Opinion Editorials, July 2006, To see today's opinion articles, click here: www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
|
|
Hezbollah in the US: Fundraising or Worse?
By Timothy Stinson
Al-Jazeerah, July 26, 2006
As the international community becomes more vocal in its outrage of U.S and Israeli conduct in the Middle East, NPR’s attempts to defend the reprehensible activities of both nations has become more obvious!
These examples include;
The decision to ignore world – wide protests against the U.S and Israel for both campaigns against the Palestinians and Lebanese, as well as two separate reports by Human Rights Watch which described Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza as war crimes, and highlighted Israel’s use of Cluster Munitions (which are banned by international law).
Avoiding discussion of a story in the New York Times 22 July 06 (“U.S Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis”) which shed light on a behind the scenes deal in the House and Senate which disclosed a scheme to expedite shipment of laser guided bombs to Israel in order to provide Israel with an even greater degree of destructive potential.
And perhaps your most insidious means; use of Pro-Israel front groups to provide the illusion of fair and balanced reporting.
For example, in one of your broadcasts you chose to air a story on text books in Saudi Arabia which preached hatred of Christians and Jews presented by Nina Shea of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is closely tied to a Christian Right organization called Freedom House.
On several commentaries concerning Islamic terrorism, you chose Dennis Ross who, is known not only for serving in the first President Bush and Clinton administrations, but also for his support for AIPAC and The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; another Pro-Israel think-tank that conceals its goals by pretending to be an impartial source of information for the Middle East.
In addition, in today’s story on groups in the U.S who provide funding for Hamas, not only did you rely on The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, you also chose details of the story from information provided by MEMRI (Middle East Research Institute).
MEMRI is an organization based in Washington, with offices in London, Berlin and Jerusalem, that translates documents written in Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew, then sends them out to various media outlets.
A story covered by The Guardian in August of 2002 discovered that the co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon, also know as Colonel Carmon who spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.
If your goal of your reporting is really to protect Israel, then please have the courage to say so!
Timothy Stinson, Miami Lakes, Florida
Hezbollah in the U.S.: Fundraising or Worse?
After the State Department designated Hezbollah a foreign terror organization in 1996, the FBI began to conduct wide-ranging operations to shut down the group's fundraising activities in the United States. "Before 9/11, they had killed more Americans than anybody else on the terrorist scene," says Ken Piernick, a former FBI special agent who ran the bureau's Hezbollah program. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579252
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
||
| The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04). | ||
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |