CAMERA Highlights of the Week March 15, 2012

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CAMERA Highlights of the Week March 15, 2012	Please click here to support CAMERA's vital work!   Click on the icons below to follow CAMERA:
Greetings Friends of CAMERA: Below is a sample of recent articles and postings on CAMERA's Web site and Snapshots blog.  Don't forget to check both often for the latest. J Street (Sort of) Explains False Claim of Civilian CasualtiesIn a Jerusalem Post story entitled "MK slams J Street for statement on Gaza," a J Street spokesperson attempts to explain her organization's false claim that Israel "killed over a dozen civilians" when in fact almost all the Gaza casualties were terrorists. Nicky Larkin Sees Shades of Grey Irish artist and film-maker Nicky Larkin - who in the past frequently assailed Israel - now sees shades of grey regarding the Arab-Israeli Conflict. In his remarkable article, Larkin describes his change of heart and his interview with a former Palestinian government member. he Economist Blog: Short on Facts, Long on Venom The Economist published under its imprimatur an online blog thoroughly disconnected from the facts and conveying such animus and contempt toward Israel, Judaism and Jews that it is clear no journalistic norms were applied. Bassam Eid's JourneyBassam Eid, the founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, has become an outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority. In an article appearing in the South African Jewish Report (March 9-16, 2012) he bluntly states, “There are no Palestinian leaders capable of conducting peace talks." IHT Reports Discredited Palestinian Claim as Fact Despite the fact that the AFP agrees with the Israeli army that an Israeli airstrike did not kill 15-year-old Nayef Qarmut in northern Gaza yesterday, the International Herald Tribune blames his death on Israel without any                             qualification. CAMERA Prompts NY Times Correction on President's AIPAC Speech The New York Times has commendably corrected an article which last week erroneously reported President Obama's statements at the AIPAC conference regarding Iran's nuclear program.             UPDATED: Dr. Schirrmacher is Polite to His Hosts One of the oddest moments of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference that took place in Bethlehem last week came during a brief welcome offered by Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher from the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). Schirrmacher, who serves as the executive chair of the Theological Commission of the WEA, appeared at the podium in a shirt and tie, but with no formal jacket on the opening night of the conference on Monday, March 5, 2012. UPDATED: International Herald Tribune Caption Challenged, AgainYou wouldn't know it from the caption, but the tear gas engulfed Palestinians were part of a stone-throwing crowd; they were not in Ramallah, but at a Jerusalem crossing; and they were demonstrating on behalf of Hana Shalabi, an Islamic Jihad member. Jodi Rudoren: It's Not Just Tweets Jodi Rudoren's recent friendly tweets to extreme anti-Israel activists were no aberration. More than 10 years ago she was already at it, failing to display the kind of journalistic objectivity that even a cub reporter should know was a basic requirement of her profession. NPR's On Point Unfair to Israel Again NPR's syndicated program, On Point , with Tom Ashbrook continues its tradition of tolerating at least one egregious anti-Israel distortion per Middle East segment. The panel for the March 6, 2012 show “Weighing The Iranian Threat” included David Sanger (chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times), Michael Makovsky (Bipartisan Policy Center) and Graham Allison (Professor of Government at Harvard University). AFP Confirms: Israel Not Responsible for Teen's DeathThe AFP reports, "The Israeli army on Monday denied it had carried out an air strike on northern Gaza which killed a teenager, with an AFP correspondent confirming there was no sign of an air raid." NYT Rewrites Obama's AIPAC Speech President Obama's address last week to AIPAC is available online, as is a word for word transcript, but still, the New York Times, misreported its contents. Helene Cooper reported March 4... PCHR Fabricates Killing of Innocent 'Child' The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is up to its old tricks - claiming that a slain Palestinian combatant was not involved in hostilities. A PCHR statement yesterday ("IOF Kill Palestinian Child and Arrest Another One South of Hebron") reads... UPDATED: J Street Calls Palestinian Rocket Squads "Civilian" J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami released a statement describing all or most of the Palestinians killed during the fighting between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel as "civilians." In fact, nearly all were fighters, and many were killed while trying to fire rockets indiscriminately into Israeli cities. AFP Reports False Accusation, Conceals True Facts Agence France Presse is dutifully reporting on the Arab League's charge that Israel is engaged in a "massacre."  "The Arab League on Saturday condemned Israeli air strikes on Gaza that killed 15 Palestinians, calling it a "massacre" and urging an international tough stance against the Jewish state." Would you think the AFP reporter or editor would consider it relevant to the story that most, or perhaps all, of the Palestinians killed were militants, some who were in the process of firing rockets into Israeli towns? Being There at the Harvard Hate-Fest It can't have been easy for anyone concerned with facts, history, reason, scholarship, moral clarity and so on to spend a weekend listening to anti-Israel agitprop at Harvard's One-State Conference. Janet Tassel's mordant review of the gathering in the American Thinker offers insights into the speakers' views on dissolution of the Jewish state and their speculation on the fate of its Jewish inhabitants. Christ the Checkpoint – A Preliminary ResponseA group of approximately 600 Evangelical Protestants have attended a conference in Bethlehem titled “Christ at the Checkpoint.” This conference, organized by the Bethlehem Bible College, a well-known evangelical institution located on the West Bank, has generated a significant amount of attention, controversy, and concern in Israel and in Jewish communities throughout the world for one simple reason: The words that come out of Christian mouths have had a huge impact on the safety and well being of the Jewish people for most of the past 2,000 years. The sad reality is that Christianity's message of peace has oftentimes been intertwined with horrific expressions of hostility toward the Jewish people and their institutions.