Israeli Mainstream Media Fails to Cover Zionist Statements by Muslim Kuwaiti Writer on Kuwaiti TV

By Noam A. Rotem

The renowned Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated and published on Sunday, November 19th 2017, a 6 minute long video clip, with one of the more extraordinary interviews to emerge from within the Arab Muslim world in recent memory.

The video includes excerpts of Kuwaiti writer, Abdullah Al-Hadlaq (with a history of realistic and positive views about Israel), articulating remarkable statements about the Jewish state. Statements, that had they not had been spoken by a Muslim Arab on Kuwaiti TV, one would be forgiven to have thought that they were communicated at some rightwing Zionist convention in Israel.

Here are a few incredible examples:

"Israel is an independent sovereign state.... and most peace-loving and democratic countries recognize it. The group of states that do not recognize Israel are the countries of tyranny and oppression…

"The State of Israel has scientific centers and universities the likes of which even the oldest and most powerful Arab countries lack…

There is no occupation. There is a people returning to its promised land…

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no state called 'Palestine.'...

From the religious perspective, Quranic verse 5:21 proves that the Israelites have the right to the Holy Land. Allah says: 'When Moses said to his people... Oh my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you.' So Allah assigned that land to them…

Are you aware that the history of the Israelites is ancient, predating Islam? Therefore, we Muslims must acknowledge that the Israelites have a right to that land, and that they have not plundered it…

I support the establishment of a three-way alliance, consisting of Israel, the Arab Gulf states, and America, in order to annihilate Hizbullah beyond resurrection."

The full transcript you can find on MEMRI along with the video clip.

The clip was ignored by Israeli mainstream Hebrew media. The Jerusalem Post and The Times Of Israel (both English publications not consumed by mainstream Hebrew speaking Israelis), were the first to pick-up the story on Wednesday November 22.

Following that, the clip started spreading on Israeli social media, including a Hebrew translation by Yoni Barak, so that by Friday evening, November 24, Israel channel 1 news, could no longer ignore it, and showed 2 brief parts from it, mixed into other clips about the winds of change taking place in the Arabian peninsula, regarding attitudes towards Israel. Channel 1 news offered no commentary on it, and instead spent most of their 2 hour long Friday evening week-in-summary news, on other matters that best fit their blatant biased center-left commentary and political agenda.

But here’s the amazing thing, if you go back and read these statements:

“There is no occupation. There is a people returning to its promised land”

“When the State of Israel was established in 1948, there was no state called 'Palestine'.”

“From the religious perspective, Quranic verse 5:21 proves that the Israelites have the right to the Holy Land”

Here is a Muslim Arab, stating historical truths, that have been censored and derided by a politically correct liberal mainstream thought police for decades. These statements stand in stark contrast to everything mainstream media, the Israeli left and center-left, and so called western liberals, have believed in, and promoted, for the past 40 or 50 years.

For decades now mainstream media and the political left have ignored or marginalized brave and internationally renowned Zionist truthsayers from the Arab and Muslim world, the likes of Brigitte Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, Mosab Hassan Yousef and Kasim Hafeez just to mention a few of the more famous ones.

The time has come for mainstream media and the political center-left in Israel and the west, to wake up and acknowledge the truth as simply stated by Abdullah Al-Hadlaq. Their relevance will depend on it, history will judge them by it, and true democratic free-speech is waiting for it.

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This Op-Ed was originally published on The Times of Israel Blogs:
Israeli Mainstream Media Fails to Cover Zionist Statements by Muslim Kuwaiti Writer on Kuwaiti TV by Noam A. Rotem

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התקשורת הישראלית המרכזית התעלמה לרוב מדבריו הציוניים של הסופר המוסלמי הכוויתי בטלוויזיה הכוויתית

מאת נעם רותם   By Noam A. Rotem

המכון הנודע לחקר התקשורת במזרח התיכון (MEMRI) תירגם ופרסם ביום ראשון, ה-19 בנובמבר 2017, סרטון וידיאו באורך של כ-6 דקות, עם אחד הראיונות היותר מדהימים שיצאו מתוך העולם הערבי המוסלמי בזמן האחרון.

