Hatchet Job On Israel By 60 Minutes

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

ACTION ALERT

From Stand With Us

On Sunday, April 22, CBS` "60 Minutes" ran a shockingly biased episode, "Christians of the Holy Land" by Bob Simon. Even the always diplomatic Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren called the show a "hatchet job" on Israel.  You can watch the program here.

Ambassador Oren was right. Simon only paid lip service to the violent persecution and flight of ancient Christian communities throughout the region which is the real historical tragedy unfolding in the Middle East. Instead, incomprehensibly, he chose to bash Israel, the only Middle Eastern country that protects Christians. The program scapegoated and demonized Israel, distorting reality to blame Israel`s security measures -- the fence and checkpoints -- for the suffering of Palestinian Christians. Simon interviewed biased and sometimes anti-Semitic sources, treating them as legitimate.  He asked leading questions.  He dismissed the real reasons for the plight and flight of Palestinian Christians: persecution by Palestinian Islamists and the Palestinian Authority. His shoddy, irresponsible research produced propaganda, not journalism. This dangerous misinformation stokes anti-Israel prejudice and bigotry, shifting public attention away from the forces that are imperiling the survival of Christian communities in the Palestinian Authority and throughout the region.

Write to CBS executives.  Demand that CBS offer an apology, and give equal time to correct the misinformation and anti-Semitic innuendos.

WRITE, E-MAIL, OR PHONE THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS, AND BE SURE TO BLIND COPY INFO@STANDWITHUS.COM IN YOUR E-MAILS.

"60 Minutes"
Jeffrey Fager - Chairman of CBS News, Executive Producer of 60 Minutes
524 West 57th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10019-2930

E-mail:60m@cbsnews.com
Phone: 212.975.2006

Bill Owens - Executive Editor of "60 Minutes"
E-mail:bowens@cbsnews.com
Phone: 212.975.7685

CBS News

524 W. 57th Street
New York, New York 10019

Feedback E-mail: weekend@cbsnews.com
Phone: (212) 975-3247 (Leave a message at the tone.)

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear _______,

We were shocked by the shoddy journalism in your April 22nd "60 Minutes" piece, "Christians of the Holy Land." We urge you to run a corrective piece and publicly apologize for the piece`s irresponsible inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and bias. Bob Simon either unwittingly or intentionally promoted hostility toward Israel and anti-Semitic views. In a pattern that he has repeated in the past, Simon interviewed biased sources and treated them as legitimate. He asked leading questions. More disturbing, he ignored and effectively belittled the real threats to beleaguered Christians, which come from rising Islamist persecution throughout the region and in Gaza and the West Bank. Instead, he focused on the one country in the Middle East that firmly protects the rights of Christians. If allowed to stand uncorrected, this program will have misinformed the public and irreparably damaged the reputation of "60 Minutes," which will no longer be considered a reliable news source.

Sincerely,
Your Name

SELECTED DETAILS ON MISLEADING AND ANTI-SEMITIC INNUENDOS IN "CHRISTIANS OF THE HOLY LAND"

Despite the program`s claims, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians` rights are fully protected and where the Christian population has grown instead of declined in the last 64 years.

• Israel`s Christian population grew from 34,000 in 1948 to 154,000 in 2012.
• Israel has fostered a positive environment for Christians, most evidenced by official recognition of 10 Christian denominations and by Israel`s distribution of free Christmas trees every year at Christmas time.

Christians have been emigrating from the Holy Land in a two-century-long trend, not because of Israel and the security policies -- the barrier and checkpoints -- it was forced to implement in just the last 10 years.

• Major emigration occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In some cases, emigrant Christian Palestinian communities grew larger than their communities of origin in the Holy Land.

• During Jordanian control (1948-1967), Jerusalem`s Christian population dropped from 29,000 in 1944 to 11,000 in 1961. In Bethlehem, 75 percent of the population was Christian in 1947; in 1967, the percentage had dropped to 46 percent.

The program interviewed one businessman only to deny the real problem facing Christians: rising hostility and persecution by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian Islamist groups. Why didn`t the program mention any of the following?

• The PA declared Islam its official religion, committed to Sharia law, and does not offer civil protection to other religions.  A few weeks ago, the PA declared that the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem is illegitimate.
• Christians in the West Bank have been victims of repeated persecution, violence, and rape. In 2005, Palestinian Christians, including Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, custodian of the Holy Land, documented 93 incidents of abuse and violence by the "Islamic fundamentalist Mafia" against Christians.
• Christians face intimidation, brutality, theft of their property and boycotts of their businesses.
• The PA Ministry of Information reported in 1997 that "any Muslim who [converts to Christianity] or declares becoming an unbeliever is committing a major sin punishable by capital punishment."
• Christian history is denied by Palestinian Muslims, including Yassir Arafat`s and the recently retired Mufti of Jerusalem who claim that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem.
• The Christian population in Gaza has plummeted from 2,500 to under 1,000 because of persecution by Hamas.

