israel.  They do it every single day. And 99% of the time it goes unchallenged, at least as far as the average citizen is aware. So if you want to know the Truth about what’s happening in Israel, or to Israel, or what Israel is actually doing or saying, you need to search for that truth, and not accept what you hear in the general news about it.

GOOGLE EARTH: A NEW PLATFORM FOR ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA AND REPLACEMENT GEOGRAPHY

by Andre Oboler Virtual Israel, as represented by Google Earth, is littered with orange dots, many of which claim to represent "Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war." Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile. Each dot links to the "Palestine Remembered" site, where further information advancing this narrative can be obtained.

Many of the claims staked out in Google Earth present misinformation, and sites known to be ruins in 1946 are claimed to be villages destroyed in 1948. Arab villages which still exist today are listed as sites of destruction. The Google Earth initiative is not only creating a virtual Palestine, it is creating a falsification of history.

The concept of "replacement geography" replaces the historical connection of one people to the land with a connection between another people and the land. The inclusion of virtual Palestine, superimposed on Israel in the core layer of Google Earth, is an example of replacement geography advanced by technology.

Those wishing to explore Israel in Google Earth are immediately taken to a politically motivated narrative unrelated to their quest. Google should remove the narrative and treat Israel as it treats every other country on the globe. The core layer of Google Earth should be ideology free and not serve as a platform for indoctrination or a campaign to wipe Israel off the virtual map.

The influence of the Internet on our lives is increasing. News, advertising, employment, education, and networking are being affected. Israel's security is especially vulnerable to the manipulation of geography. The online world allows the creation of a virtual reality that at times bears only passing resemblance to facts on the ground. The gap between reality and virtual reality is further exploited by political activists promoting what we term "replacement geography," a means of controlling the virtual representation of land in place of controlling the land itself. In an information age, control on the common map may be worth more in negotiations than control on the ground.

more; very eye opening!
http://www.think-israel.org/oboler.antiisraelgoogle.html

The ‘Israeli-Occupied Arab West Bank
By Stan Goodenough
The Land of Israel is the biblical, historic and exclusive homeland of the Jewish people. It is Israel’s country. Although swallowed and made part of other empires through the ages, it has never been the national homeland of any other people.

At the heart of the Land of Israel lie the mountains of Israel, known since ancient days as Samaria and Judea. Today all who reject Jewish ownership of, and sovereignty over, these lands call them the “West Bank” or, more particularly, the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”

In all of history the land has only been known as “the West Bank” for 19 brief years. But the name has stuck - and has been successfully employed to deaden awareness and resistance from Bible-believing people.

This land constitutes the bulk of what the world wants to give to the Arabs for the creation of a Palestinian state. For decades, the small nation of Israel has been under relentless international pressure to surrender it. Today, as 2008 and the second Bush administration are coming to a close, it increasingly looks like this land will indeed be taken from the Jews to appease the Arabs. And this as Jews and Christians look largely disinterestedly on.

Jewish and Christian readers, let me tell you a little about this “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”

The “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” is the very cradle of Jewish civilization.

In the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” Israel’s founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, lie buried.

Their wives lie with them or, as in the case of Jacob’s wife Rachel, in Bethlehem - in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”

Rachel’s Joseph is also buried in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” - in Shechem.

It was on the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” that Abraham stood when God told him to look to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west, promising that all the land he could see would be given to his descendants, “forever.”

Jacob was traveling through the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank” when he lay down to sleep, and dreamed of a staircase reaching into heaven, with angels descending and ascending as God spoke from on high saying: Jacob, the land on which you are lying is the land I am giving to you and your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. That place is called Bethel, or Beit El. It is in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”

Joshua, Moses’ successor and that great Israeli conqueror is buried in the Mountains of Ephraim, in the “Israeli-occupied Arab West Bank.”
more:
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2008/10/israeli-occupied-arab-west-bank.html

The Palestinians
By Jim Fletcher
I had an email chat last week with a Palestinian Christian upset over my statements about the Holy Land belonging to the Jews. I want to present this week a view that hopefully will be seen as balanced.

Having had only Psychology 101 in college, I can only assume that there is a term that describes the demonization of victims. In this context, I am talking about the daily campaign to snuff-out the Jews. This effort, by a coalition of enemies, involves a multi-layered approach: diplomatic, media-driven, terror, religious, and economic. And I am admitting my bias upfront: in my world, Jews have been slaughtered and harassed for 60 years by Arabs who feed on hate. Yet, in our culture today, Israel is blamed. This is surely a psychological disorder.

My chat friend has family in Bethlehem and bemoans the fact that they cannot move freely between that town and Jerusalem, Ramallah, or any other city. We all see things from our own perspectives. For a Palestinian, Israel restricts his or her movements. For an Israeli, those restrictions keep a lid on terror.

A recent poll in Egypt reveals that almost two-thirds view Al Qaida as a legitimate entity. Friends, that is scary in the extreme. As Middle East analyst Barry Rubin has noted, even the effort to bring in Israeli medicine to help a dying boy is not allowed by the Egyptians.

We also know that for decades, tens of thousands of terrorist acts have been perpetrated by Arabs against Jews. Arab armies have invaded Israel three times and terror organizations have initiated hostilities several more times, most recently two years ago in Lebanon.

That is a bare-bones Israeli view.

From the Palestinian view, Israel “stole” land in 1948. Jewish “settlers” took over homes and land and forced Arabs out. Today, the checkpoints and security barrier choke-off Arab movement and result in a devastated Palestinian economy and the uprooting of families. All Israeli leaders are viewed with suspicion. Before he (reluctantly) embraced the Oslo program, Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was known as the “bone-breaker” by Palestinians who decried Israeli efforts to deal with terrorists. No doubt the Israelis have dealt severely with their enemies.

That is a bare-bones Palestinian view.

American Christians who support Israel are often accused of ignoring Palestinian concerns. To be sure, there are stepped-up efforts by left-leaning Christians to disseminate the Palestinian “narrative.” From Brian McLaren and his Emergent friends to Christianity Today magazine to mainline churches, there have been plenty of opportunities for Palestinians to get their message out.

I do take exception to the charge that Christian Zionists ignore (and/or hate) Arabs. My dear friend David Lewis was a zealous defender of Israel. David also pioneered efforts to reach out to Palestinians and the wider Arab nation. I know plenty of other Christians who work to help Arabs. David’s daughter, Rebecca Brimmer, is director of Bridges for Peace, and that organization — based in Israel — feeds and clothes both Jews and Arabs.

The issue is this: both sides have grievances. The real problem — in my humble view — is that the Arabs have chosen a path of violence: unrelenting, diabolical, and murderous. Anyone who fails to repudiate murder does not have the moral authority to present his or her case.

Years ago I had a long conversation with a Palestinian regarding theological issues. I will not identify him beyond that.

I asked why Palestinians — particularly Palestinian Christians — take a generally dim view of Jews and Israel. I naively suggested that the Bible we all read gives clear evidence that God gave the land in question to the Jews.

He gave a long, detailed reply that I can sum up this way: Palestinians reject those ancient promises because they consider them unfair. There are various interpretations, such as symbolizing OT prophecies, considering them myth, ignoring them outright. But generally, they are rejected.

This is really extraordinary and demands further attention.

In essence, he was admitting a very human reaction: we don’t like something, so we simply reject it. This is the ultimate in subjective reasoning. Please allow me an admittedly weak parallel that I hope at least illustrates some truth.

I am a big fan of University of Oklahoma football. Always have been.

Last weekend, arch rival Texas upset OU and spoiled an unbeaten season. The game was hyped, OU fans were pumped-up, and early on, I thought OU would win big. Then mistakes, penalties, turnovers, and injuries sunk us. Yet I have no choice but to admit this:

Texas won. They played a tremendous game, played with passion and purpose, and won fair and square. They were the better team.

I cannot dwell on other factors, much as I would like to do that. I cannot pretend that Texas didn’t win. I cannot reject their victory and claim it is illegitimate.

Palestinians (particularly Christian) cannot simply reject Old Testament prophecies and promises because they consider them unfair or unjust. Besides, the opposite view can be taken: why isn’t it fair for Israel to have a sliver of land, when the pan Arab nation has 22 countries with a combined land-mass that dwarfs the Jewish state.

Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt! Israel turned over administration of land to the Palestinian Authority over a decade ago. As Avi Lipkin has pointed out, Israel has returned over 90 percent of territory won in the Six Day War!

But we never hear this. Like a giant satellite zooming in from space, we don’t see the gigantic Arab population and land-mass compared to Israel. The media, anti-Jewish diplomats, and terror organizations zoom-in and present Israel as a “Goliath” oppressing the tiny Palestinian “David.”

This is absurd and immoral. The ratio of Arab land to Jewish land in the Middle East is roughly 540 to 1!

My eyes were opened when I learned that the Palestinian Christians generally reject Jewish claims to the land, not on theological grounds, but simply by subjective feeling.

And further: I cannot view with equal measure the plight of a Palestinian family that cannot regularly visit family from other villages when weighed against the plight of multitudes of Jewish families who have buried loved ones murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

If we split with Palestinian brethren over this, we split. I cannot and will not allow myself to be duped by clever propaganda. This is a black-and-white issue. Murder is never justified. Rejection of the Bible because one perceives it to be unfair is never justified.

We are moving into difficult times, on myriad levels. It is my contention that support for Israel is diminishing, not growing. Her enemies are aggressive, well-funded, and do not become exhausted. Not one of these traits is shared by Israel’s defenders, generally speaking.

I do sincerely love my Palestinian brethren. But I cannot and will not be silent while Israel is in danger.

Never.
Posted with permission:
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2008/10/palestinians.html

A Group Of American Christian Leaders Have Launched A Campaign Against Christians Who Support Israel

By Jimmy DeYoung
What the media refers to as "leftist American Christian leaders"... have launched a full-scale public relations campaign against Christians who support Israel who these Christian leaders call, "Christian Zionists."

A brochure being distributed to approximately 45 million Americans charges that Christian Zionists foster fear and hatred of Muslims and non-western Christians and can lead to the dehumanization of Israelis and Palestinians. These church leaders that oppose the Christian Zionists claim that the security of the United States is being harmed because the absence of a Palestinian state encourages terrorist attacks against the United States as well as Israel.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

American churches divided in their support for the Jewish state of Israel is a forerunner to the prophetic scenario in the Bible for the End Times.

When American church leaders launch a full-scale public relations campaign against the element of the American Christian community that wholeheartedly supports the Jewish state of Israel, the world stands by and watches as the body of Christ moves away from total support to God's plan for the End Times. The definition of a Christian Zionist is a true born again believer in Jesus Christ that accepts the prophetic scenario found in God's Word for the Jewish people in the last days. 2500 years ago, the ancient Jewish prophets wrote that in the last days, God would bring Jews from the four corners of the Earth to the land of their forefathers, the land of Israel (Ezekiel 34, 36, 37 Deuteronomy 30, and Jeremiah 31).

Revelation 17 speaks of a false religion in the last days that would fall under satanic influence and oppose the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East and God's fulfillment of His promises to the Jews.

God promised Abraham, Genesis 12 and 15, that there would be a Jewish nation on the land that they now live on and they would live there forever. In spite of the public relations campaign launched by leftist American church leaders against these prophecies, Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.
Posted with permission:
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2008/10/group-of-american-christian-leaders.html

Lying About Israel
By Jim Fletcher
A theme that returns to my mind again and again as time passes is the criticism of Israel, from within the United States. Specifically, from within the Christian community.

There is a situation unfolding now that I’ll be able to elaborate on at a later time, but it involves the white-washing of information that alerts Bible-believing Christians about unjust criticism of Israel and the Jews.

Suffice to say for now that powerful religious forces are cleverly and consistently tightening the noose on the Jewish state. By doing so, they are unaware that they are fulfilling the Bible prophecy they so despise.

Many of these critics have never visited Israel. They do not know, for example, that the country is tiny and therefore vulnerable to threats from the Arabs. Before elaborating on that, I want to say clearly that I do not believe many of them would care about the truth, about the realities Israel faces every day. The real danger in all this is that the constituencies of these Christian leaders are fed a steady diet of untruth.

As to Israel’s size, not only is it small geographically, but hundreds of Israeli communities are right next to Arab communities. If you live in hilly or mountainous country, imagine driving along a highway and looking over at a hill. On the hill is a town. At the base of the hill is a town. Each is populated by a different ethnic group.

This is Israel today. Jews and Arabs within a stone’s throw, literally, of each other.

Arab terror incubates in such an environment. Yet this truth is never acknowledged by Israel’s Christian critics. In fact, the critics say that Jewish presence fosters Arab frustration, which leads to Arab anger, which leads to Arab “resistance” (terrorism).

All this impacts an area dear to my heart, and which I write about from time to time. In the arena of Christian books, there is a hardening of positions toward Israel. A generation ago (a decade ago!), one would find much friendlier folks, regarding Israel, than one finds today.

Strang Communications publishes pro Israel books, because the publisher, Stephen Strang, is personally supportive of Israel. Many kudos to him and his publishing entities. There one finds ads for Israeli tourism, articles, and facts that help the Jewish state.

Balfour Books also publishes pro Israel material. Harvest House — bless them — still publishes Bible prophecy.

But many other publishers are “going contemplative.” That is to say, they are following new streams of thought in Christendom. Those streams are polluted with much anti-Israel sentiment, and it is going to get worse, my friends.

Another publisher that is worthy of your dollars is Gefen Publishing, based in Jerusalem. There, the Christian Zionist will find perhaps the best list of information-packed books one could hope for. For example, the other day Harry Hurwitz died. His 2004 book, Begin: His Life, Words and Deeds chronicles the life of perhaps Israel’s greatest prime minister. Check out Gefen’s extraordinary list at http://www.israelbooks.com/.

Sadly, many more publishers are turning their backs on Israel, and one day I’ll write an expose of all that.

RaptureReady represents one of the most important facts about Israel today: the justness of her cause. Todd and Terry have developed a web-based outsourcing of material that spreads truth by word-of-mouth (or word-of-electricity!). This is vitally important in an age in which Emergent teachings are rotting the Church from within.

With regard to Israel, it is too bad that more people can’t see the place for themselves and then return home armed with facts that refute the lies and propaganda of the Palestinians and their friends on the Left. I’ll give you a concrete example.

The security fence that runs north and south in Israel has dramatically — dramatically — cut down on the loss of Jewish life. The fence meanders around communities in Judea and Samaria. Yet what one hears from “peace and justice” groups that spring from liberal American churches is that Israel is cutting off the Palestinians from their land and families and livelihood.

History will stand with me one day on this: the Jews are the most justice-seeking humans on the face of the earth. They always have been. Even when deep in existential threats, when war is repeatedly forced on it — Israel struggles to keep down civilian casualties. This is a fact. Notice this:

Beginning with the 1982 war in Lebanon, Israel has been charged with murdering civilians (Sabra and Shatilla). In point of fact, they send troops into towns and villages to root-out terrorist killers one-by-one, rather than opting to use the deluxe Israeli air force and flatten said towns and villages.

This is never discussed by the Left. It isn’t discussed by the Left because the Left, including liberal Christianity, is immoral. Lying is simply a means to an end, in this case, the end of Israel.

Here’s a fascinating little fact: in Ariel Sharon’s autobiography, Warrior, he recounts the great pains to which Israel has gone to avoid “taking” Arab land. He mentioned that when he was Israel’s agriculture minister, he sent teams out into the land and took samples from the ground, to determine is animal feces was present, thus indicating Arab livestock grazing in the fields. If present, Israel would not use the land for establishing dwellings.

This is never discussed when the Christian Left parrots PLO propaganda and says Israel has stolen Arab land. This is so because the goal of the Left is to demonize Israel, period.

As a pro Israel Christian, I urge you — again — to support the aforementioned publishers. Read and support such sites as http://www.camera.org/ and http://www.honestreporting.com/, along with http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/. All this is vital to Israel’s security.

Remember, you can’t take what someone says at face value, not in today’s culture. Arm yourself with facts about Israel and the Jews, then act accordingly. Posted with permission:
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2008/10/lying-about-israel.html

Special Report: The Hamas Propaganda War
How the MSM handed Hamas a PR victory.
Images of Gaza plunged in darkness alongside pictures of Palestinians streaming across the border to Egypt provided Hamas with a significant public relations victory last week. It wouldn't have been possible without the complicity of major media, all too happy to invoke the usual narrative of Israel as the "bad guy" and the Palestinians as "the victims."

While Israel's image undoubtedly took a mauling, the bigger picture is starting to emerge - one that shows how Hamas was able to pull off a sophisticated operation before the eyes of the mainstream media (MSM).


A 'cycle of violence'?

Most media presented the Gaza crisis in a manner similar to the AP:

It started last week with what Israel says was the inadvertent killing of a son of Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar in an Israeli arrest raid. Hamas retaliated with rocket barrages on Israel, and Israel struck back by sealing Gaza hermetically and cutting off fuel shipments. Several days later, Gaza militants blew down the border wall with Egypt, effectively ending the Israeli blockade, which had been tacitly backed by Egypt.

Why did the media fail to add the vital context? Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007 until the end of December 2007, 475 missiles and 631 mortars were fired at Sderot and the surrounding region. Since January 16, 2008, well over 200 Qassams and mortars have been fired by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza.


Despite this, most media chose to attribute Israeli security measures as the cause of the Gaza situation rather than the continuous Palestinian terror that necessitated an Israeli response.

Who turned off the lights?

Were the power cuts and Palestinian demonstrations staged by Hamas in coordination with the Arab media? Calev Ben David of the Jerusalem Post wonders:

Indeed, so ready was Al-Jazeera with live coverage of candle-bearing Palestinian children and immediate reaction from across the Arab world, that Israeli officials said Tuesday they strongly suspect the Arab news network had coordinated its coverage in advance with the Hamas leadership.

"They were so prepared, it's hard to believe they didn't know this was going to happen," said the official. "Although it's already dark in Gaza by 6 p.m., they waited two hours to shut their generator down so that the lights going out in Gaza could be carried live on Al-Jazeeera during prime-time viewing."


Writing in the same paper, Amir Mizroch notes:

The footage was powerful and unforgettable: thousands of people gathered to light candles in a Gaza City plunged into darkness. The possibility that Hamas itself had switched off the lights in the densely populated city to create the impression of an urgent humanitarian crisis was likely not considered by many watching the broadcast.

Naturally, he continued, many viewers associated the darkness with Israel's decision to reduce fuel shipments. But the media downplayed the fact that Israel's Ruttenberg power station in Ashkelon was still streaming electricity into Gaza and that there had been no Israeli action that shut the city's lights off.

Hamas continued to manipulate a compliant media for its own ends. As the Jerusalem Post reported:


On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.


In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

Clearly visible in the background are drawn curtains blocking the sunlight. This, however, didn't stop Reuters spinning a different story with photo captions such as the one below:



If some journalists saw that they were being manipulated, why was it only the Jerusalem Post that reported this? Were these journalists really so lacking in integrity that they preferred to play along with the deception?

A 'spontaneous breakout'?

Typical of many media's explanation of events was The Daily Telegraph's:

The wall fell after a nearly week-long Israeli blockade of fuel and humanitarian aid into Gaza, a response to a week of heavy Qassam rocket attacks on Israeli towns after Israeli air strikes killed the son of a senior Hamas leader and 18 other people.

In fact, as McClatchy News discovered:

They had apparently been planning the attack for weeks. With the knowledge of locals, militants had spent weeks methodically using blow torches to cut along the bottom of the 30-foot-tall corrugated iron wall along the Egyptian border.

A Palestinian guard also told The Times of London that he saw people surreptitiously working to undermine the wall "for months."


'Starving' Palestinians and a humanitarian crisis?

Hamas and the media conveyed the distinct impression of a humanitarian crisis as Gaza's Palestinians 'starved'. Many media reported the closure of bakeries due to shortages of power and supplies. However, a Palestinian Authority official interviewed by the Jerusalem Post:

accused Hamas of ordering owners of bakeries to keep their businesses closed for the second day running to create a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is preventing people from buying bread," he said. "They want to deepen the crisis so as to serve their own interests."

The official said that contrary to Hamas's claims, there is enough fuel and flour to keep the bakeries in the Gaza Strip operating for another two months. "Hamas members have stolen most of the fuel in the Gaza Strip to fill their vehicles," he said.


In addition, hospitals were said to be dangerously low on fuel, putting patients' lives at risk. Was this also a result of Hamas actions? CAMERA quotes the independent Palestinian news agency Maan report of Dec 6, 2007:

The Palestinian health ministry of the Ramallah-based caretaker government said on Thursday that "Hamas militias" have looted the fuel stores destined for hospital vehicles in the Gaza Strip.

A statement released by the health ministry said that fuel from the European hospital in the Gaza Strip had been stolen by the director of the hospital drivers to supply the Hamas-affiliated Executive Force.


The statement explained that the fuel reserve had been supplied by the ministry to enable the hospital to continue working for as long as possible.

McClatchy News Jerusalem bureau chief Dion Nissenbaum even states:


Israel is pumping in some fuel for Gaza's only power plant and offering some diesel, but Palestinians are actually refusing to accept the small shipments of diesel to protest Israel's policies.

The Christian Science Monitor comments on Gazan 'hunger':

While starvation has not been a problem there – most of the strip's residents receive food aid from the UN – it's proved a powerful idea in the propaganda war over Gaza's fate.

Will the media relent?


Some media will not admit that they have been manipulated by Hamas. Others prefer to stick to their rigid analysis where Israel bears sole responsibility for the plight of the Palestinians and any related crises.

Are the cracks starting to appear however? The Washington Post, for example, recognizes the new reality:

In fact, as Mr. Mubarak well knows, no one is starving in Gaza -- though food, fuel and cigarettes are much cheaper across the border.... Hamas took advantage of the blockade first by arranging for sympathetic Arab media to document the "humanitarian crisis," then by daring Egypt to use force against Palestinian civilians portrayed as Israel's victims.

Its ultimate goal, stated publicly yesterday by Damascus-based leader Khaled Meshal, is to force Egypt to permanently reopen the border in cooperation with Hamas; that would greatly diminish Israel's ability to respond to rocket attacks with economic sanctions, and it would undermine the rival Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas.

Sadly, as is so often the case, the damage to Israel has already been done as a result of the media's willingness to buy into the Hamas propaganda. As Amir Mizroch says:

What is obvious is that Hamas was thinking on its feet, being proactive, initiating campaigns tailor-made for powerful media images and taking full advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.

Please start the fightback to restore some credibility to the reporting of the situation in Gaza. Write to your local media - point out how Hamas has propagandized for its own ends at the expense of its own people and remind the media of the continued suffering of Sderot.


Posted with permission: http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Special_Report_The_Hamas_Propaganda_War.asp

NONE DARE CALL IT NEWS COVERAGE
By Barry Rubin
I realized something important when reading a relatively marginal feature story from the Associated Press.

It shows us that Palestinians don’t really exist as a society but only as a set of victims. By definition, all—or to be fair, almost all, of their problems are said to come from Israel. Yet since the continuation of the conflict and their difficult situation comes first and foremost from within Palestinian politics and society, this kind of interpretation makes it impossible to understand why there is no peace, no Palestinian state, and no end of violence.

In Karen Laub, “Amid poverty, a Renaissance villa in the West Bank,” November 26, 2008, provides a great opportunity to talk about the problems within Palestinian society. The story is about a “Palestinian tycoon [who] has created a tranquil paradise on a Holy Land mountaintop, with a replica of a famous Renaissance villa, sculpted gardens and a wrought-iron pavilion that once belonged to a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.”

We are immediately told, however, that this is to be compared, not to the impoverishment of his own society but rather to guess-who:

“But even one of the West Bank's richest men cannot entirely shut out Israel's military occupation, army bases and Israeli settlements occupy hills surrounding the 100-acre estate.”

Note that the mere existence of Israeli installations nearby is the “terrible” thing that allegedly cancels out this individual’s Garden of Eden. Not that there is any direct effect, but the message is that all Palestinians are a subject people, no matter how rich they are. He may never meet an Israeli, he may live in a situation where he can accumulate wealth and act as a lord, he may live under Palestinian Authority rule but—we are told—this is deceptive. Because nothing matters but Israel’s presence, even if it is barely in sight.

