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January 5, 2011

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Media Distortion about Israel - One Example

by Daniel Pipes

January 4, 2011

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2011/01/media-distortion-about-israel-one-example

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Mark Lavie, a long-time Associated Press reporter in Israel, should know a thing or two about the politics in that country. But he writes today at "Israel's Labor: We'll quit if no progress to peace" about tensions in the ruling coalition that

An exit by Labor, a moderate party sitting uncomfortably alongside hawks in the ruling coalition, could undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority and force an election. That would sideline Mideast peace efforts for months.

These two sentences contain much loaded language ("moderate," "peace efforts") but what's really noteworthy is that Lavie writes later in the same article:

Even if Netanyahu loses Labor's 13 seats, his parliamentary majority would remain intact, though barely. Counting Netanyahu's own Likud Party, the five hawkish parties in his coalition have 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a tiny majority even if Labor leaves.

Not only does Lavie contradict himself here – would the government fall or not? – but he makes multiple other errors. For starters, he fails to mention that:

Netanyahu could invite the National Union, a right-wing party with four seats, into the coalition.

Narrow coalitions are the rule in Israeli politics and large coalitions like Netanyahu's are the exception.

Coaltions of 61 have been stable for years in the past.

Yitzhak Rabin passed the Oslo Accords in 1993 with just 61 votes.

Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset, broke from Likud; Netanyahu could potentially split Kadima and pick up another 10 seats.

Were new elections to take place, polling strongly suggests that Likud and affiliated parties would gain seats. Here is a sample poll, from Dec. 5, 2010, with current parliamentary seats in brackets:

32 [27] Likud

26 [28] Kadima

18 [15] Yisrael Beiteinu

08 [13] Labor

09 [11] Shas

05 [05] Yahadut Hatorah

03 [03] Jewish Home/NRP

02 [03] Meretz

04 [04] National Union

03 [00] Centrist party headed by Yair Lapid

10 [11] Arab parties

Doing the arithmetic, the coalition parties that now control 61 seats would, if these figures come true, control 67 seats in a new Knesset.

Comments:

(1)The mainstream media, even the once-reliable Associated Press, misleads even as it informs on the subject of Israel.

(2) Fortunately, there's CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, and HonestReporting.com on the case of biased, incompetent, and dishonest journalism. (January 3, 2011)

Related Topics: Israel, Media

The Arab World – Incubator of Innovation in Terrorism

by Daniel Pipes

December 29, 2010

updated Jan 4, 2011

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2010/12/the-arab-world-incubator-of-innovation-in

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It's been a very long time since Arabic-speaking peoples brought benefit to humanity by, say, developing new medicines and technology or advancing democracy and human rights.

Indeed, the area where the Arabophones seem most adept at innovation would be terrorism. Airplane hijackings, suicide bombings, and mega-terrorism are among their claims to originality.

And now comes the wave of suicide bombers. Note the news from Iraq, "3 suicide bombers used to kill tenacious Iraqi cop," concerning the assassination of police commander Lt. Col. Shamil al-Jabouri by al-Qaida:

As al-Jabouri slept Wednesday morning on a couch in his office, three men wearing police uniforms over vests laden with explosives slipped through an opening in the blast walls surrounding the compound where his building stood, police said.

Police manning one of at least four observation towers surrounding the compound shot one of the attackers in a yard and his vest exploded. Under the cover of that blast, police said, the other two suicide bombers charged about 100 yards (90 meters) and made it into al-Jabouri's single-story building.

They detonated their vests simultaneously - one at the door of al-Jabouri's office - killing the commander instantly and injuring a policeman sleeping in a trailer nearby. The two blasts brought the whole building down, burying the slain commander under the rubble, police said.

Comment: The effectiveness of this cruel new tactic makes it likely to be repeated, and not just in Arabic-speaking countries, either. (December 29, 2010)

Related Topics: Middle East patterns, Terrorism This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

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