Jimmy Carter, "United Palestinian government may provide new opportunities for peace": Another Anti-Israel Harangue

In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "United Palestinian government may provide new opportunities for peace" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jimmy-carter-united-palestinian-government-may-provide-new-opportunities-for-peace/2014/05/12/9e36f4a8-d9dd-11e3-b745-87d39690c5c0_story.html?hpid=z2), Jimmy Carter would have us believe that reconciliation between the PLO and Hamas, whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews (not just Israelis) and rejects in absolute terms a negotiated peace solution with Israel, "may provide an opportunity for a new round of peace talks, permitting Israel finally to live in peace with its neighbors." Yeah, right.

Bur before arriving at this conclusion, Carter is swift to blame Israel for the failure of the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which were sponsored by John Kerry. Carter writes:

"With the suspension of U.S.-sponsored peace talks on April 29, dangerous unilateral steps are likely to continue. During the previous nine months of negotiation, 14,000 new Israeli settlement units were approved, more than 3,000 Palestinians were arrested and 50 were killed, provoking troubling examples of Palestinian retaliation, including the deaths of three Israelis."

Re new Israeli settlements, Carter makes certain not to examine the facts. As observed by in a recent Washington Post opinion piece entitled "Israel gets no credit from Obama for a year of moderate settlement construction" by Elliott Abrams and Uri Sadot (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/israel-gets-no-credit-from-obama-for-a-year-of-moderate-settlement-construction/2014/03/13/d2ee1b12-aab8-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.html):

"Israel built 2,534 housing units last year in the West Bank. Of these, about a quarter (694) were in two major blocs near Jerusalem, Giv’at Ze’ev and Betar Illit, and 537 were in two other major blocs, Modiin Illit and Ma’ale Adumim, also near Jerusalem. These four, which will remain part of Israel, account for half of last year’s construction. They are not isolated outposts but instead are towns with populations in the tens of thousands, near the Green Line, as the 1949 armistice line and 1967 border are known.

The critical figure to monitor is the number of Israeli houses built outside such blocs in areas intended for the future state of Palestine. What the CBS data tell us on that question is that only 908 units were built last year in Israeli townships of 10,000 residents or fewer. And most of those units were built in settlement towns that are part of the major blocs. Units built in areas that would become part of Palestine number in the hundreds — and likely in the low hundreds. Given that about 90,000 Israelis live in the West Bank outside the blocs, that is approximately the rate of natural growth. So much for [President Obama's] claim of 'aggressive construction.'"

With regard to the arrest of Palestinians, are we to ignore ongoing Palestinian terror against Israeli civilians? Carter doesn't bother to mention that more than 100 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israeli towns and cities from Hamas-controlled Gaza since the beginning of 2014.

Moreover, additional examples of Palestinian terrorism directed against Israeli civilians are not lacking. For example, there was the December 22, 2013 bus bombing in Bat Yam, Israel, in which disaster was averted when an alert passenger noticed a suspicious unattended bag. In January, Israel arrested four Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives responsible for the bombing, including a Palestinian Authority police officer.

Fifty Palestinians have been killed during the past nine months? Carter's "unbiased" source for this information is Secretary General of the National Palestinian Initiative, Mustafa Al-Barghouti, who declared that "approximately" 50 Palestinians had been killed (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/10428-50-palestinians-killed-during-current-peace-talks). Regrettably, Carter and Barghouti fail to inform us whether this number includes terrorists killed while firing rockets or terrorists who died in "work place accidents" while preparing bombs.

But why should we be surprised by any of this, given Carter's hatred of Israel? As noted by The Elder of Zion (http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/jimmy-carter-called-hafez-assad-close.html#.U3G-7MKKDct):

"In February, 1982, Syria's president Hafez al-Assad murdered between 30-40,000 people in the city of Hama.

A year later, in March 1983, Jimmy Carter referred to the mass murderer as 'a close personal friend' who he has a 'special relationship' with. He expressed the hope that if Assad would come to the negotiating table, he could be on the same side as the Egyptians, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Americans in pressuring - Israel."

Hafez al-Assad was of course the father of Syria's current leader, mass murderer Bashar al-Assad, responsible for the use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Why does WaPo still provide Carter with a platform to vent his thinly disguised anti-Semitism? God only knows.

Obama Nominates John Kerry, "Dear Friend" of Bashar al-Assad: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, particularly with respect to Obama's nomination of John Kerry as secretary of state. Kerry repeatedly visited Damascus on Obama's behalf, dined with the Syrian mass murderer, and "after a motorcycle ride with Bashar al-Assad, he returned to Washington and referred to Bashar as 'my dear friend'" (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/21/1171392/-SecState-John-Kerry-and-his-dear-friend-Bashar-al-Assad).

Yes, I know, Chuck Hagel is even worse. Ed Koch and Alan Dershowitz couldn't see this coming?

A hat tip to Elder of Ziyon (http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/john-kerry-to-replace-hillary.html) for publicizing this very telling photograph:

From the National Jewish Democratic Council (http://www.njdc.org/media/entry/kerry122112) on Kerry's nomination:

"“We are ecstatic to see that President Obama has selected Senator Kerry to be the next Secretary of State.

. . . .

