Sunday, June 6, 2010

6/6/10: HuffPost publishes incendiary anti-Semitic libels (again) --- this time, from one of its own "reporters"

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Summary: This is a continuation of the article: 6/2/10: HuffPost's total blackout of "the rest of the story" regarding the "Peace Flotilla."
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Is Israel attempting to "exterminate Palestinians... through starvation"? If you say, "Of course not!! Who, aside from Al Qaeda or Hamas, would make such a stupid, libelous, anti-Semitic* accusation?," then welcome to reality. Of course, your grasp on reality puts you directly at odds with the Huffington Post, which decided to publish a front-page rant by one of its "reporters," using that exact terminology, on Sunday, June 6, 2010.
(*For a quick definition of anti-Semitism, refer to Seeing Anti-Semitism In 3D by Natan Sharansky.)
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The reason this is all so serious is that HuffPost is now the #1 blog in the world*, and a top ten U.S. "news" site, which gets preferential treatment in presidential news conferences --- in large part because of its claims that it is a "nonpartisan newspaper."
(*with an estimated 135,000 visitors from Iran and Pakistan; see Section 4.3 here)


Jason Linkins is described in his bio as follows:
Jason Linkins is a Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, covering media and politics. He's based in Washington, DC. Previously, he wrote for HuffPo's Eat The Press, and has also contributed to DCist and Wonkette.

To which we contend one more credit should be added: "Shameless shill for the cyber-jihad."

In his article TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads today, which was positioned just beneath the top story on HuffPost's front page, Linkins vomits up a generations-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory --- currently repeated endlessly by militant Islamists --- that the U.S. government invariably supports Israel, presumably because Jews "own" the government (emphasis added):
I sure hope he [Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren] will be fair to Israel, because I'm beginning to think that the lockstep support from the U.S. Government and the tacit agreement to not make observations or conclusions that suggest the Israel is not infallible to a Pope-like degree isn't good enough for anyone, anymore!

Linkins almost immediately follows this slur with his direct recitation of one of al Qaeda's and Hamas's main talking points (emphasis added):
Well, you know, the slow systemic extermination of [Palestinian] people through starvation and privation sure is peaceful.

Of course, Linkins is full of crap, as this article will thoroughly demonstrate. But before we go there...


How ironic --- it was only a few months ago that Mr. Linkins excoriated another publication for... not exercising adequate editorial control

Here's how Jason Linkins lashed out (justifiably) at another "Internet newspaper" just a few months ago:
In short, the facts Corsi obtained torpedo the premise of his piece, which, I remind you, is that the "shooter advised [the] Obama transition." Were this being written for a responsible journalistic entity, some creature called an "editor" would have stepped in and said, "Hey, Jerome, you realize that by your own findings, you article is complete horseshit, right?" But this is World Net Daily, written by and for complete charlatans.

Hypocrisy, anyone? Anyone? Bueller? It doesn't even matter, if the journalistic world is either too unknowing, or too afraid, to point out the red-letter hypocrisy at HuffPost. So let's demolish Linkins' most incendiary libel, in detail, shall we?


First, no one in Gaza is starving --- mostly because of the aid that Israel sends into the region

If Israel is working to "exterminate" the Gazans, how is it that they have one of the world's highest population growth rates, as well as one of the highest birth rates?

That might have something to do with the fact that Israel works hard to ensure that the civilian population in Gaza has plenty of food and medicine. Here are a few pictures of the aid that Israel has provided, or allowed to be brought in by charities. Does it look like Gazans are starving, Mr. Linkins?


And it was only a few months ago that Hamas blamed Egypt --- not Israel --- for "starving" Gazans. And remember, it is Israel that is letting the UN bring several hundred thousand laptop computers for "starving" Gazans.

But you don't have to mention any of that Mr. Linkins, because you work for a publication that is perfectly willing to publish your inflammatory claims and conspiracy theories against Israel (Except, didn't Ms. Huffington recently claim that such things are prohibited on HuffPost? Why, yes she did!).


Second, the reason Gazans may be feeling a pinch is because Hamas is turning back the aid that Israel is trying to get through

According to the Guardian (not exactly known as an Israel-friendly paper), on June 3, 2010:
The de facto Hamas government in Gaza has refused to accept truckloads of aid offloaded from the flotilla raided by Israeli forces earlier this week.

According to officials in Gaza, Hamas has said it will not permit the supplies to enter the besieged territory until all detained activists are released and Israel agrees to deliver all aid consignments, including construction materials.


Third, Gazans have a bit of a history of destroying the materials given to help them become self-sufficient

From here. According to the Guardian:
American Jewish donors had bought more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers in Gaza for $14 million last month and transferred them to the Palestinian Authority. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who brokered the deal, put up $500,000 of his own cash. Palestinian police stood by helplessly Tuesday as looters carted off materials from greenhouses in several settlements, and commanders complained they did not have enough manpower to protect the prized assets. In some instances, there was no security and in others, police even joined the looters, witnesses said.

And according to the New York Daily News:
GAZA - A week after they descended like locusts on the greenhouses that Jewish settlers nurtured in Gaza, looters continue to pillage what should be a prize asset for a fledgling Palestinian state. [...] When a Daily News correspondent visited abandoned Jewish settlements in Gaza, he found brazen vandals dismantling farms that once produced some of the world's finest tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. The now-gutted greenhouses were gifts to the Palestinian people from U.S. philanthropists, who raised $14 million to buy them from departing settlers.



Fourth, who is working towards whose "extermination," Mr. Linkins?

Those with even the most basic grasp of knowledge of the Middle East know that there is only one group that has openly advocated for the "systemic extermination" of another group: Militant Islamists, including those in the Gaza Strip, who vow to exterminate Jews. Here are Hamas's glorious, official words of peace, diplomacy, tolerance, diversity, inclusion, understanding:
  • "We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity" (January 2009)

  • "Suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next... Therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews" (April 2008)

  • "Jews are a people who cannot be trusted. They have been traitors to all agreements. Go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing." (April 2008)

  • "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it... There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." (Hamas charter, 1988)

And here are the glorious words of Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah:

More here: 4/8/09: One-sided coverage of "Outlandish Statements" from the Middle East

Where has an Israeli or Jewish leader ever said anything that even approaches any of the above, Mr. Linkins? Of course, none have. But that doesn't really matter, does, so long as you can continue perpetuating HuffPost's long history of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel lies and double-standards, and no one calls you out on it.


CONCLUSION & ACTION ITEM

In the final analysis, it doesn't even matter if Mr. Linkins is ignorant of the fact that he is mindlessly parroting militant Islamists' talking points, and libels against Jews and Israel. The vital facts are as follows:
  • This is not an isolated incident of HuffPost's anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bias, or its willingness to use its website to incite and tolerate hatred of both. To the contrary, it is part of HuffPost's continuing pattern of such behavior.
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  • HuffPost claims it has 53 "editors," who one would assume are in charge of... editing the work of its "reporters." Can anyone with even a passing interest in journalistic standards explain how such inflammatory claims and conspiracy theories (which Ms. Huffington claims she has prohibited!) could be published by a "newspaper" that claims to be nonpartisan, and that what makes it different and better than its rivals is that it recognizes "the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned"?

Perhaps, one day, someone in a position of influence will ask HuffPost to explain itself.

For now, if you are as concerned as we are about HuffPost's blatant anti-Semitic bias, and would like to make your voice known to its management (politely, please), here's how.


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