'Media's tolerance of fabrications- both of Obama's eligibility for office and Palestinian nationhood- confuse reality' says Joseph Farah of World Net Daily

Joseph Farah, World Net Daily's editor-in-chief, joins Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch to comment on political deception and the complicity of the mainstream media in failing to investigate and debunk both Obama's eligiblity and the myth of a historic Palestinian nation.





Panel held by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations in Nashville alongside the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.

Israel's outgoing Gov't Press Officer, Danny Seaman, reveals complexities of serving a biased, foreign press

Israel's Government Press Office is part of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and is responsible for being in contact and dealing with foreign journalists in the country, issuing official press cards to journalists and media employees in Israel, coordinating media coverage for state events and official visits by foreign leaders.

JPost editor-in-chief David Horovitz interviews Israel's outgoing Gov't Press Office director, Danny Seaman (who has has held the post since 2000) in the Jerusalem Post:

Is the departing Seaman a heroic advocate for Israel who is being shamefully and counter-productively treated by his foolish, short-sighted, lily-livered bosses? Or should someone so candid and opinionated never have been entrusted with the ultra-delicate task of liaising with the international media? 

Danny Seaman: This goes back to the whole issue of Israel’s hasbara failures since the Oslo Accords. We pulled the rug out from under our arguments. The moment in the Oslo process when we didn’t completely stand up for our narrative, we gave legitimacy to the Palestinian claims. [We gave up on] our positions, our claims, our rights!

David Horovitz: As regards the Old City, east Jerusalem...?

Seaman: Every place! My grandfather came here from Afghanistan, not because of Tel Aviv and not because of Haifa, but because of our ancestral right to the Land of Israel. And without our right to the Land of Israel we have no right to the State of Israel; we are no more than the colonialist occupiers which they claim we are. For many years, we used this claim of our right to Eretz Yisrael, not as a political statement, but as a case of genuine historical reasoning. You can’t say that it’s a right-wing argument. It has nothing to do with my positions or my being a right-winger. It’s a fact."

This revealing interview is worth reading in its entirety.

 DemoCast filmed this talk by Danny Seaman about the complexities of democratic Israel having to administer a biased, damaging foreign press - at the Jerusalem Conference following the Operation Castlead into Gaza in January, 2009.



Mr. Seaman will be succeeded by Netanyahu consultant Oren Helman. Mr. Helman has a master's degree in public administration and has served - inter alia - as Israel Broadcast Authority Spokesman and an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he served as Finance Minister.

On a related note, Tovah Lazaroff writes in the Jerusalem Post:

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu responds to int'l (Pres. Obama in Indonesia's) criticism about Israeli plans to advance 1,345 homes in Jewish areas of east J'lem by saying gov't never agreed to place any restrictions on construction in capital, which has 800,000 residents.

"Jerusalem is not a settlement, it is the capitol of Israel," the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday in a sharp retort to international criticism about plans for 1,345 homes in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

Should Fox News Register as a Saudi Agent?

Diana West writes:  "A couple of week's ago, I blogged about Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's charm-blitz through NY, juxtaposing Fox News' Neil Cavuto's sweetheart interview with "the prince" and Charlie Rose's far more revealing conversation -- essentially, it's (everything's) all Israel's fault, and "my" 1.5 billion Muslims are all like the underpants' bomber's father.

I kept thinking about Alwaleed -- his stake in News Corp., his stakes in Georgetown and Harvard -- and realized that as a leading scion of the so-called House of Saud (q: how many countries are named for their rulers?), a totalitarian theocracy whose foundational documents -- the Koran, the Sunnah, the Hadiths -- place it in direct ideological conflict with the US Constitution, he operates not just as a billionaire businessman, but also, inevitably, by virtue of who he is, as an agent of Saudi influence.

News Corp. wants to do business with him? Fine. But shouldn't News Corp.'s Fox News thus be required to register with the State Department as a foreign agent of Saudi Arabia? That's the question posed by this week's syndicated column:

Liberal press installs its first President -- and re-vilifies its perennial pariah

Al-Durah lessons lost.  By regurgitating unverified 'Pallywood' pictures and statistics to fulfill their mutual agenda (vilify the Jews) is the mainstream media complicit with Hamas in killing Palestinian civilians?

