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Sunday, March 5 2006Seeing Is Believing
“We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children's thirst with your blood. We will not leave until you leave the Muslim countries." Toronto Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias questioned video’s veracity, which was also featured on Palestinian Media Watch’s web site. Zerbisias wrote: According to my research, as well as that of blogger Corinne Allen (YayaCanada.com) and Ottawa writer/activist Samah Sabawi, who first noted this, it never did. Zerbisias has taken shots at us before (see here and here for example). So we weren’t surprised when Marcus provided HonestReporting with instructions to find the video. To see the video that Zerbisias and friends couldn't find, click here. The video can be viewed by clicking on the image of the two Hamas terrorists (pictured) in the upper right of the Hamas page. Marcus explained that he didn't include a documenting link due to problems with Arabic characters in the hyperlink. Marcus forwarded us a copy of his response to the Star further documenting PalestineGallery.com's relationship to Hamas: For the record, the Hamas terrorist's video promising "to drink the Jews' blood" is on the website palestinegallery.com which is hosted on the domain server NS1.PALESTINE-INFO.NET and also may be accessed through,www.palestine-info.net, which is "the Hamas terrorist organization's leading group of sites" (Source: Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center). Both sites are administered by Hamas activist Nizar Alhussien in Beirut. A precise link was not supplied because the address becomes garbled when copied and pasted. The video was still on this website when Ms. Zerbisias "researched" her column. Meanwhile, we await Zerbisias' reply. UPDATE 3/6: See the comments for Zerbisias' reply. We reiterate that we are satisfied with Marcus' documentation that the web site in question doesn't just support Hamas, but is linked to them.
TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry: Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Seeing Is Believing: CommentsDon't expect anything from Zerbias and the Star. Zerbias calls Fisk a 'brave, great journalist' and the Star features one of the most noxious pro Islamists in Canada, Faroun Siddiqi. When there is intelligent debate to be made, they make the 'right wing' knee jerk response. We have gone through this at length with CSIS and a terrorism expert at Haifa University and they are all satisfied that, when Marcus Gee of the Globe and Mail wrote that the video appeared on ''the Hamas web site,'' he was wrong. To be a Hamas supporter or activist, is not to be ''the Hamas site.'' Note that Gee never says he saw it there. Interesting that he could not provide a URL when I asked for it -- only after my column appeared. By the way, I did see the video, on all the websites you have cited. But not once on ''the Mamas site.'' Note also that I never questioned the video's veracity, or vicious content. I just questioned that Gee ever saw it on ''the Hamas site'' which he implies he did. If he can present evidence to the contrary, I would welcome it. But believe me, the past week has involved much discussion between the Star and the Globe and, so far, my column stands. You people bombarding me with form letters will just result in me reply in kind. So please, if you do write, please present evidence that the video in question appeared after the election on ''the Hamas site.'' When others reported on this, including the Jerusalem Post (17/2), Haaretz (15/2), Israel National News (20/2)etc., all of them said the video was on PMW's site. They all cited PMW. Not one of them said it was seen on ''the Hamas site.'' Now why do the others attribute the existence of the video to PMW? And why didn't Gee do the same? And, while we're on the subject, why do almost one third of the words in his editorial come directly from the PMW site without attribution? Finally, the right-wing United Jerusalem Foundation sees ''no problem'' with my column. So why do you? Honest reporting? Don't make me laugh. The Zerb! Don't make me laugh! But if you really want to laugh, then check out the comments to her post and see what kind of people we're dealing with: http://thestar.blogs.com/azerb/2006/02/the_globe_and_m.html#comments She used to average an anti-Israel op-ed a week back in the good old days. But after a highly correlated outbreak of antisemitic activity in Toronto and a new not-so-loony editor took over her rag, her columns mysteriously stopped bashing Israel. A first rate loony. About as relevant as Arafat. But always a good laugh! So typical. You can't aruge facts so you just go for the cheap smear. You are as shamelss as your puppet Gee. Consider this; actually learning the facts might bring a faster end to the conflict...assuming you care about finding an end to the conflict. Mej Interesting how the response to Antonia's comment does not deal with any of her arguments, but rather resorts to cheap personal attacks. I had a look at the Palestinian Media Watch site. It is full of vicious dehumanization of Palestinians by Itamar Marcus who is a settler with a clear agenda: Dehumanize the Palestinians and get them out of the West Bank (because none other than God has willed it to us Jews for ever and ever!) Poor Mr. Murray ... Luckily for Marcus, he doesn't need to have any agenda of "Dehumanizing the Palestinians." Palestinians take care of that themselves. Marcus just provides the videos. Good one, Mej ... Nice subtle illusion to the Jewish conspiracy! Please teach us the facts! Meanwhile, in the reality based world.... http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=palestinian&ID=SP109206 