Simon implied that Israel`s policies and the fence are harming the West Bank`s economy.

• In fact, the terrorist war known as the Second Intifada, not Israel, is what harmed the West Bank`s economy.
• As the PA has tried to control terrorist groups, Israel has been able to relax its counter-terrorism measures, bringing the PA extraordinary economic growth of 8 percent per year in the last three years.

Simon interviewed only biased sources -- and did not bother to investigate whether many Christians were afraid to speak out of fear of endangering themselves and their families.

• Simon did not interview clergy and ordinary Christians who might have had the courage to speak up, such as Rev. Steve Khourani of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem; Samir Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem, director of the Catholic radio Station; or the Christian leaders who signed the 2005 document detailing the PA`s persecution of Christians.

Simon asked leading questions to provoke answers that fit his political agenda.

• Simon asked the woman who lived near the security barrier, "How can you live like this?" The barrier may be unpleasant, but his very question suggested it is unjustifiable and intolerable, and he got the answer he wanted.
• When the woman said she wouldn`t move but would stay and "fight," he never asked what she meant by "fight" or why she didn`t instead say she wanted to seek peaceful coexistence so the barrier could be removed. Instead, he stoked the sense that the barrier was intolerable and her reaction understandable -- even though her anger betrayed why the barrier is necessary.

Simon interviewed and promoted anti-Semitic sources.

• Mitri Raheb, the main pastor he interviewed, is well known for promoting replacement theology which Vatican II condemned as a prime source of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
• Raheb delegitimizes Israel and the right of the Jewish state to exist.
• Simon uncritically promoted the Kairos Document though it has been exposed as using high-minded rhetoric to camouflage the authors` sinister motives -- delegitimization of Israel, opposition to the existence of the Jewish state, and calls for boycott and divestment from Israel.

Simon engaged in anti-Semitic innuendos.

• Simon claimed that Israel treats Christians well and wants to promote good Christian-Jewish relations because of the money it gets from Christian tourism.
• In fact, Israel protects Christians, not for tourism dollars -- an anti-Semitic "Shylock" innuendo -- but because those are Israel`s values.

FACT SHEET -- Read more about the persecution of Christians by the Palestinian Authority here.

This is just one part of a greater whole to demonize Israel and the Jewish people.  Both Jeffrey Fager and Bill Owens should change their names to Joseph Goebbels.  For they are just continuing the work that he started.

Call, Write, Boycott the network.  If this is allowed to continue on, the next step will be worse.

A Study The Main Stream Media Will NEVER Show You

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

In a study by Natal, a trauma center for the victims of war and terror, it was discovered that 70% of the kids residing in the town that has been on the receiving end of thousands of rockets in recent years are suffering from at least one symptom of posttraumatic stress. A third of all Sderot's residents suffer from anxiety, and have trouble functioning normally.

Among children this comes in the form of PTSD and Depression.

Shaked and Maor Harush, 11-year-old twins from Sderot, saw a Qassam rocket explode a few feet away for them, setting a car ablaze. Since then, fear has become an everyday presence in their lives.

Shaked suffers from the worst of the trauma. She refuses to leave home without her parents. A slamming door makes her jump. Any conversation about the security situation is out of the question when Shaked is around, and her family knows to avoid words like Qassam and Color Red altogether.

Shaked's young cousin, who lives in the center of the country, was not aware of this little detail. While the two were playing in the yard recently, he yelled out "Color Red, Color Red," sending Shaked running into the house. She locked herself in her room and could not stop crying.

"Her cousin didn't think of it, he didn't know, but Shaked took it hard," her father said. "She is in bad shape. She suffers from anxiety all the time."

Shaked is not alone.

Qassam damage in Sderot in April (Photo: Ze'ev Trachtman)

Maor Harush is doing better than his sister; he speaks about his anxieties. Shaked never does. She has been in therapy for three years, but it hasn't helped – the situation only seems to be getting worse.

"We can't laugh about the situation, we can't talk about it," the twins' father said. "Most of the time she's at home, watching television. The television is her connection to the outside world."

She doesn't visit her friends, her father said, and her school work has slipped; she suffers from attention disorders.

According to the Natal report, 50% of Sderot's kids relive the trauma, and 41% suffer from over-excitation – they are constantly alert, ready for danger, and every little noise shakes them up. Twenty percent of the kids suffer from all the symptoms of posttraumatic stress, and 12% have severe trouble functioning.

