Topic: Israel

Off-Kilter Analysis on Public Radio

Michael Rubin 02.21.2012 - 11:18 AM

Last week, I noted how Geneive Abdo, a journalist and liaison to the UN’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” program, had promoted the wacky conspiracy theory on Australia’s national radio that Israel had bombed their own diplomats.

Increasingly, it appears as if the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is trying to give National Public Radio a run for its money in the promotion of some really off-kilter analysis. On February 20, for example, ABC asked Robert Fisk for his analysis of Syria. Fisk tried to shift the focus to condemnation of Israel—which he suggested was Assad’s big backer—and the United States.

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Adelson and Santorum Agree on Gambling

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.19.2012 - 12:02 PM

Last Thursday, Jim Geraghty speculated at National Review that Sheldon Adelson might have a business motive for his preferences in the Republican presidential race. Adelson has donated more than $10 million to keep Newt Gingrich’s campaign alive and has seemed to indicate he will support Mitt Romney if and when Gingrich throws in the towel. But Adelson doesn’t appear to be at all interested in Rick Santorum, the Republican who is currently leading in the national polls. That caused Geraghty to ponder whether Santorum’s opposition to gambling may be causing the casino mogul to want to keep Gingrich in the race so as to ensure that Santorum can’t beat Romney.

Given that Adelson’s priority is ensuring a strong pro-Israel alternative to President Obama and that Santorum is as solid a supporter of the Jewish state as Gingrich and Romney, Geraghty’s notion seemed logical. But this morning COMMENTARY received an e-mail letter-to-the-editor from Adelson’s office (in response to posts by Alana and myself on the subject of Santorum’s stand on gambling) that should debunk this thesis. It reads:

Regarding your February 16th article: “Santorum wants to ban gambling?”

I agree with Rick Santorum. I am in favor of the comment he made about destination casinos and I am, as he is, against any type of gaming on the Internet. You might also know I am not against Rick Santorum. I am in favor of Newt Gingrich.

Sheldon G. Adelson

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Cut to Missile Defense for Israel Gives the Lie to Obama’s “Best Friend” Narrative

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.17.2012 - 9:30 AM

Democrats are crying foul about Republican efforts to publicize the fact that President Obama’s budget request to Congress contained a cut in funding for missile defense projects in Israel. The amount of aid allocated for this sector went down from $106 million in 2012 to $99 million next year. The Republican Jewish Coalition is making a meal out of this point, but the president’s supporters are pointing out that the overall amount of funding for Israel went up. Given the scale of the budget, the difference doesn’t amount to much money and Congress will, no doubt, vastly increase this number as it did for 2012 when it more than doubled the amount Obama requested.

But the cut is worth talking about specifically because it undermines the line of baloney Obama and the Democrats have been selling to American Jewish audiences in recent months about him being the most pro-Israel president in history when it comes to supporting defense of the Jewish state. Moreover, the decision to pare back missile defense is particularly embarrassing because American support for Israel’s “Iron Dome” system is something Obama has taken credit for at every possible opportunity, even though the project was initiated and funded by George W. Bush.

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Another Defeat for the al-Dura Blood Libel

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.16.2012 - 3:45 PM

It’s been more than 11 years since Muhammad al-Dura died during one of the initial skirmishes of the second intifada, but the iconic image of an Arab boy supposedly shot by heartless Israeli soldiers as his father looked on in horror is still a powerful image of Palestinian suffering. But as the years go by, attempts to unravel the truth about what actually happened to al-Dura have continued to chip away at the myth of Israeli culpability in the incident. In the latest chapter of the battle over this story that has just been played out in France’s Supreme Court, the Palestinian narrative has suffered another defeat. The court vindicated a doctor who was sued by al-Dura’s father for saying the wounds he claimed to have suffered on the day of his son’s death were not the result of Israeli fire.

This was just the latest setback for those who have attempted to keep alive the belief al-Dura’s death was Israel’s responsibility. Even more, the finding that shows the father lied about the incident gives even more credence to allegations that make it clear the boy was likely killed by Palestinian fire. Though one may argue the question of who killed the boy is moot, the debunking of the al-Dura myth has become a symbol of the many false allegations made against Israel and largely believed by a credulous international media.

