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A Mighty Heart, directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Archie Panjabi. Based on the book “A Mighty Heart: the Brave Life and Death of my Husband Danny Pearl”, by Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton.

When I heard that a PR firm was distributing passes to a pre-release screening of a film about Daniel Pearl, I thought: this is the last film I want to see. Free or not. Angelina Jolie or not.

As you probably know, Pearl was the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 by al-Qaeda linked jihadists and beheaded shortly thereafter.

I was afraid of two things when I sat down in the theater. One was that the film would show Pearl’s murder, or even dwell on his captivity. I’ve forced myself to watch enough Jihadist footage to last several lifetimes; I don’t need any more.

The other was that it would have a sappy ‘message’ about the ambiguity of good and evil. Or even one about how we are all somehow responsible for terrorism.

But none of this happened. The film focused on Mariane Pearl, Daniel’s wife, during the month between his kidnapping and the appearance of the videotape of his murder. It didn’t editorialize, exaggerate, introduce irrelevant subplots, invent snappy dialog, have a “love interest” (except of course Mariane and Danny) or include gratuitous violence or sex. The bloodiest scene showed the birth of their son Adam, three months after Danny’s death.

The film simply and sparely portrayed Mariane’s experiences and her feelings, the efforts to trace the kidnappers and find Danny, the ups and downs of false hopes and the final, terrible loss.

Jolie’s acting, the Pakistani street scenes, and the lack of clichés give the film an authenticity so often lacking in Hollywood products.

Is it a good film? Yes. Just don’t plan to do anything for a couple of hours afterwards.

Technorati Tags: Movies, A Mighty Heart, Daniel Pearl

In April, the largest union of British Journalists voted to boycott Israeli goods. At that time BBC reporter Alan Johnston had been a prisoner in Gaza for about a month, and he’s still not out.

Yesterday, the Islamic Jihad organization showed its appreciation of continued support for the Palestinian cause by most of the world news media by using a jeep camouflaged to look like a press vehicle in order to attempt to carry out an attack (probably another kidnapping) against an Israeli position.

Here is my message for journalists and others who support the Palestinian and other jihadist causes:

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other such groups, in addition to being murderous terrorists, do not respect concepts like access to information, a free press, or indeed a free anything. Any part of the world that they inhabit becomes a kind of hell permeated by thuggery and intolerance. They cynically manipulate and take advantage of democratic and enlightened traditions in places like Israel to try to destroy them.

So when you ‘tell the story’ of the poor, persecuted Palestinians (whose terrorist militias are supported by the jihadist oil superpowers of Saudi Arabia and Iran), keep in mind that you might end up kidnapped like the unfortunate Johnston, or as the unintended target of an Israeli tank.

And keep in mind that Europe and North America are next.

Technorati Tags: Jihad, Journalists, Israel, Palestinians

The BBC, missing no chance to blacken the name of Israel, has published a report speculating that the 1976 Entebbe hijacking was in part perpetrated by — are we surprised? — Israel.

BBC reporter Dan Parkinson wrote,

An unnamed contact told a British diplomat in Paris that the Israeli Secret Service, the Shin Beit [sic], and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) collaborated to seize the plane.

There you are, positive proof. An unnamed contact told a diplomat named D. H. Colvin that they did it in order to “torpedo the PLO’s standing in France and to prevent what they see as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans”.

Now I want to get this on the record: last week my brother-in-law was told by an unnamed source that he saw Dan Parkinson having sexual intercourse with a sheep.

Go ahead, Parkinson, I want to hear you deny it.

Technorati Tags: BBC, lying whores, Entebbe, Israel

A recent article in the Fresno Bee entitled “Let’s talk: Islamic cultural center opens its doors to create more dialogue with other members of the community” highlights some of the activities of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno (ICCF) which are “designed to create better understanding between Muslims and other religious or ethnic groups”.

The article mentions a talk given by the evangelical Rev. Jim Franklin of the Cornerstone Church and a visit from Bishop John T. Steinbock of the Catholic diocese of Fresno. It continues, “The events feature guest speakers or panel members addressing a topic, followed by discussion. The center does not allow political debate” [my emphasis].

One event at the ICCF that the reporter did not mention were a lecture on April 13, 2007 by Michael Hubbart on the topic “The occupation: is it apartheid?”

