Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Help Defend Israel in the Media War




 

Dear Friends,

According to a recent New York Times article, Hamas has shifted from "rockets to culture war" in their goal to win popular support through "cultural initiatives and public relations." Additionally, the Globe & Mail, Canada's "paper of record," made similar statements recently claiming by some unknown veracity that Hamas is moving "towards moderation."

Are these media outlets woefully naïve or willfully ignorant?

Consider the following: If Hamas did truly adopt non-violent tactics, could the Times and the Globe please explain why late last week, two Hamas terrorists were killed while handling a bomb which was being prepared for use against Israeli forces? Could they explain why Hamas is currently digging tunnels next to UN facilities under the assumption the IDF will not target them during a future conflict? Could they explain why Hamas summer campers recently re-enacted the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and why its charter still calls for the destruction of Israel?

Terrorist tactics are manipulating the media. That's why since 2003 HonestReporting Canada has been fighting for more balanced and accurate media coverage. We need your help now more than ever to protect Israel's image from a hostile press. Click here to make your contribution to speak up for Israel.


We can't let the media get away with this type of terrible anti-Israel bias. We must demand that the media publish stories based on facts, not Palestinian propaganda.

It's crucial that HonestReporting Canada has the resources to effectively respond, especially when such stories, at times, actually affect Israel's decision about how to safeguard its citizens.

We are
working around the clock to demand that the Canadian media get the story right. We are regularly in contact with senior editors, producers, and reporters from various Canadian media outlets to sensitize them to Israel's concerns and towards fair, accurate, and balanced journalism. But right now we need your help to continue our efforts. Please take a minute to click here to our secure donation page to make a contribution.

Our success this year has only been because friends like you care about Israel's image and are outraged when the Canadian media misreports the facts. Please join us in defending Israel against biased reporting by considering the following sponsorship options:


Thank you for all you do on behalf of Israel.

Sincerely,

 
 
Mike Fegelman
Executive Director, HonestReporting Canada
mike@honestreporting.ca

P.S. Checks payable to HonestReporting Canada can be sent to:

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fwd: B'nai Brith Canada raises the alarm over Carleton's reinstatement of alleged synagogue bomber

Press Release Logo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


B'nai Brith Canada raises the alarm over Carleton's reinstatement

of alleged synagogue bomber 

 

TORONTO, July 28, 2009 – B'nai Brith Canada is deeply disturbed by the news that Hassan Diab, the alleged bomber of the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris in 1980, will be teaching an upcoming sociology course at Carleton University.  That terrorist attack, blamed on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations, resulted in the murders of four Jews, with scores more injured.

 

"Canadians should be extremely concerned that an alleged terrorist, accused of committing such heinous acts, will be teaching our youth at a leading Canadian university," said Frank Dimant, B'nai Brith Canada's Executive Vice President.  "This man, who is wanted in France and currently out on bail while the investigation continues, is accused of murdering four people in cold blood just because they were Jewish and decided to worship in a synagogue.

 

"We find it deplorable that university officials believe that there is nothing wrong with employing Diab.  The safety and security of the community as a whole, and of the Carleton University campus in particular, are of great concern to us.

 

"The conditions of Diab's bail do not even allow him to leave his home alone or to own a cell phone, but Carleton officials believe that it is fine for them to make him a member of their faculty?  The last place in the world where this man belongs is in a university classroom, in front of impressionable students."

-30-

B'nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875
 as the Jewish community's foremost human rights agency

 





 


Thursday, July 16, 2009

Canadian Media Eager To Pick Up Flawed Anti-Israel Report

 
 Canadian Media Eager To Pick Up Flawed Anti-Israel Report
July 16, 2009
 
 
Dear HonestReporting Canada Subscriber,

Will the media ever learn?

In March 2009, Ha'aretz published a story alleging "war crimes" and serious ethical failures on the part of the IDF in Gaza. Predictably, many international media outlets repeated the allegations without bothering to do any rudimentary checks.

Subsequently, it was revealed that the soldiers' testimonies were based on nothing more than rumours and hearsay, causing acute embarrassment to Ha'aretz and serving up a salutary lesson for those media outlets that reproduced such shoddy journalism.

Now, Israeli non-governmental organization Breaking the Silence has published a new report reliant upon testimonials from soldiers who served in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Once again, allegations of "war crimes" and misdemeanours are based on second-hand evidence and hearsay.