"They stop playing, stop being interested in their surroundings, detach themselves from their friends and school," explained Professor Marc Gelkopf, who heads the Natal research team. "One of our newest and most interesting findings is that there is a connection between the symptoms that the parents experience and the ones their children experience. It underlines the importance of family therapy."

Rocket destroys house in Sderot, 2006 (Photo: Amir Cohen)

The study, which followed 518 adult and 570 kids, showed that one in three residents suffers from the disorder, and that one in seven is having trouble functioning due to anxiety.

"When we're talking about people suffering from posttraumatic stress, we're talking about people who wake up in the middle of the night because of nightmares," Gelkopf said. "People who are over alert… who are afraid to go far from their fortified rooms or visit places that remind them of the danger."

Despite the recent calm, Natal has found that nearly 30% of the residents feel threatened. Another 23% take anti-depression or anxiety drugs, or use sleeping pills.

Esther Itiel, 56, has been living in Sderot for 30 years. She is another victim of posttraumatic stress.

"Life in this town was beautiful before the Qassam fire started," she said. "Since then, there hasn't been one night when we could sleep normally. All aspects of life have been disrupted.

"I managed to survive somehow for years, but when a Qassam fell a few meters near my house, I broke down," she said. "I took my daughters and moved to Givat Shmuel, leaving my husband and three other kids behind in Sderot."

In the central town of Givat Shmuel, Itiel received therapy from Natal and the municipality, and graudally managed to regain some of her former self. She agreed to return to Sderot after a shelter was built in her house. Back at home, anxiety hit again.

Qassam hits building in Sderot, 2010 (Photo: Ze'ev Trachtman)

"Any noise from an ambulance, bus or plane makes me jump and triggers the anxiety," she said. "I can't listen to the news, this whole story about the fly-in made me anxious. I'm not happy, I don't laugh, I don't joke. I'm not the mother I used to be."

These days, Itiel rarely leaves home. Sleep evades her. She showers only when there is someone else at home with her – and even then, she does it quickly.

"I'm afraid that it will be like it was during the Qassam fire period," she said. "Then, when the Color Red alarm went off while I was in the shower, I would run to the shelter without clothes on. About a month ago, the alarm went off again. I heard planes flying by and I fainted. They had to take me to the hospital."

Some 6,400 people who are suffering from posttraumatic stress are treated at the municipal mental health center in Sderot. Some 3,500 kids and 500 teachers and staff members get psychological treatment through the town's school system. The Resilience Center, which provides counseling, treats 400 people each year, most of them children and teenagers – and the waiting list for treatment is growing.

"Especially during times of calm, people start feeling the tumult on the inside," said Hila Barzilay, who runs the Resilience Center. "(…) We get kids with serious motor function disorders, kids who weren't allowed to play outside in groups for years. Many residents' relationships have suffered. The situation causes critical damage to all aspects of their lives.

Full Story

What the Main Lame Stream Media is calling a successful ceasefire is in reality just a lull in the terror.  There isn't a week that the rockets attack Israel or an attempt is made to fire into Israel.  Yet the media outside of Israel is silent on this.  In fact they are reporting that the EU, US, Russia and the UN will IMPOSE a solution upon Israel.,  A solution that will try to force Israel back to the 1967 borders, the borders Abba Eban called:  The Auschwitz Borders.

Abba Eban

"We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as on June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history."

- Abba Eban, Israeli Statesman, in Der Spiegel, November 5, 1969

Borders that are impossible to defend the nation. With the deliberate separation into 2 halves of Jerusalem, the Arabs will gain everything they want without giving up any of Israel's demands.

The children of Sderot have only the people of Israel to help them.  But that can change.  Will you help them?  Just a few dollars will give a child the psychiatric help he or she needs.  The Sderot Media Center helps hundreds of the residents of Sderot and the Western Negev each day.  From their newly opened "Ella Center" that helps the children with their studies in the sciences to the only indoor playground, the first concern of the Sderot Media is the safety of the children of Sderot.  Their mission statement tells it all:

The Sderot Media Center mission is to provide Israeli and international news media with on-site film footage and reporting of the kassam rocket attacks and their psychological effects upon Sderot residents. In doing so, we hope to spur international and local involvement with the community of Sderot, both on a financial and social scale, in order to help out the residents of this war-zone region.

Other goals include the following four points:

To forge identification and empathy between the western world and the residents of the western Negev
To initiate community projects that will alleviate the economic and psychological condition of Sderot and western Negev residents
To improve the security situation of Sderot and the western Negev through international awareness of the rocket fire
To create a balance in the news coverage of Israel and promote a pro-Israel attitude in the western and international media

You can help by clicking here.

