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Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

 

Contents: Media-ocrity of the Week | Weekly Quotes |  Short Takes |  On Topic Links

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Media-ocrity of the Week

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is turning Israel into South Africa, opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said in his speech opening the Knesset’s winter session on Monday. “Stop trying to scare everyone and say we could turn into Greece or Spain,” Mofaz said. “I think you’re turning us into South Africa of last century.”  Mofaz did not specify whether he was calling Netanyahu’s policies apartheid-like or if he meant the prime minister is leading Israel to international isolation.

 

[A once leading Israeli politician provides ammunition to the forces of delegitimation, likening Israel to South Africa from the rostrum of the Knesset!! – Ed.] (Jerusalem Post, October 16, 2012)

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"Are you telling us that the day after the Benghazi attack you stood in the Rose Garden and called it an act of terror? Is that what you are saying? Let's get that on the record." —Mitt Romney to President Barak Obama in disbelief during the second presidential debates. (Newsday presidential debate transcript, October 17, 2012)

 

“And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, Governor, is offensive. That’s not what we do. That’s not what I do as president. That’s not what I do as commander in chief.” —President Barak Obama’s heated response to Mitt Romney who said that “the president the day after [the assassination of the United States ambassador] flies to Las Vegas for a political fundraiser, then the next day to Colorado for…another political event, I think these actions taken by a president and a leader have symbolic significance, and perhaps even material significance, in that you'd hoped that during that time we could call in the people who were actually eyewitnesses. We've read their accounts now about what happened. It was very clear this was not a demonstration. This was an attack by terrorists.” (Newsday presidential debate transcript, October 17, 2012)

 

"We weren't told they wanted more security there, we did not know they wanted more security again." —US Vice President Joe Biden during the vice-presidential debate (Oct. 12). "The vice president directly contradicted the sworn testimony of State Department officials. He's doubling down on denial." candidate for president, Mitt Romney in response. (Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2012)

 

“The Global Jihad is stepping up its efforts to target us, and we will continue to interdict it with aggression and might, in terms of both response and pre-emption,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Israeli cabinet in Jerusalem on Sunday (Oct. 14) following increased Gaza rocket attacks from al-Qaeda linked terrorists against communities in southern Israel where two people were treated for shock. (Matzav, October 14, 2012)

 

“Iran has provided Hezbollah with the funds, training and advanced weapons to hijack the Lebanese state and turn it into an outpost of terror.” Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, in an address to the UN Security Council. “One does not need any further evidence that Hezbollah is a direct proxy of the Iranian Regime. Hezbollah’s continued provocations could have devastating consequences for the region.” In a clear reference to the European Union which refuses to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, he said: “…some countries around this table continue to define Hezbollah as a charitable and political group, not a terrorist organization. This is no less ridiculous than describing the Mafia as a gentlemen’s social club….It is time for all responsible nations to call Hezbollah exactly what it is: a global terrorist organization” (National Post, October 16, 2012)

 

"The Jews have…spread corruption on earth, spilled the blood of believers and in their actions profane holy places, including their own … [Badie called on Arabs to confront Israel] "…through Holy Jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance. … Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress." — Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie, in Egypt's Official Government-Owned Al Ahram Newspaper, October 11, 2012 (Simon Weisenthal Center, October 14, 2012)

 

“They have used violence, which now everyone has seen. They are worse than Mubarak.” —Alef el-Sayyed , 45, a liberal author and columnist who said Islamists had torn her shirt during a clash in Tahrir Square between opponents and supporters of Egypt’s president Mohammed Morsi.  Waleed Sayed, 22, returning to the square with his head bandaged and a bloody shirt in his hand, said an Islamist had hit him with a rock. “We did not do anything,” he said. “We were just protesting the situation in the country. We have no jobs. We have no money.” (New York Times, October 13, 2012)

 

“We were discussing a clause [proposed for the constitution] prohibiting forced labor and sex trafficking in women and children. I and some other members objected to this clause. We said that "trafficking in women" in the UN covenants refers to child marriage….Then they wanted to add an article protecting women from violence. With such a clause, you wouldn't be allowed to say anything to her, let alone touch her. And there were things worse still… If your wife claims that you were intimate with her without her consent, it will be considered rape according to the law. This is part of women's protection from violence. If you have full sexual relations with your wife against her will, she will be able to file a complaint against you. That's where things are headed.” Muhammad Saad Al-Azhari, a member of the Egyptian Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting the new Egyptian constitution, on an Egyptian TV talk show broadcast on Al-Nas TV, September 24, 2012. (Elder of Ziyon, MEMRI, September 24, 2012)

 

"The Nobel Peace Prize isn’t so much a peace prize as it is an appeasement prize. There is nothing that I can think of that would recommend giving this honor to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats sitting in Brussels. All too often, the EU’s foreign policy interventions have been marked by cowardice….[and] there is one policy dilemma that symbolizes the EU’s weakness better than any other: its refusal to designate the Lebanese Islamist organization Hezbollah as a terrorist group." —Ben Cohen commenting on the recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. (Algemeiner, October 15, 2012)