I have learned not to take even the most basic claims of AP for granted so I do not assume that there are “army bases” or settlements in the area.

Only afterward however are we informed that maybe, just maybe, there is something wrong with this conspicuous display of wealth in the Palestinian context:

“And some say such a display of wealth, the honey-colored Palladian mansion is visible for miles, is jarring at a time of continued economic hardship. At the foot of the mountain in Nablus, unemployment runs at 16 percent and the mayor says 40 percent of the 180,000 residents live in poverty.”

Jarring? How about asking the most basic questions, the kind that would be asked in covering any other society on earth?

The person in question is Munib Masri. The Masris are a large clan closely associated with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA). We are given the bare facts—he was close to Arafat, he formed a development company. But the points are made with the greatest possible delicacy:

“Critics say some of the profits were made possible by a lucrative telecommunications monopoly the company held for several years.”

We are not told from whence this monopoly came—from the PA. The word corruption is never mentioned. Such a lack of curiosity about the sources of his wealth does not accord with journalistic practices in covering other stories.

Indeed, the story of the telecommunications monopoly is one of the best-known stories of corruption among Palestinians. How PA and Fatah factions competed over the loot, how Arafat intervened directly into the issue.

But for AP it is a story untold. The story should be as follows:

--The Palestinian upper economic and political class cares nothing for its own people.

--In its fourteen-year rule of the West Bank, the PA has focused on looting it rather than on raising living standards and providing good government.

--Billions of dollars in international aid donations have disappeared, probably paying for a large portion of Masri’s mansion.

--The PA’s failures are blamed on Israel both by the PA itself, Western governments, and the international media.

--Palestinian suffering is not primarily due to Israel but to their own leaders.

--A lot of Israel’s success has been due to Jews around the world making both investments and donations. Palestinians have not been forthcoming in supporting their own “state,” a point well-known in Palestinian circles. (An exception here, of course, is in backing Hamas’s terrorist campaign in recent years.)

--Anyone who keeps their eyes open will see other huge, albeit less impressive than this one, mansions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Even other members of Masri’s own family have been criticized for their ostentation. While this estate may be the most extreme case, it is hardly an exception in that regard.

--Wealthy Palestinians do not give charity to help their poorer cousins. The PA doesn’t even have a comprehensive tax system. Thus, the international community is left to support the Palestinians, and their oversized security apparatus.

--Violence sponsored by the PA was responsible for destroying the chance for their people to work in Israel, hitherto a major aid to their economy; the destruction of infrastructure; and the hesitation of investors, who are also put off by the PA’s corruption and incompetence.

--Intransigence and the failure to reach a compromise solution stem from the Palestinian leadership, including Masri’s buddy, Arafat.

Meanwhile, despite the hints in this article about a stifling Israeli occupation, Masri has no difficulty in proposing huge projects costing more than a half billion dollars. I suspect that these projects will never materialize but will be scams for ripping off foreign aid money.

“Masri remains optimistic, even though independence appears no closer than when he first returned to the West Bank.”

Hm, I wonder why they haven’t achieved it yet. I sure won’t learn it from AP coverage.

And to switch to the broader picture, consider another Karin Laub effort, “Abbas ads make appeal to Israelis,” November 21, 2008.

The subtitle is, “The Palestinian's ads detail withdrawal terms first offered in a 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.” Well, if the ads detail the terms, Laub certainly doesn’t.

The 12-paragraph story never gets around to telling us what’s in the offer and why Israel has a problem with it. The only reference to that point says, “An Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem would bring them recognition by the Arab world.”

Of course, Israel has already withdrawn from all of Gaza, but at any rate it would have been easy for Laub to mention that the terms are for Israel to leave all of the West Bank and all of east Jerusalem, not one centimeter less. She merely had to insert the word “all.” The point is that the way it is worded makes the offer seem more attractive than it is.

But that’s not the worst part. Laub doesn’t mention that the plan also demands that all—there’s that word again—Palestinians who ever lived in any part of what is now Israel and all their descendents must be allowed to return to Israel. That’s a few million people.

To distort points of fact about the terms is scandalous and shameful. A couple of decades ago, AP would have issued a correction. But that’s not the way things are done nowadays, is it?

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is only paraphrased as saying “its positions on key issues such as final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees are not acceptable.”

There’s no explanation as to why it is, presumably lest Israel’s rejection be understood as a rational response.

And as always there is no mention of Palestinian refusal to meet Israel’s needs. As always, we aren’t even told about such things, which Abbas’s adds don’t mention: end of incitement to terrorism, a declared end to the conflict, no foreign troops on Palestinian soil. One might think that an ad campaign by the PA would say something about Palestinian positions.
The article concludes, "Many Israelis are also skeptical about a peace deal, in part because the embattled Abbas no longer speaks for all Palestinians."
Thank goodness that while it is impermissible to criticize the PA or Fatah, at least the media can talk about Hamas. We are then given a decent description of it as an "Islamic extremist group" which staged a "violent 2007 takeover, two years after a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the territory," and its firing of "thousands of rockets and mortars on Israeli border towns since the pullout." The article then notes, "Israelis fear a West Bank withdrawal could bring more attacks."

Of course, that's in the last paragraph. But two more reasons for Israeli skepticism should also be added: the failure of the PA to keep its past promises and its demands that Israel give everything without offering anything itself.

Can we coin a phrase here? Much of the coverage can be called "anti-news" because it is deceptive nature. Perhaps there should be little labels affixed, like those on cigarette packs: Warning! Reading this article can be hazardous to your intellectual health.
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/4344/Brannon-Howse/By-Barry-Rubin

Oh, little town of Bethlehem!
Exclusive: Hal Lindsey explains why Christian population in city has plummeted


by Hal Lindsey

Thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square yesterday to celebrate Christmas while trusting their security to Palestinian security forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas. "We expect about 40,000 visitors in Bethlehem this week," said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's minister of tourism, as quoted by the Associated Press.

The estimate includes Christians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel and the rest of the world.

"It has been an excellent year," Bethlehem's Mayor Victor Batarseh said, forecasting 1.25 million visitors by the end of 2008 and noting a halving in local unemployment. He continued, "We don't have any empty beds. Two years ago, all the hotels were empty."

But for Israelis along the border with Gaza, where the six month cease-fire with Israel just expired, the situation is anything but peace on earth, good will toward men as Palestinian rockets rain down from Gaza on Israeli border towns.

The difference? The wall that now runs hundreds of miles along Israel's Green Line separating Israelis from the Palestinian neighbors. It appears the old adage is right: "Good fences make good neighbors."

Bethlehem, the "city of David" and birthplace of Jesus Christ, was primarily a Christian city when Israel was reborn as a state in 1948. At that time it was 85 percent Christian.

From that time, under Israeli rule, Bethlehem's Christian population was protected and preserved. In 1993, when Yasser Arafat attended Mass at Manger Square on Christmas Eve to declare Jesus a Muslim, the Christian population remained essentially unchanged at 85 percent.

But in the 15 years of the Palestinian Authority rule over Bethlehem since then, the Christian population has declined to less than 12 percent.

It is important to remember that the Christian community in Bethlehem predates Islam by at least 600 years. When the Islamic armies led by Caliph Omar invaded the territory around Bethlehem in A.D. 638, the first thing they did was to sack the then-300-year-old Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

In recent times, the city's Christian Arab majority flourished under Israeli rule between 1967 and 1993. But as soon as the Palestinian Authority took over, Christians began to flee for their lives.

Where were the usually vociferous protests of U.N. Human Rights people? The conventional international lie from the UNHRC perspective is that Israel pushed the Muslims Arabs off their traditional land over the past 60 years and replaced them with Jews.

However, the truth is that under Islamic rule, the Muslims pushed out almost 70 percent of the Christian Arab population in less than a decade. How is it that there was not a peep of protest from the international community?

It is for this reason I have been endlessly fascinated by accounts from the Palestinians that blame Israel for the flight of Christians from the little town of Bethlehem.

The UK Independent ran a column decrying Israeli "occupation" and the existence of "the Wall" as the reason for Arab Christian flight from the city of David.

The truth is that the media ignore the reduction in terrorist activities since the wall was constructed. Instead of recognizing this, they credit the four-fold increase in tourism to "improved Palestinian security forces."

The Arab Media Network also reached the absurd conclusion that it is Israel that is persecuting Arab Christians by virtue of its fence designed to prevent terrorists from attacking Israeli civilians.

The Arab Media Network concludes that, "the wall prevents hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Christians and Muslims from reaching their holy places, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in East Jerusalem."

Spiraling out further into the absurd, they say that it isn't the wholesale persecution of Christians under Palestinian rule that has decimated the Palestinian Christian community. Instead, they allege that the culprit is Israel's protective wall.

The Arab Media Network caps off its irrational charges by saying, "As a result of the fragmentation of the Christian and Muslim Palestinian communities in and around East Jerusalem, Jerusalem imminently risks losing its historic character of housing vibrant communities of Christians, Jews and Muslims."

But the truth of this matter is spelled out in the Quran. All non-Muslims living under Muslim rule are relegated to a second-class citizenship known as "dhimmis." They are to be subjected to a special heavy tax for the privilege of living among Muslims. They are legally treated as having no rights. They are threatened and intimidated by Muslims with no legal defense. The testimony of any Muslim who accuses a dhimmi is superior to the counter testimony of any number of dhimmis.

I know many Christian Arabs whose families lived for generations in Bethlehem. They prospered under Israeli rule in their Christian artifacts stores. But when the Palestinian Muslims assumed control of Bethlehem, they immediately began to persecute them. Without any legal authority, groups of PA terrorist thugs invaded their stores and "confiscated" hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of materials for the "support of the Palestinian liberation movement."

It wasn't the Israeli protective wall that drove them out; it was the threat of the sword of Islam.


Posted with permission:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84517


Israel Attacks Gaza!
By Dr. David Hocking

Thanks to a successful use of misinformation, Israel managed to catch Hamas off-guard on Saturday and kill over 200 of the terror group’s members in a massive aerial attack on the Gaza Strip. The strike was described by local media as Israel’s version of “shock and awe,” as a fleet of 60 attack aircraft simultaneously destroyed 50 targets across the Hamas-controlled territory. All of the targets were Hamas command centers, bases and weapons storage facilities.

According to numbers released by the Palestinians, some 215 Hamas terrorists, including a number of senior commanders, were killed in the strike, and hundreds more were wounded. Tens more Hamas members were killed as the Israeli air forces kept up the pressure on Sunday. Despite the scale of the attack, Israel managed to keep civilian casualties to just 15 dead. Israeli military and political officials attributed the success of the strike to their ability to mislead Hamas by feigning disunity over how to respond to days of incessant terrorist rocket fire on southern Israel. Defense Minister Ehud Barak even ordered the border crossings between Gaza and southern Israel opened on Friday despite the terrorists hitting Israeli communities with 25 rockets during the previous 24 hours. The Israeli media was also credited for playing along with the ruse, which resulted in Hamas members gathering in large numbers at facilities across Gaza unaware of the looming threat.

more
http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2008/12/israel-attacks-gaza.html

News media falsely portraying Gaza attack
Claiming Israeli strike on weapons lab targeted 'woman's wing'


JERUSALEM – The U.S. and international news media are falsely portraying an Israeli air strike against a Hamas-run university in the Gaza Strip, claiming a "woman's wing" was targeted, when, according to the Israeli military, the target was a weapons lab at the school's chemistry department.

Known senior Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, speaking on the record, previously explained to WND how the Islamic University's chemistry department was used to manufacture explosives for use against Israel.

Palestinian raids of the targeted building previously yielded illicit Hamas rockets.

In a series of air Israeli raids yesterday, one precision strike hit a building of Gaza's Islamic University.

A widely circulated Associated Press report claimed, "One strike destroyed a five-story building in the women's wing at Islamic University, one of the most prominent Hamas symbols in Gaza." The report did not cite the source of the information.

(Story continues below)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84806


IDF Video Censored by YouTube  by Baruch Gordon

The Israel Defense Forces has opened a channel on the YouTube video site which features videos of the War in Gaza made available by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. Some of the videos have been taken down by the YouTube management.

The most popular video, which had received over 10,000 views in less than one day until it was removed, is available for viewing below:


Click here to see video and full article.

The night video shows Hamas terrorists clearly loading Grad-type Katyusha rockets onto pickup trucks. Towards the end of the video, a great explosion and fire is seen as the IDF terminated the terrorist activity with extreme prejudice.

The above video and others were apparently taken down due to numerous complaints by pro-Arab viewers who "reported" the video as inappropriate.


http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129143
THE VIDEO IS BACK UP!!!!  (with a warning on it of all things!)


Israel vs. The Media-ites
By Jim Fletcher

I can’t take credit for the term “Media-ites.” It belongs forever to the great prophecy teacher David Lewis, who understood decades ago that the media would eventually turn on tiny Israel.

He was right.

The ongoing operation in Gaza, to clean out a ghastly assortment of death-loving terrorists, was sure to bring international condemnation for the Jewish state.

I’ve been following media bias for years and didn’t think I could be surprised anymore.

I was wrong.

A January 5 Associated Press story, by Ibrahim Barzak and Diaa Hadid (yep, I’m making a point) was so one-sided in slopping the Palestinian narrative on readers’ plates that I’m still reeling. The story detailed the horrors of a Gaza hospital and left no doubt that Israel is to blame. For everything.

Think for a minute. An AP writer who sees the fighting that close is not a critic of Hamas or any other Palestinian faction. Said writer or writers shill for the locals, who simply have no qualms about lying if that’s what it takes to deceive the international community (not that the international community needs an excuse to demonize Israel).

The descriptions put to paper by Barzak and Hadid read like yellow journalism from a century ago:

“Shifa's shabby halls echoed Monday with the sounds of people screaming and the wail of ambulance sirens. Many of the wounded were being treated in hallways by harried doctors and nurses running on little sleep. The hospital was powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power lines.

“Since Israel began a ground offensive Saturday, most of the dead and wounded arriving at Shifa are civilians, as Israel's offensive shifts from air strikes to artillery shelling and fighting close to densely populated areas.”

These AP writers reported that 550 Palestinians had been killed, including 200 civilians. They then noted that three Israeli civilians and two soldiers had been killed. Get it? Mass slaughter of Palestinians, against a handful of Jews (and the tone of this kind of hit piece is that the Jews bring this stuff on themselves, anyway).

More pointed narrative follows:

“The hospital's most gruesome scene was in its morgue, where blood pooled on the floor and refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies were crammed with 70, laid side-by-side in drawers.

“Lying on a gray mat on the floor, the three Samouni brothers appeared baby-faced and almost as though they were asleep, except for a large bandage wrapped around Issa's head.

“The children's father was also killed in what relatives said was an Israeli strike on a house in eastern Gaza City where the family had fled to escape fighting nearby.

“Relatives wept Monday and one man screamed for help for other family members he said were buried under the rubble of the house. ‘For God's sake, rescue them!’ he pleaded.”

More stomach-churning details emerge, followed by this gem:

“The Israeli army says it has no records of any of those strikes.”

Do you see what’s going on in this propaganda piece? The Israeli military “says” it didn’t hit these places. Translation: the Jews are lying.

Folks, this is meant for the consumption of gullible Westerners, who are all too willing to swallow the Palestinian line. You’ll notice that rarely does a journalist describe blood pooling on the floor of a building where Jews are slaughtered by homicide bombers. There is simply a dry reporting of facts.

I’ll say it plainly: journalists who shill for terrorists are going to bash Israel to death.

Journalism has been corrupt since writers pressed their own biases in soft clay in ancient Mesopotamia; this is nothing new. Still, with the technology today, a hardening of positions concerning Israel is immediate and global. This stuff stays in the air forever.

The Media-ites are determined to bury Israel, once and for all. Happily for us, God promised, most pointedly in Jeremiah, that in the last days, He would take the cup of poison out of the hands of the Jews and place it in the hands of their enemies.

Drink up, “journalists” everywhere.


posted with permission http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/01/israel-vs-media-ites.html


Jewish Professors: Israel Cannot Ignore International Opinion

By Chris Perver

Following waves of protests across the world over the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, former Israeli ministers have commented on the intriguing phenomenon of why events in Israel generate such an intense media interest. Thousands of people have marched through the streets of cities such as London, Washington, Berlin and Vancouver over the past week, and nearly a hundred thousand took to the streets in Madrid in protest of Israel's actions in Gaza. One could think of half a dozen other major conflicts in the world that have not generated such an outpouring of emotion. Indeed Israel is one of the only states in the world that is routinely criticized by the international community for just defending itself, and is continually pressurized into giving up its own land to satisfy those who are actively seeking its destruction.

The Hamas terrorist organization has been waging a guerrilla war with Israel for over two decades now. Over 10000 rockets and mortars have been fired by Palestinian terrorist groups into Israel since the Second Intifada began in 2001. More than 3600 of those were fired since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in August 2007. Over two dozen Israeli civilians have lost their lives in rocket attacks since 2001. Hamas is not interested in land. That has been demonstrated by Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, which rather than reducing the terrorist threat, has actually served to increase it. Indeed Hamas has been forced to step up attacks against Israel precisely because of Israel's disengagement from Gaza, as the organization can only exist so long as Israel is perceived to be the enemy of the Palestinian people. Nor is Hamas interested in making peace with Israel. Hamas is seeking nothing less that the complete destruction of the Jewish state. The Hamas charter declares that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it". Additionally the charter quotes from the Qur'an in stating that, "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him". Both Hamas and Fatah encourage their children to become shahids or 'martyrs' for the sake of Allah. And Hamas teach their children that by waging holy war they will be able to subjugate not only Israel, but also Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe and America under Islamic rule. So exactly what is it that endears this terrorist organization to the hundreds of thousands of people across the world who have marched in support of them and in protest against Israel's actions in Gaza?

Quote: ""It perhaps doesn't interest the individual citizen, but it definitely interests the elites in these nations, the urban intellectuals: the press, authors, academics," Professor Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former acting foreign minister, told Ynet. "This is less due to the horror an average person feels when witnessing death and gore on television and more because Israel is involved in the matter. I always asked the Palestinians if they truly believe that the world takes an interest in them. After all, when Arabs kill Arabs, it doesn't provoke worldwide protests. If the Egyptians or Jordanians were attacking them, would anyone in the world be up in arms?" "Only when Jews are involved does public interest rise, and this is because there is a deeply entrenched global syndrome regarding Jews," Ben-Ami stated.

I think Professor Shlomo has hit the nail on the head, although I would disagree with the reasoning for his argument. Shlomo believes that the international community feels guilty because of the way the Jewish people have been treated throughout history, and seeks to transfer some of this guilt back to Israel by accusing them of carrying out the same crimes that were committed against them. But I don't agree. Personally I feel that there is one common thread that unites Hamas and the thousands of people who have marched in support of them - an underlying hatred for the Jews. In Hitler's day the Jews were persecuted because they were perceived to be the root cause of all the evil in the world. Ironically, the hatred for the Jews that spawned the holocaust must in turn be denied by these Islamic anti-Semites, because the holocaust is later used as justification for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In modern times the old anti-Semitic hatred has been given a fresh coat of paint. Today anti-Semitism masquerades as the more 'politically correct' anti-Zionism, and the lie that the Jews stole Arab land is continually propagated in order to justify this hatred. The sad fact is, much of the media has bought into this lie. 'It's just a war over land', they say. 'Israel is the occupier and those poor Palestinians are just doing what they can to get by'. Baloney. This is a religious war, and it won't end with Israel withdrawing to pre-1967 borders. It's a fight to the death. And as the Qur'an states, the day of judgement will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews.

The Bible prophesies of a day in which the status of Jerusalem would become a burdensome stone for all people (Zechariah 12:2-3). We are now witnessing this Scripture coming to pass. Praise God that Jesus Christ is coming back. When Israel is completely surrounded by enemies and has nobody else to turn to, then they will look unto the One Whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:10). And He will fight for them as when He fought in the day of battle (Zechariah 14:3). There will be no talk of 'disproportionate force' in that day. He is the only One of Whom it can be said, "in righteousness he doth judge and make war", Revelation 19:11. What about you? Will Christ be you Saviour in that day? Or will He be your Judge? Look unto the One Who was pierced for your sins. He died for you so that you might be forgiven. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot...ot-ignore.html

Sources:
YNet News
Palestinian Media Watch


Hamas Wins Propaganda War
By Jack Kinsella
The prophet Zechariah predicted that, during the last days, amid the wars and rumors of wars, the preeminent global hot spot will be Jerusalem. Zechariah wrote from the province of Judea, 150 years AFTER the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel and 2500 years BEFORE the restoration of the Jewish State.

"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:3)

The UN General Assembly is really run by the Arab League, whose aim it is to prevent a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Arab League's 22 members run the 59-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, which in turn runs the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement, which also includes the Islamic Conference and Arab League member states.


Thus the Arab League has a guaranteed majority to fulfill its first ambition: the destruction of Israel, one of the only two democracies in the Middle East. In a real sense, the General Assembly functions primarily as an instrument to rob Israel of any legitimacy as a nation-state.

The General Assembly is at its most malevolent in its mistreatment of Israel. Israel and the West Bank are always referred to as "occupied territories." But that term is never applied to persecuted Tibet, China's colonialist grab.

As far as the U.N. is concerned, there is no Israel; only Palestine is legitimate and its capital is Jerusalem.

Examples of General Assembly discrimination against Israel abound
. Israel is the only country of 191 member states that is barred from membership in any regional group.

Consequently, Israel can never serve as a member of the Security Council, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and other U.N. bodies. Regional group membership is a prerequisite to such appointments
.

Israel is the only nation on earth to be made a permanent part of the United Nations Human Rights Council as a serial human rights violator.

Not the Sudan. Not Iran. Not China. Not Somalia. Not Rwanda. Not Saudi Arabia. Just Israel -- the only representative democracy in the Middle East.

More UN resolutions have been passed condemning Israel than any other nation, including countries like Libya, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

In fact, more than half of all the condemnatory resolutions ever passed by the United Nations were passed against Israel, meaning the UN has condemned Israel more times than it has all the other nations of the world combined.
During the recent operation against Hamas in Gaza, the world press hammered Israel after 40 Palestinians taking refuge at the UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City were killed by Israeli tank-fire. The press reported that Israeli forces fired on a refugee camp. The Washington Post's headline was typical of the coverage: "Israel Hits UN-Run school in Gaza."

Secretary General Ban ki-Moon dropped what he was doing to visit Gaza and express solidarity with the Palestinians. "These attacks by Israeli military forces which endanger U.N. facilities acting as places of refuge are totally unacceptable and must not be repeated,” he thundered.

The UN Security Council immediately passed a resolution mandating a cease-fire.

The global press reacted typically: "Israel Rebuffs UN Resolution, Pursues Gaza War" read the Reuters headline on January 9.


The fact that Hamas rejected the ceasefire (even before Israel had a chance to), claiming it hadn't been consulted' was barely reported outside the Israeli press.

In another widely reported incident, Israeli forces hit a hospital in Gaza's al Quds neighborhood. For most consumers of news and information, that's all they got. If one had to compose a headline based on the preponderance of information concerning the Gaza operation, "IDF Attacks Schools And Hospitals" sounds about right
.

It's all based on a lie, but that doesn't matter. Truth isn't what is true, it is what people want to believe is true.The Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported Thursday that a doctor working in Gaza's Shifa Hospital claimed that Hamas has intentionally inflated the number of casualties resulting from Israel's Operation Cast Lead.

"The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter," according to the newspaper article....

A Tal al-Hawa resident told the newspaper's reporter, "Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn't do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes."

The reporter for the Italian newspaper also quoted reporters in the Strip who told of Hamas' exaggerated figures, "We have already said to Hamas commanders – why do you insist on inflating the number of victims?"


Of course, the reason for inflating the numbers is because the inflated numbers are what most people will remember. A few years back, the IDF was accused of massacring 1500 Palestinians at Jenin. The UN sent envoys, passed resolutions and threatened to bring Israel before an international tribunal. It was all based on a lie. There weren't 1500 Palestinians massacred. There were 54 Palestinians killed, 45 of whom were armed men. But by this time, the major media was finished with the story and moved on.

