Brooke Goldstein interview with Philippe Karsenty*

Editors’ preface:

Philippe Karsenty is the founder and president of Media-Ratings (www.M-R.fr), an online French media watchdog. In November 2004, he published an article entitled “Arlette Chabot and Charles Enderlin Must Be Fired Immediately,”[1] alleging that France 2, the television news station for which Chabot and Enderlin worked, violated journalistic standards by airing footage depicting as fact the alleged shooting of Muhammad al-Dura, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Dura tapes showed a 12-year-old boy crouching behind his father while only one bullet whistles and pops in the background; it is clear now that during the fifty-five seconds of aired footage, the boy was not fired at and that, at the end of the film, he remained alive. Karsenty claimed the footage was staged by Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma, who staged similar scenes elsewhere in the eighteen minutes of the tape that Karsenty viewed.

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Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies Holds National Conference

By Fern Sidman

Our rabbis of blessed memory teach us that “one who saves a life, it is as if he has saved an entire world.” Indeed, speaking out against flagrant injustices and pursuing righteousness at all costs is a precept that is at the core of our deeply held beliefs. Throughout the long and often traumatic history of the Jewish people, there have always been a minuscule cadre who, despite the inherent threat to their livelihoods and even their own lives, managed to summon up the moral strength and fortitude to raise their voices in outrage and indignation in response to the egregious and often heinous actions of our tormentors.

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~by E.D. Kain, NeoConstant

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch writes today about European neo-fascism, and specifically the Cologne anti-Islamization conference.

Spencer is absolutely correct in his assertion that the neo-fascist approach to combating Islamization is the wrong approach. Little Green Footballs is also correct. I am always open to the exchange of ideas, but in my mind, to replace one form of fascism with another is simply ludicrous. Western Liberalism and Democracy is and has been the antidote to fascism and should be the antidote to theocratic totalitarianism and sharia as well.

Here’s what Spencer has to say on the issue:

And I think that a race-based approach is wrong in a number of ways. To repeat:

1. It’s the wrong way to fight the global jihad. The jihad is not a race, Islam is not a race, Muslims are not all of one race. Those who are threatened by the jihadists are not all of one race. The issues between the Islamic world and non-Muslims are not racial. They are about religious supremacism. Bringing in race just confuses the issue, and allows jihadists and their de facto allies among the Eurabian elites to claim that this whole thing is about racism. …

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By Phyllis Chesler

On September 11, 2001, at about 11 A.M., I walked over to my computer and typed the sentence: “Now, we are all Israelis.”

It always begins with the Jews. Osama Bin Laden called the assault on America “blessed attacks” against the “infidel … the new Christian-Jewish crusade.” He explained that the twin towers had fallen because of American support for Israel.

War — and a new kind of anti-Semitism — had been declared. … (Continue reading…)

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

U.S. financial assistance to Israel can be a contentious topic, even when discussing foreign policy issues using accurate information. Very often, opponents of Israel use wildly exaggerated, even fabricated “facts and figures” and extremely hyperbolic language to disparage the Jewish State — even claiming the U.S. has been pushed to the verge of bankruptcy by supporting Israel. The obfuscations about U.S. aid to Israel have been bothering me for a very long time, so I decided to research the numbers myself and compare my findings to the figures advanced by hysterical critics of Israel.

For example, an anti-Semitic publication, which so innocently calls itself the “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs” (WRMEA), claims that American taxpayers have paid “$3 Trillion” for supporting Israel. WRMEA tries to blame Israel for 1) rising oil prices, 2) the cost of both Iraq wars, 3) and American job losses, and has published articles with Protocols-of-the-Elders-of Zion-style headlines like “Israel has had in place a shadow government in Washington” and “Will the State Department Remain Israeli-Occupied Territory?”

Here I’ll show how exaggerations by groups like WRMEA are not even close to reflecting reality.

Bare with me as I run the numbers and document my findings.

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

This weekend, the “Popular Palestinian Conference 2008” will be held in Chicago, and if past is prologue, a slew of anti-Israel propaganda will be part of the repertoire. The organizers make no effort to conceal their nefarious intentions, titling one of the workshops [emphasis added], “Inserting Palestine into High School Curricula in the US & Empowering Students to Challenge Dominant Narratives” and subtitling the conference, “Palestinians in the US: Reclaiming Our Voice, Asserting Our Narrative.” Unfortunately, this “narrative” is a false one in which Israel is the oppressor, the Palestinians its perpetual victims, and the United States an accomplice in crime.

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JDL Stages Demonstration at Arab Federation Building

By Fern Sidman

Defiant chants of “Condemn Muslim Terrorism Now” and “Jewish Blood Is Not Cheap” could be heard in streets of downtown Toronto, on Thursday afternoon, July 31st, as 30 members of Toronto’s Jewish Defense League staged an angry demonstration in front of the offices of the Canadian Arab Federation. Responding to the dramatic rise in anti-Semitic attacks on Jews by Muslims in the Toronto area, Meir Weinstein, director of the JDL in Toronto said, “The abject silence on the part of the Canadian Arab Federation in the face of vitriolic attacks on Jews by Muslim perpetrators is tantamount to tacit approval of anti-Semitism and gives a green light to others who would entertain the notion of attacking Jews.”