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NYT Jerusalem Chief Unsure Whether Israel is an Apartheid State

Alana Goodman 02.16.2012 - 10:41 AM

In an interview with Politico yesterday, the incoming New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren said she “would be eager to talk to” Washington Free Beacon reporter Adam Kredo “about anything.” She may be ruing those words this morning:

The New York Times’ incoming Jerusalem bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren, won’t say if she is a Zionist.

“I’m going to punt on that question,” Rudoren, who is Jewish, told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview yesterday. “I’m not really interested in labels about who I am and what I think.” …

Asked if she considers Israel an apartheid state—as critics of the Jewish state so often do—Rudoren declined comment.

“I don’t have an assessment yet,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ll ever answer that question in the way you’ve just framed it.”

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Obama Wants to Let UNESCO Off the Hook

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.16.2012 - 9:45 AM

In a deviation from the charm offensive he has been aiming at American Jews in the last several months, President Obama has asked Congress to grant him a waiver that will allow the administration to continue funding the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) despite its recognition of Palestinian statehood. U.S. law forbids the funding of any international organization that grants admission to the Palestinians as a separate, independent state prior to its signing a peace treaty with Israel. However, JTA reports that Obama, who is a dedicated admirer of the UN and its member agencies, hopes he can persuade Congress to let him keep sending taxpayer dollars to the group in spite of the law.

Republican opposition to the waiver is assured, meaning the chances of Obama’s wish being granted are virtually nonexistent. But given how anxious the president has been to show Jewish voters and donors that he is, as he claims, Israel’s best friend ever in the White House, the decision to try to flout the law in order to bolster a controversial UN agency gives us some real insight into the administration’s thinking and its plans in a possible second term for Obama.

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Is Iran Behind the Death of its Own Scientists?

Emanuele Ottolenghi 02.16.2012 - 9:25 AM

The way attacks were conducted against the car of an Israeli diplomat’s wife in Delhi has contributed to an interesting, if disconcerting theory among pundits. Iran’s wave of attacks against Israeli targets is tit-for-tat against what are presumed to be Israeli-sponsored assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists inside Iran. Ian Black in the Guardian, for example, wrote two days ago that:

“The use in Delhi of a sticky bomb attached to an Israeli embassy vehicle by a man riding a motorbike seemed to mimic the modus operandi used by Israel’s agents in Tehran. Hints, surely, do not come much heavier than that?”

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Partisan Divide About Israeli Strike on Iran

Alana Goodman 02.15.2012 - 5:30 PM

A Pew Research Center poll released today found the majority of Americans support using military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, backing up previous polls that have found similar results. But there’s also a fairly large partisan divide when it comes to supporting Israeli military action against Iran:

About half of Americans (51 percent) say the U.S. should stay neutral if Israel attacks Iran. Nearly four-in-ten (39 percent) say the U.S. should support Israel’s military action while just 5 percent say the U.S. should oppose military action. …

There is a wide divide among Republicans on the issue of Iran. Fully 71 percent of conservative Republicans think the U.S. should support Israel’s military action if they attack Iran, compared with 43 percent of moderate and liberal Republicans. A majority of independents and Democrats (including both liberal and more moderate Democrats) think the U.S. should stay neutral.

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Israel Makes Preparations for War

Giulio Meotti 02.15.2012 - 4:15 PM

Much of the attention about a potential conflict between Israel and Iran has focused on the decision-making process that could lead the Jewish state to act to forestall the creation of a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran’s Islamist leadership. But while the debate continues about what Israel’s government will decide to do and when they will do it, inside the country, preparations are under way for the aftermath of that decision.

On a cold morning in late January, ambulances raced around Haifa, Israel’s largest port city. There had been an attack with a “dirty bomb,” armed with radioactive cesium 137. Doctors and paramedics cleaned up the survivors, while the authorities informed the public the “unthinkable” had happened in the heart of the Jewish State. It was just a drill, but the exercise code-named “Dark Cloud,” was part of the Israel Defense Force Home Front Command’s plan to prepare the country in case of war with Iran.