So the 'Jenin Massacre' lives, completed with a documentary record including UN resolutions. The meat-grinding Battle of Jenin that ultimately claimed the lives of 34 IDF soldiers is largely unknown outside of IDF legend.

At the recent Gaza UN school 'massacre' that got Ban ki Moon's knickers in a knot, the IDF was returning fire. It turns out that the IDF forces didn't know it was a school. But Hamas did. So it stationed a mortar team just outside. It was Hamas who was responsible for the deaths of those forty Palestinians taking refuge there. Not Israel. But rather than correct the story, the majority of the media just moved on.

Hamas stationed an anti-tank crew at the al Quds hospital. The IDF tank crew that returned fire hit the hospital because of Hamas. But rather than correct the record, the major media moved on again.

US president Barack Hussein Obama just authorized $20 million be sent to 'aid the Palestinians' in rebuilding Gaza. Money sent to Gaza is money sent to Gaza's government, which is, of course, Hamas.

So Obama just sent $20 million to Hamas.


Posted with permission:
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/02/hamas-wins-propaganda-war.html
related links
Hamas Exaggerated Gaza Death Toll - Middle East - Independent
Gaza doctor: Hamas exaggerated Gaza death toll – 500 to 600 killed, mostly fighters, not 1,300 - NRO Media Blog



Media misleading on Jews evicting Arabs from
Jerusalem
Aaron Klein: 'Painting picture that could not be further from the truth
'

JERUSALEM – The U.S. and international media are rife with misleading stories of club-wielding Israeli police evicting Palestinians from homes in Jerusalem, failing to provide proper background information while painting a picture of Jewish expansionist activity that could not be further from the truth.

A BBC article entitled, "Palestinians evicted from Jerusalem," tells of Israeli police who evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in "occupied East Jerusalem."

"Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately. The U.S. has urged Israel to abandon plans for a building project in the area," reported the British outlet.

An AFP report, "Israel evicts Palestinians from Jerusalem homes," begins with a scene of intimidating Jews removing peaceful Arabs from their apartments.

"Israeli riot police wielding clubs kicked out two Palestinian families from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, defying international protests over Jewish settlement activity in the area," reported AFP.

"I was born in this house and so were my children," Maher Hanoun, one of the evictees, was quoted as stating. "Now we are on the streets. We have become refugees."

Reuters reported that Israeli police "evicted two Palestinian families on Sunday from homes in Arab East Jerusalem, and Jews moved in, despite pressure from Israel's main ally, the United States, to freeze settlements."

Scores of other news outlets featured similar pieces. Most of the articles focused almost exclusively on international condemnation of the Israeli moves. The pieces did not provide much background on just why these Arabs were being evicted other than one sentence in each article stating an Israeli court ruled the Arabs should be removed.

Most of the pieces did not cite the justification for the court ruling, with the exception of Reuters, which wrongly claimed the decision was based solely on "19th century documents."

Now, let's reveal what is really happening.

The housing complex in question is located in the Sheik Jarra neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. The home was originally Jewish, but its Jewish occupants were chased out during countrywide anti-Jewish Arab riots in 1929. Arabs then squatted on the property, with one family, the Hejazi family, becoming the de facto occupants despite never having purchased the property.

Even though documentation proves the complex is owned by Jews and that Arabs have been squatting on it illegally for almost a century, Jewish groups still legally re-purchased the property from the Hejazi family. Following pressure from the Palestinian Authority, however, the family later denied selling the complex back to the Jews despite documentation and other evidence showing the sale went through.

Israel's court system, not exactly a friend of Jewish "settlers," twice ruled now the property undoubtedly belongs to Jews.


more including photos
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=105779


The New York Times: Just the Facts?  
A six month study of the New York Times shows a bias toward the Palestinian narrative.

CONTACT THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLIC EDITOR AND DEMAND CHANGES IN TIMES' REPORTING. SEE RED BOX AT BOTTOM OF REPORT.

*New York Times coverage often supports the Palestinian narrative without placing events in greater context.


*Headlines, eyewitness accounts, and images depicted the Gaza conflict as Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians.

*Settlements are misrepresented by having images of tiny outposts accompany articles about settlements.

*Issues such as Palestinian incitement are downplayed or ignored.
The Bullets in Bronner's Inbox
At the end of January, as the conflict in Gaza was winding down, New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner defended himself against charges of bias in an opinion piece titled "The Bullets in My Inbox." He writes about being attacked by both those who are pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian when he fails to write a story supportive of either side's selective narrative.

There are also blogs and chat sites on both sides that spend time accusing all the journalists here of having agendas because our articles mention facts or trends that they consider a diversion from the real story.

He concludes by agreeing with one e-mail he received that said:

You should not be a reporter if you are not telling the whole story, not just the parts that sell.

We agree with Bronner's conclusion so we decided to see if the New York Times was following its reporter's advice and telling the whole story. We looked at a total of 165 articles published in the Times during the first half of 2009. We examined not only what the Times reported, but also what was omitted (or reported very rarely). We concluded that the New York Times does not "tell the whole story" but often prints articles, pictures and quotations that lean towards the Palestinian perspective. While we respect Bronner's approach, the reality is that Times coverage does not always live up to his own standards.

The Gaza Conflict

The Palestinian perspective of the Gaza conflict portrays Israeli military action as disproportionate and resulting in massacres of civilians and other war crimes. Israel sees Operation Cast Lead as the inevitable result of years of bombardment from the Gaza Strip on nearby Israeli towns and cities. While Hamas hid in civilian areas, the Israel Defense Forces were careful to minimize actions that would endanger Palestinian civilians. Did the Times report both narratives equally? Did they try and put the conflict into perspective and tell the "whole story?"

Eyewitness Accounts

The Times uses a large number of Palestinian "eyewitness" accounts of alleged Israeli atrocities. Due to Israeli restrictions on media entering Gaza during the fighting, such accounts had to be collected by Palestinian stringers and could certainly not be verified or corroborated. While the Times stood by its Palestinian journalists (see the Bronner piece above), the reality is that it was rare to find Palestinians willing to speak openly of Hamas activities within civilian areas for fear of retribution. (See Backspin for more about the impact of journalist intimidation in Gaza.) While it is true that the Israeli policy made coverage of the war difficult, that is no excuse for biased reporting.

These unverified accounts are so graphic as to leave little room for explanations. Accepting these quotes at face value, a reader will naturally conclude that there had been a consistent pattern of war crimes by the Israel Defense Forces.

While some of the articles later provide official IDF rebuttals of these accounts, the quotations impact the story so much more. A Palestinian quoted as saying "I don't understand why Israel would hit an ambulance" becomes part of the documented history of the conflict, regardless of whether Israel actually targeted ambulances or whether those ambulances were being commandeered by Hamas terrorists. Here are just a few of the 21 such quotations that were included in the Times articles:

*
"He was just doing his work," said the dentist, who would not give his name. "He's a doctor, and I can't understand why Israel would hit an ambulance. They can tell from the cameras it's an ambulance."
*
"There is no water, no electricity, no medicine, It's hard to survive. Gaza is destroyed."
*
"I want her leg now!" Fida screamed at her mother, blaming her for moving them to the concrete house. "God has no mercy! You get me her leg now!"
*
"I don’t know what kind of weapons Israel is using," said a nurse, Ziad Abd al Jawwad, 41, who had been working 24 hours without a break. "There is so much amputation".
*
"My son has been turned into pieces," he cried. "My wife was cut in half. I had to leave her body at home."
*
"I could feel the blood dripping inside my head," Ahmed said, recalling the days he lay wounded in the bombed-out building. "My father was crawling — he couldn't move his legs," he said. "I have nine children," he said. "Where can I go? I prefer to die at my own house."
*
"They killed the elders, the children, the women, the animals, the chickens," said Subhi, 55, Rizka's brother. "It's a nightmare. I never thought I would lose all of them."
*
"Israel is breeding extremists. The feeling you get is that they just want you to leave Gaza."
*
"They hit my future with a rocket," said Muhammad Baroud, one of the students at the Islamic University in Gaza City. "This is a university. What does it have to do with war?"
*
"The children were screaming, 'Fire! Fire!' and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell," she said. "My 14-year-old cried out, 'I'm going to die. I want to pray.' I saw my daughter-in-law melt away."


On the other hand, there were only two quotations in the Times articles from Israelis living in areas hit by Palestinian rockets during the time period of the study. While it is true that during the conflict, the vast majority of the casualties were Palestinians, these accounts don't even come close to describing the fear and trauma of living under daily threat from rocket attacks. Over the last few years, more than 7,000 rockets have been launched at Israeli communities. Yet the Times rarely found eyewitness accounts that capture the anguish of Israelis who have suffered from Palestinian attacks. Do Israelis living in Sderot and Ashkelon just not care anymore? That is certainly the impression one gets.

*
"I do not feel any victory," Mr. Katzir said. "I still do not feel safe."
*
Rachel Uliel, 75, was leaning on the front gate of her house, which was festooned with Israeli flags. "I feel very good now," she said, "though I do not know what will come next."


The Times used 21 direct quotations from Palestinian civilians pertaining to life during the Gaza conflict and only two from Israelis. Where is the balance? Where is the objectivity? Where is the Times' commitment to tell the "whole story?" Or are Israeli civilian accounts just a "diversion from the real story?"

Headlines


The Times published 75 articles related to the Gaza conflict during the time period we reviewed. Twenty-seven articles led with headlines related to civilian casualties or accusations of human rights abuses. Examples of such headlines include:
Many of the 27 articles did also include Israel's explanations. However, the headlines hardly convey any sense of balance. They instead provide support for Palestinian contentions that the war was both disproportionate and conducted with a callous disregard for civilian casaulties.

more including photos
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/The_New_York_Times_Just_the_Facts.asp


Bible Thumping Jimmy Carter?

By Michael G. Mickey


The headline made me near nauseous: "Bible-Thumping Carter to Return to Gaza"

Reading the article beyond the headline didn't help, the following excerpt indicative of why (emphasis added mine):

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter told a Baptist Convention he will return to Gaza this month "to try to let the world know what's happening to the people there." Carter previously has labeled as an “atrocity” Israel’s sanctions on Gaza in response to rocket fire on Israel.

In his Middle East tour two months ago, Carter spoke at Cairo University and accused Israel of “starving to death” Gaza residents. The former president said at a U.N. school graduation ceremony in Gaza City that "the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings."

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) criticized media for repeating Carter's comments without any attributions to an Israeli response or reference to Hamas as a terrorist organization, which has attacked Israeli civilians with more than 10,000 mortar shells and rockets over the past several years.

More than 10,000 mortar shell and rocket attacks were carried out against God's chosen people recently, most of them directed at civilian targets no less, and Jimmy Carter has the nerve to hold a bible in his hand and speak at a Baptist convention describing how terrible conditions are for the Palestinians? It's enough to make me ashamed to be a Baptist that he was allowed to do so, quite frankly!

Dare I say the former president, friend of the deceased terrorist Yasser Arafat, should try reading his bible instead of using it as a prop to justify his anti-Semitic ramblings against the nation of Israel? If he actually read it, maybe he would pick up on the fact that the enemies of Israel, every last one of them, are living under a divine curse that is righteous.

The troubles of the Palestinian people are their reward for supporting and harboring the terrorists who launched all the mortar and rocket attacks referred to above which, subsequently, resulted in Israel having no choice but to take drastic measures to protect its innocent populace. And let's not forget, even for a second, what the Palestinians are all about, as seen through their behaviors!

The Palestinians are, as a whole, the same bunch of hooligans who passed out candy and danced in the streets in celebration on September 11, 2001, the day the World Trade Center's twin towers fell. They are the same Palestinians who, like Jimmy Carter, supported the murderous terrorist Yasser Arafat, a man who never once genuinely sought peace with Israel and died with a lot of innocent blood on his hands, something the Lord hates (Proverbs 6:16-17).

Lastly, they are the same Palestinians who freely elected a government comprised largely of terrorist elements bent on Israel's destruction. But we should weep for the Palestinians in the eyes of Jimmy Carter, not the Israelis who are doing nothing more than is necessary and prudent to protect their people and lands? That's some majorly warped logic, especially when we consider God's sure promise of blessing and curse concerning the nation of Israel which is completely applicable to this situation.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).


Am I saying I have no compassion for innocent and peaceful Palestinians, some of them Christians, who are caught in the crossfire between Israel and its terrorist enemies? Certainly not. My heart goes out to them, but our first obligation as Christians is to hold allegiance to Israel, not the Palestinians! He who touches Israel touches the apple of God's eye, according to Zechariah 2:8. We should take that statement made by God very seriously. Spurgeon put it like this:

“He esteems them as much as men value their eyesight, and is as careful to protect them from injury, as men are to protect the apple of their eye. The pupil of the eye is the tenderest part of the tenderest organ, and very fitly sets forth the inexpressible tenderness of God’s love.”

Make no mistake about it, Jimmy Carter or anyone else, God's loyalties lie with Israel first, this having been established long ago, well before the rebirth of Israel as a nation and the Six Day War of 1967 which saw Israel capture Jerusalem, a major point of contention between the Jewish state and all the descendants of Esau in the Middle East.

The Palestinians are descendants of Esau, who sold his birthright to Jacob for what was essentially a bowl of bean soup, that birthright including "the covenant God made with Abraham, the covenant of a land, a nation, and the Messiah." (Read further concerning Esau and Jacob's birth, as well as this key event.)


Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright (Genesis 25:34).

Almost inconceivable, isn't it? But this is where everything went wrong for the Palestinians as a people, much as death came upon us all as a result of a mistake no less thoughtless than Esau's, namely Adam and Eve eating of the fruit of the one tree in the Garden of Eden they'd been told not to! And so it is that, even today, the Palestinians are bitter, filled with hate that the inheritance which the descendants of Jacob have is no longer theirs. The Palestinians, having given themselves over to idolatry for the most part, probably have no idea that's where their deep hatred of Israel has its roots but there it is in a nutshell.

All of the above? I took my bible and study tools I utilize this morning and reviewed the whole sad story that set the stage for where we are today. Former president Jimmy Carter could do and know the same. If he did, maybe he wouldn't be someone who perpetually curses the nation of Israel for defending itself in satanic chorus with a world that has forgotten its God, one that is practically begging the Lord to judge it as it twists Israel's arm incessantly in an effort to return to the descendants of Esau an inheritance that was willingly given away long ago that they have done nothing to merit having returned to them.

The Palestinians have no right to Israel's covenant lands, but bible prophecy makes it clear to us that the entire unbelieving world, not to mention scripturally ignorant 'Christians' like Jimmy Carter, is going to set its collective eyes against Israel. Israel's many enemies will continue seeking to divide its covenant lands and even destroy the tiny nation from the face of the earth in the future, all of it in a vain attempt to appease the bloodthirsty and bitter descendants of Esau among others in the troubled Middle East, all of this strife ultimately leading mankind to Armageddon.

As Jack Kelley often writes,

"If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah."

Even so, come Lord Jesus!


posted with permission
http://www.rapturealert.com/2009/081009biblethump.asp


Israel Furious Over Swedish Newspaper Article
JERUSALEM — Israeli and Swedish officials responded furiously Wednesday to a Swedish newspaper article that suggested Israeli troops killed Palestinians and harvested their organs.

The article published Monday in Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest circulation daily, implies a link between those charges and the recent arrest in the U.S. of an American Jew for illicit organ trafficking.

Headlined "Our sons are plundered for their organs," the story made news in Israel, where some commentators compared it to medieval accusations that Jews killed Christian children for their blood. Daniel Seaman, who heads Israel's government press office, said the article played on "vile anti-Semitic themes."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor would not say if Israel planned to file an official complaint. However, Palmor said, "This piece is so blatantly racist and can induce to hate crimes in such a way that we think authorities need to take care of the matter."

In a statement Wednesday, the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv said the article was "as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as it is to Israeli citizens."

"We share the dismay expressed by Israeli government representatives, media and the Israeli public," the embassy said.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,540502,00.html


Lambs vs. the Jackals
by Jim Fletcher


As I sat last week and listened to great speakers like Thomas Sharp and Mike Gendron teach the overflow audience at the 15th Annual Tulsa Prophecy Conference, I was struck by the contrasts between Bible-believers and everyone else. I kept sensing that the jackals who absolutely hate the Bible are becoming more dangerous, radical, and bold.

What a beautiful thought.

The attendees at the conference have always known that this day would come. The apostasy predicted by Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and others is here. We are accused of being foolish, apocalyptic, and deranged for believing that it all looks darkest before the dawn. However, our great Creator God is in control.

The fact that international media, politicians, clergy, entertainment types, and outright pagans think I’m crazy fills me with another beautiful thought: I don’t care! I know whom I have believed, and I’m certain God watches and acts in history. That’s enough for me.

At dinner one evening during the conference, I was visiting with a great group of guys. We were talking about the U.S. stance toward Israel.

I couldn’t help thinking, only half-jokingly, that the last really pro Israel American president was John Adams. For those of you who are historically challenged, that was a ways back up the road. Let’s stop wondering just what is in Barack Obama’s heart regarding the Jewish state. Even if he liked Israel, which I speculate he doesn’t, he’d still sell her down the river at the first sign of trouble. Either the man is hopelessly naïve, or a meaner version of the seemingly bumbling Jimmy Carter. Obama’s dispatching of Hillary Clinton to seek-out “moderate” Taliban to dialogue with (looking for winged elephants would be more productive) tells you all you need to know about his strategy.

If Obama is a more dashing Mr. Peepers, Benjamin Netanyahu is Duke Wayne. The new Israeli prime minister, one hopes, will order a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. If you wonder how it will turn out…how does it always turn out? I have several Bible translations and not one of them mentions a final destruction of Israel. They do mention a final destruction of the Babylon System, which has always opposed Israel.

One couldn’t dream-up a fighting force as lethal, sophisticated, and physically and morally courageous as the Israel Defense Forces. They will win because God goes before them. Does the world believe this? No. Will the world believe this? Yes.

In Israel, you can go to the mall and see young people. They stroll the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They laugh. They shop, email, text. They are all also carrying guns. Ironically, the world views these kids defending their ancestral land as jackals, while their tormentors are considered to be lambs.

Witness the obsession with justifying Palestinian terrorism. Just this week, a psycho walked into an Israeli community just south of Jerusalem and took an axe to two young people, killing one. The killer got away, but you won’t hear much about this from the media. The Associated Press, as usual, published a piece about it, then descended into the usual discussion of the “problem” of Israel not going along with the two-state solution. It reminds me of the hatchet-piece Anthony Lewis wrote in the Washington Post a decade ago, concerning a deranged Jordanian soldier who opened fire on a group of Israeli schoolgirls during a field trip.

After an opening paragraph or two mentioning the massacre, Lewis then spent 13 paragraphs bashing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Typical. In our world today, in which good is bad and vice versa, Israel is the jackal; her tormentors are the lambs.

A mind not damaged by anti-Bible bias can see quite clearly that Israel is besieged.

The Palestinians are aggressive, arrogant, and tragically flawed due mostly to the radicalization cultivated by the PLO/Palestinian Authority. Fifteen years ago, Oslo was supposed to see a Palestinian entity that was moderate and committed to peace. What do we see today? For starters, a few days ago, the cowardly Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that Netanyahu is not committed to peace. Disingenuous Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat declared that Israel is not going along with international consensus.

What will the result of this lie be? More axe murderers, bombers, snipers. More Jews killed.

How will Israel respond and what will be the outcome?

I’m reminded of the poignant foreword that novelist Herman Wouk (The Winds of War) wrote for The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, which chronicled the life of the extraordinary Israeli war hero. Wouk wrote that because he knew he would have to devote his life to physically protecting his people, Yoni made himself “into a great fighting man.”

The outcome of that kind of commitment is that the real lambs will defeat once and for all the real jackals.

Because their God goes before them.


posted with permission
http://prophecymatters.com/rapture-ready-articles/149-lambs-vs-the-jackals.html


The Bible as History
By Jack Kinsella


The Palestinian Authority's chief Islamic judge issued an official ruling recently saying that essentially everything in the Bible is wrong. The Jews didn't settle Jerusalem. David didn't buy the land upon which the Temple was constructed from Ornan three thousand years ago.

David didn't found Jerusalem. Jerusalem wasn't sacked by Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews weren't taken captive for seventy years. King Artaxerxes did not issue an order to restore the city and the Temple.

In fact, according to Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, "Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so."

Of course, for that to be true, more than half of Jerusalem's history would have to be erased, since Islam is less than fifteen hundred years old.

Tamimi claimed that all excavation work conducted by Israel after 1967 have "failed to prove that Jews had a history or presence in Jerusalem or that their ostensible temple had ever existed."

That statement is so ridiculous as to be laughable. But nobody laughed.

Tamimi accused Israel of distorting the facts and forging history "with the aim of erasing the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem." He also accused Israel of launching an "ethnic cleansing" campaign to squeeze Arabs out of the city.

Again, nobody laughed, despite the PA's insistence that the West Bank be ethnically cleansed of Jews as a condition of 'peace.'

"By desecrating its holy sites, expelling its Arab residents and demolishing their homes and confiscating their lands and building settlements in Jerusalem, Israel is seeking, through the use of weapons, to turn it into a Jewish city," he said. "This is a flagrant violation of all religious, legal, moral and human values."

The mere mention of those values in the same breath as his statement about Jerusalem's history is stomach-turning.

As noted, if Tamimi's statement is true, the Bible is a work of total fiction. None of it can be true. Jesus was not a Jew. Pontius Pilate wasn't the Roman procurator of Judea. Jesus was not Crucified. There was no Resurrection.

The destruction of the Temple in AD 70 by Titus and the Romans could not have happened. There was no Temple.

The Jews were not banished from the Holy Land. There were no Jews living there. The thousands of historically-verified anti-Jewish pogroms never took place. The Holocaust is a myth.

Christianity is a myth, since it is founded on the belief that a Jewish carpenter named Jesus was crucified on a hill just outside the walls of Jewish Jerusalem six hundred years before Mohammed.

Worst of all, you are dead in your sins and you have no hope of salvation.

Unless you convert to Islam and are killed in the act of murdering as many unsuspecting infidels as possible.

When asked of the signs of His coming, the very first thing the Lord said in reply was, "Take heed that no man deceive you." Deception is one of the hallmarks of the last days - it is the single most important factor in the coming of the antichrist. Everything about him is rooted in deception. The antichrist is like a con-man.

Everybody knows you can't con an honest man. None of these get-rich emails from Africa offering to make you a millionaire if you'll help some rich Christian steal millions from some war-torn African country could work without first finding somebody else willing to steal millions from a war-torn African country.

The same applies to the dying Christian from Ubangi who wants to leave his millions to a worthy ministry - if the worthy ministry doesn't mind breaking a few banking laws. For a con game to be successful, the victim has to be as crooked as the con man. (That's why so many go unreported.)

Once the 'mark' justifies in his mind that everybody else is dishonest, he has crossed a threshold. If you expect everybody to deceive you, you become more tolerant of it. It is the principle of the Big Lie.

For example, the UN regularly condemns Israel for human rights abuses on "Occupied Palestinian Territory." The charges against Israeli 'occupation' are made so often that it MUST be true. Even when it can't be, as in the case of Tamimi's pronouncement.

Why CAN'T it be true? Well, for one thing, if Israel is occupying Palestinian territory, where is it? What are the borders of Palestine and what parts of it are being occupied by Israel? Hamas runs the Gaza Strip. The West Bank territories are a de-facto Palestinian state - the PA even has its own president and prime minister. The only part under Israeli control is Israel. Which, according to the Chief Islamic Judge of the Palestinian Authority, is occupied Palestinian territory.

It is so lopsided as to make one dizzy. Even the United States is beginning to use words like 'occupied Palestinian territory' to describe Israel.

It is more than coincidental that, with all the international problems facing the UN, it cannot tear its focus away from Israel.

It couldn't if it tried. They aren't even sure why they are so obsessed about it. They just are - to the exclusion of all the rest of the world's problems combined.

We've talked about Hitler's principle of the Big Lie before. One could summarize it by saying if one repeats a lie enough times, it eventually becomes the accepted 'truth'.