Helen Thomas Officially a White House Press Corpse

by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

White House press crone, Helen Thomas, got herself in too deep for anyone to save her, and we can bet many tried. She says she will retire immediately. Perhaps she was shown the door by her employer, The Hearst Corporation. Hearst made the announcement of her "immediate" retirement today. Helen once said, "I think I'll work all my life. When you're having fun, why stop having fun?"  Someone decided to end her fun." As a member of the White House Press Corps, Helen is officially a White House Press Corpse. See videos below.

Helen Thomas 

(pearls receive cruel and unusual punishment from Helen)

A great irony in this story is that Thomas was invited by the White House to the Jewish Heritage Month reception at the White House on May 27th. She was born in Kentucky to immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon. Her parents were Christian. She was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Should that matter? Apparently it does, and perhaps she still has family living in Lebanon who are Muslim.

The first question is, why would someone with apparent and out-spoken sympathies for "Palestine," be invited to the Jewish Heritage reception? A Jewish blogger attending the reception asked The Crone for a comment on Israel:

Helen Thomas 

When specifically asked about the Palestinian conflict, she told the reporter to "tell them (Israelis) to get the hell out of Palestine." Later in the interview she said the Israelis should go home to Poland or Germany, American, and everywhere else."

Over the last few years, Thomas has often revealed her anti-Semitic viewpoint. Without asking an honest question, she has tip-toed all around her support for Palestine, all-the-while perched on one of the coveted front row seats in the newly redone White House Press room, paid for by taxpayers, she has tried to keep a focus on Palestine.

In the first video below, taped after the Christmas Day Underpants Bomber attempted-attack, you'll hear her ask Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, why the government never explains their [jihadists] "motivation" to "do us harm" She's right about that. She wouldn't like the answer, though, if an honest answer was given. Helen's face doesn't lend itself to looking coy, but she tried her best.

One such White House Press Conference had the late Press Secretary Tony Snow thanking her for giving the "Hezbollah" view.

In March 2010 she chastised the White House for our "commitment" to keep Israel safe. At the same press conference she said "...it's against International Law to annex occupied land." It was convenient for both White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Thomas not to mention that  Jordan sits on 77% of the landmass mandated for the Jewish homeland and today, Israel has the legal right to far more land than they have claimed. We never, ever hear this:

The Jewish homeland was to consist of all the land west of the Jordan River, stretching to the Mediterranean Sea - and including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The the Arabs would not have it. The League of Nations dissolved into the United Nations and the problem was handed over to the U.N., including the trusteeship of the British mandate to make a Jewish state a reality. The Mandate stood.

U.N. Resolution 181, known also as the U.N. 1947 Partition Resolution, was passed by the U.N. General Assembly, and implemented but never accepted by the Arabs.

The land given to Jordan to be ruled by a Saudi son, in no way changed the status of the Jews west of the Jordan River, nor did it inhibit their right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

These documents are the last legally binding documents regarding the status of what is commonly called "the West Bank and Gaza."
Arabs adore the U.N. They accept everything the U.N. says as Koranic. But they decided they would not accept a Jewish homeland and they have never wavered. Thomas must know, though that the Partition is legal, and if Israel wanted more land, they could legally take it, because there is law behind the mandates and the Partition. Israel has given up much in the quest for peace - a peace that never comes. Helen Thomas knows this.

Once more for emphasis, since the press won't touch this:

The Mandate survived the demise of the League of Nations. Article 80 of the UN Charter implicitly recognizes the “Mandate for Palestine” of the League of Nations.

This Mandate granted Jews the irrevocable right to settle anywhere in Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a right unaltered in international law and valid to this day. Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank), Gaza and the whole of Jerusalem are legal.

The International Court of Justice reaffirmed the meaning and validity of Article 80 in three separate cases: (read them here.)

In other words, neither the ICJ nor the UN General Assembly can arbitrarily change the status of Jewish settlement as set forth in the “Mandate for Palestine,” an international accord that has never been amended.

Everyone, including all of Hollywood, thinking Israel "stole" land in Palestine should do some research. Ask any Librarian. She/he will show you how.

Little did we know when Thomas sent out her invitation for all Jews to leave Israel, she was doing us a favor. She swathed it in evil, and hurt many people, but today she is gone from the front row of the White House Press room. Now she will be fawned over by the Left as a meaningful Matriarch for keeping the White House honest. What I love most is that whether by her design or at Heart's bidding, she is leaving immediately. Someone is very, very unhappy. There wasn't even time for a big D.C. retirement bash.




Helen Thomas Asks Homeland Security the "Motive" for Jihadists to harm us (video)




Helen Thomas tells Jews to "Get the Hell out of Palestine" (video)