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Lies Propagated out of Ignorance

Evelyn Gordon 02.15.2012 - 11:50 AM

Michael Rubin offered a shocking example yesterday of the kind of warped analysis that results when a journalist “goes native” by adopting the biases of the country in which he is stationed. I agree this can be a serious problem when diplomats, journalists and other international officials spend too long in a given country, but I’m no less concerned by the opposite problem: Frequent rotations mean journalists and diplomats have no incentive to develop real expertise in any foreign country. The result is they are often parachuted in with no knowledge of the local languages, history or other information needed to actually understand what’s going on, leaving them dependent on local “fixers” – who may well be pursuing their own agendas.

This point was brought home to me last Friday, when I happened to have dinner at the home of a friend whose eldest son is doing his army service. He had recently returned from a stint in Hebron, and related the following story:

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New NYT Jerusalem Chief Reaches Out to Israel-Bashers

Alana Goodman 02.15.2012 - 11:25 AM

The ink has barely dried on the New York Times announcement that Jodi Rudoren will replace Ethan Bronner as Jerusalem bureau chief, and the move is already generating controversy. As Jonathan wrote yesterday, Bronner was attacked by Israel-bashers for having a son who formerly served in the Israel Defense Forces. And now Rudoren is apparently reaching out to these same anti-Israel activists, the Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reports:

Already, Rudoren is beaming out cutesy missives to prominent, self-described anti-Zionist players such as Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, a website that contains a treasure trove of writings highly antagonistic toward the Jewish state.

Rudoren also Tweeted yesterday with the website Mondoweiss, an online portal that is known to traffic in Israel-bashing.

Early yesterday afternoon, Rudoren Tweeted a friendly dispatch to Abunimah, who has referred to Zionism as “one of the worst forms of anti-Semitism in existence today.” …

“Hey there. Would love to chat sometime. About things other than the house. My friend Kareem Fahim says good things,” Rudoren responded, referencing her Times colleague who covers Syria.

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Peter Beinart’s End Zone Dance

Rick Richman 02.14.2012 - 10:40 AM

The day he published his 2010 essay in the New York Review of Books castigating the American Jewish establishment for too-strong support of Israel, Peter Beinart tweeted that it was the “hardest thing I’ve ever written.” As Noah Pollak noted at the time, there was nothing easier than Beinart’s criticism; there was already a wide market for it within the media.

Beinart subsequently received a book deal from Times Books, the publishing arm of the New York Times, and the book will be published next month. Last week, he circulated an email that Rabbi David Wolpe describes as “an end zone dance, a strutting lack of humility.” Here is the beginning of Beinart’s email:

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Progressive Journalist Says Israel Bombed its Own Diplomats

Michael Rubin 02.14.2012 - 10:12 AM

During the Nixon administration, Secretary of State Kissinger sought to tighten the rotation of American diplomats to just a couple of years in any particular country, and to ensure they were posted at the State Department regularly. He believed the loss of in-depth knowledge when a diplomat left a long-term posting was more than offset by the fact that so many diplomats posted overseas lost perspective, accepted conspiracies by osmosis, and adopted the biases of foreign societies.

The same holds true for journalists. Foreign correspondents and their military beat colleagues stationed overseas sometimes drink too much of the local water. Usually their editors catch the nonsense, but sometimes craziness slips through. Thomas Ricks, at the time a military correspondent for the Washington Post, and now a blogger for ForeignPolicy.com, suggested that Israel purposely allowed Hezbollah to launch missiles into northern Israel in order to have an excuse to retaliate. According to Ricks:

One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they’re being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.

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The Absurdity of the Moral Equivalency Proponents

Michael Rubin 02.13.2012 - 4:00 PM

Jonathan Tobin is absolutely right to dismiss those who argue that Israel forfeited its moral standing by allegedly assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists. Rather, the fact that some argue Israel “started it” shows moral blindness and ignorance of context.

The Islamic Republic has made no secret of its support and direct sponsorship of terrorism in Israel over the years. The Iranian regime sponsored the Karine-A arms shipment, for example, going so far as to dispatch the ship during an Israel-PLO ceasefire.

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Re: Israel’s Iranian Allies of Convenience

Michael Rubin 02.13.2012 - 2:15 PM

On Thursday, Jonathan Tobin penned an apt defense of alleged Israeli cooperation with “Israel’s Iranian Allies of Convenience,” the Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization (MEK), in which he observes:

While the group denies it is involved with Israel, it is difficult to doubt the truth of the allegation that the Iranian dissidents have been receiving Israeli training and have been used to carry out attacks on Tehran’s nuclear program, in particular the assassination of Iranian scientists.