It is almost like mass hypnosis; "Israel is the Occupier. . . Israel is the Occupier . . . Israel is the Occupier. . ." and before you know it, WHAT Israel is 'occupying' is secondary to the need to 'end the occupation' - which is all Hamas is after, so why blame them?

Its insanity. It makes absolutely no sense in the natural. But it fits perfectly with Bible prophecy.

The Bible predicted that, in the last days, the whole world would be focused on Jerusalem, to the exclusion of almost anything else. According to the Prophet Zechariah,

"in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:2-3)

Until this year, it was hard to imagine a scenario in which Israel would stand alone against the entire world. Israel's protector and international guardian has always been the United States. But that's changing, too.

According to a new poll, only four percent of Israeli Jews believe that the Obama administration is pro-Israel. A majority of Israelis believe he's biased in favor of the Palestinians.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5% so the four percent that actually have faith in the Obama administration may not even exist. In any case, they are statistically meaningless.

A year ago, it was a mystery to me how the US could ever abandon Israel. Only a year ago, the same poll found 88% of Israelis considered the US administration to be pro-Israel, 7% said it was neutral and just 2% labeled it pro-Palestinian.

Only three months ago, 31% labeled Obama pro-Israel, 14% considered him pro-Palestinian, 40% said he was neutral, and 15% declined to give an opinion.

This most recent poll essentially says that pretty much every Jew in Israel believes there is good reason NOT to trust the President of the United States or any member of his administration.

Leaving Islam's religious duty to hate the Jews aside for a moment, what excuse works for the civilized world? Israel is the only working democracy in the Middle East.

It is the only nation in the region that affords its citizens basic human rights, full representation in government, freedom of speech and religion and is, by far, the most powerful and most prosperous nation in the entire Middle East.

So why is it the most hated government on earth? Why is it the most often-censured by that bastion of democracy, the United Nations? Why is it the recipient of global criticism, while its dictatorial neighbors, like Jordan, are feted as strong allies of the West?

How can it be that more resolutions of censure have been aimed at Israel by the UN than all the Islamic countries of the world combined? Why would the world side with an openly terrorist organization against the only legitimate, western-style democracy in the Middle East?

Why is it that when Israel puts up a fence to protect itself from bombers, the world condemns Israel's fence without saying A SINGLE WORD about the reasons that make it necessary?
There can be only one answer possible. The world hates the Jews more than it hates totalitarianism, Islamo-facism or terrorism. No other answer explains why Israel consistently ranks in global polls as 'the most dangerous nation on earth'.

What makes Israel's continued existence so dangerous? Israel has the population of New York City and has spent all of its existence since 1948 fighting a war FOR its existence against those repressive Islamic dictatorships.

Bible prophecy for the last days goes beyond the Church Age and outlines how God's plan for the national redemption of Israel will be accomplished. According to Bible prophecy, in the last days, the most hated nation on earth will be Israel, and the most contested piece of real estate on earth in the last days will be the city of Jerusalem.

According to the prophet Zechariah,

"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto ALL THE PEOPLE round about, when they shall be IN THE SEIGE both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for ALL people: ALL that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH be gathered together against it." (Zechariah 12:2-3)

Until about the end of the 19th century, few people could point to Jerusalem on a map - most believed it was a lost city from the ancient world. Today, it is the focal point of global attention to the exclusion of all else. What happens in Jerusalem is more important to world peace that what happens in Baghdad, Kabul or even Moscow.

But most people could not tell you why they hate Israel. Neither can the leaders of the western democratic countries identify why Israel is more of a pariah nation in their eyes than Syria or Iran. They just know that every bad thing that happens is somehow related to their level of support for Israel.

The Bible says that, in the last days, Israel will stand alone, without a champion, against the combined armies of the world, for a twofold reason; to reveal Himself to a lost and dying world, and to reveal Himself to Israel.

"Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 38:23)

"So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward." (Ezekiel 39:22)


Israel is the only western democracy in the Middle East. It is desperately seeking allies from among the western nations without success. The world is focused instead on creating an ally out of Israel's most implacable enemy. The fact that they are terrorists dedicated to Israel's destruction is strangely irrelevant.

Absent the Bible's outline for the last days, can you find any way to make any of it make sense to you? Me neither.

Bring in the Bible's scenario, and it fits like a glove.


"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (2nd Peter 1:19)


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/09/bible-as-history.html


The Goldstone Report
By Jack Kinsella


The United Nations Human Rights Council has formally endorsed the conclusions of the UN-commissioned "Goldstone Report" that accuses the government of Israel of war crimes during the Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza Strip terrorists.

The 574-page report included accusations that Israeli forces indiscriminately attacked universities, mosques and civilian areas. Its pages are full of testimony from witnesses, or partial witnesses or, more accurately, non-witnesses who heard stories from their brother-in-law who knows someone who was almost there.

As South African jurist Richard Goldstone himself described it,

"We had to do the best we could with the material we had."

But if the Goldstone Report represents all the evidence they had, they didn't have much. One example of a non-finding contained in the report concerning the Israeli attack on Gaza's Islamic University read this way:

"These were civilian, educational buildings and the mission did not find any information about their use as a military facility."

They didn't look very hard. The evidence they were looking for was in the Palestinian Broadcasting Authority archives.

The Islamic University was previously featured as the site of clashes between Fatah and Hamas gunmen, with Fatah soldiers identifying it as a weapons laboratory for the new and improved Qassam rockets that Hamas fires by the thousands into Israel. Palestinian Authority television had a full display of the weapons cache found in the Islamic University at the time.

The report also condemns the destruction of several mosques in Gaza by Israeli fire, finding no basis for the Israeli allegations that mosques were used as launching points for Hamas attacks and as weapons storage facilities.

Israeli soldiers testifying at Tel Aviv's Rabin Academy after the war displayed first-hand photographs – not hearsay accounts from a friend of a friend – showing weapons stored in Gaza mosques and Hamas gunmen using mosques as firing platforms.

Goldstone complained that the Israelis did not cooperate with the mission, but, like the Palestinian television archives, the IDF testimony is publicly available for anyone, including the UN's "fact finders," to see.

One of the most damning condemnations against Israel centered around the disproportionate number of Palestinian vs. Israeli casualties. The Palestinians claim that some 1,414 Palestinians were killed during the operation, whereas Israel lost only three Israeli civilians and ten Israeli soldiers.

The UN's Principle of Proportionality is very important to the clueless diplomats on the East River. The major goal of any war is to inflict more casualties on the other side than the other side inflicts on yours.

That's how wars get won - one side runs out of fighters.

Under the UN's Principle of Proportionality, no developed nation is allowed to win. That would put the diplomats whose only job is conflict-resolution out of work. Instead, the Principle of Proportionality guarantees there will be enough terrorists to keep the conflict alive well into the foreseeable future.

The Goldstone Report alleges that Israel fired indiscriminately into Palestinian civilian areas, constituting a war crime.

Israel defended itself with well-photographed accounts of Hamas forces concentrating themselves in civilian populated areas. But the Goldstone mission couldn't confirm it because they couldn't get any of the locals to talk to them.

"The mission notes that those interviewed in Gaza appeared reluctant to speak about the presence of or conduct of hostilities by the Palestinian armed groups."

But if they couldn't get locals to talk, and if they didn't want to look at Israeli evidence, they could have paid attention to Hamas spokesman Fathi Hammad, who when interviewed described his organization as being at one with the people of Gaza:

"This is why they have formed humans shields of the women, the children, the elderly and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine."

Israel says they hid behind civilians. Hamas says they hid behind the civilians. The civilians they hid behind were too scared to cooperate, according to the Goldstone Mission's own admission contained within the report.

But the Report concluded that Israel was to blame for the civilian deaths and that constituted a war crime.

Adding insult to injury, the Goldstone Report totally ignored the most relevant part of the entire Israeli operation: the reason it was launched in the first place.

Gilad Shalit was a nineteen-year old Israeli corporal kidnapped by Hamas forces in June, 2006. Hamas didn't kidnap Shalit inside Gaza during an Israeli military incursion. Hamas crossed the border into Israel where they ambushed an Israeli army border post.

During the attack, they killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped Shalit, who was incapacitated by a broken left hand and a shoulder wound sustained when his tank was hit by a Palestinian rocket-propelled grenade. Hamas is using Gilad as a hostage to pressure Israel into releasing legally-convicted Palestinians serving time in Israeli prison.

In September, Israel traded 20 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a videotape that proved that Shalit had not yet been murdered by his captors.

In 1983, the United Nations passed an International Convention against the taking of hostages, titled General Assembly Resolution 146.

Article 1, paragraph 1, makes the taking of hostages an international human rights violation.

Any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the "hostage") in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostages ("hostage-taking") within the meaning of this Convention.

To date, the UN has openly acknowledged that Gilad Shalit is a hostage, seized from foreign soil by agents of Hamas, for the express purpose of compelling a State (Israel) to bargain for Shalit's release. The UN acknowledges it as fact, but to date, has not issued a single word of condemnation against either Hamas or the Palestinians.

In the years between Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, agents of Hamas within Gaza fired more than six thousand 'blind' rockets into Israeli cities and towns.

The rockets are fired 'blind' - those firing them have no idea precisely where they will land, whether on a kindergarten or in a civilian market crowded with housewives and their children. There is no discernible effort on the part of Hamas to target Israeli military facilities - the only possible targets are civilian homes and markets.

That was the provocation for Israel's Operation Cast Lead, but the Goldstone Report assigned it little relevance. The UN Human Rights Council wasn't interested in Palestinian atrocities - the target of the investigation was Israel.

After all, the Council's "investigation" into Israel’s response to the shelling of its southern communities by Hamas was preceded by an announcement of the opening of the investigation that found that Israel was responsible for “massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people."

("You're guilty, but first we'll give you a fair trial. And then we'll hang ya.")

The Goldstone Report is the UN Human Rights Commission's version of a fair trial.

The UN Human Rights Commission was replaced in March 2006 with the current Human Rights Council in response to complaints from the US and European Union of anti-Israel bias. The new Human Rights Council voted in its first session to make Israeli human rights violations a permanent part of the HRC's agenda.

Despite the HRC's anti-Israel bias was unashamedly carried over into the new Council, President Obama decided to rescind the US boycott and joined the Council in March, 2009.

The Goldstone Report doesn't just accuse Israel of war crimes, it also says that if Israel doesn’t conduct an investigation satisfactory to the Council, the UN reserves the right to prosecute Israel before the International Criminal Court in Geneva.

Since the Council had already reached its conclusion that Israel is guilty of war crimes, and has endorsed the Goldstone Report as having confirmed that assessment, it is clear that the only Israeli internal investigation the Council will accept would be one that reaches the same conclusions Goldstone did.

The international communities hatred for Israel is as white-hot as it is baffling. Israel has never started a war with her neighbors. There is no historical record of Israel ever attempting to provoke conflict with any nation - Israel's responses are historically reactive.

It is as if Mexico sent agents into the US to blow up supermarkets and kill civilians unless America surrenders Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California - and the UN condemned America. (Come to think of it, that isn't such a far-fetched premise, after all.)

There is NO reason that anyone can logically point to that explains the world's obsession with Israel. Israel came into being the way that the rest of the world's nations did. She was granted territory by Britain by virtue of the Allied conquest of the Ottoman Empire in WWI.

The same Allied authority that created Israel also created the modern states of Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran and drew the borders of the modern Middle East. If Israel's existence is questionable, then it is no more questionable than any other existing Middle Eastern state.

But nobody is questioning the legitimacy of Syria or Lebanon. Only Israel, whose land grant dates to 1917 and therefore actually predates the existence of any other modern Middle Eastern state to be carved out of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies.

It makes no sense in the natural. But it makes all kinds of sense from the spiritual perspective. Apart from proving the Divine inspiration of Scripture by its very existence, Israel is an offense to the world body for its status as the Chosen People of God.

Even though the UN is officially atheist, it cannot stand the idea that Israel is the Chosen People of God, even if they were chosen by Israel's God. The world rejects Israel's God in favor of the concept that God is whatever the rest of the world wants Him to be.

The existence of Israel is a constant reminder to the god of this world that his time is limited. The God of Israel cannot be reinvented to conform to the world's perspective - the God of Israel does not bow down to men - He demands that men bow down before Him.

If the god of this world has a 'church' headquarters, it would be the United Nations. The continued existence of Israel is a constant reminder to the god of this world that he has failed.

And that his time is almost up.


posted with permission http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot...ne-report.html


Sanhedrin and Judgment
By Terry James


A fascinating pronouncement has been issued by the body of the same name that once made the most significant judgment of history to this point. The modern incarnation of the Sanhedrin, an initiative of recent years to recreate the traditional supreme legal tribunal in Judaism, sternly forewarned the United Nations Security Council of judgment to come. The Sanhedrin's invective against the world body of nations stems from the UN issuing and standing by the Goldstone Commission condemnation that Israel committed war crimes during its anti-terror Cast Lead offensive in Gaza early this year.

The Sanhedrin letter to the UN expressed that the Goldstone Commission report was holding Israel up as guilty of war crimes in the Jewish state's efforts to combat terrorism. This, while the nation was fighting the same enemies as delineated within the war on terrorism in which the civilized world has supposedly been engaged for years.

The letter stated that the Sanhedrin issued an injunction prohibiting any UN institutions from deliberating on such matters as expressed in theGoldstone report.

The Sanhedrin then explained by what authority it issues injunctions to the United Nations:

"The International Court of the Sanhedrin operates by the power of the Bible, the only Holy Writ whose essence was handed over to mankind at Mt. Sinai [the Torah], and of the Prophets, sent to all nations of the world and universally held in respect by them. By virtue of this delegated authority, passed down from one generation to the next ever since the time of Moses our teacher, the master of all of prophets, and by virtue of the succession of authority in Jewish tradition, we appealed to you that you might not fail and thus fail the world, bringing upon it catastrophe."

The letter states that the Goldstone Report is an "attack on the State of Israel, and thus an attack on the Jewish People, in order to try to remove it from the stage of history by an unprecedented shedding of blood - tacitly encouraging Iran and those like it to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction while the rest of the world sits by and looks on ... We are convinced that the continued discussion of this report, which is lacking all moral basis, will lead the nations of the world, and all of mankind, to the judgment that will take place in Jerusalem in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, as written in the Prophets and Torah of Israel." ( Hillel Fendel, "Sanhedrin to UN: Goldstone Will Bring Judgment Upon You," Israel News, 11/2/09)

Now, here is where I must tread cautiously. To do otherwise will risk being perceived as against Israel and Jews by the purists amongst our ranks. However, I must assess the truth of the matters involved to the best of my ability.

Interestingly, today's Sanhedrin - separated by two millennia are not from the Sanhedrin of Christ's time - "judges" the world of nations represented by the UN and the Goldstone Commission in a strange symbiosis, in my view. The neo-ecclesiastical body is as guilty of the same willful ignorance as was that long ago Sanhedrin. Today's Sanhedrin holds to the same lack of understanding that was prevalent when that earlier Jewish council took Jesus before the High Priest Caiaphas when Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord.

The Sanhedrin of that day, rather than condemn the world power represented by Rome, joined with Pontius Pilate, Rome's representative, to condemn the very Messiah sent to spiritually save Israel. The Sanhedrin of today still condemns that same Jesus, whom the world - represented by the UN - also condemns (and which is also for oppressing modern Israel, even more than ancient Rome).

Satan, the deceiver, has his fingerprints all over both bodies because both refuse to recognize the Savior of the world for who He is. It's like the pot calling the kettle black, to judge the secular world power (UN) when the Jewish ecclesiastical system, itself, is in the dark, and will itself be judged by the Lord of heaven for holding to rituals and traditions rather than accepting the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Thankfully, blessedly, a remnant of Israel will one day, in tearful anticipation, turn to the one they and the world system crucified - the returning Messiah - the Prince of Peace, the Lord of lords, and King of Kings.

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10).


posted with permissionhttp://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot...-judgment.html

Good and Evil
By Jim Fletcher


“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

When news that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni might be arrested if she sets foot in England came to light this week, I’d like to say I was shocked. It’s sad when Jew-hatred doesn’t shock, anymore.

Livni is just one of many Israeli diplomats and officials who are wanted for “war crimes” in certain European countries. The list also includes Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak.

One can ask the obvious: why can a serial killer like Yasser Arafat be welcomed to give psycho speeches at the U.N., but a stalwart ally risks its diplomats if they go to Europe?

Amazing, isn’t it? People used to know right from wrong. Now we host the Dwarf from Iran on our shores, without arresting him, but Israel’s leaders have to make contingency escape plans if they happen to get too close to, say, Belgium. I guess the Belgians are still frustrated over the Nazi occupation of their country and take it out on the Jews.

It is almost incomprehensible that in our world, leaders from the Jewish state can be arrested and charged with “war crimes.” For example, Sharon was always a target of the lisping, clammy European set that blamed him for Sabra and Shatila (Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, overrun for massacre by Lebanese militias during Israel’s 1982 invasion of that country).

The Europeans have been the walking dead for a hundred years. Abandoning biblical Christianity — it was getting bad when Spurgeon preached — they have nothing to stand on. Their world view, collectively, is effectively pagan. Therefore, we shouldn’t be shocked at their Jew-hatred; only revolted.

I have long had a theory that what you see in the news today (see War Crimes obsession) is born from what people think about the Bible. You can trace the threats to arrest Israeli officials to…well, even the Enlightenment, which gave rise to Darwinian philosophy. Seriously.

It’s why the British attempt to arrest Israel’s foreign minister, at the same time their historical churches become museums, pubs, or mosques.

When one reads the Old Testament, in all its clarity, one sees as with perfect vision the destiny of the Jews. Good is good, and evil is evil. Unlike our culture, overall, where there is confusion and moral relativism.

It’s precisely why Bible prophecy is so relevant. Isaiah 5:20 is telling us that one day, an inversion of the truth will become the norm. I would argue that that mindset has never been as widespread as it is now.

But we know Who writes History. And He makes a distinction between good and evil.

One day very soon Jews will be able to go anywhere they want, and not be afraid.

I can’t wait.


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot...-and-evil.html

The Art of the Lie
By Jim Fletcher


Saudi Arabia’s “Foreign Minister” Prince Saud al-Faisal says the Arab-Israeli peace process is stuck because of the “preferential treatment” the international community gives Israel.

Come again?

First of all, the Saudis are tribal leaders. They are not international diplomats. They are seventh-century tribal leaders who were handed untold wealth when the Americans found oil there 60 years ago.

Secondly, and most important, al-Faisal knows for sure that his statement is a lie. One of the most outrageous developments of our time is that power players in government and diplomacy tell bald-faced lies about Israel.

And I’ll write more about this later, but there are increasing lies being told about Israel within the Christian community. The one-two punch of Arab/Muslim and Christian propaganda about Israel is a sad commentary on where we are today.

There are other ways to lie, as well. After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines, ABC’s Diane Sawyer felt it was necessary to claim that Israel “profiles” Muslims during airport security.

This is akin to a London reporter commenting on Scotland Yard’s methods when attempting to apprehend Jack the Ripper.

Israel gets this kind of treatment when the situation is somewhat mild. Imagine what will happen if/when the Jewish state decides to bomb the plans for Auschwitz II in Iran? Michael Freund’s recent, chilling piece about Israel’s dilemma underscore the tortured choices faced by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Were Israel to bomb (or otherwise eliminate) Iran’s nuclear facilities, the international outcry will put the lie to al-Faisal’s contention about Israel. The Israelis would bring down so much condemnation on themselves, one wonders how they’d survive.

(Of course, they will, but that’s a conversation for another time.)

When al-Faisal says that the international community gives Israel preferential treatment…have you ever heard something so comical/diabolical? Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinians have perpetrated thousands of terror attacks against Israeli citizens. It seems almost weekly, the United Nations condemns Israel in some way. Foreign diplomats barely disguise their hatred for the Jewish state.

I would argue that the international community hasn’t sided with Israel since…before the state was founded, actually. In late 1947, the U.N. voted to partition Palestine: a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs of course rejected it and have been at war with Israel since then.

I would also argue that the Sawyer piece is dangerous to Israel. I have said for some time that I’ve detected a turning-away from Israel from some surprising quarters. The steady drip-drip of anti-Israel reporting by major American media outlets has the cumulative effect of hardening attitudes. As if people needed more of a reason to hate Jews.

I’ve written about her before, but a decade ago, I had a correspondence with an American reporter who had covered the Middle East for decades. She wrote so many lies about Israel that I was amazed. When Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first stint as prime minister, allowed the opening of a tunnel in the Old City (the tunnel runs away from the Western Wall). This was to allow tourists to be able to exit without turning around in the cramped passageway to exit where they’d entered.

The reporter, parroting Palestinian propaganda, alleged that the tunnel opening threatened the infrastructure of the Al-Aksa Mosque! The tunnel has been there for more than 2,000 years, hundreds of years before the mosque structure was built, and the only construction was to open a space for a doorway.

This type of “reporting”about Israel plays to Arab stereotypes of the Jews. One must ask: why would a few million Jews actively try to enrage a billion Muslims?

It also calls to mind the 2000 visit to the Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon. Surrounded by a seeming legion of police, for protection, Sharon simply toured the Mount. The Palestinians, pushed by Yasser Arafat, alleged that Sharon and the Israelis were defiling what the Arabs call Haram al-Sharif.

We will see these lies increase in frequency and ferocity in the coming years, months, weeks, and days.

We must strengthen our resolve to defend Israel where we can.


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2010/01/art-of-lie.html

Vatican Blames Israel for Driving Out Christians
By Aaron Klein


TEL AVIV – A Vatican document released yesterday blamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel's "occupying" of lands for driving Christians out and making life difficult for those who remain.

However, Christians here who fled their homes in Palestinian-controlled territory largely blamed Muslim intimidation for their plight in interviews with WND.

The Vatican document leaked to the media is reportedly a guide for discussions for an upcoming meeting of Mideast bishops convened by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the plight of the Christian minority in the Middle East, which has an overwhelming Muslim majority.

According to the Associated Press, the meeting document made clear bishops in the Middle East believe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the central cause of several conflicts in the region. The document also claimed Israeli "occupation" was a major factor in driving Christian out of certain lands.

The document also described the growth of "political Islam" in countries like Egypt.

The Vatican is not alone in blaming Israel for fleeing Christians. Scores of media reports have claimed a security barrier that Israel constructed on a border with Bethlehem primarily had caused Christians to flee the historic Christian city.

Israel built the barrier seven years ago. But Bethlehem's Christian population started to drastically decline in 1995, the very year the Palestinian Authority took over the city in line with the U.S.-backed Oslo Accords.

Bethlehem was more than 80 percent Christian when Israel was founded in 1948. But after the PA took control, the city's Christian population plummeted to its current 23 percent. The statistic is considered generous since it includes the satellite towns of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala. Some estimates place Bethlehem's actual Christian population as low as 12 percent, with hundreds of Christians emigrating each year.

As soon as he took over Bethlehem, then-PA leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally fired the city's Christian politicians and replaced them with Muslim cronies. He appointed a Muslim governor, Muhammed Rashad A-Jabar, and deposed of Bethlehem's city council, which had nine Christians and two Muslims, reducing the number of Christians councilors to a 50-50 split.

Arafat then converted a Greek Orthodox monastery next to the Church of Nativity, the believed birthplace of Jesus, into his official Bethlehem residence.

Suddenly, after the Palestinians gained the territory, reports of Christian intimidation by Muslims began to surface.

Christian leaders and residents told WND they face an atmosphere of regular hostility. They said Palestinian armed groups stir tension by holding militant demonstrations and marches in the streets. They spokes of instances in which Christian shopkeepers' stores were ransacked and Christian homes attacked.

They said in the past, Palestinian gunmen fired at Israelis from Christian hilltop communities, drawing Israeli anti-terror raids to their towns.

In 2002, dozens of terrorists holed up inside the Church of the Nativity for 39 days while fleeing a massive Israeli anti-terror operation. Israel surrounded the church area but refused to storm the structure. Gunmen inside included wanted senior Hamas, Tanzim and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades terrorists reportedly involved in suicide bombings and shooting attacks. More than 200 nuns and priests were trapped in the church after Israeli hostage negotiators failed to secure their release.

