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How Our Core Beliefs Can Help Bring Peace to Israel/Palestine

MSNBC: Disappointing Shill Reporting

Duplicity on the airwaves

Published: Tuesday, June 8, 2010 10:45 AM CDT
On June 2, Chris Mathews interviewed Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank on MSNBC about the recent Israeli-Gaza-flotilla incident. Both men gave unbalanced, cleverly skewed and dishonest assessments of the occurrence including calling peace activists terrorists, changing the subject to North Korea, bringing Iran into a conflict which involved Turkey and misrepresenting Israel’s wrongdoing in militarily attacking an unarmed civilian ship in international waters.

The duplicity of this kind of press commentary is evident because it was based entirely on Israel’s press statements and public relations spin. Getting the other side of the story would have taken a lot of work because as soon as the incident happened, Israel imposed a blackout on any reporting about it except their own.

What do Americans who have not studied the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict think when they turn on mainstream media and get a blather of public relations spin instead of balanced news? Frank and Mathews are no more than shills for the Israeli government, a government which appears to have taken over our own.

Frank does not sit on the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee and is a self-admitted staunch friend of Israel. Yet, MSNBC chose him to be the primary commentator about the Israeli diplomatic blunder on the high seas. Mathews owes his job to a pro-Zionist television network that, in the past, has been silent about Israel’s misdeeds. Silence influences American thought through omission that belies the importance of information we need to know.

How difficult would it have been for MSNBC to interview a less biased member, say, from the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee. So much for balance in reporting. So much for MSNBC, liberal in all ways but one. People, check the Internet to get the real story.

Elizabeth S Mayfield
Ames

Why Do Churches Refuse to Question Israel's Actions?

What Ever Happened to Never Again?

Published: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 11:38 AM CDT
What happened to ‘never again’? by Elizabeth S Mayfield
Ames Tribune, Ames, Iowa

Recently, I sent out an e-mail to a small group of like-minded people and, to everyone’s surprise, our exchange about the honorable Ms. Kagan for the Supreme Court was usurped by a local Zionist gang of four and turned into a debate about Israel’s rights.

Most amazing was the claim that Israel uses codicils from Ottoman Law to manage its occupation and apartheid. Since most of us, here in America, know nothing about Ottoman law, means that we should all shut up and let poor Israel be. I thought the Ottomans were soundly defeated because we Westerners didn’t like their oppressive acts of double-standard non-justice doled out to colonized subjects?w

In the course of this “debate,” the author of “Is Israel an Apartheid State?” available at the link for Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, USA, sent out an interesting list of selected examples of the 2,500 military orders that govern Palestinians today in Israel’s apartheid state.

These include Order No. 818 which “establishes how Palestinians can plant decorative flowers,” No. 811 and No. 847 which “allow Jews to purchase land from unwilling Palestinian sellers by using a ‘power of attorney,’ No. 58, Article 5, which makes any land transaction un-voidable even if it is proved that the transaction was invalid, No. 363 which “requires Palestinian mechanics to report to the Israeli military the particulars of any and all cars they repair,” and, two more I can’t resist reporting: No. 1147, a requirement that Palestinians get permission from the Israeli military to grow onions” and No. 1229 which “authorizes Israel to hold Palestinians in administrative detention for up to six months without charge or trial. Six-month detentions can be renewed indefinitely.”

I wonder: two states or one? Will it matter if military orders like these remain, made credible by resurrection of an Ottoman Empire legal system. Oh, dear, what ever happened to “never again?”