Guardians of the Anti-Israel Line

Following a hopeful summit meeting at Sharm, The Guardian maintains the ideological blame game.

This week's summit meeting of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh furthered the general optimism that's brewing in the region. On a day of handshakes and hopeful pronouncements, most of the media depicted the event in positive, forward-looking terms, as illustrated in this cartoon by Gary Varvel of the Indianapolis Star:

Martin Fletcher of NBC News noted the key recent event that has made everything possible: 'What today's agreement shows is that America and Israel were right when they said that Yasser Arafat was an obstacle to peace.'

It's broadly understood that Arafat blocked progress because he was stuck in a 'blame-Israel-no-matter-what' mode. That type of thinking doomed previous peace negotiations, and is what the whole civilized world is now trying to move beyond.

Yet The (UK) Guardian is stuck promoting this very message. An editorial cartoon by Steve Bell spins the Sharm summit ¯ the most peaceful moment of the past four years ¯ as some sort of Israeli force-play against the Palestinians:

	Steve Bell of The Guardian

The starting point for any credible newspaper is a modicum of objectivity. But Bell's cartoon demonstrates that The Guardian is more aligned with the fringe anti-Israel ideology of Yasser Arafat, than it is with the ideal of journalism.

The Guardian employs Bell ¯ who has drawn a daily cartoon at the paper since 1981 ¯ to promote the paper's basic editorial positions. With this cartoon, The Guardian positions itself outside the bounds of objective journalism, stuck in an advocacy role of 'just blame Israel.'

Comments to: letters@guardian.co.uk

Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

I have such interesting teachers at my university. Today I was in Hebrew class. My Hebrew teacher is very nice, but his pronounciation is hopeless, and I don't really think he knows Hebrew all that well. Okay so I'm taking a class in "Biblical Hebrew". So today the teacher corrected me when I read something, and pronounced the letter "tav" as a "t" sound. He said I shouldn't do that, and that I should pronounce it as a "dhhh". I found this to be strange, so I had the following dialogue with him, while in class:

Maria: But it's a "t" sound, isn't it?
Teacher: No, No it's NOT a "t" sound!!!
Maria: Okay, so is this like a difference of pronounciation between Biblical and Modern Hebrew?
Teacher: No! It's just not a "t" sound! And if you had learned the Hebrew alphabeth, you would know this!
Maria: I do know the Hebrew alphabeth, and it tells me that the letter "tav" is a "t" sound.
Teacher: No it's not! It's "dhhh". It's "DHHH"!!!!
Maria: But in Israel everybody pronounces it as "t".
Teacher: Yes that is IVRIT. Here we don't study IVRIT. Here we study Biblical Hebrew, and that is an entirely different language. Israelis go to school to study Biblical Hebrew, and THEY FAIL it, just like you guys!

After Hebrew class I started walking towards town, listening to Beri Saharof, quite caught up in my thoughts as usual, when my research methods teacher from last year suddenly appears:

What I do understand  about Americans.

What I absolutely do not understand about Americans. And while I'm at it: Peanut butter and jelly  don't go together!

Okay this is taking some serious time away from my studies. I'm laughing like an idiot by my computer. This is so much fun. Check this out:

Maria is so cool and she deserves some chocolate ice cream
Italian: Maria è in modo da raffreddisi e merita un certo gelato del cioccolato

I can't believe it! Thanks to Lisa for pointing this out!
Click here to enter the url of a website and have it translated. Shit is "shit" in Russian! Man I'm gonna have some fun with this! It's a pity it doesn't translate into any languages I understand, for me to check how well it works. Oh I think I better go find myself an Italian blog and translate it into English now! Ciao a tutti!

Update: I have been translating blogs. It is (apparently) customary to describe things (I haven't quite figured out what it means yet) as "spiny" in Italian. Such as a "spiny argument" (that makes sense though).

The Real Story on Aid to SE Asia  (Hat tip: Israpundit)

It is important to note that now with about $2 billion in aid pledged by countries, companies, and individuals that the largest donor nations have been (in order of amounts provided) Japan, U.S., U.K., and Sweden.

Israel, one of the smallest country in the world, sent major rescue and aid teams and packages to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand. Israel's aid works out to be the highest per capita donation of any country in the world.

Some of Israel's initial aid was refused for political reasons. It seems some countries would rather have their people die than accept aid from Israel. Someone suggested that all donor countries should put Israeli flags on their packages and then let the recipients decide if they want the aid or not.

It should also be noted that most of the countries devastated are either Moslem or have very large Moslem populations (Indonesia is the world's largest Moslem country). Despite this fact, none of the Moslem countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE (with all their oil and the huge sums of capital they has gathered over the past year of oil price gouging) have not pledged nor sent anything.

It reminds me of the saying by Rabbi Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" Just thought it might be nice to know the real story for a change. You certainly won't see or hear any of that from the Christian Science Monitor, the LA or NY Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Guardian, National Public Radio, CNN or the BBC.

This is supposed to be a big story.

Sharon and Abbas declare end to four years of hostilities
By Aluf Benn and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
SHARM EL-SHEIKH - Echoing the words of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas moments before, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday announced an agreement to end more than four years of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians.

Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas meeting during the Mideast summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday. (AP)

This has no purpose at all. I just saw this on Aish.com

 

Here is some recommended reading: Gil Ben Mori descriptions of how he is currently going through Miluim.

PA minister threatens return to terrorism if terrorists not released

By Israel Insider staff and partners  February 5, 2005

Israeli and Palestinian Authority representatives met Saturday night to resolve their differences concerning the release of Palestinian prisoners before Tuesday's Israel-PA summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, Egypt.

Palestinian protest for release of prisoners (AP)


Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior aide, Dov Weisglass, is expected to arrive in Cairo on Sunday to finalize summit arrangements.

PA officials warned that unless thousands more prisoners are released, the summit would collapse and the Palestinians would return to terrorism. "If Israeli intransigence on this issue continues, the summit will fail," said Minister of Communications Azzam al- Ahmed. "If the prisoners aren't released, we will return to the cycle of violence."

The Palestinians are planning demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the coming days to demand release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. The protests are intended to pressure Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas, Palestinian sources say, wants Israel to release dozens of veteran Fatah prisoners who were imprisoned before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

PA representatives stomed out of a meeting with Weissglas last Thursday after being told that Israel would release only 900 prisoners, none of them murderers, as a gesture to Abbas. PA officials called the offer "insulting," and Minister of Negotiations Saeb Erekat said "The Israeli offer is completely unacceptable," he said. "This is one of the most important and sensitive issues for the Palestinians."
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To return to terrorism? Wouldn't that mean that they left it in the first place? Well there surely will be in increase in terrorism is such large numbers of convicted criminals will be returned. In the meantime, Israel has for decades fought merely to acquire the bodily remains of a true hero.