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Sunday, May 11 2008Hari Seeks to Smear HonestReportingRather than addressing the issues, Johann Hari rails against HonestReporting. See HonestReporting's response to the British columnist: Hari Seeks to Smear HonestReporting.
TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry: Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Hari Seeks to Smear HonestReporting: CommentsHari is just another example of the "new" anti-Israel rhetoric, where ad hominem attacks and circular reasonings are used with a twist. In an apparently smart preemptive strategy, Israel bashers include in their discourse a clear warning: anyone trying to discredit them will be immediately guilty of paranoia and Jewish McCarthyism, which invalidates any opposing argument. It will never be over until The West discovers another way to keep the natives quiet. Picking on a small population that would soon disapear the Roman's created this myth of Jewish superiority. Jews aren't superior - they, like many minorities have had to work harder in order to achieve success. this next century will finally give recognition to the "colors" and for the same reason. Bob Poplar You don't seem to understand what a smear is. "Hari compares Israel to excrement." - Hari never wrote, or even suggested that. So, being completely dishonest, that is a smear. Hari noting such smearing, isn't. It's east to see how bbc can twist the truth each and every time. If you take a look at their web site and try to make a complaint they will twist and twist and bring you back to the same place where you started. Really a reflection of their general dishonesty. I have sadly come to understand that the liberal left have no concern for fact and truth when promoting their distorted agenda!!! I appreciate the important work you do. But to be credible, Honest Reporting must raise itself above the rhetoric which it finds so offensive, so biased and so dishonestly agenda driven. You would do well to seriously take on the words of Howard Jacobson, who you reference. I agree with a previous blogger that Hari does NOT compare Israel to excrement. There is enough in his article to take issue with, as you have also done. Perhaps I am naive, but it would be well to treat his work with more respect. Perhaps you needn't be so astonished with his high profile and awards, because maybe he does generally write well, and shed light. Respectfully disagreeing, providing specific counterargruments, without the insults would be much more credible than sinking to the 'smearing' which you accuse him of. Frankly, I feel he deserves an apology for your misrepresenting his purpose. If you raise the level of your response, you are likely to engage him and those like him, and then maybe progress rather than mudslinging can be made. I am no expert, but I see that Ilan Pape is a respected though controversial historian, and it is not evil or sinister to consider what he has to say, even if he is wrong. It seems to me that many of the 'players' in the drama of political commenting end up getting into entrenched positions by others imputing sinister motives where there may only be curiosity and a desire to seek the truth, at least to start. Let us avoid that dance. About the BBC Jeremy Bowen´s comments "Full of omissions... unlegitimizes or altogether ignores the legitimate roots of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel ...". Obviously I agree, but what did the Jews to be legitimate Palestine as the land of the Jews? The whole approach is wrong because 2) in the official historiography oriental (mizrahim) Jews practically do not exist with rights and having been displaced by the Arabs...that should be overemphasized. 2) Sticking too much on the holocaust as a motive to create a refuge (Israel) for the survival Jews is counterproductive, because historically is too recent and then go the Arabs and say why should they pay the price? 3) A book each and every Jew should read The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus...It tells the story of the Jewish people There is an old saying that the best defense is a good offense. Isn't it time to create an Honest Reporting documentary that details unknown facts on how Allied as well as Nazi Europe and the Arab world stole land and murdered Jews before and after the creation of Israel? The film of Jeremy Bowen is very balanced and it is time that both Jews and Arabs stop playing the victoms. The problem is as many of both sides say: The Arab weakness is that they are divided and lack strong politicians that can override the terrorists. This has been Israel's fortune in the past but may turn to be Israel's biggest problem in the future. Hari's reliance on sources that are obviously biased against Israel in order to contextualise his own observations displays his propensity to polemicise. Contrast this with historian Benny Morris's statement in a recent article in which he states his belief in there being an historical Truth which he tries (NB. tries) to uncover. Ilan Pappe and his ilk arrogantly affirm that they are possessors of the Truth and end up ramming the square peg of reality through the round hole of their ideology. In reply to an email I sent him last week questioning his use of a Ben Gurion "quotation" that had already been claimed as false by Morris, Hari wrote: "The source is Ilan Pappe's book 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine', which I try to follow all the turns and twists of disputation on the subject but suspect that this is one of those instances in life where there is little point to resolving what the truth is and what fairness dictates. Too many of us believe or hope for a rational world when life is full of unfairness. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the rights of the Mizrachim (1948-67) are not seriously on the table.Why are we not talking about reparations for them. Most of the Palestinians arrived under the Mandate. Had the Arabs and the mandatory authorities not been so eager to limit Jewish immigration, consider how many Holocaust lives might have been saved. Let me see if I understand Hari: Islamic death threats were intimidating but name-calling and smearing by self-appointed spokesmen for Israel is worse. Some of those self-appointed defenders were sent by someone though. Honest Reporting accused him of being an anti-Jewish bigot (where?) but did not provide any arguments to refute his claims (although his central claim that Israel is responsible for Gaza's sewage problem is omitted from his response after HonestReporting's critiques). The other self-appointed defenders co-campaigning with HonestReporting smeared him even more. Like Dershowitz who cares little about ethnic cleansing and Phillips who is just as bad since she said once that the Palestinians want to deny the Holocaust. And lets not forget that everytime he thinks of something positive about Israel it reminds him of shit. So the only thing he managed to convince me of is that he is the one smearing. Jeremy Bowen's "The Birth of Israel" lacks journalistic integrity at best, is blatantly anti-Israel, and perpetuates lies and half truths about the history of the country. This type of fact-void journalism is anti-Israel, anti-Jewish propaganda of the type that leads to the murder of innocent Jews and fosters an ongoing hatred between peoples. His bias against the country is evidenced by the flaws in his historical facts. I am being kind by calling them flaws as I believe they are intentional misrepresentations. Face it, no one with such easy access to historical facts could have botched it so badly unless intentionally. Facts and historical data are readily available should anyone care to check them with credible sources and present the truth. Bowen obviously used those sources that fit his agenda to discredit the state of Israel and to continue the anti-Israel bias that exists in Britain and worldwide. By presenting Bowen's anti-Israel propaganda as factual and during the 60th anniversary celebration of the country, the BBC has played a hand in perpetuating years of lies and manipulation that have only empowered anti-Semites. The British supported the Holocaust and continue to support a Holocaust against Israelis. By allowing Bowen's factually flawed, void of historical fact, anti-Semitic dribble to be published the BBC is a willing accomplice. Hari is the "new kind" of anti-Semite: on the surface reasonable, in his heart a Jew-hating coward. With each passing day, the spectres of 1938 arise and yet from the commentaries of deceivers like Hari - one would believe the Jews have it good and it's the poor Muslims who are in peril. Isn't it time that hate speech like Hari's be banned? Post a comment[Comments are held for approval before appearing.]
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