Since I wasn’t able to attend, I don’t know what his answer was. However, we can get a clue from a similar talk he gave in March at the First Mennonite Church in Reedley:

Speaker: Michael Hubbart. Topic: The West Bank — It Sure Looks Like Apartheid to Me. In October Mike did a brief training with International Solidarity Movement and then worked with internationals at Birzeit University, at nonviolent demonstrations against the building of the wall at Bil’in and with the Tel Rumeida Project in Hebron.

Nope, no politics allowed. Or maybe politics is permitted as long as there isn’t any “debate”?

Another contribution of the ICCF to better understanding was to sponsor a series of events featuring the parents of Rachel Corrie, who spoke at the ICCF and several other venues in September of 2006.

The ICCF is certainly well within their rights in our free society to aggressively present their pro-Palestinian point of view.

But nobody should pretend that there’s anything non-political about it.

Technorati Tags: Fresno, Islamic Cultural Center, Fresno Bee

On the 6 PM (Pacific time) newscast today, here is how NPR described events in Gaza:

Despite promises to observe a cease-fire, fighting broke out today between Palestinian factions in the Gaza strip. Palestinian security officials say the fighting killed at least 16 people. They said fighters from the ruling Hamas movement shot and killed 6 guards belonging to the rival Fatah party. Hamas gunmen also mistakenly killed 5 of their own fighters in an apparent friendly fire incident. Israel fired missiles at Hamas positions in Gaza, saying the attack was in response to Hamas rockets fired into Israeli territory. — NPR (transcribed from streaming audio, no link available)

Ignoring errors (fighting didn’t ‘break out’ today, it’s been underway for some time), was NPR unaware that about 50 Palestinian rockets were fired into Sderot in the last 24 hours, causing numerous injuries and resulting in the evacuation of hundreds of residents? Shouldn’t they have mentioned this?

The report gives the impression that Israel just attacked for the hell of it, ’saying’ that it was in response to Hamas’ rockets. Of course I understand that the conscientious journalists of NPR don’t really know the motivation of the Israelis, so they have to depend on what they say – but honestly NPR, is it a mystery that Israel would want to stop the Hamas rocket barrage?

I’ve discussed NPR’s subtle and not-so-subtle pro-Palestinian bias before. The next time your local Public Radio station asks for your donation, tell them ‘no’, and explain exactly why.

Technorati Tags: NPR, Gaza, Israel

By Vic Rosenthal

Mark Arax likes to write about conflict among Jews. Last year he published a piece in which he blended a tendentious and distorted view of Fresno’s Jewish community (Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton called it a ‘caricature’) with what can only be called harassment of a family bereaved by the war in Iraq.

Now he’s written an article which apparently discusses the ’split’ in the Jewish community over a congressional resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide. I say ‘apparently’ because he’s embroiled in a controversy with the Times, which does not wish to run the article. But never mind — is there a ’split’ in the Jewish community over this issue?

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The BBC has 26,000 employees, a budget of $7.9 billion (slightly less than half from British TV license fees), and broadcasts by domestic radio and television, shortwave, satellite and Internet. It has a huge audience, in the hundreds of millions of listeners, viewer, and readers (the World Service alone had 150 million listeners in 2001). It’s probably safe to say that the BBC is the world’s most influential news medium.

It has been consistently anti-Israel, in some cases subtly and in some cases not so subtly. A search of the HonestReporting site (a pro-Israel media watchdog) turns up no less than 85 entries for the BBC, including several annual “dishonest reporting” awards.

The “Beeb” has just won a lawsuit to keep secret an internal report which examined its Middle East reporting for bias. One assumes that they wouldn’t have spent a huge amount in legal fees to hide it if it made them look good!

Now Robin Aitken, a well-known journalist who worked for the organization for more than 25 years has written a book called “Can we trust the BBC?” What he wrote about the BBC and the Palestinians seemed particularly apt:

My view is that the Palestinians and the Palestinian leadership is the architect of its own misfortune in many ways. Whereas, what comes across from the BBC’s presentation of events in Palestine and the Middle East generally, is that in some ways, the Palestinians are a put-upon victim minority, and it’s the beastly Israelis who are doing the dirty to them.