Some Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

"There are many cases in which Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia," Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station, told WND in an interview in 2007.


more
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot...iving-out.html


Muslims driving Christians out of Bethlehem, but media outlets choose to blame Israel

Media's two-faced Christmas coverage

Muslims driving Christians out of Bethlehem, but media outlets choose to blame Israel

Ah, Christmas in Bethlehem. Manger Square is ablaze with colorful lights. The weather is usually a bit chilly. Aggressive merchants bombard passersby with “special sales” on all kinds of cedar wood statues and religious carvings.

And like clockwork, the mainstream media descend upon this city every year to ignore rampant Muslim intimidation of Christians and instead blast Israel - often with completely inaccurate information - for ruining Christmas and for the drastic decline of Christianity in one of the holiest cities for that religion.

Take a widely circulated piece by McClatchy Newspapers writers Dion Nissenbaum and Cliff Churgin.

The piece, published last week, cites Bethlehem's dwindling Christian population and paints a picture that squarely blames Israel

"For generations, the Holy Land Arts Museum (in Bethlehem) has been selling olivewood manger scenes to thousands of pilgrims wanting souvenirs from the biblical birthplace of Jesus," starts the piece.

"Gone is the olivewood stable shielding the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In its place, looming over the angelic family, are an Israeli watchtower and three towering sections of an adjoining wall."

Outright lying, the McClatchy Newspapers piece stated Bethlehem "remains largely isolated from the outside world by Israel’s 25-foot-tall concrete walls, part of Israel’s separation barrier."

The piece implied the wall caused the crash of Bethlehem's economy and prompted Christians to flee. Similar articles were churned out by Reuters, the BBC online and scores of local newspapers.

ABC News, for example, chimes in: "The (Israeli) wall has cast a shadow over this famous West Bank town."

Now let's get our facts straight. Bethlehem is not surrounded by any wall.

Israel in 2002 built a fence in the area where northern Bethlehem interfaces with Jerusalem. A tiny segment of that barrier, facing a
major Israeli roadway, is a concrete wall, which Israel says is meant to prevent gunmen from shooting at Israeli motorists.


more.........
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3486144,00.html

'Anti-Israel' group recruiting across nation

Controversial organization claims it supports Jewish state

A controversial lobby group accused of working against Israel will be hosted by a Jewish organization at the University of Pennsylvania as part of an initiative to make the group known in local venues across the U.S. ....

....J Street brands itself as pro-Israel. It states on its website it seeks to "promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically."

But the group also supports talks with Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter seeks the destruction of Israel. The group opposes sanctions against Iran and is harshly critical of Israel's anti-terror military offensives. .....

.....
J Street's event at Penn will include speeches from a host of characters with controversial views on Israel, including:
  • Rebecca Alpert, chair of the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. In a sermon on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur, Alpert compared Israel's anti-terror activities in the Gaza Strip to genocide in Darfur. Alpert also announced she personally undertook a month-long fast for the Gaza population as part of a protest movement that calls for Israel to talk with Hamas and lift a blockade in Gaza. Israel daily allows humanitarian goods into Gaza but bans certain materials that can be used to manufacture weapons or aid Hamas's military wing.
  • Elliot Ratzman, a visiting professor of religion at Swarthmore University. And article in the student-run magazine American Foreign Policy accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing – creating such harrowing conditions for Palestinians that they will be forced to move from their property to Palestinian-controlled enclaves or, preferably for the Israeli right wing, away from the region altogether.Ratzman particularly took issue with Israel's demolishing of Palestinian homes. However, he did not mention the demolished homes were mostly built illegally on Jewish-owned land. He also failed to mention Israel also routinely bulldozes Jewish homes built without proper municipal permits.
  • Arthur Waskow, an author and far-left political activist. Waskow is highly critical of Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In a recent posting at the website for the leftist Shalom Center Waskow strongly defended a U.N. report penned by South African judge Richard Goldstone that claimed both Hamas and Israel were guilty of war crimes.
  • Goldstone's report claimed Israel deliberately targeted civilians during the Gaza conflict. The terrorist group instead launched a rocket offensive against Israeli population centers. The U.N. report equated Israel, which worked to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, to Hamas, which utilized civilians as human shields and fired rockets at Jewish cities from Palestinian hospitals and apartment buildings.
  • During the Gaza war, Israel sent hundreds of thousands of text messages and placed tens of thousands of calls warning local Palestinians of incoming attacks against Hamas' military infrastructure in Gaza.
    As WND reported, Goldstone's investigation may have relied on false witnesses and Palestinian misinformation.
    Just last weekend, it was reported Israel found multiple crucial factual errors in the Goldstone report.
  • Leaders of the Fast for Gaza movement.......

......The Powerline blog previously documented how far-leftist Israelis are influential in J Street leadership, including former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg, who generated controversy when he stated, "To define the state of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end."
Another key J Street member, Mideast expert Henry Siegman, has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.

more including photos
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123149


A Thorny Problem
By Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters

Americans are trusting people. We trust that our traditional institutions have our best interests at heart. That’s the American way.

The problem is, those heading the traditional institutions often don’t have our best interests at heart. Network news anchors, museums, classrooms…all today are steeped in leftist ideology. Do you think Walter Cronkite was a dispassionate reporter? Think again. Uncle Walter dispensed his worldview every evening, as viewers watched and thought The Most Trusted Man in America was simply giving the news.

Not even close.

I recently came into contact with another of those institutions, The National Geographic magazine. In an article entitled, “Bethlehem 2007 A.D.” the author, Michael Finkel, practiced what is known as advocacy journalism by sliding the Palestinian Victim propaganda past readers. The opening paragraphs were particularly odious.

Finkel took the usual path in describing the prison-like conditions (my description) that the Israelis allegedly have the Palestinians in; this largely hinges on the presence of Israel’s security fence, which has drastically cut down on the number of homicide bombers entering the country.

Finkel describes it thus:

“This is not how Mary and Joseph came into Bethlehem, but this is how you enter now. You wait at the wall. It’s a daunting concrete barricade, three stories high, thorned with razor wire.” (italics added)

Get it? Do you understand? Thorned. A word with piercing meaning.

For quite some time now, both Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land have hijacked the Passion story to present a poignant story of their plight to the world. The story of Jesus and His brutal treatment at the hands of the Romans is used to overlay the current Palestinian situation.

By using the story of Jesus — complete with crown of thorns — Palestinians elicit the sympathy of a billion Christians around the world. It is a clever — and completely disingenuous — piece of propaganda ordered up by the serial killer Yasser Arafat. The killer PLO dwarf was a master of propaganda, and knew who his useful idiots were in the West: naïve leftists.

Further in the Geographic article, Finkel uses another bit of imagery that pulsates with meaning. In describing a steel door that allows some Palestinians to enter Israel, through the security fence:

“If you’re cleared to enter, a sliding steel door, like that on a boxcar, grinds open.”

Boxcar. Hmmm. Boxcar. Let’s see…

…oh yes, Jews were rounded up and sent in train boxcars to the death camps by the Nazis. One can see actual boxcars at Holocaust museums.

We see that the Arabs are even appropriating the Jews’ ghastly Holocaust experience, taking the imagery as their own. The reader will recognize, of course, that there is no comparison between Arab workers waiting at checkpoints, and Jewish children being wrenched from their mothers’ arms as they are all marched to the gas chambers.

None of us — none of us — will ever remotely experience what the Jews experienced in the satanic attempt to exterminate them from 1933-45. Let’s be clear about that.

The use of such imagery, through words, is grotesque, whether it’s used by talented writers, or PLO hacks.

This is another example of the extreme bias against Israel. It is growing and will only get worse.

We know that this kind of bias is going to be a given in, say, the United Nations. But people are generally not as likely to see it in National Geographic, or some other seemingly benign source. Rest assured, though, the bias is pervasive.

You as a supporter of Israel can use your education, learning facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict, to write letters to editors, organize discussions at church, etc. Get involved!


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2010/03/thorny-problem.html


Boorish Behavior
By Jim Fletcher

The Associated Press has “reported” that the White House is angry, but hamstrung, over Israeli refusal to stop building “settlements” on land claimed by the Palestinians.

(An aside: If Israel stopped building on land claimed by the Palestinians, they’d have to bulldoze every single structure between the Jordan and Mediterranean, and take up residence in western Canada.)

I placed the word reporting in quotes up there because sadly, the writer who penned the story engaged in what is in our world today biased coverage. Note one paragraph from the story:

“But the White House has signaled deep anger and probably won’t forgive or forget Israel’s boorish behavior.”

That isn’t journalism, that’s reporting, Soviet-style. Keep in mind, by the way, that this kind of bias, using thousands of single words a day in our media, words like “boorish,” is the norm for today’s “journalists.” The AP writer should have written:

“But the White House has signaled deep anger and probably won’t forgive or forget Israel’s stance.”

Even the inclusion of the phrase “forgive or forget” is probably, it could argued, opinion (although we know it is likely the case that Obama and his minions in fact do not like Israel; still, it is not for a reporter to assume this).

It would be perfectly permissible for a writer to use the word boorish in an op-ed column. But not in the “news” section. It signals extreme bias that I would argue is dangerous. It provides a daily drip, drip, drip of Arab propaganda masquerading as news.

Why is Israel’s refusal to stop building homes for its citizens boorish? Because it doesn’t follow the Marxist agenda of shoving Jews into ghettos. Jews should have the right to live wherever they want, just like any other human being.

Today, there are more than a quarter-million Jews living in the biblical heartland, and thank God for it. To try and remove them would make the Gaza expulsion look like kindergarten registration day. The presence of Israelis in the heartland is glorious!

But sadly, millions of people don’t like Jews. Some of these people live and work in Washington D.C. and some of them live in caves in Afghanistan.

It was also announced that Vice President Joe Biden has traveled to Israel to talk with both Israelis and Palestinians. He pledged America’s “unstinting support” for Israel.

Biden is a liar.

He has no more intention of supporting Israel than he would anyone else in his life. He is for Joe, first, second, and last. Biden cares no more for Israel than he did for Soviet dissidents when he and Teddy Kennedy visited the Soviet Union 30 years ago. Leftists rarely have true compassion for people, simply because narcissism prevents it. The agenda is always to promote and nurture oneself, first and last. Always.

That’s one reason Israel can only rely on her true friends. For example, I’d like to point you, the reader, to “Pastors for Israel” on Facebook.
This kind of group is important in promoting Israel’s true meaning to the people.

Next week, we’ll explore indepth the Palestinian claim to the land of Israel.


posted with permission
http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2010/03/boorish-behavior.html


Group Takes Offense at 'Christian Warrior' Media Coverage
Mainstream media outlets are bias in their reporting about the nine self-identified “Christian warriors” accused of plotting to kill law enforcement officers, contends a group whose mission is to respond to anti-Christian defamation.

Even though members of the militia group call themselves Hutaree, which they say means “Christian warrior,” their alleged violent plan “is absolutely contrary to Christianity,” said Dr. Gary Cass, president of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.

“They may have illicitly co-opted the Christian faith to justify their murderous intentions, but it is defamatory for the media to keep referring to them as Christians,” said Cass. “They are simply terrorists.”

Federal authorities arrested on Monday nine people accused of planning to kill a Michigan law enforcement officer and then attack police during the funeral. Six of the members are Michigan residents, one is from Indiana, and the other two are from Ohio.

The indictment says Hutaree wanted to use improvised explosive devices on the vehicles carrying police during the funeral procession.

Attorney General Eric Holder calls the arrested militanmen and women “anti-government extremists.”

Hutaree, in the “About Us” section of its website, cites Scripture taken out of context to support its mission. Hutaree points to Luke 22:35-37, for example, which says, “Then Jesus asked them, ‘When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?’ ‘Nothing ,’ they answered. He said to them, ‘But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.’”

Hutaree claims the reference to swords in the Bible means “Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment,’” according to its website.

But the mainstream Christian interpretation of the verses is that Jesus is referencing the coming persecution that his disciples will face after his death.

The disciples also misunderstood and took Jesus’ reference to swords literally and said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”

Jesus out of frustration ends the conversation and replies, “That is enough.”


more including photos
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100330/group-takes-offense-at-christian-warrior-media-coverage/index.html


Media Dream Come True: 'Christian' Groups Fighting Muslims
By Robert Spencer

A Christian militia group - called the "Hutaree" - preparing to battle the Antichrist and supposedly targeting Muslims, has been raided by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force, and nine of its members have been arrested. These raids and the alleged Christian character of the militia, as well as its rumored targeting of Muslims, are a mainstream media dream come true - a few years back the BBC featured an improbable inversion-of-reality drama about Christians beheading Muslims, and now, lo and behold, it seems to have come to life.

For years now we have heard, in the indelible formulation of Rosie O’Donnell, that “radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical Islam,” and yet proponents of this exercise in wishful thinking and ignorance have had precious little evidence to adduce in support of it. But now it is certain that for years to come this Hutaree group will be thrown in the face of anyone who takes note of jihad activity in the United States and around the world, as if this group in itself balances and equals the innumerable Islamic groups that are waging armed jihad all around the world today.

The point will be the same as the one Tim McVeigh has had to shoulder alone all these years (even though he wasn’t really a Christian at all and did not justify the Oklahoma City bombing by referring to Christian teaching): that every religion has its “extremists,” and that therefore it would be bad form to subject Islam to greater critical scrutiny, and Muslims to greater law-enforcement scrutiny. Everyone does it, don’t you see? Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Shabaab, and on and on and on — yes, but the Hutaree!

Meanwhile, in the Detroit News story on the raids, which as tendentious, superficial, and slanted as all the mainstream media coverage of the Hutaree’s downfall, the Hutaree is matter-of-factly identified as Christian. Yet there are no quotations in the story from Christian leaders explaining how they condemn this “Christian militia,” and saying that Christianity doesn’t condone such violence, and that these militiamen have twisted and hijacked their peaceful faith. Why didn’t the News take care to gather such quotes? After all, they always include such quotes from Muslim leaders in every story about Islamic jihad terror activity. Why is the practice different in this case?

Yet instead of the mainstream moderate Christians (now there’s a phrase we don’t ever see even from the moral-equivalence types) that we would have every reason to expect the Detroit News to feature in this story, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows up toward the end of the article, playing the victim card with gusto. The arrests are announced during the tenth anniversary banquet of the group’s Michigan chapter, to “audible gasps” from the assembled crowd. The claiming of victim status, complete with gasping prospective victims, is artful — and of course the Detroit News, true to mainstream media form, says nothing about CAIR’s links to Hamas, the jihad-related arrests and convictions of several of its officials, and the rest of this group’s unsavory record.

A responsible reporter might have asked Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-Michigan, if he thought this alleged Christian militia group was a “backlash” after the sharp increase in jihad terror activity in the U.S. in the last year, but why should the Detroit News have responsible reporters on staff when no other mainstream media outlet does?

And as for the FBI and the JTTF, are they investigating the Muslim camps around the country where firearms and paramilitary training are known to be going on? Are they doing so with the same energy and resources that they obviously have devoted to the investigation of this Christian militia? If not, why not? If the allegations against this group are true, they richly deserve to be raided and arrested and shut down. But there have been allegations made against Islamic compounds in the U.S. that are quite similar, and nothing has been done. Why is that?

The Islamic jihad is global, well-financed (courtesy our friend and ally Saudi Arabia) and relentless. One self-proclaimed Christian group should not divert us from the ongoing need to defend ourselves against that jihad. But for many, it will.


posted with permission http://www.bible-prophecy-today.com/2010/04/media-dream-come-true-christian-groups.html


Hutaree Update
by Chuck Baldwin


With much media fanfare, 9 members of a Michigan militia were arrested last March and charged with “seditious conspiracy”–specifically, plotting to murder law enforcement officers. Ostensibly, this was supposed to precipitate some kind of wholesale revolt against the government. Question: Have any of you heard anyone from the propaganda press corps (national news media) tell you what has been happening with this case? No? Did you not wonder why? Well, I’ll tell you why: the case has fallen apart.

The first indication of the Feds’ case going bad was a local report in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, dated April 28, 2010.“An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn’t recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.

“Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.


“‘I share the frustrations of the defense team . . . that she doesn’t know anything,’ U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn’t reviewed her notes recently and couldn’t remember specific details of the case.”


See the report at:

http://www.toledoblade.com/article/2...4280343/-1/rss

Can you believe testimony such as this was given in a court of law by a supposedly intelligent federal officer–an agent who had supposedly compiled the evidence that was used to arrest and incarcerate these supposedly “dangerous militia members”? If it wasn’t so serious, this would be a joke!

Remember that it was a federal informant who had infiltrated the group and even offered to teach Hutaree members how to make improvised explosive devices. On this point, William Grigg wrote, “While federal prosecutors have provided ample evidence that members of the Hutaree are passionately anti-government–what decent person ISN’T–they haven’t been able to demonstrate that the group did anything more than engage in survivalist training and indulge in apocalyptic rhetoric.” (Emphasis in the original.)

As a result, Judge Roberts found the government’s case sorely lacking. “Discussions about killing local law enforcement officers–and even discussions about killing members of the judicial branch of government–do not translate to conspiring to overthrow, or levy war against, the United States government,” she wrote, ordering that the Hutaree suspects be released on bail.

About which, Grigg wrote, “Since the federal case against the Hutaree rests entirely on what was SAID by the suspects, rather than anything specific that was DONE by them, it’s difficult to see what’s left of it [the case].”(Emphasis in the original.)

See Grigg’s column at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewr...ves/57041.html

But then again, punishing people because of their speech or political associations seems to be exactly where America is heading.

Remember that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is famous for supplying Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Fusion Centers and State law enforcement agencies with warnings against people due to their political beliefs (pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, anti-United Nations, anti-New World Order, or anti-illegal immigration, for example), their associations (Libertarian or Constitution parties, for example), or even who they voted for (Ron Paul, Bob Barr, or Chuck Baldwin, to be precise). Previous reports even identified people as “dangerous” because of the books they were reading. (Tell me, again: this is the United States and not Nazi Germany, right?)

Now consider the statements of US Congressman Andre Carson (D-Indiana), who likens Tea Party protesters to “a terrorist threat.”

Washington Times reporter Kerry Picket recorded Rep. Carson as he explained it all:

Kerry Picket (Washington Times): “Do you think the people outside [Tea Party protesters] are generally dangerous or no?”

Rep. Carson: “Oh, absolutely. I worked in homeland security. I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security . . . I mean terrorism has an Islamic face, but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. (inaudible) It’s the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].”

Larry O’Connor at BigGovernment.com then wrote, “And we can now see this two pronged message continuing in the narrative from Democratic politicians and the media: The Tea Party protests are really about white rage and they are sowing the seeds for domestic terrorism.This was the message delivered by Rep. Carson that afternoon and that is the message the media has run with.

“Only problem is, we can’t find any proof to back up Rep. Carson’s story.”


See the report at:

http://tinyurl.com/teaparty-terrorism

The truth is, if the federal government and its prostitutes at the SPLC have their way, ANYONE COULD BE IMPRISONED FOR ANYTHING! Don’t believe physicians should destroy human life in the womb? You’re a terrorist. Don’t like the United Nations? You’re a terrorist. Believe immigrants should come through the front door when migrating to America? You’re a terrorist. Voted for Ron Paul? You’re a terrorist. Believe in the return of Jesus Christ? You’re a terrorist. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseam.

Again, maybe this helps explain why all those (non-existent) FEMA camps are being built!

In my initial column on the Hutaree raid, I wrote, “Did members of the Hutaree intend to carry out aggressive violence against law enforcement personnel? I have no idea. Until this story broke in the national media, I had never heard of this group. I will wait for the facts to come out–if indeed the federal government and national media even allow the facts to come out.”

See my column at:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1177

Well, the facts are beginning to come out: The FBI agent who brought the charges against these self-professed militia members made a complete fool of herself under oath in a court of law. She presented zero evidence to indicate that the Hutaree posed an imminent threat to anybody. Now that the judge has released the Hutaree members from jail and rebuked the agent for presenting such inept testimony, we’ll see if the Feds decide to pursue the case any further. Again, as Will Grigg said, “Since the federal case against the Hutaree rests entirely on what was SAID by the suspects, rather than anything specific that was DONE by them, it’s difficult to see what’s left of it [the case].”

However, the bigger question is, How far will Big-Government toadies try to take this Nazi-like philosophy: that anyone who believes in limited government and freedom, and who rejects their sanctimonious attitude and bullying is a “dangerous terrorist”? And even greater is the question, How long will the American people put up with it?


posted with permission http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=1561


Muslims Fuel Rise in Anti-Semitic Incidents
By Robert Spencer

Jews worldwide are more imperiled than they have been for decades. A new study shows that worldwide incidents of anti-Semitism, from vandalism to arson and beatings, were twice as frequent in 2009 as they were in 2008.

The study, released last Sunday by Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism, records that anti-Semitic incidents reached their highest level last year since the university started keeping these records in the 1980s.

What could be the cause of this? A global surge in neo-Nazism? Is the Ku Klux Klan conducting energetic membership drives in Western Europe, where the largest increase in anti-Semitic events occurred? No. According to the report, the increase is largely due to attacks from Muslims, who, the report says, were enraged over Israel’s Winter 2009 incursion into Gaza. The Associated Press noted that “in Western Europe, especially Britain and France … protests and anger by Muslim residents boiled over after Israel’s invasion of Gaza in December 2008.”

So presumably this “anger by Muslim residents” would not have “boiled over” if Israel had done nothing to defend itself from the regular rocket attacks coming from Gaza. The AP report goes on to suggest a further reason for this boiling over:

“The Israeli invasion, launched in response to years of Palestinian rocket attacks, killed some 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, according to local officials and human rights groups. Thirteen Israelis also died in the fighting.”

AP makes no mention, of course, of how, during the Israeli Gaza incursion, Hamas staged attacks from civilian areas in order to provoke retaliatory fire it could use for propaganda purposes. Yet just weeks ago, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli research group, released a 500-pagereport documenting Hamas’ use of human shields and its deliberate placement of rocket launch sites near mosques and hospitals. Nothing better to stir up international indignation against the Jews than an Israeli missile hitting a hospital or house of worship — and Hamas wanted to make sure it happened.

Of course, it worked magnificently: The UN even released the “Goldstone Report,” enshrining Palestinian propaganda against Israel, including charges that Israeli forces recklessly targeted civilians as established fact. The flimsiness of this “established fact” was underscored last week when a Palestinian teenager whom Palestinian authorities had reported as having been shot by the Israelis turned up at home. He hadn’t been shot at all, but actually wandered into a weapons-smuggling tunnel that took him into Egypt, where he was briefly held by Egyptian authorities. Yet UN researcher Goldstone relied upon Palestinian sources — including, no doubt, many with the same vivid imagination — to compile hisreport.

The “Goldstone Report,” not coincidentally, was spearheaded by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the 56-nation group that now constitutes the UN’s largest voting bloc. The ultimate purpose of the “GoldstoneReport” is to criminalize legitimate Israeli self-defense. And now the new report on anti-Semitism, however unwittingly, plays into this by attributing Muslim “boiling over” against Jews in Western Europe to rage over Gaza. It was all just a “backlash” — all the fault of the Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

Islamic anti-Semitism, with its centerpiece the deeply ingrained idea that the Jews are the worst enemies of the Muslims (as Koran 5:82 says), doesn’t seem to have been considered. The fact that the Israeli atrocities in Gaza were manufactured products of the Palestinian propaganda machine doesn’t seem to have entered in, either.

But in contrast to the Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the rise in anti-Semitism worldwide is real. The United Nations and the global human rights organizations, instead of accepting OIC-manufactured propaganda uncritically, should examine honestly and openly the ways in which imams in mosques inEurope and elsewhere are encouraging hatred of Jews, and call upon Islamic organizations around the world to clean their own house.

The study released last Sunday makes this all the more urgent, but with the increasing isolation of Israel and its ongoing bullying by Barack Obama, such a necessary reckoning is about as likely as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s converting to Judaism.


posted with permission
http://www.bible-prophecy-today.com/2010/04/muslims-fuel-rise-in-anti-semitic.html

As we watch Obama and the world try to dictate to Israel about their country and their capital of Jerusalem,
perhaps this would be a good time to look at the achievements and contributions of both the Jews and Muslims.