The IDF Spokesperson's Office shares intelligence- map evidence of how Hamas exploits the civilians of the Gaza strip as human shields.  Here are two aerial photographs which illustrate how Hamas deploys rocket launchers within densely populated areas in the Gaza strip, next to schools, mosques and medical facilities.  Residential buildings are used as arms depots and rigged with explosive charges, without any consideration given to potential civilian casualties.

Hamas views their cause of Jihad to conquer Jerusalem (and ethnically cleanse Jews out of Israel, as they did out of Gaza) for the honor of Allah - as justification for their strategy of provoking civilian casualties for media vilification of Israel. This creates international pressure on Israel to accomodate Palestinians for peace, while exacting hundreds of millions of unaccountable "humanitarian" aid into Palestinian discretionary accounts - appropriable toward advancing the Jihad imperialist offensive.

The media have represented Israel's defensive action - to protect its civilians - out of context.  Hamas has foresworn itself to eradicate Jewish self-governance in Israel, and has incited scores of acts of murderous terror - killing more than 1,000 civilians, through such means as the inhumane, kamikaze, suicide-bombings phenomenon.  Israeli civilians have been the victim of over 3,000 of Hamas' terrorizing rocket attacks since it disengaged from Gaza over 3 years ago.  Southern Israel communities have been terrorized and traumatized by Hamas' guerilla strategy to attack Israeli civilians. 



The first few videos demonstrate Hamas' war-crime of initiating attacks from civilian areas to provoke Israeli retaliatory strikes that generate valuable, civilian-casualties for strategic propaganda benefit.  Boston University Professor Richard Landes (of The Augean Stables) speaks by telephone with Arutz Sheva's Tovia Singer - regarding the Palestinian "Pallywood" PR policy of fabrication and dishonesty in staging fake images of Palestinian civilian casualties, victimization, and suffering for the intimidated, complicit press. This was exposed and exemplified by the debunked Mohammed al-Durah affaire during the intifada (on the Second Draft.org).

The next few videos demonstrate the utter lack of integrity of Hamas (and its tacit United Nations enablers).  Arab YouTubers' hidden videos show the savagery of theocratic Hamas' thuggery towards ordinary Palestinian civilians (which the human-rights hypocrites uttered not a word in protest- simply because that violence was not being done by Jews - even in self-defense).  Yes, the media is once again (and not unwittingly) peddling unreliable, Palestinian fakery without (besides the complicit, Palestinian-biased U.N., Amnesty Int'l, and Human Rights Watch) truly independent verification - and the unwitting public is again swallowing Arafat's apostles' "gospel."

Bethlehem Christians flee religious persecution by Muslims; Journalists blame Israel, mollify world to opposing Jihadism

Muslim mafia's intimidating and usurping of Christians' lives, homes, businesses responsible for Christian emigration. Journalists wrongly laying blame on Zionism distract world from appropriate reaction, response.

Even the New York Times had to admit that business is strong in Bethlehem. So who is making life so harsh for many Christians that they are forced to flee?

Correspondent Aaron Klein in WorldNetDaily writes "Media's 'cold deceit' descends upon Bethlehem"

...the mainstream media, which, like clockwork, file misleading reports from this important Christian city every year. They completely ignore Muslim intimidation of Christians while blaming Israel for ruining Christmas and for the drastic decline of Christianity in one of the holiest cities for that religion.

Please read it all.

The reality of Muslim on Christian crime was addressed by CBN News several weeks ago:


Some Christian leaders said one of the most significant problems facing Christians in Bethlehem is the rampant confiscation of land by Muslim gangs.

"There are many cases where Christians have their land stolen by the [Muslim] mafia," said Samir Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem Christian leader and owner of the Beit Sahour-based private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station.

"It is a regular phenomenon in Bethlehem. They go to a poor Christian person with a forged power of attorney document, and then they say we have papers proving you're living on our land. If you confront them, many times the Christian is beaten. You can't do anything about it. The Christian loses, and he runs away," Qumsiyeh told WND, speaking from his hilltop television station during a recent interview.

Qumsiyeh himself said he was targeted by Islamic gangs. He said his home was firebombed after he returned from a trip abroad during which he gave public speeches outlining the plight of Bethlehem's Christian population.

One Christian Bethlehem resident told WND last year her friend recently fled Bethlehem after being accused by Muslims of selling property to Jews, a crime punishable by death in some Palestinian cities. The resident said a good deal of the intimidation comes from gunmen associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.