Senator Kerry is a true statesman, and his record on the foreign policy issues of special interest to the Jewish community is exceptionally strong. He has been a leader when it comes to Israel and has made it abundantly clear that he—like the Obama Administration—stands squarely behind the Jewish state. On Iran, Senator Kerry has been a prominent voice of support for the Obama Administration’s leadership, and his commitment and knowledge on the subject are beyond question."

The NJDC is "ecstatic"? What kind of "leadership" has been demonstrated by the Obama administration regarding Iran? Why am I so nauseous?

The Columbia Journalism Review Slimes Israel

In November 2011, Justin D. Martin published an article in the Columbia Journalism Review entitled "Speech in Israel Is Not Free" (http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/speech_in_israel_is_not_free.php) in the Columbia Journalism Review), in which he stated:

"Palestinians rights to assemble, to visit family and friends, and to access institutions are crippled by an Israeli police presence that would’ve made Mao giddy and George Orwell vomit. This is in addition to a twenty-five-foot-high wall that is over 400 miles long, equipped with electrical fencing, sniper towers, and razor wire that keeps Palestinians where the Israeli military wants them."

Martin failed to mention that over the past three years the number of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank was reduced from 41 to 15, through which traffic flows freely. Moreover, as Palestinian President Abbas indicated in May 2009 to Jackson Diehl of The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803614.html):

"'I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements,' he said. 'Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.'"

People in the West Bank are living a "normal life"? Peculiar, that's not what Martin would have us believe.

But what about Martin's twenty-five-foot-high, 400-mile-long "wall"? In fact, the Israeli West Bank separation barrier is some 470 miles long, but only 10% of the barrier consists of a concrete wall; the remainder is a fence.

Martin didn't know this? The Columbia Journalism Review didn't conduct a fact check? Anyone traveling along Israel's Route 6 can see this for himself or herself.

More to the point, who is Martin? Beside his article there is an "About the Author" blurb stating:

"Justin D. Martin , Ph.D., is the CLAS-Honors Preceptor of Journalism at the University of Maine and authors the Borders & Bylines column for CJR."

But now do a Google search using his name. Surprise: The American University of Cairo tells us (http://www.aucegypt.edu/fac/Profiles/Pages/JustinMartin.aspx):

"Justin D. Martin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

. . . .

His research and writing have appeared in . . . Columbia Journalism Review . . . ."

So why does the Columbia Journalism Review only refer to Martin's association with the University of Maine? When writing a scathing article about Israeli journalism, his association with a university in Egypt is irrelevant?

Martin has just written another Columbia Journalism Review article entitled "Which Countries Jail the Most Journalists Per Capita?" (http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/which_countries_jail_the_most.php), condemning - you'll never guess in a million years - Israel. In his article dated April 2, 2012, Martin writes:

"By far the country that jails the most journalists per capita is Eritrea; Israel is a distant second. The CPJ report was quick to list Iran as the world’s premier jailor of journalists, and the Islamic Republic is up there, but clearly Eritrea and Israel also need to do some explaining. Israel jails more journalists than either the Palestinian Authority (zero) or militant group Hamas (three), both of which it criticizes for human rights miscarriages."

Martin's article notes that four journalists have been jailed in Israel, which has a population of seven million. However, as observed in the Elder of Ziyon blog (see: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-misuse-statistics-israel-accused.html) and by Omri Ceren in Commentary (see: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/04/03/academic-attack-on-israel-press-freedoms/#more-789797), Martin's article fails to consider the extremely high number of journalists working in Israel, the numbers of arrested journalists cited by Martin are incorrect (e.g., in Turkey), and at least one of the four journalists detained by Israel engaged in terrorist activity.

I would only add that Martin might want to consider reading David Keyes April 5 opinion piece in The Washington Post, entitled "Where’s the outcry over Palestinian censorship?" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/silence-on-palestinian-censorship/2012/04/05/gIQAZ3khxS_story.html). Keyes, who is executive director of the New York based organization Advancing Human Rights and co-founder of CyberDissidents.org, writes:

"A university lecturer and single mother of two, Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, was arrested in the West Bank last week for criticizing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook.

. . . .

In recent months, Hamas has cracked down on dissidents, women and online activists. It has arrested journalists, banned a social media conference and jailed several bloggers.

. . . .

Under Abbas, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has replicated Hamas’s brutality.

. . . .

George Canawati, director of Radio Bethlehem 2000, was arrested in September over a Facebook post that criticized Bethlehem’s health department.

Mamdouh Hamamreh, an employee of al-Quds TV, was detained last fall and charged with libel and slander against Abbas for allegedly posting on Facebook a picture of Abbas standing next to a photo of an actor who plays a traitor on a Syrian soap opera.

Journalist Rami Samara was held in February after criticizing Palestinian leaders on Facebook. And Palestinian journalist Youssef al-Shayeb was jailed last month on allegations of defaming public officials after he reported on corruption among Palestinian diplomats.

. . . .

On Sunday, yet another journalist, Tarek Khamis, was arrested by Palestinian forces after he posted criticism on Facebook of the recent Palestinian Authority crackdown."

Yet according to Martin's article, "Israel jails more journalists than either the Palestinian Authority (zero) or militant group Hamas (three), both of which it criticizes for human rights miscarriages." Zero arrested by the Palestinian Authority? What's wrong with Martin's math? The Columbia Journalism Review, published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, needs to seriously examine the kind of "journalism" it is fostering.