The following statement by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is true:

"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

===========
The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves
up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.


There is NOT one single Jew that has destroyed a church. There is NOT a single Jew that protests by killing people.

The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels; people who do not believe like they do.


===========================
See the map here:
http://current.com/news/politics/89703296_brutal-arab-muslim-land-grabs-in-the-middle-east-have-cuased-coutnless-deaths-wars.htm
Here's the question ... Why is the world threatening Israel; allowing the Arabs to take their land when they have 800 percent more land than Israel?

So...Is the Western Wall in Israel or not? The UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned an Israeli ad for implying that the Western Wall was in Israel. They said the ad was misleading.
HonestReporting decided to investigate...


Gotta see this thing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0BKP95P8Fk

more here:
Video: Is the Western Wall in Israel? - HR Interviews 'Confused' Tourists
www.honestreporting.com


For background, see yesterday's post, here:

A Possible Reason for the Ash Cloud Thing (updated) By Carla Kamps
I heard an interesting thing earlier today, and will now try to repeat it, if I can…

Do you know that Great Britain criticized Israel for it’s tourism poster a few hours before the volcanic ash began falling upon them?


As of this week, a million British tourists have been stranded around the world at a cost of 1 billion dollars to Britain’s tourism industry. Some say this may be because they wanted Israel to pull an ad that told tourists to come there. Did God shut down the British tourism industry?

Here’s what happened…

The British tourism office criticized Israel for saying that the western wall was in Israel and not in ‘occupied territory.’ They said the ad was misleading because it stated you could go from one side of Israel to the other in 6 hours, which they thought was a big no no. Since the status of Israel’s borders were the subject of “considerable international controversy, the British Foreign and Commonwealth office advised against travel to the occupied territory.” The British advertising agency also noted that the ad implied that Qumran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were found) is in the state of Israel and not the ‘occupied West Bank.’ Thus they concluded that Israel’s tourism ad was misleading, and on April 9, the British ASA cancelled the ad.

I heard about this here:
www.prophecyinthenews.com
(Daily Broadcast by J R Church)


At the above link, JR Church concludes that you don’t poke a finger in the apple of God’s eye and get away with it.

Some may think this is pure speculation or mere coincidence, but who says God can't move a large pillar-like cloud to look out for His people? [Bonus reading: Exodus 13 (HINT: key word to look for: pillar of cloud).]


Related interesting things:


Europe's retailers hit by air cancellations
(balkans.com)


Interesting facts Eyjafjallajokull, the Volcano in Iceland and the ash cloud over Europe (gather.com)

[Note: if you found this topic interesting, Eye to Eye is a book that might interest you.]

Posted with permission:
http://morebooksandthings.blogspot.com/2010/04/possible-reason-for-ash-cloud-thing.html

HOW NY TIMES COVERAGE BURIES MIDDLE EAST REALITY; FIND THE FOUR GIGANTIC ERRORS
by Barry Rubin

In my entire life I have rarely read an article which simultaneously showed the need to be well-informed before reading a newspaper and the shocking shortcomings of mass media coverage of the Middle East than this minor piece about the reopening of the Cairo synagogue. I've never said this before but will now: If you want to understand the Middle East's reality and how it is distorted in the media, read the following anlysis.

Have a little patience and I think you will see precisely what I mean.

There are four huge-gigantic-gaps in this article that show how the Middle East story is being missed. The word "gap" here is polite. I can think of a number of less polite words defining the combination of whitewash and ignorance displayed here.

Here is the link.
Go and read the short piece if you want to see if you can spot them, then come back and read my response. Or, if you prefer, read my analysis first. It's up to you.

Ok, here we go.

The headline for this story is, "A Synagogue's Unveiling Exposes a Conundrum." So, naturally, you want to know what the conundrum was. The article explains:

"The restoration project, and its muted unveiling, exposed a conundrum Egyptian society has struggled with since its leadership made peace with Israel three decades ago: How to balance the demands of Western capitals and a peace process that relies on Egypt to work with Israel with a public antipathy for Israel."

So here is point number one-how can the article not even mention the Egyptian government's own role in stoking public antipathy toward Israel? Of course, this antagonism is also the product of history and to a considerable extent comes from the public itself. Yet day after day, the Egyptian government's religious, educational, media, and other institutions preach slander and hatred. toward Israel. There is no effort in terms of communication with the public to reduce antagonism.

Let me make it clear: I am not blaming Egypt's government for the very existence of "public antipathy," but not to mention its role in this process at all is shocking. The effect is to play down the role of regimes, even moderate ones, in so heating up the atmosphere as to make full peace and normalization close to impossible. Their fault, as opposed to criticism of Israel for the lack of resolution in the conflict, gets buried.

Here's point two. One of the main people quoted in the article is Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Here is what it says about him:

"'This is an Egyptian monument; if you do not restore a part of your history you lose everything,'" said Zahi Hawass, the general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which approved and oversaw the project. "I love the Jews, they are our cousins! But the Israelis, what they are doing against the Palestinians is insane. I will do anything to restore and preserve the synagogue, but celebration, I cannot accept."

Later his role is again mentioned:

"But the work was completed, and at first the authorities told members of the Egyptian Jewish community that the news media could not attend the ceremony because they wanted to make the official announcement themselves. Then Dr. Hawass announced he was canceling that, too.

"'I am trying to give the Israelis a message that they should make peace,' Dr. Hawass said."


So the New York Times allows Hawass to talk about how he loves the Jews and he even wants peace with Israel, he just wants them to be a bit more flexible.

One would never guess, however, that when this article was being edited the Times should have been aware of other public statements Hawass has made. Indeed, MEMRI translated this in a dispatch that came out about the same time that the reporters were preparing the story. Here is what Hawass said on Egyptian television last year:

Zahi Hawass: "For 18 centuries, [the Jews] were dispersed throughout the world. They went to America and took control of its economy. They have a plan. Although they are few in number, they control the entire world."

Notice that Hawass hates his cousins and that his hatred is based on his belief in the most basic antisemitic stereotypes for a 2000-year period, not since Israel was created in 1948.

And here we see how the Times hides the massive problem of antisemitism in the Arab world, the fact that the conflict cannot be resolved not because Israelis don't want to make peace but because many or most Arabs don't want any Israelis to exist. More likely than not, letting Hawass sound like a dove of peace rather than a raving Jew-hater is due to ignorance rather than intention. The result is the same.

This feeds into point three, which is equally incredible. Let's read the text:

"When the subject of restoring the synagogue of Maimonides was first raised about two years ago, Egypt agreed to do the work, but asked that it not be made public. The project was announced a year later when the culture minister, Farouk Hosny, was hoping to become the next director general of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. When his bid for the post failed, many doubted whether the project would be completed."

Are you a curious person? Perhaps you'd like to know why Hosny's bid failed. It is a matter of public record, covered in hundreds of articles. Even a glance at his biography in Wikipedia -- but not the Times -- includes the answer to that question. So let's see what the Times staff could have read if they had gone to Wikipedia:

"During a May 2008 argument with a Muslim Brotherhood member of Parliament concerning cultural ties with Israel, Hosny provoked controversy by declaring, 'I'd burn Israeli books myself if I found any in libraries in Egypt."

"Prior to the book burning comment, the Anti-Defamation League noted that Hosny 'has a long record of stymieing cultural relations with Israel, promoting censorship in Egypt, and making harsh anti-Israel and anti-Jewish statements.' In 2001 interview, he called Israeli culture 'inhuman' and in a 1997 interview stated, 'The Israelis do not stop claiming that they built the [Egyptian] pyramids... This proves that Israel has no history or civilization...."

There was an international outcry at the former culture minister's expressions of antisemitism and attitudes-favoring book-burning-not entirely consistent of being the world's most important cultural official. Despite the fact that he was originally thought to be a shoe-in for the job, Hosny was defeated. The state-controlled Egyptian media then went on an antisemitic rampage, blaming the Jews for his defeat.

Might this have some relevance to the background of the synagogue restoration? The article mentioned that the project was announced during the time Hosny's candidacy was put forth but there is no hint as to the project being a transparent fig-leaf to make people forget about Hosny's own behavior. The project was completed but then downplayed and there was an attempt to act as if the synagogue had nothing to do with anything specifically Jewish.

Finally, there is a remarkable gap in covering internal Egyptian politics, which shows how dictatorships often get the benefit of the doubt in Times coverage. I want to quote this point fully so s to give you a sense of what's the issue here:

"Hala Mustafa, the editor of one of Egypt's premier political journals, Democracy, was formally censured last month for having met the Israeli ambassador in her office. It was first time the journalists' syndicate punished a member for defying a ban on normalization since the group was founded in 1941, according to the independent daily newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.

"Even some of her critics, who strongly disagree with Ms. Mustafa's politics, said they were surprised at the selective nature of the condemnation. Singling out Ms. Mustafa said as much about the way the state and state-aligned institutions apply laws and rules, critics said, as it did about widespread hostility to Israel.

"While Ms. Mustafa was punished, six top Egyptian scholars, including some from the nation's premier research center, the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, attended a conference with the Israeli ambassador. None of them were punished."


But again the reader is at a loss. Why was Mustafa singled out for special punishment? The answer is only hinted at by the name of her journal, Democracy. Mustafa is a liberal reformer and a democracy advocate and that is why she is being repressed. It is one more step in the campaign of Arab regimes against liberals and for maintaining a very tight control over their own societies. Without knowing this, the three paragraphs make no sense.

I am not focusing on an individual reporter here, especially because I don't know how his original piece was edited. But what is important is the product. In this one article, the Times deserves an "F" for journalistic competence and it has failed to inform readers of some of the most important aspects of the contemporary Middle East.

In these respects, I cannot imagine a better example of what's wrong with media coverage of the region-and much more.

To quote George Orwell on a similar situation in 1945 (when the correspondent of a left-wing newspaper was criticized by readers for revealing how badly Soviet troops behaved toward civilians), once you accept the idea that the media should support "good causes" rather than just report accurately: "It is only a short step to arguing that the suppression and distortion of known facts is the highest duty of a journalist."


Click here to receive GLORIA Center articles directly to your inbox.

posted with permission
http://www.think-israel.org/rubin.nytburiesreality.html


"Suicide Activists on the Gaza Flotilla"
Live report from Ashdod examining how the media skewed the Gaza Flotilla event to portray Israel as the aggressors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6DVk04HkM

Israel/Flotilla Coverage You May Not Hear in the Mass Media – “Israel Should Go Home to Germany!”

News Reporting on the Flotilla incident:

New York Times:
“An Assault Cloaked in Peace” Moriel: “Moriel Response to Israeli Blockade Action
Honest Reporting: “Flotilla Battle Unleashes Anti-Israel Wave”
News 4 the Masses: Netanyahu Speaks on Flotilla
From CrossTalk:“Dean of White House Press Corps says: Israel should get the H*** out of Palestine (go “home” to Germany)

Helen Thomas tells Jews to go back to Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14
16-yr old “Daniel” confronts lion’s den to stand for the honor of Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABjE_7uwA0I
Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg
LTRP Note: To see why the Jews should not go “home” to Germany, read Trapped in Hitler’s Hell and Things We Couldn’t Say by two women who saw and lived to tell.

*Other Related Posts*
Posted with permission:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4553


This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'

I'd like to share with you my opening remarks from this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report":

"The world's great chess masters all have one thing in common. They can envision the game unfolding many moves ahead. In other words, they're not thinking about which chess piece they're going to move next, they're thinking about which one they're going to play 15 moves down the line. They say that some even know how the entire game will unfold the moment their opponent makes his opening move. Yet the players can't just presume the result and skip to the end of the game. To win, they have to make one move at a time until the game reaches checkmate.

Prophecy is like that. Though the Bible tells us how it's all going to end, we can't just skip ahead. We have to watch the whole scenario unfold one event at a time. And over the past few days, events have unfolded at a rapid pace. We are now seeing a realignment of nations once thought impossible or, at the least, unlikely into the very groupings the prophets predicted for the last days. And, most importantly, we are literally witnessing the entire world turning against Israel.

Today, I'm going to expose some lies, some hypocrisy, and the big lie that has driven it all."

This week, I discuss White House Correspondent Helen Thomas's outrageous comments about the Jews' claim to Israel. If hers is a reflection of the mindset of the Mainstream Media (and it is!), is it any wonder that they're a virtual PR machine for the Palestinians, Hamas, and other Islamist organizations and nations?

I also report on the Turkey-sponsored Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the Israeli interdiction that has brought the condemnation of the world down on Israel. I also show you and tell you about some elements of the story that you probably haven't heard in the mainstream news.

I don't know about you, but I haven't noticed anyone discussing the fact that Egypt is Israel's partner in the blockade of Gaza. I guess Egypt's practice of pumping poisonous gas into the illegal cross-border smuggling tunnels from Gaza isn't quite as visually dramatic as the boarding of ships attempting to break the naval blockade. And when North Korea torpedoed and sank a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors, the international community sat quietly for two months while a UN intelligence and military panel studied the evidence. When they finally concluded that, yes, the North Koreans did deliberately sink a South Korean ship in international waters, the result was a collective yawn. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton probably issued the strongest condemnation of all the Western powers. She deemed North Korea's behavior, "unacceptable."

The world seems to be uniting behind two goals: 1) Lynch Israel for its blockade of the terrorist Hamas government in Gaza and 2) provide 'humanitarian aid' to a group of people who are, by their own admission, not starving. I notice, however, that no one is condemning Turkey for bombing 50 Kurdish locations inside Iraq last week. No one is lynching Russia for its suppression of the Chechens in their quest for a homeland. No one is rushing to intervene in the Sudanese genocide in Darfur. Why? Because, obviously, the Jews deserve all the outrage and there's none left for anyone else. Just ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This week, the Iranian President declared that Israel is guilty of "unmatched crimes... that have been unprecedented in the history of mankind, the last of which has been invading the Gaza Peace Flotilla." Hyperbole, thy name is Mahmoud! Typically, he threatened that "attacking the aid convoy [brings] the Zionist regime one step closer to its death."

And why can all of these unbelievable events occur and be accepted at face value by the world? Because for decades, the world has been fed a massive lie. One that is easily and quickly disproven, but one that has now become the "truth" because the biased United Nations, Western and Islamic governments, and the world media have fed it to us over and over and over again. Helen Thomas was just the latest messenger of the lie. This week, I'll once again expose the modern lie and tell you the truth.

Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, Inspiration, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.

God Bless,
Hal Lindsey


posted with permission
http://www.hallindsey.com

The World's Oldest Disease

by Jan Markell

(note from Cindy: check out what happened when I went to post the video for this, at the bottom of this article!)

The world remains sick with a very old disease for which no cure has ever been found. It tends to go into remission now and then, but it always reappears as virulent as ever. It even develops into new strains. Some have called it a lethal obsession. It is called anti-Semitism, and if the Jews did not exist, some anti-Semite would invent him. It's that bad.

The Helen Thomas story is now old but it was very revealing. In just a brief moment of time, she spewed in microcosm what kings, generals, fuhrers, pharoahs, and Muslim extremists have done in legion. She tried to dispossess the Jews. None of Israel's enemies have any knowledge of what the Bible has to say about the land or the people of Israel. None of her enemies experience even a nano-second of guilt for telling the Jews to go back to Auschwitz. Even though I researched the Holocaust to write the Anita Dittman story, Trapped in Hitler's Hell, I cannot imagine the haunting thought of being told to go back to Auschwitz had I ever been interned there. But in demonstrations after the May 31 flotilla fiasco in Gaza, signs sprouted up all over the world saying that the Jews should all pack up and head to Auschwitz, which is now a solemn memorial museum. In its own way, it says "never again" just as all of Israel does when the subject of the Holocaust comes up.

For someone to tell a Jew in Israel to "go home" also makes no sense because they are home. They may have passed through Germany or Poland, or Russia as my grandparents did, but the Bible reveals that Israel is their home. Of all earth's inhabitants, only the Jews have a deed to a piece of land from God as recorded in the Bible. But then not even most church members even know that, let alone the monsters of the world.

The destiny of the Jew is to be eternally unsafe around the world. The day is coming when friends of Israel will also feel uneasy and unsafe. Right now the "friends of Israel" are primarily evangelical Christians who do not hold to Replacement Theology -- the belief that the church has replaced Israel. Rather, they recognize that the land and people of Israel were chosen by God to be special real estate and a chosen people. In Leviticus 25 God calls Israel "My land." So it belongs to God. He has given it to Israel to manage and make the desert blossom as a rose.

As I researched the Holocaust for the Dittman book, I became aware that for the first time in the history of the human race, a decision was made in a modern nation (Germany,) in the midst of a civilized continent (Europe). That decision paved the way for people to behave in an unthinkable manner. A unique group of innocent people -- the Jews -- were tracked down, registered, marked, dispossessed, humiliated, and transported against their will. They had generously contributed to the culture of the world. Perhaps their biggest problem was that they were different, but in a good way. They dared to be different. But they cannot afford the luxury of historical amnesia. They must be vigilant, conscious, and always prepared for the resurgence of the plague of anti-Semitism.

There is global outrage when Israel tries to defend herself from rockets or "activists" bearing lethal weapons, riding in a flotilla while world powers who arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction receive little chastisement. Terrorists such as Hamas and Fatah actually receive U.S. aid while Israel is scolded, threatened, and humiliated by Washington. Any Israeli act of self-defense becomes a massacre, genocide, or ethnic cleansing.

In recent decades, the anti-Semitism has sprouted new wings and turned into anti-Israel activity and sentiment. It's bad enough that the Jews exist, but to have their own nation is more than most can stomach. Colleges in the Western world are riddled with anti-Israel sentiment. You can find Israel-bashing events, often called Israeli Apartheid Week, on dozens of campuses. And what fuels much of this is the sentiment that Israel is the Goliath beating up on helpless Palestinians. The untold story is that the Palestinians are rendered helpless, not by Israel, but by their own leadership. It would seem that the world -- not just Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- really wants another Holocaust. Yellow stars are even being put on the backs of Jewish Norwegian school children today.

So what is the spiritual connection? The devil is in the details. He knows the Bible better than many Christians. Satan knows that the Jews are the key to the end of the age -- from how it plays out to where it plays out. He knows that if he could exterminate the Jews, perhaps his demise could be thwarted. Helen Thomas doesn't understand that nor do the Islamic empires who want to vaporize the people and nation of Israel.

It is only this ugly age-old anti-Semitic sentiment that calls the terrorist occupants on the Turkish boat Mavi Marmara good, and the nation of Israel, evil (Isaiah 5:20). You can see in this video
that the Israelis, who were armed with paintball guns, are being mercilessly beaten with multiple kinds of objects. But the world doesn't care. They have bought the lie. The lie is that there would be world peace if only Israel and the Jews would disappear. They won't. That's a guarantee. Their greatest hour is yet future.

The enemies of Israel believe now is the time they can destroy her. But the Bible says, Then shall the Lord go out and fight against those nations (Zechariah 14:3). God says, When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you (Deuteronomy 20:1).

Visit the very moving but short video documentary titled I am Israel here.
(note from Cindy: when I clicked on the link so I could post the video in this thread, you won't believe what I saw! I took a screen shot of it and will post it here before the video)



(can you believe this??? Here's the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZprVPKi-W6s
Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell


posted with permission
http://www.olivetreeviews.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Palestine
By Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters


Regnery’s terrific “PiG” book series, dedicated to subjects that get under the skin of liberals (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Hunting, etc.) should include The Politically Incorrect Guide to Palestine. Given the fact that the left keeps referring to a country that doesn’t exist, the book would no doubt be a bestseller.

Just one entry could deal with the Palestinians’ disingenuous international media campaign.

Everyone knows about the “flotilla fiasco” a couple weeks back, when Israeli commandos boarded a “humanitarian” ship bound for Gaza. Nine “activists” were killed after they attacked the soldiers.

The Arab media spin since then reminds me of the classic maneuvers by Uncle Yasser Arafat, who never missed an opportunity to lie so that others might die.

In 2000, when Ariel Sharon simply visited Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Palestinians rioted and people were killed in the riots. There was no reason for them, save Arafat’s desire to use the visit as a pretext for violence.

The same tactic is being used by his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, who works closely with other Arab groups to undermine Israel at every turn.

A recent editorial in The Economist blamed Israel, again. For 20 years, there has been an endless cycle of media blame of Israel, political blame of Israel, and cultural blame of Israel.

Yet the real facts surrounding the flotilla raid reveal that those aboard the ship had planned the deadly clash, in order to gain worldwide sympathy. As it has for 40 years, the tactic worked.

Crew members on the Mavi Marmara began preparing two hours before the confrontation with IDF troops. The Turkish Islamist group IHH, with full backing from the Turkish government, maintained control of the ship and helped arm the crew with weapons, including a section of the ship’s railing that was sawed into clubs.

About 40 members of the IHH controlled the ship’s crew and when Israeli naval commandos boarded, the mood on the ship was “tense.” Shortly, the melee ensued and the IHH had its international story.

It is important to remember that this type of action has far-reaching effects. Not only do international media figures condemn Israel, under the guise of news stories, editorials, and feature articles, such a story inflames Israel’s other enemies, including, for example, American mainline church officials.

In a story from the United Methodist News Service, we read this:

“WASHINGTON (UMNS) — The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has joined other church groups in condemning the May 31 interception of six vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, resulting in nine deaths. Jim Winkler, the board’s chief executive, called the Israeli troops’ boarding of the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ in international waters ‘symptomatic of a broader, hopelessly flawed policy by Israel to subjugate the Palestinian people, allegedly to protect its own security. Defending the action, the Israeli government has said its blockade was necessary to protect Israel against the infiltration into Gaza of weapons and fighters sponsored by Iran.

“The World Council of Churches, U.S. National Council of Churches, Churches for Middle East Peace and leaders of the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) also expressed alarm over Israel’s actions against the flotilla.”

Winkler is a long-time foe of Israel, and from his well-funded perch, routinely condemns Israel — a curious agenda for an American church official facing severe denominational losses and the ever-important apportionments, which help fund such activities as Winkler’s personal grudge against the Jewish state.

One can see that an insidious outcome of the incident aboard the Mavi Marmara is that political and media fallout for Israel is made worse by the effects it has on the church world.

I was speaking this week with a friend who works for a major Bible prophecy ministry. He told me that in a recent conversation with one of his children, he discovered that the two don’t share the same view of the Arab-Israeli conflict, in that the child does not believe that the majority of Palestinians have an inbred hatred of Jews.

This is but one small story that illustrates my contention that support for Israel is eroding, even among American Christians. What will happen when the older generations — staunch friends of Israel — die off?

The truth is, a comprehensive group of international leftists lie constantly about Israel. This drip, drip, drip — extending over decades — has brought Israel to its present moment of peril.

A sign of hope for me these past weeks is that Benjamin Netanyahu did not back down from the global sharks, including the American president, who condemned his nation in the aftermath of the flotilla incident. The Israeli premier sent commandos right back to another attempt by the Arabs to smuggle into Gaza.

Let us hope this is an additional signal that a much higher-stakes decision regarding Iran will be buttressed with similar resolve, and soon.


posted with permission http://www.bible-prophecy-today.com/2010/06/politically-incorrect-guide-to.html#axzz0qwzpfy6s


Drunk with Bias
By Jim Fletcher

A fellow took exception last week to a column I’d written for WorldNetDaily, in which I pointed out the obvious: international media are biased against Israel.

“What have you been drinking?” he spat in an email.

This type of response reminds me that we are living in bizarre times. The level of deception / disinformation / misinformation is breathtaking, as my friend Joe Chambers would say.

Media bias against the Jewish state is clearly a reality, and a menacing one at that. The late, great David Lewis used to refer to this as the “attack of the Media-ites.” David could always turn a phrase, and make a great point doing it. He had observed media bias at least since the days following the Six Day War.

When Menachem Begin became Israeli premier in 1977, sweeping the Likud Party to power, Time magazine ran a profile on him. In order to help readers with the pronunciation of Begin’s name, the writer stated that the Jewish leader’s last name “rhymes with Fagin,” a malevolent reference to the Jewish stereotype immortalized by Charles Dickens.

