Ali Gharib

2006 Rocky Mountain News Article on MEMRI

(Accessed via LexisNexis)

Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) 

March 27, 2006 Monday 

Final Edition 

SECTION: COMMENTARY/EDITORIAL; Pg. 35A 

LENGTH: 773 words 

HEADLINE: MEMRI’s systematic distortions 

BYLINE: Rima Barakat 

BODY:

    As soon as the word came out regarding the upcoming visit to Denver of Dr. Ekrima Sabri, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League sprang into action to disrupt the visit. Both groups immediately sent letters accusing the Grand Mufti of being anti-Semitic and asking co-sponsors to withdraw their support. A press release was sent to the media denouncing the visit. The finishing touches were in News columns by Vincent Carroll (March 7) and Dave Kopel (March 11) that simply seconded the pro-Israeli lobby sentiment. All of their “evidence” seemed to be a regurgitation of the same quotes and accusations. This leads me to suppose that the critics either carbon-copied each other’s statements or that they acquired most of their “translation” from one special source: The Middle East Media Research Institute.

   MEMRI claims to be an independent nonpartisan research institution. One of the co-founders of the organization, Yigal Carmon, is a retired Israeli military intelligence Colonel. Checking the MEMRI website, I found it served up blatant, unbalanced propaganda and was littered with inflammatory articles aimed to incite hate and bigotry toward any person whom MEMRI considers anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist.

   Academics as well as professional journalists have repeatedly censured the organization’s quality and integrity. Brian Whitaker of the Guardian questioned the honesty of some “translations” posted by MEMRI. Whitaker, specifically, referred to an interview with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ekrima Sabri by Al-Ahram Al-Arabi in Oct. 2000 - the same interview quoted by the ADL, the AJC and Carroll.

   Al-Ahram: Q: How do you deal with the Jews who are besieging al-Aqsa and are scattered around it?

   A: I enter the mosque of Al-Aqsa with my head up…I have never greeted them when I came near one. I never will.

   MEMRI’s version: Q: How do you feel about the Jews?

   A: I have never greeted a Jew when I came near one. I never will. They cannot even dream that I will. The Jews do not dare to bother me.

   It is worthy to note that Carmon has admitted this “translation” mistake. Still, it remains uncorrected on his website.

   In another instance, Halim Barakat (no relation), a professor at Georgetown University, published an article in Al-Hayat Daily of London titled “The wild beast that Zionism created: Self-destruction.” By the time MEMRI “translated” it, the title was distorted to “Jews have lost their humanity.” Barakat objected, “Every time I wrote Zionism, MEMRI replaced the word by Jew or Judaism. They want to give the impression that I’m not criticizing Israeli policy, but that what I’m saying is anti-Semitic.” It seems obvious that MEMRI is adamant on stigmatizing anyone who criticizes Israel and/or Zionism as being anti Jewish.

   Similar conclusions were echoed in the January 2005 Greater London Authority report. A study was commissioned to investigate the “Islamic conspiracy dossier.” This dossier was compiled to defame a renowned Muslim scholar and was presented to British officials in an attempt to prevent a renowned Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, from entering Britain to participate in a London conference. The report found that “nearly all the distortions came from material produced by the Middle East Research Institute.”

   Today, the standards of Israeli-Palestinian political and religious discussions have been redefined by pro-Israeli organizations that are working amongst us. If non-Jews voice disagreement with Zionist ideology or expressed moral outrage against Israeli oppressive policies, they are immediately accused of being anti-Semitic and /or anti-Jewish. If one happens to be Jewish, one is branded as being “fringe” or a “self-hating” Jew.

   The continuous attempts of the AJC and the ADL to hinder frank academic discussions pertaining to Israeli government policies may further undermine their credibility. Last October, pro-Israeli organizations tried to interfere with the Friends of Sabeel conference in Denver. Priests and academics were, again, accused of being anti-Semitic or “fringe” Jews. Co-sponsors were asked to withdraw. Among the 70-plus co-sponsors, nobody withdrew.

   Sabri’s visit offered the opportunity for Christians representing many denominations,who gathered recently, alongside their Muslim brethren, to hear his message. He told us that his “Hands are extended with love and peace” and so should ours be.

   We pray and hope that political negativity and Islamophobic stands would not cause the local Muslim-Jewish communities to miss future opportunities to foster greater mutual understandings. 

NOTES: Rima Barakat is a Denver-area Muslim activist.; SPEAKOUT 

LOAD-DATE: March 27, 2006

Bush’s Roadmap and 1967

Bush, April 4, 2002:

Consistent with the Mitchell plan, Israeli settlement activity in occupied territories must stop. And the occupation must end through withdrawal to secure and recognize boundaries consistent with United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338. Ultimately, this approach should be the basis of agreements between Israel and Syria and Israel and Lebanon. 

Bush, June 24, 2002:

Ultimately, Israelis and Palestinians must address the core issues that divide them if there is to be a real peace, resolving all claims and ending the conflict between them. This means that the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will be ended through a settlement negotiated between the parties, based on U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, with Israeli withdrawal to secure and recognize borders.

Draft plan of Bush Roadmap leaked to NYT:

The settlement will end the occupation that began in 1967, based on the Madrid Conference terms of reference and the principle of land for peace, UNSCRs 242, 338 and 1397, agreements previously reached by the parties, and the Arab initiative proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and endorsed by the Arab Summit in Beirut. 

New Egypt, Same old Israel

lurey:

WSJ:

The leading candidate in Egypt’s presidential race said that if he was elected he would break with former President Hosni Mubarak’s reliably amenable policies toward Israel.