This is for "Posted by": Dear nameless one(s), aren't you getting yourself a bit off topic? The issue is Gee's fudging about where the video came from. And if you look: http://www.gregfelton.com/media/2006_03_02.htm Your are doing a great disservice to the term "anti-Semitism" when you use it to cover your own lack of focus. O.k. that "subtle illusion to the Jewish conspiracy" line, what the heck is that about? Grow up! The facts are Israel is guilty of land confiscation, indiscriminate killings of unarmed civilians, economic strangulation, violations of UN charter of rights, and the list is really long. But the facts I wanted you to argue were to do with Antonia's comments. We're all waiting...ARGUE THE FACTS and spare us another personal smear, it is so....unbecoming! oy. poor kids. yaya - see the backspin post. the video was on a hamas site. that was the point of zerb's article. and, btw, if you actually read my comments, i specifically wrote "anti-Israel" re the zerb's columns and antisemitic about the activity (ie graffiti on synagogues, toppling of jewish gravestones, and so on). her columns, coupled with more bashing from the like-minded CBC, created an environment where this type of antisemitism flourished in toronto. the stats speak for themselves. check the web and find them for yourself. then ponder why after the attacks, her articles suddenly stopped bashing israel. hmmmm... me wonders. now go read this: http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/12_04/int_m.htm and http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/eng_n/internet_m05e.htm
A clarification: Our public editor has corrected me and told me that the GLOBE said it contacted CSIS, not us. We consulted the terrorism experts at Haifa U. on whether the video appeared on ''the Hamas site'' after the election -- and it did not. OOOPS SORRY: I HIT THE BUTTON TOO FAST!!!! That clarification should have read: Our public editor Sharon Burnside has corrected me. She says that we did not contact CSIS but in fact consulted with a number of experts in this field, including a professor now working at Haifa U. who tracks and archives terrorism sites. I always love people who claim support from "a professor at Haifa U." without giving a name. Who is the professor who claims that Hamas does not put their blood videos on its website? And what's even more funny is that Antonia doesn't even know who she contacted! On the other hand, I bet this back and forth has just doubled her "readership." So everyone in the world agrees that Hamas has anti-Semitism on their website except for Antonia and her un-named experts. No need to say more! "yaya - see the backspin post. the video was on a hamas site. that was the point of zerb's article." That was not at all the point of Ms. Zerbisias' article. And my name is YayaCanada, thank you. You, on the other hand have no name that the rest of us can childishly mangle. You can obfuscate, and feign pity, and we can trade conflicting URLs about the stats on anti-Semitism till the cows come home, but all of that only shows that either you are unwilling or unable to focus on the issue at hand. I won't be back here. This is a waste of my valuable time. "I always love people who claim support from "a professor at Haifa U." without giving a name." Then you must really love the no-name posts on this forum. yoya - that was certainly the main thrust of zerb's article. and i quote: ** and above: ** of course, know we know that zerb never went “through this at length with csis”; in fact, she now says “we did not contact csis”. what a joke. but hey, you can’t expect the looney left to get the facts right. now we’re told she “consulted with a number of experts in this field, including a professor now working at haifa u. who tracks and archives terrorism sites.” yes! i spoke with that professor too! he told me that he never heard of zerb or the star. i also spoke with a number of other experts in the field who assured me that yoya is a classic kaveret song played at jewish weddings everywhere. unnamed sources i spoke to also told me not to waste my time on the loonies. at least we now agree that the site is a hamas site as indicated in the backspin post. meanwhile, back in the real world: The number of hate crimes reported to police dropped dramatically in 2005, but Jews and blacks remain the most-targeted victim groups, according to the Toronto Police Service’s 2005 Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report. A total of 132 hate crimes were reported in 2005 – 19 per cent less than the year before – of which 33 involved Jews and 33 involved blacks, the report stated. “The Jewish community makes up approximately 8.3 per cent of the population in the City of Toronto but was victimized in 84 per cent of total hate crimes against religion,” the report found. thanks for the love! This YaYaCanada person is a real winner. I've checked her web site and she is a huge proponent of Hamas. I would assume such a well-read person as YaYaCanada would have read the whole Hamas Charter so she cannot claim ignorance of Hamas' true goals. At the same time, she tries to equate Hamas with the Israeli political establishment -- a non-starter except for the hardcore haters as it is clear that the Israeli political establishment favors a two state solution that allows both Jews and Arabs to exercise their right to self-determination. To me, it seems that if YaYaCanada were blogging during WWII, she'd be wagging her fingers at those nasty Jews for daring to raise that Hitler may be anti-semitic and besides those Jews were encroaching on European land. Its time haters like YaYaCanada were exposed for what they really are and I wish that YaYaCanada would stop besmirching the name of Canada and just go by YaYa. |