That happened 33 years ago and I still marvel at the brazenness of that writer, who would have felt at home in 15th century Spain, or 1935 Germany. The reference in Time was outrageous; why didn’t the writer say, “rhymes with Reagan”? Surely the presidential candidate and actor was more well-known than the Oliver Twist character of the 19th century.

Why did the Time writer refer to Begin that way? Because he/she was an anti-Semite, pure and simple.

In this weird age in which we live, Bible believers are confronted with a whole host of challenges, on a daily basis. A relatively new one is defending obvious truths. Next week, I’ll detail my June 19th debate with Gary DeMar, as we discuss the question, “Is modern Israel a fulfillment of Bible prophecy?” There was a time when one might as well have debated, “Is the sky blue?”

Now, when there is overwhelming, crushing evidence that media are biased against Israel, we are confronted with people who say, “No, they aren’t.”

Do you see? This confrontation with truth is insidious, since it causes too many people to become confused with competing views. This is but one front in the war against Israel.

One has only to look at the UN Security Council to know that we live in an upside-down world. On this absurd council, grotesque dictatorships like Syria sit like smiling jackals, gleeful that Israel is barred from the Security Council!

The recent flap over the anti-Jew rant by Helen Goebbels Thomas is the tip of the iceberg. Legions of reporters the world over do not like Jews or the Jewish state; most are too smart to let their hubris show, as the mendacious Thomas did. These media types share their bias with political leaders, entertainment figures, and business icons. In other words, the infamous and false “Jewish conspiracy to control the world” is in fact the exact opposite: there are forces of evil so powerful in our world today, one realizes that without the Lord’s intervention, Israel would be long gone. Thankfully, He has vowed to preserve them for all time.

Then there are the lies of omission, in which the media purposely fails to report rich context in stories such as the flotilla raid. What do you think the odds are that NBC’s Brian Williams, or any NPR reporter would tell you about Melkite Bishop Hilarion Capucci, Not only was the “good” bishop part of the “humanitarian” convoy bound for Gaza, he presented his cockeyed worldview to Reuters:

"Our trip to Gaza was a trip of love and God was with us. Israel by its actions had rightly drawn world outrage over its brutality against unarmed people carrying a message of love to an innocent occupied people under siege," Capucci said.

In case you were wondering, yes, the world is insane.

Further, the “good” bishop Capucci was caught in 1975 helping smuggle arms from Lebanon into Judea and Samaria. He has meddled in plenty of anti-Israel activity ever since.

One of the many lies told about Israel regularly involves accusing the Israelis of denying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. A favorite is an obvious one: medicine doesn’t reach children.

This is a bald-faced lie, as Israel regularly in fact ensures that such shipments arrive. However, one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement, Huwaida Arraf has told the BBC that Israel denied aid to needy Gazans. Read Andrea Levin’s report for the truth (
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_co...x_article=1871).

The BBC routinely airs such “interviews”; the British rarely turn down an opportunity to bash the Jews.

Across the pond, the pattern of anti-Israel bias is just as odious. The seemingly affable Tom Brokaw put this on display during an interview with Barack Obama at the Buchenwald death camp, June 5, 2009. Brokaw asked the following:

“What can the Israelis learn from your visit to Buchenwald and what should they be thinking about their treatment of Palestinians?”

To Obama’s credit, he provided a superb and piercing answer:

“Well, look there’s no equivalency here. The Holocaust is sui generis and I would not presume to ever try to suggest to Jews how to think about the Holocaust.”

(It’s too bad Obama otherwise reveals his dislike of the Jewish state.)

Brokaw’s question was outrageous, deeply revealing, and disturbing.

And if you think erstwhile conservative venues are much better, think again. During a March 26, 2010 appearance on “Fox and Friends,” Geraldo Rivera ranted about Israel’s alleged foot-dragging during the peace process:

“I don't think Bibi Netanyahu has any intention of making a two state solution peace with the Palestinians. I think he has no intention of ever yielding east Jerusalem. I know it's very difficult for my fellow Zionists and lovers of Israel to get our arms around what is a clear cut agenda. I think what has been revealed by this snub of Joe Biden when he went over there is far more profound than people credit. I think that what has been revealed is the policy of the Netanyahu government never to make peace with the Palestinians based on a two-state solution, never to give up Jerusalem, never, ever ever and, you know, for them to go through the machinations or continue to point to the Iranian threat as their priority is just to divert attention from the fact that there will never be under a Netanyahu or a Likud government any kind of a two state...“

This kind of idiocy passes for journalism today.

The thing is, though, these and other facts can be presented to people such as the fellow who emailed me last week…and it won’t matter. The sad truth is, many, many people in our world today do not like Jews.

It’s enough to drive one to drink.


posted with permission http://www.bible-prophecy-today.com/2010/06/drunk-with-bias.html#ixzz0rUvxwmLf


THE ART OF MISLEADING
by Yvette Alt Miller

Common tricks the media uses in obfuscating the truth about the Middle East.

Writers and speakers often employ hidden rhetorical devices when discussing charged political issues — especially when it comes to Israel. The average reader or listener is often unaware. Here's a list of the most common tricks. Practice finding them and chances are you'll never think about political discourse in quite the same way!

Euphemisms

One way of subtly influencing the conversation is to excuse behavior by describing it in softer language than it might otherwise merit.

Example: when is a terrorist a terrorist? Many media organizations have no trouble calling groups like Al Qaeda "terrorists," but balk when describing those who kill innocent civilians in Israel, labeling them "militants" instead.[1]

The opposite of "euphemism" is "dysphemism," calling something by a name that carries a negative connotation.

Example: Those who can't bear to say the name "Israel" use the ominous-sounding "Zionist entity" instead, betraying more about the speaker than about Israel itself.[2]

Israel's capital, Jerusalem, can become "illegally-occupied Arab Jerusalem" for those who are uncomfortable with having Jewish residents there, and Israelis are sometimes called "settlers."

Stereotyping

Stereotyping is another sneaky way to subtly load a conversation. Animal-like words like "overrunning" or "breeding" when referred to people works to downplay their humanity.

Example: British Member of Parliament Martin Linton has recently described[3] pro-Israeli Britons as "the long tentacles of Israel" reaching into Britain.

Pre-Selecting Data

A trend may be downward, overall, but one can mislead by pointing to a brief uptick as evidence that things are, in fact, going up, even when the opposite is true.

Example: In its April 3, 2010 edition, The Economist magazine[4] ran an article about the terrorist organization Hamas, which controls Gaza, positing that "...some economists say the (Gaza) strip is growing faster than the West Bank run by Hamas's rival Palestinian Authority." I'm not in a position to measure this (I'm not sure anybody is, given the lack of transparent economic data in Gaza), but to me this claim cries out as being fragmentary and suspect.

Proof Surrogates

This occurs when writers rely on shadowy or manufactured "experts" to give gravitas to an otherwise wild claim.

Example: look at The Economist quote above: "some economists say..." Who are these economists? And if "some" economists say this, does it mean that many more economists say the opposite? Use of proof surrogates is a clear red flag that a statement might be highly contentious, if not outright misleading.

Assigning Traits

Advertisers have found that when they add the word "fantastic" to packaging, consumers rate products more highly.

One can do something similar in political discourse, assigning either positive or negative traits to political groups or ideas.

Example: in April of 2010, the emeritus Italian Bishop Giacomo Babini[5] asserted that "Zionists" are behind the many reports of abuse by priests bedeviling the Catholic Church, because Jews are "God killers." The remarks are bizarre, but can nonetheless -- especially when they are repeated -- subtly color people's impressions of Jews and Israel.

Caricature

If you can reduce a view or arguments you oppose to a ridiculously simplistic caricature, it becomes easy to dismiss.

Example: in Carol Churchill's infamous (and very critical of Israel's very existence) play Seven Jewish Children, the biggest laugh comes when a Jewish character tries to explain the central, eternal connection of Jews throughout history to the Land of Israel.

In Churchill's hands, all she can do is say that once -- she doesn't know how long ago -- an ancestor lived there. It's a hilarious moment for most audiences, and effectively (but misleadingly) ridicules millenniums of Jewish devotion to the Land of Israel, making it seem silly, but ignoring the fact of continuous Jewish residency in Israel for thousands of years, obscuring the fact that most land in modern Israel was actually purchased by Jewish residents in the years leading up to the founding of the state, and dismisses the political reality of Israel today.[6]

Caricature is the hallmark of someone seeking to mislead, not debate.

Follow the Money

Who is paying for what you're reading and to whom you're listening?

Example: in Israel today, there has been a lot of publicity about the fact that the European Union has been funding some far-left Israeli civil rights groups (which are often extremely critical of Israeli policies). Some Israelis might still agree with this agenda, but they deserve to know who is paying to disseminate these viewpoints.[7]

Another example: a few years ago, participants in a Chicago festival of Arab culture[8] were startled to see extremely anti-Israel and anti-Semitic materials handed out. It turned out the source for these trinkets was not the local community, but a display funded by the Government of Libya.

Rhetorical Analogy

Analogies provide us with mental shorthand. There are some ideas that are so closely associated with evil, like Nazism and Apartheid, that comparing a contemporary political group to them taints them with guilt by association. Unfortunately, these two odious regimes are routinely invoked when discussing Israel today.

Example: recently, thousands of students across the world have participated in annual "Israeli Apartheid Week" activities. These events do not foster inquiry, but obfuscation.

If students were to truly learn, they would find that it is a vibrant, modern democracy that extends full political rights to all its citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity. How many participants in "Israeli Apartheid Week" know that Israel has granted asylum[9] to persecuted Muslims fleeing war in Sudan? The reality of Israel doesn't fit the often rhetorical analogies made about it.

Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa is not only unfair and outrageous, it does a disservice to people who suffered under these truly evil regimes.

Outright Lies and Distortions

Finally, perhaps the most difficult rhetorical device to counter is the bald-faced lie.

Example: in September, 2000, French television broadcast a video of terrified boy being shot by unseen Israeli soldiers. The boy, Mohammed al-Dura, immediately become an icon. There are terrorists (including those who murdered Daniel Pearl) who have specifically cited Mohammed al-Dura as their motivation for murdering Jews.

Yet, it emerged years later that the al-Dura video was a hoax,[10] staged by local activists, and carefully edited by France's Channel-2 television station, which to this day has refused to release the full, un-doctored video, despite a French judge's requests.

In the face of a brazen lie like this, what can we do? Fortunately, a number of resources counter some of the most common slanders of Israel. Organizations such as Honest Reporting and Camera keep us appraised of some of the most vicious lies and innuendoes concerning Israel.

Ultimately, we are responsible to educate ourselves. The more we read about Israel, the more we visit it, the more we speak with knowledgeable people, the more equipped we will be in identifying and resisting the rhetorical devices listed here.

Footnotes

1. See "Terrorist or Militant"
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/ Terrorist_or_Militant$.asp

2. For a lighthearted take on these names, check out "American Friends of the Zionist Entity" on Facbook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8962493143

3. "MP: Israel's tentacles will steal the election"
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/30000/ mp-israels-tentacles-will-steal-election

4. http://www.economist.com/world/middle-east/display story.cfm?story_id=15824034"

5. Bishop 'blames Jews' for criticism of Catholic church record on Abuse.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/ catholic-bishop-blames-jews

6. The text of this play is available at "Seven Jewish Children"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/feb/26/ caryl-churchill-seven-jewish-children-play-gaza

7. See the report "Trojan Horse: the Impact of European Government Funding for Israeli NGOs"
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/trojan_horse_the_ impact_of_european_government_funding_for_israeli_ ngos

8. "Non-Political" Event Has Anti-Israel Crafts, Literature"
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/chicago-jewish-star/ mi_8098/is_20090703/political-event-anti-israel-crafts/ai_n50900549/

9. "Muslims seek a haven in Israel after their exodus from Darfur"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ middle_east/article672059.ece

10. "CAMERA BACKGROUNDER: Mohammed Al Dura. Anatomy of a French Media Scandal"
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_ar...55&x_context=3


Yvette Alt Miller is a mother and an adjunct professor of Political Science living in Chicago. She is the author of a soon-to-be published book about Shabbat.


This article appeared on the Aish HaTorah website

http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/90734974.html

posted with permission
http://www.think-israel.org/miller.mediatricks.html


Dishonest reporting has made truth a casualty of the war, causing grievous damage to both Israel and the integrity of the journalistic profession.
by Israel H. Asper

Throughout my lifetime I have had an unshakeable commitment to two cornerstones of my personal value system: Perhaps three, if you include Canada. My first commitment is to this great nation, Canada. My second is to Israel as a symbol and teacher of excellence for all of humankind, and the media as the most honorable and steadfast advocate, defender and distributor of truth, honesty, fairness, freedom, democracy and human rights.

Tonight, with a combination of sadness, fear and anger, I must tell you that [Israel and the media] are under grievous assault. And, even more painful for me, even though at first glance those two pillars should be separate, I regret to say, they are both threatened by the same cancer and have thus become inextricably linked. This is because dishonest reporting is destroying the trust in and credibility of the media and the journalists, and the same dishonest reporting is biased against Israel, thus destroying the world's favorable disposition toward it.

[Tonight] I make the charge that much of the world media who are covering the Arab-Israeli conflict have abandoned the fundamental precepts of honest reporting. They have been taken captive by their own biases, or victimized by their own ignorance. They have adopted Palestinian propaganda as the context for their stories. Thus dishonest reporting has made truth a casualty of the war, causing grievous damage to both Israel and the integrity of the journalistic profession.

Dishonest reporting occurs in several forms. One is through the selection of terminology which promote a presumed set of facts. [Many] biased media describe the Palestinian perpetrators of clear acts of terror against Israel, merely as "militants," "resistance fighters," "gunmen," "extremists." The terms "cycle of violence," "moderate Arab states," "peace process," "occupied territories," and "illegal settlements" have also become tools and weapons used by the journalistic propagandists. The war proves there is no peace process, there are no moderate Arab states, the term "cycle of violence" is an insult to the truth, and under the Oslo agreements there is no prohibition against Israel establishing new settlements in the territory it captured from Jordan.

Some examples of profound media bias against Israel which result in this dishonest reporting, are found in the world's leading media. Some of the worst in Britain are the London Independent, the Guardian, BBC, Sky News, Reuters, Evening Standard, Britain's television network ITV and the Daily Mirror. In the U.S., the worst offenders are CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the L.A. Times, and Associated Press. In Canada, although not alone, the CBC provides the most slanted and biased information, and routinely practices dishonest reporting.

The first and worst lie is what this war is all about. Dishonest reporting tells you that it's about territory, and Jerusalem, and Palestinian statehood, and alleged refugees. Honest reporting would tell you that it is a war to destroy Israel and kill or expel or subjugate all the Jews. But the media has bought and reported dishonestly and relentlessly the big lie that this war could be ended by Israeli land concessions.

The second fundamental big lie is what gave rise to the current version of the Arab war of extermination of Israel and the Jewish people -- the so-called al-Aqsa uprising or intifada. The truth is that when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could not get the extravagant concessions he demanded from the Clinton's Camp David meetings, he planned the uprising of terrorism as a means of intimidating the U.S. and Israel into giving into his maniacal demands.

But he needed an excuse, an appealing argument in which to clothe his new latest war. And so, in early September 2000, when Parliamentary opposition leader Ariel Sharon told both Israelis and Palestinian officials he intended to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, legally part of Israel which is co-sited with the Muslim al-Aqsa mosque, they agreed and both Palestinian and Israeli security detachments accompanied him on his brief tour. This was the opportunity Arafat sought. He immediately unleashed the rioting, stone-throwing and armed attacks allegedly as a "spontaneous" uprising against Israel allegedly in response to Sharon's provocation! Then most of the world media bought the propaganda that launched the second big lie of the current warfare: "Sharon's visit provokes Palestinian rebellion." They didn't even ask the fundamental question: Is this true?

The third big lie is that the current conflict arises from Palestinian frustration over the slowness of the alleged "peace process." What utter nonsense. The central, and conveniently ignored, fact is that the current warfare is merely the latest chapter in a war against the Jewish people. That war began in earnest 85 years ago, when in 1917, Britain and the League of Nations declared, with world approval, that a Jewish state would be established in Palestine. The region's Arabs have engaged in terrorist slaughter, riots and multi-Muslim states' military invasion against the Jewish nation ever since. The only periodic lulls in this savage and often barbaric assault, specializing in seeking women, children and elderly victims, has occurred when the Arabs have been resoundingly defeated. Then, they sue for peace, issue poor-me hand-wringing pleas for international help, and use the lull in the battle to regroup, re-arm and plot their next assault.

Any reportage or commentary that is not clothed in this context is, at best, misleading, or ignorant and plain dishonest at worst. I offer a handful of examples extracted from the hundreds available:

Recently a nationally syndicated American columnist, Georgie Ann Geyer, wrote a column laced with pure fabrications, such as "Prime Minister Sharon told his cabinet recently 'don't worry about American objections to our actions, I control America.'" When challenged, she admitted that the statement originated from an October 3, 2001 press release from the pro-Hamas American group, Islamic Association for Palestine. They claimed that it had originated with an official Israeli government radio broadcast. On checking, it turned out that no such broadcast had ever occurred.

When confronted with this information, Geyer cowered ignobly behind the standard liar's shield: her sources, she whined, "were two anonymous Israeli individuals." Naturally, she refused to identify them.

As we all know, pictures can tell a story much better than words. So when 100,000 supporters of Israel marched down Manhattan's 5th Avenue to celebrate Israel's 54th birthday this May, the New York Times photograph was of a placard "end Israeli occupation." The same bias was repeated in the coverage of the huge Toronto rally in support of Israel where thousands of pro-Israel supporters marched. A few hundred anti-Israel protestors dogged the parade. But they got more media attention. The separate fact was that an innocent bystander, a Toronto Jewish doctor, was standing on the street watching the parade and called out his support for Israel, Palestinian supporter thugs beat him, and broke his shoulder. This was not reported.

A great deal of the dishonesty arises from the failure to report and the failure to opine on many factors which must be considered in judging the Middle East war. Such as: Failure to report on the depths of Arafat's corruption.


more
http://www.aish.com/jw/mo/48932327.html


The Rise of the Suicide Protests
By Caroline Glick

David Be'eri is either much admired or much hated, depending on how you feel about Israel and Jewish heritage. Be'eri is the founder and head of the Ir David Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to excavating, preserving and developing biblical Jerusalem, the City of David.

When Be'eri began his project in 1986, the City of David, located just opposite the Old City, was in shambles. Former excavations were hidden beneath heaps of garbage and debris.

Owing to his efforts, today the City of David is one of Israel's most beloved tourist attractions. Some 500,000 tourists visit the site each year. Seventeen archaeological excavations have been undertaken there or are currently ongoing. Annual archaeological conferences at the site attract leading scholars from all over the world.

One of the keys to Be'eri's success has been the close relations he has cultivated with the local Arabs. Hundreds of local Arabs have worked in the City of David on the various excavations.

But in the past few months, beginning around the time the Obama administration began pressuring Israel to curb its sovereignty in Jerusalem, things have begun to change. Leftist groups including Peace Now, Ir Amim, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Emek Shaveh have begun organizing frequent protests.

According to Udi Ragones, the spokesman for Ir David, the various leftist groups collaborate openly with two Arab groups that have been formed over the past year: Silwannet and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center. Peace Now's Hagit Ofran is often seen working with Jawad Sayam from the information center. One of the information center's employees also works for Emek Shaveh, an organization of anti-Zionist archaeologists.

Over the past month, what began as non-violent protests against Ir David turned violent. A month ago, anti-Israel activists set several cars ablaze. Local Arabs who work with the Ir David Foundation began receiving threats. The car of one such Arab was set on fire.

Two weeks ago, the demonstrations morphed into suicide protests as activists set up a roadblock in the middle of the street, ambushed an Ir David security guard and began violently attacking him. In order to fend off his attackers, the guard shot his pistol and killed one of them.

Using faux footage, the protesters accused the guard of murder in cold blood. The police rejected the accusation. Channel 2 initially backed up the protesters' claim, but later its reporter recognized he had been used.

Last Friday, the violence was ratcheted up several notches when Be'eri was personally targeted by an ambush. As he drove to his home in Ir David with his 13-year-old son, the car in front of him suddenly hit the breaks. Be'eri drove around the car and was greeted by an ambush of demonstrators who attacked him with stones.

Blocked from backing away by the car that had suddenly stopped, Be'eri had to decide between opening fire and driving through the protest. He drove through, hitting two of his attackers. Both were minors. Neither sustained serious injuries and were out and about within hours of the event.

The stone throwers were not the only people who participated in the ambush. Six or seven photographers and at least one employee of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center were also on the scene. The photographers hailed from the far Left Hebrew-language Walla web portal and from several European media outlets. They filmed Be'eri running over his attackers from multiple angles. They then quickly sold the story to the world as a tale of a vicious "settler" who ran over two innocent children on their way home from the mosque, just because he is an evil settler.

But as Ragones notes, "We were actually lucky that the media were there. The photos that were supposed to frame Be'eri showed clearly that the whole thing was a setup."

Not only does the footage show that Be'eri was ambushed. It shows that the photographers were integral members of the ambush team. The children's role was to provoke Be'eri into killing or injuring them by attacking him with rocks. The photographers' role was to photograph the children getting killed or hurt.


The Ir David Foundation accuses the Wadi Hilweh Information Center of organizing the incident. The presence of the center's employees on the scene in the footage lends credence to the allegation. Ir David also argues that the entire episode was the product of close coordination between the information center and the leftist groups that work with it to demonize, discredit and otherwise harm Ir David specifically and Israeli control over unified Jerusalem generally.

What is new about Friday's incident is not its nature, but its location. As Marc Prowissor, the director of security projects for the One Israel Fund, a non-profit that supports stressed Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, the Galilee and the Negev notes, these sorts of suicide protests have been going on for at least a decade.

Early incidents that had strategic impact on Israel's international standing were the Muhammad al-Dura affair in October 2000 and the Rachel Corrie incident in 2003. In the former, Palestinian security forces worked with a Palestinian cameraman and France 2 to cook up the libel accusing IDF forces of killing the Palestinian boy Muhammad al-Dura. A French court ruled last year that the footage, which shows al Dura moving after he allegedly died, was falsified.

In the second incident, Corrie was brought to Gaza by the non-Israeli, jihad supporting International Solidarity Movement and deployed to block IDF forces from carrying out counterterror operations. Corrie became the poster girl for suicide protesters when an IDF bulldozer operator, who could not see her, ran Corrie over as she sought to block his operations.

Since 2000, there has been escalating cooperation between Israeli leftist organizations with foreign pro-jihad groups like ISM and Palestinian terror and political warfare outfits. This new cooperation first gained prominence as the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall began participating in the weekly Palestinian/ISM riots against IDF units at Bi'ilin and Na'alin in 2003.

Prowissor notes that throughout Judea and Samaria, especially around olive harvest season, Rabbis for Human Rights and likeminded radical groups bus Arab protesters into areas where they do not live to stir up and participate in protests.

"Their modus operandi is always the same," Prowissor explains. "They stage violent attacks in front of their own cameras with the aim of provoking local Israelis to defend themselves. For instance, they stone Jewish cars and if a Jewish driver gets out and tries to fend off his attackers, they film him and accuse him of attacking them for no reason."

The weekly protests at Bi'ilin and Na'alin involve Palestinian, Western and Israeli rioters attacking IDF forces and Border Police units with stones and Molotov cocktails. Five months ago, the protesters began using the same tactics against Israeli civilians at Neveh Tzuf in the Binyamin region. A few weeks ago they added the Carmei Tzur community in Gush Etzion to their list of targets.

As for Jerusalem, the riots in Sheikh Jarrah every Friday have been going on for several months. They spread to Ir David on Friday.

The reason suicide protests are spreading is clear enough. Suicide protests are an effective means of harming Israel. Just look at the Turkish terror ship Mavi Marmara. The nine suicide protesters onboard who were killed while attacking IDF naval commandos with knives, guns and bats are a bonanza for Israel's enemies. They are being used to drag Israel before the international hanging jury at the UN, the Hague, in US university campuses and throughout Europe.


more plus photos http://www.bible-prophecy-today.com/2010/10/rise-of-suicide-protests.html


Truth Be Told
Gaza Strip Weekly Crossing Report for October 17th-23rd, 25 Oct 2010

The Israeli Government, together with the IDF, coordinates the delivery of a variety of humanitarian aid and development assistance to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. The following report details cross-border activities for the third week of October 2010.

