Monday, February 28, 2011

Israel obsession in the New York Times

The coverage of the Middle East in the New York Times is based on this premise: Israeli Jews count much more than 350 million Arabs, and little occupying Israel is more important than all the Arab states combined.  It is amazing how they desperately force Israeli into every story about the Middle East.  Just incredible.  Of course, the racism is not far from the criteria of the paper.  Look at this pathetic story:  "Qaddafi YouTube Spoof by Israeli Gets Arab Fans."  First, there are tons of videos mocking Qadhdhafi, and it makes sense that they would do a story--A DAMN STORY--about this guy.  And notice that they even admit that those Arabs who may have liked the video did not know his lousy identity:  "Mr. Alooshe, who at first did not identify himself on the clip as an Israeli, started receiving enthusiastic messages from all around the Arab world. Web surfers soon discovered that he was a Jewish Israeli from his Facebook profile — Mr. Alooshe plays in a band called Hovevey Zion, or the Lovers of Zion — and some of the accolades turned to curses. A few also found the video distasteful."  But most importantly, the entire story does not stand up to standards of elementary journalism: all the claims that Arabs loved this videos (I have received tons of videos mocking the Qadhdhafi speech) are based on this guy's own account.  Oh, and he does not know Arabic but uses Google translation.  This is a new refrain that I expect to see about Zionist experts on the Middle East: "Mr. Alooshe speaks no Arabic, though his grandparents were from Tunisia. He said he used Google Translate every few hours..."  


And at at time of great turmoil and upheavals in the Middle East, the New York Times has two other Israel related stories:  "Nearly nine years after an Israeli assassination of aHamas leader in Gaza killed at least 13 civilians and led to widespread international condemnation, a government-appointed panel of inquiry concluded Sunday that the operation was flawed but that the consequences “did not stem from disregard or indifference to human lives.”"  And another one:  "Rediscovered, Ancient Color Is Reclaiming Israeli Interest".