Thursday, March 12, 2015

Mondoweiss:
“Two days ago Israel’s foreign minister called for beheading Arab citizens of Israel who are ‘against us.’ Haaretz did the story yesterday. So did Newsweek. Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Arab citizens who are not loyal to the state of Israel should have their heads ‘chopped off with an axe.’

The minister, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and an outspoken critic of Israel’s Arab population, made the controversial remarks on Sunday in a speech to an election rally held in the western Israeli city of Herzliya …

‘Those who are with us deserve everything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe,’ the ultra-nationalist politician said. The incitement resulted in a call to behead Haneen Zoabi, the outspoken Palestinian member of Knesset …"

—>The NY Times has carried many gruesome stories about Muslim beheadings, but so far has refused to print this. The NYT did carry a Reuters story on-line, under the misleading title of “Lieberman Says Israel Should Execute Arabs Who Carry Out Deadly Attacks.” 

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Mondoweiss:
“Today The New York Times printed a long article at the top of its national section stating that the ugly prejudice of anti-Semitism has returned to the United States, on college campuses. …

‘The session… has served to spotlight what appears to be a surge of hostile sentiment directed against Jews at many campuses in the country, often a byproduct of animosity toward the policies of Israel.’

Let’s repeat that phrase: ‘what appears to be a surge of hostile sentiment directed against Jews at many campuses in the country.’ That’s a very large claim, and the piece offers no evidence for ‘a surge.’ None. If there really is ‘a surge’ of Jew-hating bigotry, why isn’t the Times sending its army of correspondents out nationwide to track down this awful trend?

The Times does not cite any other example of alleged hostility against Jews besides the UCLA case. …”

—>The NYT is echoing the right wing Zionist view that all criticisms of Israel are antiSemitic. We deserve more from our newspaper of record.

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Guardian UK:
“Top Afghan officials have presided over murders, abduction, and other abuses with the tacit backing of their government and its western allies, Human Rights Watch says in a new report.

A grim account of deaths, robbery, rapes and extrajudicial killings, 'Today We Shall All Die,' details a culture of impunity that the rights group says flourished after the fall of the Taliban, driven by the desire for immediate control of security at almost any price.

'The rise of abusive political and criminal networks was not inevitable,' the report said. 'Short-term concerns for maintaining a bulwark against the Taliban have undermined aspirations for long-term good governance and respect for human rights in Afghanistan.' "

—>The NYT put this story by Reuters on-line rather than in print, and the story itself consisted mostly of denials by Afghan officials.