IHH GREAT PEOPLE?

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Italian legislators, German NGO's call to ban IHH
A group of Italian legislators and the coordinating council for German non-governmental organizations have each urged their respective government to ban the IHH - which sponsored the violence aboard the Mavi Marmara two months ago - as a terror organization.

“The Islamic fundamentalist nature of IHH has been documented by numerous declarations praising martyrdom and Israel’s destruction,” said Nirenstein, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party who is spearheading the effort.

Citing the EU’s definition of terrorism as “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, including by funding its activities or supplying material resources,” Nirenstein said in a statement that the IHH sponsors terrorism, according to the EU’s criteria.

Nirenstein is vice president of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies and chairs its committee for inquiry into anti-Semitism.

“Several investigations and reports testify to the involvement of IHH in global terrorism, and many videos and documents attest to its jihadist attitude... the Turkish organization IHH (Insani Yardim Vafki) [is] one of the main promoters of the Mavi Marmara and responsible for its violent implications.”...

People of Freedom deputies Nirenstein, Enrico Pianetta, Guglielmo Picchi, Antonio Martino and Gennaro Malgieri last week submitted their parliamentary question to outlaw IHH within the EU to the Italian Foreign Ministry.

A sixth deputy, Massimo Polledri from the Northern League, also supported the parliamentary initiative. The Northern League is part of the governing coalition along with the People of Freedom party....

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Council of German Nongovernmental Organizations against Anti-Semitism called on the Merkel government and Bundestag lawmakers to move to place IHH on the EU list of terrorist organizations, because “like Hamas the IHH is an anti- Semitic organization that promotes terrorism.”

In a separate statement earlier this month, the Coordinating Council slammed the Bundestag for its “one-sided motion” singling out Israel for blame because of its seizure of the Gaza flotilla on May 31, which “fails to mention Hamas anti-Semitic agitation, their anti-democratic rule in Gaza and the connections between Turkish entities and the Hamas terrorist organization.”

Good videos make a difference. Think about how condemnatory of Israel the initial reaction to the Mavi Marmara was until all those videos started getting out. There's a lesson there.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
New York Times: Not Just Anti-Israel But Pro-Islamist.
By Barry Rubin

The New York Times--with the exception of some honorable reporters in the field (you know who you are)--never ceases to amaze one in the spectacularly biased writings of those back at headquarters. Here's one that's particularly remarkable, a real piece of advocacy in which the reporter does everything possible to justify flotilla ships trying to run the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

He also selectively discusses the IHH sponsor of the previous flotilla, leaving out all the evidence (presented in my articles and elsewhere) of its radical and terrorist connections, including U.S. court documents. I explained this for the Times more than five weeks ago but they paid no attention and they still cannot find any of this evidence!

The article even includes a pro-IHH video without any balancing video, of which a number are easily available. There is virtually no hint that the militants on board had earlier shouted slogans advocating genocide for Jews, declared their intention to be Jihad martyrs, or attacked and kidnapped the arriving soldiers.

In addition, this article was written after Germany banned the IHH's local branch for supporting terrorism but doesn't even mention this fact. (Yes, I know the German government said it was a separate group but that is a purely formal organizational point.)

And on top of that the article was also written after the terms of the blockade were changed, with the approval of the U.S. government and personal endorsement of President Barack Obama no less. These new regulations only exclude military and dual-use items. There is no mention of the fact that circumstances have changed and thus any new flotilla ship can hardly be humanitarian since there is no limit on consumer goods.

Nor does it mention that the purpose of the flotillas--even before, but most obviously now--is not to help the people of Gaza but to ensure the easy import of weapons and militarily useful goods for a radical, antisemitic, anti-American repressive regime that opposes a two-state solution and openly proclaims its intention of committing genocide on Israel's Jews.

If this kind of thing appeared on a left-wing blog (or an Iranian or Syrian newspaper) it would at least not be surprising. But this is the New York Times. I no longer write a response like this one to correct errors in the Times coverage, but rather to point out that this is not the great newspaper (whatever its flaws) that once was considered America's best. It is, at least on issues concerning Israel (again with honorable exceptions) a propaganda sheet, a shill for totalitarian and mendacious forces.

For other examples, see the Times' remarkably deceptive portrayal of an Egyptian antisemitic extremist as a moderate, or the imbalance in its op-ed page. If you want to read a serious, balanced, full-service print newspaper pick up the Washington Post instead.

Are there still journalism classes where an article like this would be presented as a horrendously bad example of what newspapers should do?

Note: If you want to think you're helping Palestinians, promoting peace, and being fair--or even being merely moderately anti-Israel--at least have the decency to back the Palestinian Authority (PA) and oppose Hamas. The PA is corrupt, still riddled with radical elements, sometimes involved in terrorism, and unready for a real two-state solution. But at least, unlike Hamas, it isn't a client of Iran intent on maximizing terrorism, subverting all non-radical Arab regimes, indifferent to the well-being of its own people, crushing women's rights, expelling Christians, destroying American influence in the region, deliberately endngering civilians for propaganda purposes, seeking war at the earliest possible opportunity, and intent on committing genocide.

Fiery Spirited Zionist: The New York Times Defends the IHH
New York Times: Not Just Anti-Israel But Pro-Islamist. By Barry Rubin, The Rubin Report The New York Times–with the exception of some honorable reporters in the field (you know who you are)–never ceases to amaze one in the spectacularly ...
Posted by LEL at July 30, 2010 8:22 AM
The New York Times: Not just anti-Israel, but pro-jihad ...
Weblog about jihad theology and ideology, correcting popular misconceptions about Islam.


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