During this period, a total of 1,083 truckloads crossed from Israel, carrying 23,036 tons of goods, humanitarian aid and development assistance for Gaza’s civilian population.

In addition, 1,876,878 liters of Heavy-Duty Diesel fuel were transferred to the Gaza Power Plant and UNRWA, 825 tons of cooking gas, and 6 truckloads of iron and cement were transferred into the Strip.


posted with permission http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/israel/truth-be-told


Armchair barbarism
By Melanie Phillips

Today the massacred Fogel family was buried in Jerusalem. And as anticipated, the moral depravity of the Arabs is finding a grotesque echo in the moral bankruptcy and worse of the British and American ‘liberal’ media – a sickening form of armchair barbarism which is also in evidence, it has to be said, on the comment thread beneath my post below.

Overwhelmingly, the media have either ignored or downplayed the atrocity – or worse, effectively blamed the victims for bringing it on themselves, describing them as ‘hard-line settlers’ or extremists. Given that three of the victims were children, one a baby of three months whose throat was cut, such a response is utterly degraded.

The New York Times
blamed Israeli ‘defiance’ over renewed ‘settlement’ building in the wake of the massacre for throwing
already shaky peace efforts into a new tailspin.

So to the New York Times, it’s not the Arab massacre of a Jewish family which has jeopardised ‘peace prospects’ -- because the Israelis will quite rightly never trust any agreement with such savages -- but instead Israeli policy on building more homes, on land to which it is legally and morally entitled, which is responsible instead for making peace elusive. Twisted, and sick.

Both CNN and the BBC,
meanwhile, along with Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian, gave the impression that this was not a terrorist attack but the actions of an ‘intruder’ -- for all the world as if this was a burglary that got out of hand. ....

Honest Reporting
finds the BBC treatment of this massacre, all but burying the details of the attack on the Fogel family beneath a story about those wicked settlements, the most shocking and callous of all this dreadful coverage.

For those who don’t appreciate the role played by the ‘moderate’ PA in glorifying terrorism and inciting the mass murder of Israelis, Palestinian Media Watch has assembled some recent examples here
– including the award by Abbas of $2000 to the family of a terrorist who attacked and tried to kill Israeli soldiers two months ago.......

.....What is being deliberately ignored through this travesty of reporting is not just the human tragedy of this terrible massacre. It is the politically crucial fact that it was apparently carried out not by Hamas but by the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the terrorist wing of Fatah. Fatah is the party of Mahmoud Abbas, the Holocaust denier who is the allegedly ‘moderate’ Chairman of the PA – and who not surprisingly couldn’t even bring himself to express unequivocal horror at the atrocity.

This diabolical deed therefore gives the lie to all those who have been supporting, promoting and funding the PA as ‘moderates’ who deserve a state of their own. .....


more: http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6779100/armchair-barbarism.thtml


Red Cross: No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
By Ryan Jones

he International Red Cross on Wednesday acknowledged what anyone not taken in by anti-Israel propaganda has known for some time: that there is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with the Israeli army spokesman, Mathilde Redmatn, deputy director of the Red Cross in Gaza, clearly declared for all those willing to listen that there "is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

"If you go to the supermarket, there are products. There are restaurants and a nice beach," noted Redmatn.

But Redmatn did go on to criticize Israel for maintaining a partial embargo on certain goods, such as cement, which can and has been used by terrorist forces to build bunkers.

"Israel has the legitimate right to protect the civilian population, [but] this right should be balanced with the right of 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip," said Redmatn. "...difficulties in importing building materials [has] hampered sustainable economic recovery and dashed any hope of leading a normal and dignified life."

Israelis would argue that a territory that elects terrorists as its leaders and then facilitates the launching of thousands of missiles at a neighboring territory has forfeited the right to a "normal and dignified life."

Redmatn also slammed Hamas and its terrorist allies for continuing to fire missiles and mortar shells at Israeli civilians in southern Israel.

But, despite the reality, painting Gaza as a squalor-filled prison is just too good a propaganda tool for most to give up.

A few brave journalists over the past few years have bucked the media trend of portraying Gaza as the most destitute place on earth, and have provided written and photographic evidence that Gaza is not nearly as bad off as most reports make it out to be.

Last year, National Post reporter Tom Gross lambasted his colleagues in the international media for focusing solely on those parts of Gaza that are impoverished in a deliberate attempt to suggest that the entire region lives that way, because of Israeli security measures.

"We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles, too," Gross wrote at the time.

Even Hamas has admitted that there is no Israeli-created starvation in Gaza.

"There is no starvation in Gaza. No one has died of hunger," Khalil Hamada, a senior official at Gaza's Ministry of Justice, told London's Daily Telegraph last year.

The claim, reiterated by Redmatn, that Israel is not allowing enough building materials into Gaza is also dubious.

In November, Gaza Housing Minister Yousef Alamanti confirmed to United Press International that construction had been started on a massive high-rise apartment project. The project includes three apartment buildings with a total of 25,000 apartments, a mosque, playground, shopping center and schools.

It is difficult to understand how such an expansive project could be built if Israel is not letting Gazans get their hands on even basic building materials.

The truth revealed by all of these acknowledgements and reports is that Gaza is not under siege. Yes, Israel is closely monitoring and restricting the entry of certain goods in order to limit the terrorists' capabilities. But the influx of goods into a territory that is actively engaged in terrorist warfare against the civilians of its neighboring territory is unprecedented in Gaza.


posted with permission http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2011/04/red-cross-no-humanitarian-crisis-in.html


Faked Photo? What Faked Photo?

The Independent has removed the faked photo that we exposed in our video. We would guess that the move was sparked by all the angry letters they received from HonestReporting members.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9iTvYfnNyg
While that’s good news, it’s not good enough. That’s because the Independent has actually used this staged photo of Palestinian children pretending to be in an Israeli prison on more than one occasion. The right thing would be for them to publish an explanation of why they used an obviously staged photo.

more plus photos (must see!) http://honestreporting.com/faked-photo-what-faked-photo/

I could honestly post 5 to 10 articles every single week that show how the media lies about Israel. For those who are actually interested in the truth, there is one news outlet who have devoted themselves to showing how the media lies about Israel and telling the truth about what's really going on there. It's called, "Honest Reporting - Defending Israel from Media Bias". Here's a link to their site:

http://honestreporting.com/

To give you a look at their reporting, here's one from today:

BBC Bias Alert:
BBC Terminology: Mitigating Terror

by Simon Plosker

This morning, an Israeli was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist at the Tapuah junction in the West Bank. As reported by The Times of Israel:The attacker stabbed the Israeli, grabbed his weapon, and according to some accounts shot him at close range. He then fired at nearby border police, who returned fire and succeeded in subduing him. The victim, who was said to be about 30 years old, was declared dead at the scene after MDA paramedics’ resuscitation efforts failed. The attacker was evacuated to Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva in moderate condition.

Now look at how the BBC reports on the attack:

Israeli Settler Killed in West Bank

The opening paragraph:
An Israeli settler has been killed by a Palestinian at a bus stop in the northern West Bank, police say.
Notice how the Israeli victim is described as a “settler” in both the headline and the article. If the BBC is prepared to use politicized terminology to describe an Israeli civilian then presumably, shouldn’t it also describe the Palestinian in similar terms for consistency?


While the BBC should refer to the Palestinian as a terrorist, it is noteworthy that the attacker is not even referred to as a “militant” or “activist.” He is simply a Palestinian. Yet, by referring to the Israeli as a “settler,” the BBC is already acknowledging that the Palestinian must have been motivated to carry out the attack for nationalist rather than criminal reasons.

Evidently, murdering someone for nationalistic reasons is not an act of terrorism, extremism or militancy.

The BBC’s indifference to Israeli victims of terror who happen to live in the West Bank reached its nadir in March 2011 when a mother, father and three of their children, including a three-month old baby were stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank settlement of Itamar.

Looks like nothing has changed at the BBC then.

WHERE’S THE CONSISTENCY?
Contrast the above with another piece of breaking news covered by the BBC at exactly the same time:
More:

http://honestreporting.com/bbc-termi...gating-terror/


Full Disclosure: What the Media Isn't Telling You About War in Syria
Published on Jun 27, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTkMYg4zbI

Hamas Lies
And the media believed it.


It’s the Mideast equivalent of "Dog bites man," but it took the media nearly a month to recognize its sheer obviousness: Hamas lies.

Hamas lies systematically, instructing civilians to misinform the foreign press. It lies habitually, with a formidable record of mendacity from previous conflicts. And it lies guiltlessly, convinced that the objectives of ‘resistance’ supersede quaint notions of truth-telling.

Nonetheless, since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge over a month ago, Western media have relied on Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry – as here, here and here – for casualty tallies. As one reporter told the Washington Post, when it comes to body counts, the Hamas Health Minister Ashraf Al-Qidra is "the only game in town."

For his part, Qidra has acknowledged that he considers any fatality who has not been claimed by an armed group as a civilian. And for its part, the Hamas leadership almost never admits its operatives have been killed – and instructs Gazans to do the same. Consequently, Qidra’s running total labels three-quarters of Gaza deaths as civilians.

The result has been thundering condemnation of Israel for “indiscriminate” bombing (according to the United Nations Human Rights Council), and even targeting civilians deliberately (as per The Guardian). “The world stands disgraced,” bellowed the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency on July 30, in words run by The Guardian in a banner front-page headline the next day. Human Rights Watch charged Israel with "collective punishment," and even the United States – the Jewish state’s closest friend – lamented, "Israel has to do a better job to avoid civilian loss of life."

After nearly a month, however, the media has belatedly cottoned to the Hamas game. Over the last week The New York Times, Al Jazeera and the BBC – none of them traditional redoubts of Zionist fervor – have begun casting doubt on their own previously reported statistics.

In a front-page story on Wednesday, the Times compared and analysed data provided by both Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations. That analysis determined that the population most over-represented in the death toll – men ages 20 to 29 – were also those most likely to be militants: Though they make up just 9 percent of Gaza’s overwhelmingly young population, they account for more than a third of its fatalities. By contrast, women and children under 15 – the least likely to be combatants – account for 71 percent of the population, but one-third of its deaths.

The following day Al Jazeera published the names – provided by the Hamas Health Ministry – of all of 1,507 known fatalities. Al Jazeera is owned by Qatar, one of Hamas’s chief benefactors and diplomatic champions, and yet a breakdown of the names’ age and sex reveals the same pattern: Men of combat age are disproportionately represented.

On Friday, the BBC’s head of statistics released his own breakdown, based on data provided by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He concluded: "If the Israeli attacks have been ‘indiscriminate’, as the U.N. Human Rights Council says, it is hard to work out why they have killed so many more civilian men than women." The U.N.’s figures, in other words, effectively disprove its own damning allegations of indiscriminate force.


more
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articl...edia-bought-it


Artillery data reveals Hamas lies and media cover-up about Israel

As a former Artillery officer, the one thing I loved about artillery is that the data never lies. What I mean is that with our ability to use physics and math, you can always ascertain the truth about the point of origin and point of impact of a mortar, artillery shell, rocket, or missile. And with today’s counter artillery/rocket/missile radar systems, it’s almost child’s play.

So when Hamas claims (and the media parrots) that Israel is shooting rockets at neighborhoods and hospitals, you just need to review the data. And what it reveals is lies and a media cover-up.

Over at Legal Insurrection, I found some interesting information about the recent “rocket” attack into a Gaza neighborhood and hospital. The report says, “one of the stories thrust into the mainstream media was nearly simultaneous explosions in a Palestinian neighborhood and at al-Shifa hospital. The media immediately took the Hamas line that it was Israeli missiles. Later, the IDF stated that it had not fired on those locations, and that the explosions were misfired Hamas or Islamic Jihad missiles.”

The screen shot below — which obviously came from IDF radar — clearly shows a point of origin and flight trajectory of rockets emanating from within Gaza — and it seems that the result was a misfire or short round from Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Folks, take my word, radars don’t lie, and for the sake of the people of Israel, they must not.


more
http://allenbwest.com/2014/07/artill...-cover-israel/


No holds barred: Israel is being crucified by unchallenged lies

Israel made the same mistake of believing, for decades, that all the lies told about them would not be believed.

I recently received an email from a reporter asking me to comment on questions of the “when did you stop beating your wife” variety. I receive these near daily from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic publications who accuse me of everything from supporting genocide against Palestinians, to lending my name to African regimes that slaughter their people (they’re referring to my friend President Paul Kagame, who actually stopped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994), to abandoning Michael Jackson. But this one came from a Jewish publication and included these gems: Do I disappear for days, sometimes weeks, into a room where I cry on the floor and then work for 23 hours a day? Did I turn my Chabad house in Oxford into a vehicle for self-promotion and self-advancement and basically become an impresario by using the prestige of Oxford to attract celebrity speakers? Is my new book Kosher Lust not a violation of Jewish teachings of modesty, and doesn’t its emphasis on lust over love denigrate women by making them objects of male desire?

It did not surprise me that the questions came from a reporter who was raised Orthodox, abandoned it, and has family members who are vehement public critics of Jewish practice. Those who leave Jewish observance often spend a great deal of their lives having to justify their rejection of a religion which, they claim, is too insular, narrow and backward to allow adherents to live a fully modern life. As someone who lives a public life as an Orthodox Jew in the secular world, I am a favorite target of those who need to prove that it’s impossible. My very existence irks them. I have no right to be a representative of Judaism in the media given that my yarmulke and beard capture the primitive, antiquated side of Judaism from which they, with all their sophistication, have “graduated.”

But the point I want to make is not just the well-known one that Jews are their own worst enemies, but this: When articles like these are written, my friends say to me, no-one will believe this garbage. Don’t respond. Everyone will see it as a twisted, sociopathic character assault motivated by a reporter’s deeply personal and psychological issues with their Jewishness and upbringing.

They’re wrong.

As I write these words, Israel is engaged in a ground assault in Gaza against Hamas in which too many of its righteous soldiers have already fallen. Rather than the world showing sympathy for a tiny democracy that invaded the giant terrorist cell that is Gaza to stop rockets being fired at schools, world media is largely portraying Israel as the aggressor who is cavalier and callous about Palestinian lives.

I’ll tell you why. Because Israel made the same mistake of believing, for decades, that all the lies told about them would not be believed. The Jewish state treated as beneath contempt the falsehoods that Israel poisons the water of Palestinian children (an accusation made by Suha Arafat in the presence of Hillary Clinton), introduces AIDS to kill off Palestinians, bombs Arab children indiscriminately, steals Palestinian land without compensation, has no historical claim to ancient Israel, humiliates Palestinians at military checkpoints for merely racist reasons, and built a wall that has made the West Bank into the Warsaw Ghetto. Israel never felt the need to respond to any of this drivel because it thought the truth of its righteousness and respect for human rights was self-evident.


more
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columni...ed-lies-368390


Secret Back-Channel Tightens Israel-PA Cooperation
Did Iran Assassinate Its Own Nuclear Scientist and Blame Israel?

British Intelligence in Secret Contact With Assad?

Palestinians Gauging UN Support for Statehood

Amira Hass Tossed Out of Palestinian Conference for Being 'Jewish Israeli'
Video: Free Speech or Anti Israel Hate

Video: What Really Happened At Wafa Hospital in Gaza

Video: Shocking Claim by BBC Journalist

Slideshow: Top Five Media Fails, Gaza Conflict Edition

The Demonization of Israel

Photo Bias in the Media

Activist Admits BDS Effect Largely Psychological

http://honestreporting.com/


Encyclopedia of Famous Palestinian Lies
The Palestinian use of lies and disinformation has been well known for many years but, in recent days it has reached new heights, the likes of which we have not seen before.
The false reports published in the Palestinian media, or by their spokespeople in the international media, have a double purpose: on the one hand, to delegitimize Israel and, on the other hand, to distract world attention from the Palestinian Authority's deep involvement in terrorism.

The Palestinian collection of lies is particularly disturbing in light of the well-known phenomenon that when a lie is repeated often enough it becomes the truth, even if it has no basis.
Even more disturbing is the willingness of the international media to serve as the instrument for publicizing the Palestinian claims, without checking their veracity and knowing that in many cases they are without foundation. The denials, if they are published later, receive much less publicity; by then, the damage has been done.

Below are a few examples of fabrications disseminated by the Palestinians:

"The Arafat is in danger" lie
One of the most popular themes, arising from the restrictions placed on Arafat, is the fear for the life of the president. On March 31, Yasser Abed Rabo said, in an interview to the Al Jazeera television station, that a warning was received that the IDF would enter the compound in Ramallah, and that this step was planned by Sharon with the intent to kill Yasser Arafat. The same day, Hassan Asfor said to BBC radio that the IDF had broken into Arafat's offices and that the situation was dangerous, "on the brink of disaster". Also on the same day, Saeb Erekat said on Egyptian television that he was unable to make contact with Arafat and that he feared for his life. Erekat repeated this in an interview he gave to CNN on April 6.

These fears were all proven to be unfounded.

Denying Jewish connection to the Land of Israel
According to a statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Information, December 10, 1997: 'There is no tangible evidence of any Jewish traces/remains in the old city of Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity' ().

'The Al-Buraq Wall [Western Wall] and its plaza are a Muslim religious property ? [It is] part if the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Jews have no relation to it' (Arafat-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Al Ayyam [PA newspaper], November 22, 1997).

'The Al-Buraq wall is Muslim property and it is part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque' (Arafat's Minister of Religious Affairs, Hassan Tahboob, Interview with Israeli Jews Agency IMRA, November 22, 1997)

'That is not the Western Wall at all, but a Moslem shrine' (Arafat,
Ma'ariv, Oct. 11, 1996).

'All the events surrounding Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occured in Yeman, and no Hebrew remnants were found in Israel, for a very simple reason -because they were never there' (Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa, on PLO education program, June 1997 (quoted in Ha'aretz, July 6, 1997).

'Jerusalem is not a Jewish city, despite the Biblical myth implanted in some minds ? There is no tangible evidence of Jewish existence from the so-called 'Temple Mount Era' ? The location of the Temple Mount is in question ? it might be in Jericho or somewhere else' (Walid Awad, Director of Foreign Publications for the PLO's Ministry of Information, interviewed by the IMRA news agency, Dec. 25, 1996).

'Abraham was neither Jewish nor a Hebrew, but was simply an Iraqi. The Jews have no right to claim part of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Abraham's resting place, as a synagogue. Rather, the whole building should be a mosque' (Arafat, quoted in the Jerusalem Report, Dec. 26, 1996).

Denial of the Holocaust
'The persecution of the Jews is a deceitful myth which the Jews have labeled the Holocaust and have exploited to get sympathy' (PA newspaper Al-Hayat AL-Jadeeda, July 2, 1998).

'The Nazis probably killed less than one million Jews and the Zionist movement was a partner in the slaughter' (Quote from a book written by Abu Mazen, Arafat's number 2 man and senior Oslo negotiator).

'[The Holocaust] is a forged claim by the Zionists regarding the alleged acts of slaughter perpetrated against the Jews' (PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, Sept. 3, 1997).

'It is a well-known fact that every year the Jews exaggerate what the Nazis did to them. They claim there were 6 million killed, but precise scientific research demonstrates that there were no more than 400,000' (PA Television, Aug. 25, 1997).

The "massacre" lie
Almost every battle wherein terrorists are killed, is called a "massacre".
Jibril Rajoub (March 30, on MAHAD TV, a local television station in Ramallah) accused Israel of carrying out a "massacre," executing 30 Palestinians in Ramallah. The announcement was also broadcast on Al Jazeera and other stations.

The reality, of course, is different: in battles which took place on that day in Ramallah, 9 Palestinians were killed - all of them armed.

The "several priests were killed" lie
Palestinian television reported on April 2, on the basis of an official announcement by the Palestinian leadership, that a priest named Jacques Amathis had been killed and dozens of monks wounded in an IDF action in Bethlehem. The announcement was published prominently in the Italian and French media and prompted a storm of protest.

The following day the 'late" priest was interviewed by the MINSA agency and confirmed that he and the monks in the monastery were safe and well.

The "attack on holy places" lie

Arafat, in an interview to Al Jazeera television on April 3, claimed that Israel had "burned the mosque" opposite Santa Maria Church in Bethlehem and "destroyed many churches and mosques." He called upon the Christian and Muslim world to take action. MAHAD TV reported that a fire had broken out in the Omar el-Hatib Mosque in Bethlehem and that the IDF was preventing the fire brigade from reaching the site to extinguish the flames.

None of these charges has any factual basis.

The WAFA (Palestinian News Agency) Internet site reported on April 2 that the IDF had shelled the new mosque in Tulkarm after the muezzin called people to noon prayers. In fact, no such incident took place.

The "wanted terrorists are innocent civilians" lie
Jibril Rajoub claimed, in an interview with Syrian television network ANN on March 30, that the only people in the compound of the Preventive Security Services in Betouniya were people working for the service, women and civilians, and that there were no wanted terrorists there.

The truth, of course, is somewhat different. On April 2, a number of wanted terrorists were captured in the building, including senior members of Hamas involved in many terrorist activities.


MUCH more
http://www.takeapen.org/Takeapen/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=84&FID=628


Discerning Truth--and Lies--About Media Coverage of Israel

... To know the truth about a given situation, we must usually be equipped with the facts. Concerning Israel, however, this can prove a daunting task. Every form of media imaginable communicates something, every day, about the Jewish state and its contention with Islamism, Arabs and Palestinians.

Often the narratives conflict and complexities are confusing. Many find it difficult to discern how reliable the seemingly boundless barrage of data can be. As a result, they may be misguided—or flatly manipulated—by raw emotion having little to do with facts or truth. They may believe whatever narrative of the conflict stirs the most sympathy—even if it happens to be fake. Allow me to share from personal experience.

World Pattern: The Media

My first visit to a Palestinian refugee camp was in 1982, but remains relevant today. From all the dreadful news reports even back then, I braced myself for the worst: row upon row of flimsily strung tents surrounded by piles of filth, men and women clothed in rags and crying children with runny noses and distended bellies. But that was not what I saw.

The camps I visited were neighborhoods quite decently built by Middle East standards of the day. The streets were calm. Women strolled casually about, groceries and other goods balanced on top of their heads. Men sat and sipped coffee together in the doorways of their shops. Palestinian children were off the streets and in school. Young Israeli soldiers leaned lazily at their posts, puffing cigarettes. Now and then a dog barked or a goat bleated.

I was more than a bit befuddled. The scene, while far from idyllic, hardly reflected the abject squalor and oppression widely reported by the media. Admittedly, I viewed only two camps, and neither would qualify for anyone's list of residential best picks. Nevertheless, the refugees' condition looked nothing like the deplorable imprisonment I had been led to expect. Later, I learned that Palestinians had experienced rapid and broad-based improvements in their standard of living shortly after the Israelis began "oppressively occupying" them.

Media distortions about the Arab/Palestinian–Israeli conflict have exponentially worsened since that visit decades ago. My last trip to the Palestinian West Bank left me dazzled and practically stunned. In 2012 I saw palatial homes, one after another, several times larger than my own.

Businesses were thriving. Large-scale ministry organizations operated in beautifully designed buildings, equipped with sleek appliances and updated technology. Certainly I do not deny that poverty exists among Palestinians. I do, however, suggest there is another side to the West Bank story—and that it is rarely told.

Inventing and Reinventing News

A sad reality is that in reporting on the Arab/Palestinian–Israeli conflict, facts and events may be egregiously misrepresented and truth disregarded altogether. Investigations reveal that some reporters and photographers regularly stage "news" events to shoot. Scripted scenes are acted out, depicting fictitious Israeli oppression, then released internationally as formal or informal reporting of facts. These highly distorted images, beamed electronically worldwide, aim to plant one picture in the global conscience: a viciously oppressive, Goliath-like Israeli pitted against brave, little Palestinian David. If, as the adage goes, one picture is worth a thousand words, it can also spread a thousand lies.


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http://www.charismamag.com/blogs/standing-with-israel/20505-discerning-the-truth-about-israel

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