הסרטון כולל קטעים מתוך ראיון עם הסופר הכוויתי, עבדאללה אל-הדלק (עם היסטוריה של ביטויים והשקפות ריאליות וחיוביות על ישראל), המבטא אמירות מדהימות על המדינה היהודית. אמירות, שלולא נאמרו ע״י ערבי מוסלמי בטלוויזיה הכוויתית, אפשר היה לסלוח למי שיחשוב שמדובר על הצהרות מתוך איזה כנס ציוני ימני בישראל.

להל״ן כמה דוגמאות:

"ישראל היא מדינה ריבונית עצמאית ... ורוב המדינות שוחרות השלום ודמוקרטיות מכירות בה. קבוצת המדינות שאינן מכירות בישראל הן מדינות עריצות של דיכוי ... 

למדינת ישראל יש מרכזים מדעיים ואוניברסיטאות שכמוהם אפילו המדינות הערביות הוותיקות והחזקות ביותר חסרות ... 

אין כיבוש. יש אנשים שחוזרים לארץ המובטחת שלהם ... 

כאשר הוקמה מדינת ישראל ב -1948, לא הייתה מדינה בשם "פלסטין". 

מנקודת המבט הדתית, הפסוק בקוראן 5:21 מוכיח כי לישראל יש זכות לארץ הקודש. אללה אומר: "כאשר אמר משה לעמו ... הו עמי, היכנסו לארץ הקודש אשר אללה הקצה לך." אז אללה הקצה להם את האדמה הזאת ... 

האם אתה מודע לכך שתולדות ישראל הן עתיקות, וקדומות לאיסלאם? לכן עלינו המוסלמים להכיר בכך שלישראל יש זכות לאותה ארץ, וכי הם לא בזזו אותה ... 

אני תומך בהקמת ברית תלת-כיוונית, המורכבת מישראל, ממדינות המפרץ הערבי ומאמריקה, כדי להשמיד כליל את חיזבאללה."

את התמליל המלא אפשר למצוא באתר MEMRI יחד עם הוידאו קליפ.

תקשורת המיינסטרים הישראלית בהתחלה התעלמה מההקלטה. הג'רוזלם פוסט והטיימס אוף ישראל (שני פרסומים באנגלית, שהמיינסטרים הישראלי הדובר עברית לא קורא בדרך כלל), היו הראשונים שפרסמו את הסיפור ב -22 בנובמבר.

לאחר מכן, הסרטון החל להתפשט במדיה החברתית הישראלית, כולל תרגום עברי של יוני ברק, כך שביום שישי בערב, 24 בנובמבר, ערוץ החדשות 11 של התאגיד הישראלי לא יכל עוד להתעלם, והראה שני חלקים קצרים, יחד עם קליפים נוספים על רוחות השינוי המתרחשות בחצי האי ערב, ביחס לעמדות כלפי ישראל. חדשות ערוץ 11 לא הציעו שום פרשנות על הקליפ, ובמקום זאת בילו את רוב השעתיים של חדשות השבוע עם תמר אלמוג ויאיר ויינרב, על עניינים אחרים המתאימים במיוחד לפרשנות המוטית למרכז-שמאל, ולאג׳נדה הפוליטית שלהם.

אבל הנה הדבר המדהים, אם תחזרו לקרוא את המשפטים הבאים מתוך דבריו של הסופר:

"אין כיבוש. יש אנשים שחוזרים לארץ המובטחת שלהם ... " 

"כאשר הוקמה מדינת ישראל ב -1948, לא הייתה מדינה בשם פלסטין". 

"מנקודת המבט הדתית, הפסוק הקוראני 5:21 מוכיח כי לישראל יש זכות לארץ הקודש"

הנה, ערבי מוסלמי, מציין אמיתות היסטוריות, שזלזלו בהן ושצונזרו במשך עשרות שנים, ע״י משטרת המחשבות של המיינסטרים ה״ליברלי״, עם השקפת עולם של תקינה פוליטית. דבריו של הסופר עומדות בניגוד מוחלט, לכל מה שהאמינו וקדמו, אמצעי התקשורת המרכזיים, השמאל והמרכז-שמאל הישראלי, והליברלים לכאורה במערב, במשך 40 או 50 השנים האחרונות.

מזה עשרות שנים תקשורת המיינסטרים הישראלי יחד עם השמאל והמרכז-שמאל הפוליטי, מתעלמים וממעיטים בחשיבותם, של דוברי אמת, ערבים ומוסלמים אמיצים וציוניים, בעלי שם עולמי, כמו- בריג'יט גבריאל, נוני דרוויש, מסעב חסן יוסף, וקסים חפיז, אם לציין רק חלק מהיותר מפורסמים מביניהם.

