The First Arab Springers: Palestinians and What Horror They Brought

Nadene Goldfoot
"The Arab Spring is an attempt to return the region to its roots. It’s not to Westernize the Middle East and make it more democratic; it’s to Easternize it and make it more Islamic. If the early 20th century was about the East trying to join what it couldn’t lick, the early 21st may be about the East trying to lick what it hasn’t been able to join." (George Jonas).  

What did the Palestinian people do when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip?  Remember, Jews have had a history there for centuries, perhaps longer than any Palestinian.  "Gaza" is mentioned in our Bible "Tanach" as a Philistine city.  Samson died there.  Jews have lived there since the Hasmonean era.  They were living there in 61CE and when the Crusaders appeared in the Holy Land as well as when the Ottoman Turks came to have control.  

In 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the name of peaceful coexistence.  Instead, the Palestinians  voted in "Hamas," a terrorist force whose only aim was terrorism and to wipe Israel and the Jews from the map.  Hamas and other affiliates of theirs began a daily rain of Qassam rockets, katyushas and mortars into Israeli cities and farms, sometimes 80 per day.  With Syria and Iran's help, they smuggled into Gaza tons of weapons, ammunition, explosives, ground-to ground and ground to air missiles, anti-aircraft shoulder held missiles and anti-tank weapons along with the newer long distance missiles that just reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Israel had withdrawn in the name of peace as they have no intention of harming people or fighting.  They started all this when Prime Minister Olmert was at the helm in Israel and his Kadima party and most of the Israelis were promising more land for the future state of Palestine in the areas of Judea/Samaria.  At first Israel was restrained and Israel realized that their rocket emplacements were in the middle of women and children.  

The terrorists took the wrong move when by their tunnel attacked Israeli soldiers inside of Israel on June 25, 2006, killing 2 and kidnapping one.  Diplomacy didn't retrieve Gilad Shalit, and by the end of June Israel re-invaded Gaza to retrieve him and to destroy their ability to continuously threaten Israeli security. 

Now I see Morsi, a  leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and  not only the President of Egypt but now  the man in charge of watching and controlling the Brotherhood's off-shoot; Hamas.  Will the stage-light work psychologically on him and turn him around to become a mentch instead of a terror hungry monger?  Hopefully it will be with the nudging of the USA with their  yearly stipend that will keep him on task.  To change a behavior takes replacement behaviors that are better.  I hope this attention will do the trick as Israel wants only peace.  We won't know till both the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and the rest change their charters and their minds to accept the fact that Israel is there to stay.  

Resource: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/08/04/george-jonas-lets-hear-it-for-israel-the-arab-worlds-all-purpose-enemy/
Big Lies, Demolishing the Myths of the Propaganda War Against Israel, by David Meir-Levi from David Horowitz Freedom Center
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/gaza_settlements.html

Demonizing Israel Through Methods of Reporting

Nadene Goldfoot
Josephus was a Jew who wrote history for his Roman captors.  He wrote about the siege of Masada and how all the960  inhabitants living on top of this mountain had killed themselves rather than be taken captives by the Roman conquerors in a time between 66-73 CE.  .  He was writing for a Roman audience and if he did not please them, most likely he wouldn't live very long and would have died a ghastly death. Some even think he was writing for a Jewish audience.   He had to slant his material just a little and still write very descriptively about what he was seeing, perhaps with some embellishments as well  Today people are questioning his slant on the reporting and how accurate his report was   It was interesting enough for writers to base their book from with "Antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann and "The Voices of Masada" by David Kossoff.

There are underground smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.  They are used to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Not only weapons but materials are brought in to construct rockets and missiles to rain down on southern Israel.   Iranian terrorist trainers enter Gaza through these tunnels.

Rugaya Izzidien wrote about these tunnels for the New York Times on May 29, 2012, but took a different slant on them, something more palatable for the readers. Arabs are the good guys and were humanized while the Israelis were demonized as the bad guys.  The use of the tunnels was only said to be the artery to bring in needed supplies, like everything you can think of; food, building materials, clothes, electronics, cars, wedding supplies and writes that Gazans consider the tunnels a regular accepted route for their period in the "blockade."  Then of course the reporter goes on to mention that the tunnels are targets in air strikes because they seem them as an illegal  smuggling route.

The writer neglects to tell the readers some important facts that are left out, like Israel makes sure that there is the importation of thousands of all manner of goods that are brought into the Gaza Strip every day.

What we know about journalists is that they also have political sympathies and it shows up when they write, even though they are told to remain neutral and just print "the facts."  the facts turn out to be opinionated facts.  .  Many reporters are even more far left of their audience.  One person, Professor Aarebrot of Norway,  is trying to make the case that a journalist can write without any slant  They may be expected to, but too often it just doesn't happen.  The personal views of journalists have an impact on how they report.

Even Glenn Beck has that happen to him.  Being very conservative, he spoke about the shooting in Norway at a camp and said: "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth or whatever, I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?"

Frank Aarebrot, a scientist,  retorted by calling Beck names and comparing him to Joseph Goebbles.  He showed his side and that he is a Labor Party supporter.  Both men could not hold back their opinions and take on the situation at all.

Dan Rather, former anchor on CBS, and 60 Minutes, canceled a  scheduled appearance on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News evidently to be able to appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart to argue that there is no left-wing bias in the mass media.  Walter Cronkite, of CBS Evening News was also considered by O'Reilly to be a very left-wing guy which he didn't hide well at all.  Bernard Goldberg stresses that most journalists don't really see themselves or their work as biased and think of themselves as smart, well-meaning and educated people without prejudice.

We go along with that thought and allow them to be referred to as the Enlightened Class in the USA.  Their job is to spread enlightened values to us masses.  Their job is also to dispel myths and ward off evils and the conservatives who carry superstition and primitive dogma.

I note that Fox News has an afternoon program about 5 reporters, 4 conservatives and 1 of the Enlightened and they love to give him a bad time, but he dishes it out and takes what comes well.  It's the grooviest program to see how people who disagree with each other can banter freely and not get all hot under the collar over some very dicey subjects.  Also what's terrific is that 3 of these conservative reporters are beautiful lawyers, more like models, who are  wonderful role models for young women who can see that you can be intelligent, most knowledgeable and yet sexy as well.

Then there are newspapers who will not print anything positive about Israel.  Dos this not sell newspapers?  Evidently not.  They'd rather take the slant of the left and print only bad press about Israel.  There is no balance because those of us who try to write rebuttals against a particularly nasty letter rarely ever  get it published, even for those of us who do a lot of writing.

The lesson of all this is that one has to be very careful in reading the written page to find out the truth.  Reporters, especially those on major media must be taken with a grain of salt until all is checked out.  At one time Portland had a morning paper, the Oregonian, and an evening paper, the Journal.  Each took a different political viewpoint and one had the chance to compare and contrast to come to a better evaluation of events, but it's much harder today.  We should be thankful that at least a few conservative viewpoints are still existing on TV.  There isn't much hope for newspapers as they are running into the red and dying out.  We don't want to be at the point where we have one source for news from just Big Brother.

These are important points to keep in mind when reading about Israel.  Much of the material out is slanted heavily against this little state.  Dig out the truth.  A source that is positive is not an evil source.   They just may know something the others may not know or don't want to know.  

Resource:  camera, alert@camera.org the NY Times has tunnel vision on the Gaza Tunnels
frontpagemag.com/2012/06/06/is-it-nonsense-to-talk-about -a-leftist-media-bias/print
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/masada.html