Example: When Binyamin
Netanyahu was prime minister, CNN would invite mostly leftist,
anti-government guests to appear on its programs. The excuse
was that the government view was amply represented by the
prime minister and his spokesmen.
But the same criteria do not apply now. In the past three
months (beginning August 1 and ending October 27) not one
spokesman of the opposition was invited to appear in a CNN
telecast. Not one.
Altogether there have been 47 guest appearances by Israelis
during this period. Of these, 45, which included six appearances
by Ehud Barak and nine by Haim Ramon, ranged from left of
center to the extreme left (Yossi Beilin, Ran Cohen, Shlomo
Ben-Ami, Leah Tsemel).
Only one guest, Eliezer Waldman, who appeared twice, could
be described as right of center, though he too is a member
of the ruling coalition. During the same period, the Palestinians
and other Arabs appeared 39 times.
This kind of bias is even more disturbing on the CNN Internet
website. Unlike a quickly forgotten news story, an archival
website is a permanent fixture, a primary source of information
for researchers. It has the authority of a reference library.
To peruse the CNN archive is to realize that facts no longer
exist as independent entities. Like trendy "docu-fiction"
novels, which incorporate real personalities and actual events
into a fictional narrative, the political "profiles" section
of the CNN website includes only facts compatible with the
portraits CNN wishes to paint.
According to CNN, Cairo-born Yasser Arafat devoted his teen
years to "a study of Jewish life, associating with Jews and
reading the works of Zionists such as Theodor Herzl."
One can only wonder where in the Cairo of 1946 Arafat found
Arabic translations of Zionist writings (he spoke no other
language). Perhaps they were distributed by the Moslem Brotherhood
as Samizdat.
These writings must have had a positive impact on young Arafat,
for in the mid 1950s he and others formed Fatah, "dedicated
to reclaiming Palestine for the Palestinians."
There is an unintended poignancy to this sentence. It was
indeed in those years that the Arab leadership realized how
much more effective they could make their efforts to "throw
the Jews into the sea" if they became Palestinians rather
than Arabs.
By then, the Jews of this country (the only people called
Palestinians before the War of Independence) were named Israelis.
Even The Palestine Post became The Jerusalem Post.
By adopting the name "Palestinians" the Arabs succeeded in
converting the Arab-Israeli conflict from a war of annihilation
against the Jewish population to a struggle of dispossessed
natives against colonialist invaders. It was a spectacularly
effective canard, eventually adopted by Israel's own fiction
weavers, the "new historians."
One can only wonder what turn history would have taken had
King Abdullah I of Jordan not been prevented by the British
from calling his kingdom Palestine. Or if Israel's founding
father had heeded the advice of a young American journalist
(whose name, ironically, is Sidney Zion), and called the new
Jewish State Palestine.
CNN's Arafat may have been a Zionist scholar, but "his activities
troubled Jordan's King Hussein," the website tells us. The
activities themselves - blowing up hijacked passenger planes
on Jordanian soil, agitating against the Jordanian government,
and inviting a Syrian invasion - are left unmentioned. The
innocent reader may be forgiven for wondering why the King
was troubled.
Arafat goes on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, with no mention
of the two Israelis he happened to share it with. (Why complicate
a perfect fairy tale?) But he is not the website's only hero.
Syrian ruler Hafez Assad, in whose capital CNN is eager to
have an office, is almost as admirable.
After leading a bloodless coup, Assad "became Syria's president,
repealed martial law, gave freer rein to the press and enacted
other civil rights. International trade was liberalized and
Syrians were permitted to travel abroad. He launched a five-year
economic development plan and encouraged the development of
private enterprise. Assad also admitted into his government
representatives of opposition groups.
"In
international affairs, Assad tried to improve relations with
his neighbors. In October 1973, he and his close associate,
Egypt's Anwar Sadat, launched a joint attack on Israel in
an attempt to recover territory lost during the Arab-Israeli
war of 1967."
Gasping with admiration for these sweeping reforms, readers
must wonder why they have never thought of improving relations
with their neighbors by attacking them. It may be downright
rude to point this out, but the CNN bio never mentions the
Hamma massacre, where civil rights proponent Assad had 20,000
civilians killed, thus depriving them of at least some of
their civil rights.
Nor does it include the litany of his unmatched brutalities
in Syria and Lebanon. It even refrains from recalling one
of Assad's unique distinctions. His is the only regime on
earth that has officially commended army officers for beheading
prisoners of war.
After all the praise the article heaps on Assad, it is quite
unsettling to find in the last paragraph a brief reference
to his support for "the violent terrorist organization Hizbullah,"
and to Syria's inclusion in the state Department's list of
countries that support terrorism. No wonder Arab leaders claim
the State Department is run by Zionists.
Earlier this month, CNN deviated from its dedication to errors,
Arab propaganda, and nonsensical observations, and stated
on an Internet webpage called "At a glance - facts and figures
on the State of Israel" that Jerusalem is Israel's capital.
But when a new organization, "American Moslems for Jerusalem,"
protested, CNN instantly capitulated. The web was changed,
and Jerusalem was converted from capital to "largest city,"
leaving Israel the only country in the world without a capital.
CAMERA (Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting in America),
an activist media watch organization based in Boston, pointed
out to CNN that Jerusalem is the seat of government, whose
status as Israel's capital is recognized by an act of Congress.
The network's reply was unequivocal: "CNN does not recognize
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."
When the choice is between the US Congress and "American Moslems
for Jerusalem," CNN has no problem deciding."
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The views expressed in the content and articles of this website,
do not necessarily express the opinions of the Zionist Organization
of America, nor the editor and creator of this website.