Defending the IDF operation against charges including the use of human shields, Golani Brigade commander Col. Avi Peled stated that one of the soldiers who testified in the report was not even in the field at the time: "He told his commander about a week [during] which he wasn't even in the field. He reported about what he heard happened."

The IDF has issued an initial response to Breaking the Silence that can be viewed on the Canada-Israel Committee's blog by clicking here.

NGO Monitor's Dan Kosky points to the Breaking the Silence report's central problems - flawed methodology and absence of any reasonable research standards:

"By Breaking the Silence's own admission, the allegations are comprised of "the testimony of around 30 combatants" - a fraction of the thousands of Israeli combat troops deployed during the Gaza conflict. This extremely narrow and presumably hand-picked sample is an absurd basis on which to pass judgment, and even these limited testimonies were entirely unverifiable.

All statements are anonymous, and so-called "evidence" is further compromised by the absence of any details of where and when alleged incidents occurred. Consequently, were the report intended to prompt the IDF to investigate individual allegations, Breaking the Silence has made this impossible."

Once again, Canadian and international media outlets rushed to publish a story from another flawed source. While the Toronto Star gleefully pushed the story to its front page in yesterday's edition, the Globe & Mail featured a special report from freelancer Orly Halpern on page 10. Other Canadian media also covered the story, including: CBC.ca, CBC Newsworld, CBC Around the World, CBC Radio's The World This Hour (Listen Here) and The Current, CTV.ca, CTV Newsnet, Global National, City TV International, Toronto Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Le Devoir, Montreal Gazette, Waterloo Record, Hamilton Spectator, Le Nouvelliste, London Free Press, Radio-Canada radio (Listen Here), Radio-Canada.ca, Radio-Canada's Le Telejournal, and Halifax's Chronicle Herald.

The Globe & Mail's Orly Halpern (pictured right) even wrote on her personal Twitter page: "I'm reading a really moving report which I will be writing about for the Globe and Mail. It makes me sick to my stomach." This statement begs the following question: Can an objective and balanced story emerge when emotions rather than facts are the driving force?

With this in mind, Halpern's report was marred by many missing facts. Unlike the CBC's and Toronto Star's reports, Halpern failed to mention why Israel carried out "Operation Cast Lead," which was designed to prevent Palestinian terrorists from firing rockets into southern Israel. No mention was made that Hamas has been accused of war crimes by Israel along with several human rights organizations. Also missing from the report was any reference that there were Israeli casualties in the war. Again in contrast to the CBC and the Star, the Globe's report only described the Palestinian casualties from the 22-day conflict. Even more remarkable though was that Israel's adversary in the conflict, Hamas, was not even mentioned in this report!

Furthermore, Halpern's statement that "Israel destroyed more than 3,000 homes and damaged some 20,000 others - in some cases entire neighbourhoods were razed" lacked any attribution. While this may be a claim made by Amnesty International, Ms. Halpern presented this statement as fact, whereas in reality it would be almost impossible to determine who was responsible for the destruction and damage of the homes given Hamas' booby-traps, secondary explosions, etc.

Commendably though, CTV Newsnet (Watch Here) allowed Israeli spokesmen Yigal Palmor over 6-minutes to rebut the allegations made by Breaking the Silence. While Toronto Star reporter Oakland Ross noted that "Israel insists its armed forces took heroic measures to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza" and that "Last month, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told a Jerusalem audience the IDF did more to safeguard the welfare of civilians during Operation Cast Lead "than any other army in the history of warfare."

How You Can Make A Difference:

Breaking the Silence has succeeded in gaining the international publicity that it sought. Many media outlets, most notably the Globe & Mail, have demonstrated their propensity to uncritically publish  unverifiable accounts from non-governmental organizations that feed their own unquestioning narrative of Israel and the IDF.

Please send your considered comments to the Globe and Mail at: letters@globeandmail.com and refer to Orly Halpern's July 15 report entitled "Report reveals deadly Israeli actions in Gaza" citing some of the many deficiencies we pointed out.

This communique was adapted from HonestReporting International. Click on the image below to find out more and subscribe.


                                

     
 
 
   
 
 
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Net Atlantic

VIDEO:Canada Human Rights

VIDEO of CTV PowerPlay Canada Human? Rights Commission?

Iranian S-Elections?

Evolution / Intelligent Design

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.

Educational Purposes Only

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We do not necessarily agree with all links posted here but we include them to bring balance to an unbalanced media.