Saturday, April 27, 2013

The increasingly unhinged Jewish Chronicle

The JC's steady morphing into a mixture of the Guardian/Haaretz continues unabated (see here, here and here for some of my previous reports on this,  and there is also the excellent website http://jcwatch.wordpress.com/ that  is dedicated to the subject).

In fact, not only does the JC increasingly share the Guardian/Haaretz worldview (i.e. extreme left wing and grudgingly acknowledging Israel's 'right to exist' while frequently providing a platform to vicious anti-Israel bigots) but it is increasingly dominated by writers who really are from the Guardian/Haaretz. I have already noted the fact that Haaretz stooge Anschel Pfeffer is their primary Israel news reporter and we are now also getting the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland on the Comments page more or less every week now (I can save you the bother of reading what he writes since every piece can be summarised as either "as a Jew I wish to express my disgust with the Israeli government" or "as a Jew I wish to express my disgust with orthodox Jews").

Most Jews in the UK are strongly pro-Israeli and they assume that the one newspaper they can rely on to share their views on Israel is the JC. Most of these people get their ONLY news about Israel from the JC and they assume - if anything - that it is strongly biased in favour of Israel. To show how  they are being deceived here are some highlights from today's issue:
  •  The whole front page (and page 11) is taken up with Pfeffer's scare story "Two months to sleep soundly" in connection with the growing threats from Iran and Syria, ignoring the irony that it is  Pfeffer and his left-wing colleagues who have continually warned Israel not to take action against Iran as there is no real threat.  I guess in his world he would rather live with a nuclear Iran - and hence not sleep soundly - than stop Iran from getting the bomb. Of course, Pfeffer has failed to report any of the genuinely good news from Israel in the last few weeks such as the shekel being the strongest currency in the world in 2013, and Israel being on the verge of energy independence with the beginning of the gas flowing from its enormous off-shore fields.  In fact, his other main article this week is on Page 13 titled "Thousands hit by Israeli airline strike"
  •  On Page 21 (the Judaism page) we have the most offensive article of the week "We must take a stand against settler violence". This is the ultimate inversion of reality perpetuated especially by antisemitic NGOs. There are an incredibly tiny number of minor incidents recorded against Palestinians by 'settlers' (most of which incidents later turn out to be either hoaxes or, as in the case of Mosque daubings, to have been the work of Arabs) - far fewer incidents per head of population than there are acts of brutal racist violence in London. Yet there is a genuine - but unreported by the JC - intifada taking place against Jews in East Jerusalem and in Judea and Sumaria. This involves daily targetting of cars and even school buses with rocks that sometimes end up killing the occupants. The JC has failed to report on any of this, which has been going on now for several months - not even bothering with the story of the small child Adelle Biton who has been on emergency support and unconscious since she was injured in such a rock attack last month. Today was her 3rd birthday.
  • On Page 26 with have the full page "JC Essay" by 'broadcaster' John Ware titled "How peace gap might just be bridged" which is full of the usual Kumbayar cliches about the Palestinians really wanting peace if only the Israelis would not be so aggressive, and including gems of wisdom like:
"Does any rational Israeli seriously believe that score of checkpoints, entry permits to Jerusalem, construction of settlements, restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, can continue in perpetuity without some sort of violent outlet, sooner or later"
It is funny how nobody expects Israelis to turn violent even though they have to suffer checkpoints at every single public building they enter, are currently banned from building in their own capital city, are not allowed ANY movement into Palestinian controlled areas, and actually have to face the continual real terrorism of the Palestinians.
But then again it is funny how nobody expects UK Jews to turn violent when they have to put up with the nonsense in the JC week on week.....
  • On Page 2 (for the second time in 3 weeks) we have a story "Board Oxfam links stay" about the Board of Deputies link with Oxfam, which was always a scandal and should have been stopped immediately when news got out that Oxfam was funding the antisemitic, terrorist supporting Palestinian charity Miftah. But both articles have simply parroted  statements from Oxfam which not only whitewash the affair but are factually incorrect. Hence both articles are clearly supportive of the Board's ludicrous decision to continue its link with Oxfam. 
  • On Page 4 we have an article "BNP set for trouncing in local election" which is one of the typically dozens of articles in any one week that focus on the 'extreme right-wing threat to Jews'. More often than not these focus obsessively on the EDL which is actually the only genuinely pro-Israel political organization in the country.  What you will almost never see in the JC is anything about either Islamic antisemitism or extreme left antisemitism. In fact you are more likely to see articles by those very Islamists and leftists (indeed it is not a joke that the JC has actually used, as its source of material on the EDL, the anti Semite Weyman Bennett who is a leader of the viciously anti-Israel, violent, socialist UAF which the JC laughingly refers to simply as an "anti racist organization").
  • On Page 22 we have the Editorial and letters. As usual you will not find a single word of support for Israel on this page (typically Israel is either ignored or criticised) 
  • On Page 23 we have the Jonathan Freedland commentary section. No further comment required.





3 comments:

asherpat said...

a few years ago, reading the JC, I felt something was strange. the name was Anschel Pfefel and his attitude was barely veiled anti-Israeli, but in the sophisticated, thinking-man's Israel-hater's Guardian or indeed Ha'aretz style.

I don't read the JC anymore and the free Jewish News is much more balanced. I wish JC all the worst for being traitors for Israel, traitors for Jews.

But one thing you are wrong. there is a sad and worrying trend among some of British Jews friends who have a shift of views towards the "it's the settlements, stupid" and their support of Israel is lukewarm, sometimes none at all. The Oxfam cooperation sham, the Board of Deputies outrage is not an outlier and worse, these attitudes permeate also on the other side of the Atlantic.

Evil is on the rise, but just as I am sure was in the 1930's many Jews blame it on themselves.

Confronting antisemitism and Israel hatred said...

Sadly the free Jewish News is no longer "much more balanced". Please see:

http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/just-who-in-britain-stands-up-for-israel.html

Adam Arger said...

Just because they don't support Israeli terrorism doesn't make them 'leftist', you label slapping little turd. If anything, supporting Israel is the left wing stance. Marxist traitors.