Tuesday, September 16, 2008

CBC Critically Examines Israel's Enemies

CBC Critically Examines Israel's Enemies

September 16, 2008

By: Mike Fegelman

Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:
 
More often than not, the Canadian and international media have sought fit to report on the Arab-Israeli conflict through the narrow lens of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 
Reporting on the pervasive violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Western journalists employ conventional black and white narratives to a conflict which deserves colour, context, and clarity.
 
Whether as a result of a lowest common denominator way of thinking or due to a lack of contrarian thought, this dogmatic approach adopted by the Mideast media deceives news consumers into thinking they're getting a fair and complete representation of the region.
 
The result: Israel's legitimate security concerns get short shrift, Arab vs. Arab violence gets under reported, and human rights continue to be ignored in the broader Middle East.
 
When our public broadcaster, the CBC, went beyond this Mideast "conventional wisdom" and featured critical reporting on the Iranian nuclear threat and on the dangers of Hamas' rule in Gaza, it's important that we pause, take note, and expose excellence when it's deserving.
 
Iran's Existential Threat to Israel
 
On the August 27 edition of CBC's "The National," reporter Terry Milewski documented what a Persian night in Jerusalem would be like for the over 60,000 Iranian Jews now living in Israel, even though as he acknowledged "Iran's president threatens to wipe Israel off the map."
 
Milewski painstakingly analyzed the existential threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to Israel. He rhetorically asked: "But it's not just the Iranian Jews who are intensely interested in all things Persian. Israel, and the world beyond, is debating the looming question: should Israel strike at Iran's nuclear facilities before the mullahs get the bomb?"
 
To view the full 8-minute report please click here or on the image below:
 
                                           
 
On CBC.ca, Milewski adapted this feature segment into a "Report From Abroad." In it he interviewed Menashe Amir who has been broadcasting to Iran on Israel's state-run radio for 48 years.
 
According to the report: "Amir said the West has failed to understand the Iranian threat. He believes the regime is opposed by most Iranians but is consumed by an apocalyptic vision: the triumph of Shia Islam [also known as Shiite] over the world. 'Western governments', he says, don't see that, for the Iranian mullahs, the destruction of the Jewish state is just a step along the way... But Amir points out, on the same day, in the same speech that Ahmadinejad called for wiping off Israel from the map, he added that the destruction of Israel is the first step of our final confrontation with western civilization... Amir says the regime dreams of a new caliphate - an Islamic empire spanning the globe."
 
In focusing a critical lens on the Iranian threat, Milewski's candid and thought provoking analysis brought necessary context to what could be an inevitable military confrontation between Israel and Iran.
 
The Specter of Hamastan
 
On the September 1 and 4 editions of CBC News Sunday and CBC Around the World, Milewski continued his whirlwind trip to the region with a second feature-length report. This time he analyzed the threat that Hamas poses in making the Gaza Strip a full-blown Islamic state.
 
Milewski set the tone of his report with an upfront acknowledgment that Hamas' well-oiled propaganda machine was playing it up for the CBC's cameras:
 
"In Gaza, the Islamic warriors of Hamas are preparing for war. At least it looks like they are, but in truth this is theatre. It's a photo-op to show the foreign media that Hamas is building an army to destroy the state of Israel. Such photo-op's are frequent since Hamas seized power in Gaza last year..."
 
To view the full 5-minute report please click here or on the image below:
 
                                          
 
His exclusive report (which was also adapted on CBC.ca) chronicled Hamas' intimidation of the media and Palestinian society at large, their threats to Palestinian security and stability as Hamas continues to "aim its guns inward." Milewski noted that Hamas really has "no program to end Gaza's isolation," how it refuses to recognize Israel, is boycotted as a terrorist organization, and how ordinary Palestinians desperately want peace with the Jewish state.
 
Milewski's in-depth report saw him secure an exclusive interview with Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar, (see photo above) whose irrational comments were almost laughable. Milewski noted that Zahar "Isn't going to evolve" and that for the "ideologists of Hamas... the goal is the extinction of Israel."
 
In conclusion Milewski boldly notes: "This in a nutshell, is Gaza's problem. Instead of adapting to its environment, Hamas expects the environment to change. As long as Hamas threatens to destroy Israel, Gaza remains isolated and wretched. Many Gazans will blame Hamas as well as Israel. So Hamas may have to keep its guns pointing inward."
 
How You Can Make A Difference
 
It's human nature that we're more likely to criticize than to give acclaim, but when investigative reporting reflects the highest standards of newsgathering, it's important that we recognize excellence. Terry Milewski's recent reporting on the threats that Iran and Hamas pose to Israel deserve to be commended.
 
Please send your considered comments to the CBC's Audience Relations department and refer to Terry Milewski's September 1 report on Hamas and his August 27 report on Iran.
 
 
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VIDEO:Canada Human Rights

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Legitimate Questions Should Be Discussed

I am reminded of how established "science" has been wrong many times before such as in the case of Piltdown man. So could it be wrong now? Or has it been perfected? Should not reasonable arguments be considered?

We have become a nation of beggars

Terence Corcoran reports in the National Post on Friday, January 16, 2009 that the STIMULUS everyone is yelling for may only work over a short period and may actually MAKE THE ECONOMY WORSE over longer periods.

[Read the article below for the researchers who studied this phenomenon.]

POINTS

- "What if, as a wide and growing school of economists now suspect, the government spending and stimulus theory is a crock that is shovel-ready to be heaved out into the barnyard of economic waste?"