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Israeli Official: “We Have Every Intention of Defending Ourselves”

Seth Mandel 02.13.2012 - 12:15 PM

Following this morning’s attempted terror attacks against Israeli personnel in Georgia and India, Israeli officials said they would respond, though declined to specify further.

“I don’t think that it would be true to say that we are going to sit back and twiddle our thumbs,” Paul Hirschson, deputy spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters and others on a late-morning conference call organized by The Israel Project. Hirschson said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have already indicated, “we have every intention of defending ourselves”–the primary obligation, he said, of any sovereign state under attack.

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What Obama’s Reelection Would Mean for Iran’s Nuclear Program

Alana Goodman 02.13.2012 - 11:55 AM

Newsweek has a must-read today on the cooperation between the U.S. and Israel on halting Iran’s nuclear program. The detail getting the most attention is the Obama administration’s decision to keep crucial intelligence from Israel regarding the locations of nuclear scientists. But the lack of intelligence-sharing goes both ways – Israel is also staying mum about when it will strike Iran, if it decides to take that course.

The reason for the silence seems to be a breakdown of trust between the Israeli government and the Obama administration. While the U.S. has the capability to attack the program after it goes fully underground, Israel’s window of time for carrying out a successful attack is much shorter. And the Israelis have reason to doubt Obama would take military action if he wins reelection, Newsweek reports:

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The Israel-Iran Moral Equivalence Trap

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.13.2012 - 10:59 AM

Those who have expressed grim satisfaction at the reports of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists have been told they will sing a different tune if Israelis or Jews are targeted by Iran. Today’s news of attacks on the Israeli embassies in Georgia and India will, no doubt, lead some to assume those responsible are in some way taking revenge for the Iranians. But the assumption that Israel is reaping what it sowed is off the mark. So, too, is the attempt by Israel’s critics on both the right and the left to claim there is some moral equivalence between Israel and Iran.

The first problem with this equation is that Iran and its various terrorist auxiliaries need no new excuse to attack Israelis or Jews. Groups like Hamas and Hezbollah have been doing this for many years. When it comes to the question of whether or when Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah will strike, the assumption ought to be they are doing their worst at all times. Second, and more important, is that squeamishness about the attacks on Iranian scientists is entirely misplaced if not completely disingenuous.

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Turkey’s Foreign Minister Bashes Israel as Turkey Slaughters Kurds

Michael Rubin 02.12.2012 - 10:00 AM

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has been visiting Washington, supposedly to talk about Syria. He has, however, upheld his promise last autumn to use every international gathering to bash Israel. As the Turkish press reported at the time:

“[Israel] despises and plays with the people’s honor in this region,” Davutoğlu said, adding that Turkey would continue to highlight Israel’s unlawful acts in all international platforms.

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Israel’s Iranian Allies of Convenience

Jonathan S. Tobin 02.09.2012 - 5:15 PM

If politics makes strange bedfellows, wars make even stranger ones. That has always been true for all nations and is no less the case for the state of Israel in our own day. Beset by a world of Arab and Islamic foes, it has taken its allies wherever it can find them. A generation ago that meant a cozy if embarrassing relationship with apartheid-era South Africa. Those critics of the Jewish state who wish to make much of this should remember Nelson Mandela was happy to embrace the support of the Soviet Union and totalitarian Cuba. Today, with an Islamist regime in Iran threatening not just the security of Israel but the existence of the nation via a nuclear weapons program the world has been powerless to stop, Israel has reportedly found another set of unsavory allies: the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (also known by their Farsi acronym MEK), a dissident group that has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States.

According to a report from NBC News, U.S. officials believe Israel has employed members of the People’s Mujahedin in harassing the Iranian government and its minions. While the group denies it is involved with Israel, it is difficult to doubt the truth of the allegation that the Iranian dissidents have been receiving Israeli training and have been used to carry out attacks on Tehran’s nuclear program, in particular the assassination of Iranian scientists. While Jerusalem’s critics will call this hypocritical and illegal, their qualms won’t impress many Israelis.

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