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by Asaf Romirowsky*

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict long ago spilled over into America’s departments of Middle East studies. In an attempt to appear balanced in the face of charges of anti-Israel biases, some departments or programs of Middle East studies have added Israeli scholars to their ranks—a move that at first glance appears welcome.

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Calls for unwavering support of Israel; condemns Iranian nuclear threat

By Fern Sidman

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” (Isaiah 62:1)

The electricity in the air was palpable in the nation’s capitol as these words from the prophet Isaiah served as the battle cry for a record number of over 7,000 Christian supporters of Israel who gathered on July 20-23 to attend the third annual Washington Summit of the Christians United For Israel organization at the Washington, DC Convention Center. Founded in February of 2006 by Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of The Cornerstone Church of San Antonio, Texas and President and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, Christians United For Israel represents the premiere Christian evangelical national grassroots movement focused on the support of Israel. Having called upon Christian leaders from across America to join him in launching this new initiative, Pastor Hagee enlisted the help of over 400 Christian ministers, each representing a denomination, mega-church, media ministry, publishing company, or Christian university. Each one answered the call and Christians United for Israel was born. Today, CUFI boasts a membership of over 50 million Christian Zionists in America.

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By Phyllis Chesler

Once upon a time, the King invited the infidels to Madrid–but he only invited a handful of Jews who are all, rightly or wrongly, perceived as more critical of Israel and of Judaism than of Islam. The King did not invite any influential, religious women. This did not stop any man of faith from attending.

I am talking about Saudi King Abdullah’s interfaith conference in Madrid which was attended by nearly 300 delegates representing Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other faiths from over 50 countries. King Abdullah opened the conference on July 16, 2008 in the presence of Spain’s King Juan Carlos… (Continue reading…)

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

One can always count on University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole to excuse violence and hatred directed at Israel. At his blog, Informed Comment (which, judging by the references to the mythical Jenin “massacre” and the USS Liberty canard in the comments section, is read avidly by anti-Israel conspiracy theorists), Cole takes pains to explain away last week’s horrific bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.

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By Barry Rubin

We all know–though the Western media often doesn’t–that radical Arab nationalists, Islamists, and terrorists lie all the time. They then slander and threaten those who point out the truth.

Yet often, governments, journalists, and academics split the difference or even find the liars more credible since they are not governments, Westerners, or Jews.

There is one case after another of this situation. Some make global headlines like the Dura case, where French television covered up its staged broadcast claiming that Israel killed a boy in Gaza even when a French court found it was phony, or the supposed Jenin massacre, reported on the basis of one unknown Palestinian witness and maintained by many even after the UN found it phony.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

An Israeli Jew (Defense Minister Ehud Barak) shakes hands with a Shiite Arab (Iraqi President Jalal Talabani)… While I can understand why something like this is considered a “historic” moment, it is at the same time pathetic that it is considered a “historic” moment.

It is historic because an Arab/Muslim leader overcame years of convention and prejudice against Israel, and actually, formally recognized an Israeli leader. Perhaps the Coalition forces and contractors in Iraq have rubbed off on Talabani. Perhaps Talabani is starting to understand the democratic system he is operating in.

On the other hand, this moment is anti-climactic — two humans shaking hands. Israelis are almost always eager to be accepted on the international stage. Yet Arab leaders have treated Israelis as if they were dirty; as if when shaking hands, something Jewy would be left on Arab hands; as if there were no such thing as politeness or decorum.

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By Phyllis Chesler

Sometimes, novels are prophetic. I am thinking of George Orwell and Jean Raspail who both imagined life in the late 20th and early 21st century. Raspail is the novelist who imagined that a dark-skinned barbarian horde would take over France. His work, The Camp of the Saints(1973) was originally condemned as “racist.” Slowly, over time, European government leaders began reading his novel and consulting with Raspail. I have written about his work before HERE and HERE in my book, The Death of Feminism.

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A film directed by Laura Bialis

Review by: Fern Sidman

The film ‘Refusenik’ is a seminal retrospective documentary chronicling the thirty year history of the struggle to liberate Soviet Jews from the spiritual shackles of bondage that was endemic to their existence in the former USSR. Told through the eyes and brave voices of such celebrity dissidents as Anatoly (Natan) Scharansky, Vladimir Slepak, Yosef Begun, Yosef Mendelevitch, Ida Nudel, Sylva Zalmanson, Alexander Kholmiansky and Yuli Edelstein, director Laura Bialis takes us on a multi-faceted journey of the creation of a revolutionary global grass-roots movement for freedom from tyranny and oppression.

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