- Even disciples of Keynes, such as Harvard's Greg Mankiw, recently highlighted economic studies that show government spending binges -- shocks, they are sometimes called -- don't seem to help the economy grow. They might even make it worse.

-One of the studies cited by Mr. Mankiw was by two European economists (Andrew Mountford and Harald Uhlig), titled "What are the Effects of Fiscal Shocks?" It looked at big deficit-financed spending increases and found that they stimulate the economy for the first year, but "only weakly" compared with a deficit financed tax cut. The overriding problem is that the deficits crowd out private investment and, over the long run, may make the economy worse. "The resulting higher debt burdens may have long-term consequences which are far worse than the short-term increase in GDP."

-A paper by two economists, including the current chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, concluded that increased taxes and "increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on private investment spending."

-Roberto Perotti, an Italian economist with links to Columbia University, in "Estimating the Effects of Fiscal Policy in OECD Countries," found nothing but bad news for Keynesians. Economic growth is little changed after big increases in government spending, but there are signs of weakening private investment.

- What we all might logically intuit to be true -- spend government money, especially borrowed money, and you stimulate growth -- has long been thought to be a fallacy by some economists. That thought is now spreading. British economist William Buiter said the massive Obama fiscal stimulus proposals "are afflicted by the Keynesian fallacy on steroids."

The whole article by Terrance Corcoran follows:

Are you "shovel-ready," poised to hit the ground running, or merely desperate for cheap cash to get through the recession? If so, here's your last chance to apply to Ottawa for a piece of the massive government spending-bailout-infrastructure-stimulus operation now being prepared for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's Jan. 27 budget extravaganza.

To get you going, the National Post has created an all-purpose Stimulus Canada application document. Simply make sure your company/institution fills out the form here to get in on the action.

We're just kidding, of course, or at least we were until our satirical Stimulus Canada General Application Form was mugged by reality, which is rapidly turning out to be funnier than the fanciful idea of a government department called Stimulus Canada. To all intents and purposes, Stimulus Canada already exists.

Government money to flow, the taps are opening, deficits are no problem. The spending, as Stephen Harper said after a meeting with the premiers on Friday, will be "very significant" and there will be "very significant deficits." That could mean new spending of $20-billion and deficits of $40-billion.

Industry groups, corporate opportunists, charities, municipal politicians, arts groups, provincial premiers, tech firms, mining companies, forestry operators, banks, money lenders -- in fact, just about everybody has come forward to get in on Canada's portion of what is turning out to be a mad global government stimulus pandemic.

Each claims to have a plan or an idea that they say would produce jobs, spending, investment and activity that would get Canada through the recession and stimulate the economy.

At some point, though, the clamour of claims and calls becomes absurd, and that point looks to have been crossed the other day in the United States when porn merchant Larry Flint said the U.S. sex industry was falling on hard times, business was down 25%, and it needed a $5-billion slice of the $1.2-billion U.S. stimulus program.

And why not?

Mr. Flint has a point. It is not totally illogical for anyone to think that way. If you spend a dollar somewhere -- whether building a bridge or operating a forest company or buying a car -- it generates activity. And, after all, it's a grand old economic theory, created by John Maynard Keynes, that spending, especially government spending, rolls through the economy on a giant multiplier, piling jobs on jobs, growth on growth.

Except for one problem: What if it's not true? What if, as a wide and growing school of economists now suspect, the government spending and stimulus theory is a crock that is shovel-ready to be heaved out into the barnyard of economic waste?

The Prime Minister, in his comments on Friday, seemed to be riding right into the barnyard. He said the government would be simply "borrowing money that is not being used" and "that business is afraid to invest." By borrowing that money, and turning it over to all the groups and interests looking for part of the stimulus spending, he would be jump-starting activity while the private sector got its legs back.

Even disciples of Keynes, such as Harvard's Greg Mankiw, recently highlighted economic studies that show government spending binges -- shocks, they are sometimes called -- don't seem to help the economy grow. They might even make it worse.

One of the studies cited by Mr. Mankiw was by two European economists (Andrew Mountford and Harald Uhlig), titled "What are the Effects of Fiscal Shocks?" It looked at big deficit-financed spending increases and found that they stimulate the economy for the first year, but "only weakly" compared with a deficit financed tax cut. The overriding problem is that the deficits crowd out private investment and, over the long run, may make the economy worse. "The resulting higher debt burdens may have long-term consequences which are far worse than the short-term increase in GDP."

Two other studies point in the same direction. A paper by two economists, including the current chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, concluded that increased taxes and "increases in government spending have a strong negative effect on private investment spending."

Roberto Perotti, an Italian economist with links to Columbia University, in "Estimating the Effects of Fiscal Policy in OECD Countries," found nothing but bad news for Keynesians. Economic growth is little changed after big increases in government spending, but there are signs of weakening private investment.

What we all might logically intuit to be true -- spend government money, especially borrowed money, and you stimulate growth -- has long been thought to be a fallacy by some economists. That thought is now spreading. British economist William Buiter said the massive Obama fiscal stimulus proposals "are afflicted by the Keynesian fallacy on steroids."

Over at Stimulus Canada, Mr. Harper's plan looks somewhat more modest and Canada is not in the same fiscal fix as the United States. But Ottawa and the provinces are clearly ready to borrow big wads of money from the future to stimulate the economy today. It's money that is supposedly sitting out there in the timid hands of investors who will be repaid with tax dollars later.

But if that stimulus spending does not generate much fresh economic growth, and the borrowing chews up money that private investors could invest in the future, the shovel-ready brigades who get the cash today will produce only short term gains at the expense of the long term health of the economy.

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