A Letter to the Editor of the New York Times, from Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Monitor: In his oped, Nicolas Kristof (June 22, “The Two Israels”) illustrates the danger of the “halo effect” that surrounds many powerful non-governmental organizations, which use distorted human rights claims to promote ideological agendas. While otherwise very professional journalists question and independently verify the claims of governments, corporations, and others, the statements of groups that assert moral objectives tend to be taken at face value. In this article, Kristof extols B’tselem and Machsom Watch (the women who “volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians
Read More +Promoting critical debate and accountability of Human Rights NGOs in the Arab Israeli conflict. Via NGO Monitor: In the first five months of 2008, HRW has issued thirteen statements condemning Israel’s response to deliberate attacks aimed at Israeli civilians launched from Gaza. [1] These statements exploit international legal terminology, repeat incomplete or false analyses of international law, and minimize or omit Hamas’ attacks on Israeli border crossings where humanitarian aid is delivered, as well as the diversion of this aid by Hamas. In contrast to carefully written, accurate and well-sourced legal analyses, these publications reflect a dominant political agenda. HRW’s
Read More +Today the UN Human Rights Council welcomed Richard Falk as the new expert to oversee its standing investigation into “Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.” When UN Watch took the floor to ask Falk to explain his support for 9/11 conspiracy theories, as documented by the Times of London, Egypt made a failed bid to delete the question from the record. See full video and text below. Click for video UN Human Rights Council, 8th Session Agenda Item 7: “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories” Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on
Read More +Any Israeli trying to enter Jordan will be turned away at the border if he is wearing or carrying any Jewish religious paraphernalia. Jordanian authorities explain, that this behavior stems from – get this – “security concerns”. Jews, after all, are prized targets for terrorists. By this reasoning, stopping people with overtly Jewish appearances, or who have Jewish ritual articles in their luggage, is a friendly gesture. Another fact that demonstrates Jordan’s inherent hatred of Jews is that during Jordan’s occupation of the West Bank, the Jordanian kingdom undertook an unsuccessful attempt to make Jerusalem a Muslim city by forcing
Read More +Another great Jewish hero, Dr. Mordechai Keidar. Via Jerusalem Day on Al-Jazeera TV: On Jerusalem Day last week, following reports of Israel’s intentions to construct housing in areas of Jerusalem located beyond the 1967 borders, Al-Jazeera interviewed Dr. Mordechai Keidar, a lecturer from Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Arabic Studies. Al-Jazeera’s top journalist Jamal Rayyan opened with the question, “Is this decision meant to constitute another nail in the coffin of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations?” Keidar answered, “To tell you the truth, I don’t quite understand this. Must Israel ask permission from some other authority in the world? It has been our
Read More +Monday, June 2 is Yom Yerushalayim, also known as Jerusalem Day – the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem where Jews were denied access to their Holiest city from 1948-1967. Yom Yerushalayim is a holiday celebrating the reunification of the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem in the hands of its rightful owners, the Jewish people. In 1948, no Palestinian state was invaded or destroyed to make way for the establishment of Israel. From biblical times, when this territory was the state of the Jews, to its occupation by the British army at the end of World War I, Palestine never
Read More +Via LBJ’s Newly Released Oval Office Recordings Disclose His Deep Feelings toward Israel: Tapes of Lyndon Johnson’s Oval Office conversations, released to the public for the first time on Wednesday, reveal that the American president had a personal and often emotional connection to Israel. “I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel,” Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with his ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg. In a taped conversation from June 25, 1967, about three weeks after Israel defeated three Arab armies, Johnson relates a conversation with Soviet Premier Alexey
Read More +By Dore Gold 1) Israeli negotiators will quickly discover three core areas in their discussions with the Syrians that they will not resolve easily: delineation of an agreed boundary, security arrangements, and the Syrian-Iranian alliance.2) Just prior to the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syria deployed 1,400 tanks along the border against a total Israeli force of 177 tanks (a force ratio of 8 to 1 in favor of Syria). Should Syria’s considerable missile forces be used to delay Israel’s reserve mobilization, then the importance of the Golan terrain will increase as Israel’s small standing army will have
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