Amr Moussa, the 74-year-old outgoing head of the Arab League, said the former regime’s attempts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had “led nowhere” and that Egypt now needs policies that “reflect the consensus of the people.”

(via lurey)

Lufthansa: Don’t be scared if we start to run out of gas…

International and U.S. extra-territorial sanctions against Iran are often credited with making travel on Iranian commercial airlines relatively unsafe. International companies won’t sell Iran spare parts for even routine maintenance on their fleet.

But a new potential side effect of energy sanctions against Iran are causing worries about more than just Iran’s domestic fleet of passenger aircraft. 

Because of sanctions, international flights no longer refuel at Iranian airports. That means that for European airlines, they either have to depart with enough fuel for both legs of the long journey or add refueling stops to their heretofore direct flights. 

A source in Iran recently forwarded me an e-mail from German carrier Lufthansa, Europe’s largest, making clear that though the airline intends to fill the tank for both legs, unscheduled stops may still be necessary. The message is clear: Please don’t be scared if we start to run out of gas on the way home!

The e-mail reads (with my emphasis):

Due to non-availability of fuel from Tehran, following actions have been implemented by Lufthansa:

Lufthansa takes substantial additional fuel in Frankfurt on the flight leg to Tehran. This ensures Lufthansa aircraft have sufficient fuel for both the legs Frankfurt to Tehran and Tehran to Frankfurt. As such, there is no need for a change in our schedule and our flights Frankfurt-Tehran-Frankfurt operate nonstop in both directions.

Nevertheless, there might be very exceptional cases when additional fueling en route to Frankfurt might be required, in which case the pilot will make the decision to land at an airport on the way back to Frankfurt. We would, however, like to stress that such occasions are expected to be very rare.

Lee Smith: In Bin Laden-ruled Syria, No Cell Phone Camera = Death Sentence…

Why? you might ask. Well, because they can share their story and what’s going on. So writes our dear Lee:

You starve a population by denying it food and water, but to cut off its electricity is, in today’s media climate, effectively a death sentence. Without the ability to recharge the cell-phone cameras that have documented the Syrian uprising from its outset, demonstrators will be consigned to a silent death.

This is quite a remark for Smith, who literally sighed with exasperation as he declared recently that the uprising in Egypt was not driven by social media (‘driven by’ is his strawman formulation; ‘facilitated by’ is what most observers say). Okay, he doesn’t say here that the Syrian uprising is ‘driven by Twitter’, but surely it’s these cellphone camera videos are important not just for historical documentation, but also because they are distributed to the public via social media.

I don’t want to be crass, but I think Smith is just pissed that he’s not getting pictures and videos for his demonization campaign against the Syrian government. It’s not as if the Syrian authorities need any help looking like assholes, but Smith is happy to oblige by tapping into the recently re-exposed nerve of 9/11 (as, let’s be honest, neoconservatives are wont to do). The headline on his piece reads: “Bin Laden Lives in Syria”. I guess it’s fair enough to give Smith his totally unnecessary smear campaign, but I shudder to think what his policy prescriptions would be.

No word yet from Smith about how his Strong Horse theory about Arabs is holding up (hint: it’s like a chocolate chip cookie that’s been left in milk overnight). 

The May Issue of Commentary from Outside the (Pay) Wall…

Ahh, that time of the month again when the new issue of Commentary drops, filled as always with long-form attacks on anyone left of Paul Wolfowitz as anti-Semitic…while, of course, the Commentary crowd seems to hate most Jews much more than anyone they ever write about. 

To wit: the May issue issue has an apparently long piece (behind the pay wall) by Noah Pollak attacking B’Tselem. Here’s the blurb:

The B’Tselem Witch Trials

NOAH POLLAK

The world’s most destructive anti-Israel organization isn’t run by Arabs or Europeans. It’s run by Israelis.

If anyone has a sub or works for an organization that does, I’d love to get a copy of the piece.

Otherwise, I’ll just content myself with this essay from John Podhoretz attacking not only Goldstone, but the choice to put him in charge of the mission at all. If you forget about the author for a moment, the first three grafs reads like they could have come from an anti-Zionist conspiracy theory website. The line peddled, though, might not be a just a theory after all, and some people I know and like have criticized this very issue from its other side. 

Podhoretz is his usual nasty self. His rather delusional and repeated assertion that Goldstone was ‘plucked from obscurity’ is pretty ridiculous (though I’m open to the notion that anyone who’s achieved fame on the international human rights scene might indeed be obscure to most neocons). But he does also twice refer to the Goldstone op-ed as a “partial retraction” (“recantation” the second time), and I consider this as something of a victory for honesty insofar as Commentary is capable of such things.

Rabin called them the ‘Three Musketeers’…

For Sam Schulman, one of my favorite interlocutors on the Twitter:

“Whoever was out of power in Israel would come over here to drum up support when they felt they couldn’t do anything at home,” said Samuel Lewis, the former American ambassador to Israel.

In the 1980s, it was the Labor Party….

In the next decade, it was Likud’s turn. Three former Shamir aides — Yoram Ettinger, Yigal Carmon and Yossi Ben-Aharon — and followers of Netanyahu, the opposition leader then as now, were dispatched to Washington to thwart the peace policies of the Clinton and Rabin-Peres governments. Rabin accused them of waging a “campaign of disinformation.”

Netanyahu himself worked closely with Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to undermine Clinton and Rabin.

From “When It Comes to U.S.-Israel Relations, Interference Works Both Ways,” by Douglas M. Bloomfield in the January 24, 2008, on the Jewish Exponent’s website.