 

“There was great mirth on Friday of the “at least the Nobel committee did not give the European Union the economics prize” variety. Except that the use of the Nobel Peace Prize as a morale boost for Eurocrats struggling to contain a currency crisis is no laughing matter. It diminishes the prestige of the prize – and the achievements of those who truly deserve it. Worse, the pretext offered, that the EU gave Europe peace, is an insult to the role of Canadians and Americans in ending centuries of European bloodshed….Want to trace the origins of European peace? Read Article 1 of the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, which calls for members to settle international disputes “by peaceful means.” Article 2 committed members to maintain a “free” political system. This was backed up by military muscle…The year NATO should have been given the prize was 1991, when the West won the Cold War. Except that would have meant giving the Nobel Peace Prize to NATO militaries, with the U.S. military earning the biggest share in it, something the leftish Norwegian Nobel Committee could not countenance.” —Globe and Mail editorial. (Globe and Mail, October 13, 2012)

 

“This negligence [on the part of the United Nations concerning Bosnia] 20 years ago was explained by the international community being caught unprepared in dealing with the issues of the post-cold-war era,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashing out at the UN’s inaction vis-à-vis Syria, in a sign of escalating frustration in Turkey after days of cross-border shelling with Syria. “Well, how can the injustice and weakness displayed in the Syrian issue be explained today?” (New York Times, October 14, 2012)

 

“Human Rights Watch found that the authorities in Gaza have a broken justice system,” Bill Van Esveld, author of a Human Rights Watch report about Hamas justice in Gaza. “They are putting people in prison without warrants, denying people access to their lawyers while in detention, cases of abuse in detention are not being investigated and some people have been executed on the basis of confessions that were extracted under torture.” Mr. Van Esveld says at least 100 Palestinians said they had been tortured in 2011, although he believes the number to be much higher as many are afraid to speak out. “We were in Cairo,” Mr. Van Esveld said “and urged members of the Muslim Brotherhood to use their influence on Hamas,” which is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood. (National Post, October 12, 2012) (Top of Page)

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ROMNEY LEADS NATIONALLY BY 4 IN GALLUP POLL (Columbus, Ohio)A new Gallup national poll has Romney up among likely voters by 50-46 percent. Gallup’s daily tracking poll out [Tuesday] was the latest evidence of the Romney surge that began after the first presidential debate two weeks ago, giving the Republican a 4-point margin over his rival. And Gallup found the president’s lead among women — one of his key voting blocks — eroding to 6 points. In 2008, Obama won the election with a commanding 14 percent margin among women. Among men who are likely voters, Gallup showed Obama trailing by 14 points. In Obama’s race against John McCain four years ago, they split the male vote. Even college grads seemed to be fleeing the president, with Romney leading 61-39 when likely voters were counted. In 2008, Obama won this group by a 2-point margin. (New York Post, October 17, 2012)

 

CANDY CROWLEY’S BENGHAZI LIFELINE TO OBAMA (Hempstead, New York)

[T]he moderator [Candy Crowley, CNN] of  [Tuesday’s] hotly contested presidential debate uttered an untruth about President Obama’s deadly bungling in Libya after Obama overtly asked her on live television to support his dishonest version of it. During the debate, GOP candidate Mitt Romney stated –correctly— that “it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.” After Romney’s statement, Obama interjected, “Get the transcript.” At that cue, Crowley cut off Romney, claiming that Obama had in fact called the attack an “act of terror” around the time it took place. “He did call it an act of terror,” [Crowley] said of the president.  Crowley also happens to be wrong.  In the White House’s Rose Garden on Sept. 12, Obama suggested that an anti-Islam video had provoked the attack. He then offered a throw-away line, making a general statement that “no acts of terror would shake the resolve of this great nation.” At no time did he say the events in Benghazi were instigated by terrorists. (Front Page Magazine, October 17, 2012)

 

NETANYAHU MOVES TO ADOPT ‘LEVY REPORT’ ON SETTLEMENTS (Jerusalem)

Israel Radio reported that Netanyahu was seeking to implement sections of the Levy Report, which recommends the legalization of unauthorized Jewish settlements in the West Bank and declares Israel’s presence in the territory legal under international law. In the report, Supreme Court justice Edmund Levy, former Israeli Ambassador to Canada Allan Baker, and retired justice Techiya Shapira wrote that ever since the 1917 Balfour Declaration, no sovereign state had formally annexed the West Bank territory and that, consequently, the Geneva Convention was not applicable. “A belligerent occupation is between two sovereigns,” Baker said. “We could not accept the definition that this is a classic occupation. That is the novelty of this report.” (Times of Israel, October 17, 2012)

 

FIGHTING ISRAEL HATERS WITH THE LAW (Netanya) Shurat HaDin's director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Esq., speaks at Netanya Academic College, during a conference titled "Countering Assaults on Israel's Legitimacy." In her remarks, she discusses the battle Shurat Hadin is waging against delegitimation and Arab lawfare against Israel.  To view the video click here: Shurat Hadin. (Israel Video Network, October 16  , 2012)

 