And you know, that is not a fair presentation of the position. Because the Israelis are militarily strong and successful, and the Palestinians aren’t, I think the BBC allows that too much to play at its judgment, so that what comes across is too much sympathy, if you will, for the Palestinians, too little appreciation of the rights of Israel, and also too little recognition of the fact that Israel is a functioning democracy in a way that Palestine isn’t, and nor is any Arab-dominated Middle Eastern state, and not enough credit is given for that in my view.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Palestinians, Aitken

Sunday, I suggested that the supposed “ceasefire” by Palestinian terrorists didn’t exist. Today HonestReporting points out that, despite media reports that suggest that Israel is “straining the ceasefire”, it’s the Palestinians that haven’t ceased firing. Here are some links showing terrorist activity in the month of April alone:

• Islamic Jihad terrorist captured near Tel Aviv after his bomb belt fails to detonate
• Palestinian bride arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out suicide bombing
• 3 Israelis injured in shooting attack near Modi’in
• Hamas calls for further kidnappings of Israeli soldiers
• Israeli cars shot at in West Bank
• Israeli civilian wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting
• Arrests prevent huge Hamas-planned car bomb in Tel Aviv
• Egypt arrests would-be Hamas suicide bomber near Israeli border
• Palestinian rockets hit Sderot home; several Israelis treated for shock

Technorati Tags: Israel, terrorism

I haven’t written about the boycott of Israel voted by the British National Union of Journalists, because it seemed to me that everyone was doing it, including the woman I believe to be the best blogger in the UK, and possibly the world, Melanie Phillips, who wrote:

The Palestinian journalists’ union, of course, demonstrated against the Palestinian Authority because Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinians. The NUJ apparently cannot grasp quite how demented it is, therefore, to boycott Israel because of the kidnap of Alan Johnston. If something nasty happens in the Middle East, they think Israel is the only party to be blamed. If Palestinians kill Jews, blame Israel. If Palestinians kill Palestinians, blame Israel. If Palestinians kidnap a British NUJ member, blame Israel. And if Palestinian journalists protest to Palestinians about the kidnap by Palestinians of a British journalist, those Palestinian journalists are to be ‘rewarded’ by — a boycott of Israel.

But there’s more to the story than just another few idiots and a boycott.

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Does this sound like an excess of nationalistic fervor, or something else?

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Assailants tied up three people at a publishing house that distributes Bibles in Turkey and then slit their throats Wednesday, adding to a string of attacks apparently targeting the country’s tiny Christian minority.

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Some random AP reports today, illustrating two things: 1) wherever there are Muslims, there’s trouble; and 2) the AP doesn’t seem to know what country Jerusalem is in.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Four days of fierce fighting between Somali forces and Islamic insurgents has killed 381 people in Mogadishu, a local human rights organization said Monday, as the government warned residents to abandon their homes ahead of a new military offensive.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Unidentified gunmen killed five African Union soldiers guarding a “water point” [in Darfur] near the border with Chad in the deadliest attack on the peacekeepers since their deployment in 2004, an AU spokesman said Monday.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s tough stance in the the standoff over 15 captured British sailors is a demonstration of the power of hardliners unafraid to confront the West, analysts say.

JERUSALEM - Palestinian journalists on Monday began a three-day strike to protest the kidnapping of British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston, the longest-held reporter ever abducted in the Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - Ultra-Orthodox Jews burned bread and other leavened foods in communal bonfires Monday, completing preparations for Passover…The army sealed off the West Bank early Sunday as a precaution against Palestinian attacks.

Recently our local newspaper printed a letter in which the writer suggested that the “moneychangers” (he used this word twice) and Israel were responsible for the war in Iraq. I think it’s safe to say that the editors were surprised by the strength of the reaction that they got from the local Jewish community. I’m sure that the “moneychangers” reference went right by them, but it probably won’t the next time!

Anyway, our contributor Murray Farber was thinking about the lack of awareness of Jewish issues in the media — at least outside of the centers of Jewish population — and he sent us this. Murray is a retired reporter and editor.

Am I too sensitive or am I especially perceptive? Two items in the local media bothered me, and I know it is probably pointless to complain because both came via national syndicates. Last week, a radio station ran an item about Anne Frank as part of a series about women and their achievements or impact. It had the expected material about her — hiding, Nazi occupation, the writings — but it never mentioned that she was Jewish.

Similarly about three weeks ago, local TV ran a piece about high school students — I think they were from Maryland — who gave up their vacations to go to New Orleans to assist in the Katrina rehabilation. The students wore yarmulkas and some had T-shirts with Hebrew writing. You guessed it! Again, the word ‘Jewish’ never came up.

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