A February Jerusalem Post article cited the case of Faud and Georgette Lama, Christian residents of Bethlehem who said their land was stolen by local Muslims and when they tried to do something about it, Faud was beaten by gunmen.

One religious novelty store owner I met recently told me Muslim gangs regularly deface Christian property.

"We are harassed, but you wouldn't know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims. This is why Christians are running away."

Video of Herb "I lost my country" London on America's liberal media electing Obama

Dr. Herbert London, president of the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based conservative think-tank, is a noted social critic and author of America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New Religion.

PowerLine reports:

"Dr. London took the results of November's election harder than we did, and wonders whether this country has undergone a profound change for the worse. Herb wrote this provocative essay for Power Line:

The results are in and my candidate lost the presidency. Since I love this country, I wish the newly named President Barack Obama every success. But this was an election unlike any other. I don't think the Republicans merely lost an election, I believe many of us lost a country.

This was a land that once rewarded hard work and enterprise. A place where one's word was his bond. America was the land of opportunity. If you can't do it here, you cannot do it anywhere. We were a people to be envied, not only because we had the highest standard living, but because we had the greatest degree of stability.

Americans were notoriously optimistic because we counted on tomorrow being better than yesterday. We were an open people dependent on fair play and a free market bounded by a standard of virtue. With all the blemishes in our past and breaches in our own ethics, we were a model of civic rectitude. "Dems that gives, gets;" those who wish to bilk the system will be discovered and isolated.

There was a time not so long ago when people did not depend on government to bail them out of financial difficulty, a time when the nanny state bred apprehension, not affection. Now, it seems, in the new America almost everyone wants a free ride. The non-tax payer wants a rebate from the taxpayer. The poor man wants everything the rich man has and he wants the rich man to give it to him.

Enemies of the nation, it turns out, are not enemies at all; we merely defined them as adversaries. Had we been clever in the past, we could have defined them out of existence. All we have to do is engage in "soft power," diplomacy and clever negotiating skill. Surely those who want to kill us will be persuaded that swords should be converted into plowshares. It's odd, but Osama bin Laden doesn't seem to embrace this position.

The America of now is one where Orwellian logic rules. Redistribution of wealth is fairness. Taxes are patriotic. The free market should be a regulated market. Big government is good for you. Politicians know what kind of health care is best for you. Choice should be limited, except when it comes to abortion. Power comes from being powerless. Progressive education is designed to promote progress toward socialism. Race doesn't count unless a person of color tells you it counts. Higher education gets lower each year. Those who create our problems should be asked to solve them. Religion should be a private matter that does not inform public morality. Liberal is radical. Free speech is selective speech. Courage is impetuousness.

Yes, Americans - many Americans - want change. The level of dissatisfaction runs deep. But the national cri de coeur hasn't a direction. That's what makes it so dangerous. Americans live better than at any moment in our collective history, notwithstanding the meltdown on Wall Street, yet despair is ubiquitous. Admittedly observing 401K accounts disappear as soap bubbles will make anyone angry. Nonetheless, it is a privilege to live in the land of the free, a privilege now regarded as an entitlement.

It was once wrong to use community groups such as ACORN to steal an election. It was once wrong to conceal one's past in order to invent an identity. It was once wrong to use the instrument of government finance to satisfy a constituency and then claim an unregulated market is what ails us. It was once wrong to lie in a campaign and still is except when the media panjandrums avert their gaze for the lies of a favored candidate.

Surely we face threats across the globe that cannot be easily forestalled. Arguably the most significant threat is from within in the form of an unregulated government, a government large, intrusive and seductive. This is the new American government that promises everything and demands very little from its citizens. "Shop until you drop" is the national anthem. After all, you don't have to fight if you don't want to and you don't have to sacrifice if that's too much for you. All you have to do is visit malls and keep opinions to yourself. Opinions are important since Truth Squads want to be sure you don't criticize the chosen candidate.

Where is my America, the place of fair play, individual rights, the rule of law and respect for private property? Was the past merely a dream from which I have awakened? Can that America of exceptionalism return? Can it find its way back into the public consciousness?

I have my doubts. Now the change agents scream "everything will be different." Alas, they are right. It appears as if everything will be different, most especially the end of an America I loved.

Lewis Black discusses the media's election coverage with Anderson Cooper at Time Warner's Politics 2008

Lewis Black speaks to Anderson Cooper before a live, media-industry symposium audience at TW/Digital Hollywood's "Politics 2008" conference in NYC, October 15, 2008