IAF KILLS TOP GAZA AL-QAEDA LEADER(Tel Aviv) Israel Air Force planes targeted a terrorist cell in the southern Gaza Strip that was preparing to launch a rocket into Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said. Two Gaza terrorists killed by Israel on Saturday (Oct. 13) were the most senior al-Qaeda affiliates in the Palestinian enclave, and one had links to jihadi networks in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, (Matzav, October 14, 2012)

 

GAZANS FIRE FIRST ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE AT IAF —(Gaza)Gaza terrorists fired shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles last week at Israeli aircraft, according to Yediot Aharonot. The missiles missed and no injuries or damage were reported. Sources said the missiles were probably the Strela-2/SA7, a Soviet-era shoulder mounted missile. This is the first time these missiles were used by Gaza terrorists, although there have been reports that Gaza groups had them for years. (Elder of Ziyon, October 17, 2012)

 

VIDEO SHOWS PALESTINIANS CUTTING DOWN OLIVE TREES(Shomron)A video entitled “Harvesting Incitement” released by the Shomron Regional Council on YouTube purports to show Palestinians and left-wing activists cutting down olive trees in a tactic meant to frame West Bank settlers as the perpetrators according to an unnamed witness in the video. “They cut down these trees to start a fire in the media or in their ovens. It’s suspicious because it comes close to the Jewish settlements.” the witness says. In all more than 450 trees were vandalized last week as the harvest began. This is not the first time that Palestinians have been accused of framing settlers. In 2010, Israeli news service Tazpit claimed to have documented the destruction of trees in an effort to accuse settlers. (Algemeiner, October 15, 2012)

 

NOBEL GIVES PEACE PRIZE TO CRISIS-RIDDEN EU(Oslo, Norway) Norway's Nobel Committee handed its 2012 Peace Prize to the European Union, even as the bloc faces its most serious crisis since it emerged from the ruins of two world wars, an award that served as both endorsement and warning. The committee, whose decision Europeans both celebrated and mocked, said the prize recognized more than six decades during which the conflict-ridden continent pulled together and became a harbinger of "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights" at home and beyond. (Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2012)

 

EUROPEAN SATELLITE PROVIDER CUTS OFF IRANIAN TV (Paris)A top European satellite provider took 19 Iranian television and radio broadcasters off the air as a result of European Union sanctions aimed at punishing human rights abusers. Satellite provider Eutelsat agreed with media services company Arqiva to block the Irib channels as of Monday morning [Oct 15] because of "reinforced EU council sanctions" Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O'Connor said. Critics have long argued that Iran’s state-run Press TV and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (Irib) are plagued by hatred of the West and contain anti-Semitic broadcasts denigrating Israel, Jews and Zionists. (Jerusalem Post, Honest Reporting, October 15, 2012)

 

AT BAR ILAN, 100 YIDDISH STUDENTS ARE – ARAB! (Tel Aviv) About a quarter of the 400 students studying Yiddish at Bar Ilan University are Arabs, says Ber Kotlerman, academic director of Bar Ilan’s Center for Yiddish Studies. According to Kotlerman, some of the Israeli Arabs are searching for a way to connect to the Jewish culture with which they must cope, and it is not easy for them. “Even Jews in the Diaspora search for this — a way to connect to the local culture — and it is wonderful that Yiddish can be a sort of ambassador, a bridge between nations and cultures,” he says. (Al Monitor, October 15, 2012)

THE HIDDEN HORROR OF ‘THE SCREAM’ (New York) Already under fire by heirs who claim their art was stolen during the Nazi era, the Museum of Modern Art plans to display what one man claims is another painting with a shady Nazi past — “The Scream.” MoMA will unveil an exhibit of the Edvard Munch masterpiece next week. But relatives of German-Jewish banker Hugo Simon, who owned the work in the 1920s and ’30s, came forward before a Sotheby’s auction this spring to contest its sale, and they say it’s wrong for the museum to display it without at least explaining its tragic history. Rafael Cardoso, a Brazilian curator and Simon’s great-grandson, says his forbear had to sell the treasure when he was declared an enemy of the state and driven from Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. The Nazis deemed it “degenerate” art and would have sold or destroyed it. (New York Post, October 14, 2012) (Top of Page)

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A Presidency Squandered  :Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, October 16, 2012

The Obama narrative is that he inherited the worst mess in memory and has been stymied ever since by a partisan Congress — while everything from new ATM technology to the Japanese tsunami conspired against him. But how true are those claims?

 

How Will History Remember Obama’s ‘Cairo Speech’? : Mary Grabar, Front Page Magazine, October 16, 2012

Obama felt his words would heal the wounds inflicted by the United States before his tenure and therefore titled his speech “A New Beginning.”  By falsifying history, he built up the Middle East and Islam, while he disparaged the United States, the West, and, of course, President George W. Bush. 

 

Syrian refugees flocking to Turkey push the limit : Linda Gradstein, Jerusalem Post, October 17, 2012

For weeks now, the Ankara government has been saying that the number of 100,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey was a “psychological limit” – the point at which the border crossings would be closed.

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