הגיע הזמן שתקשורת המיינסטרים ומפלגות המרכז-שמאל בישראל ובמערב, יתעוררו ויכירו באמת הפשוטה והצרופה שבדבריו של עבדאללה אל-הדלאק. הרלוונטיות שלהם תלויה בהכרה הזו, ההיסטוריה תשפוט אותם על פיה, ושיח של חופש דיבור דמוקרטי אמיתי מחכה לזה.

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This Op-Ed was originally published in English on The Times of Israel Blogs:
Israeli Mainstream Media Fails to Cover Zionist Statements by Muslim Kuwaiti Writer on Kuwaiti TV by Noam A. Rotem

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An Inconvenient Truth About Anti-Semitic Violence

Study shows, antisemitic violence in Europe is perpetrated mainly by Muslim extremists, followed by left-wing radicals

By Noam A. Rotem

A recent study titled “Antisemitic Violence in Europe, 2005-2015 Exposure and Perpetrators in France, UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Russia”, was jointly published this past June, by the Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, together with the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Ohio. The complete copy of this report can be found here.

The research combined, incident data based on police reporting, along with a 2012 survey on Antisemitism carried out by the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). Though the writers were cautious to call the findings tentative, with more research needed, these findings corroborate with other studies from across Europe, like the German parliamentary report from 2016 that found that Jews in Germany are feeling a growing threat of anti-Semitism, especially from Muslims.

The survey part of the research report, shows that Muslim extremists significantly lead those perpetrating violence against Jews, followed by members of the political left. In France for example the survey showed that 53% of the attacks were perpetrated by Muslims, 18% by left-wingers, and only 7% by either right-wingers or extreme Christians, while in Sweden 51% of attacks were carried out by Muslims, 25% by leftists, only 5% by rightists, and none by extreme Christians (see additional results in the graph below).

The study, got no coverage by Israeli mainstream media, just like virulent anti-Semitism in the Palestinian territories and across the Arab and Muslim world, that gets little coverage by Israeli mainstream media, in proportion to how deep and widespread the phenomenon is.

Like their mainstream media compatriots in the west, Israeli media tends to sensationalize beyond proportion any sign of fringe right-wing Antisemitism, while either omitting altogether, or greatly marginalizing the dangerously growing unholy alliance in the west of the radical left with Islamic extremism. An alliance rampant with poisonous anti-Zionism, steeped in latent Antisemitism, and as this study shows, is far more dangerous, threatening and violent towards Jews, at this present time in history.

So for all the people in the media, politicians, liberals and conservatives, who were rightfully distraught by the Neo-Nazi display in Charlottesville earlier this month, if you have good intentions of demonstrating a semblance of moral integrity, then reality backed by facts, cries out for proportionally more coverage, and more concern about Antisemitism within radical Islam, and the regressive left.

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This Op-Ed was originally published on The Times of Israel Blogs:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-inconvenient-truth-about-anti-semitic-violence/

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Old Habits Die Hard

Israeli mainstream media, the Israeli left, center-left and #FakeNews

By Noam A. Rotem (Op-Ed originally published on Times of Israel Blogs: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/old-habits-die-hard/)

For years and up until very recently, news anchors on Israeli primetime TV and radio, along with politicians from Israel’s center-left and left parties, have been repeating an old and decayed axiom that the majority of the Israeli public knew was no longer true, yet no one appeared to be supplying the evidence for its demise.

But finally the proof is in. A new poll conducted by leading Israeli pollster Dr. Mina Tzemach for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, found that a majority of the Jewish public in Israel no longer supports, the Clinton parameters for a two State solution. See full poll results here.

The reasons (not covered by the poll), are obvious, as I wrote in an op-ed last September:

Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, systematically teach and preach virulent hatred of Jews, and the liquidation of the Jewish State. Suicide bombers are not just venerated as national heroes, their families are rewarded with lifetime pensions. Both regimes systematically deny the factual 3,000 year old history of Jews in and to the land of Israel. And when Israel in a gesture of goodwill, handed over the Gaza strip, complete with state-of-the-art greenhouse agriculture, the response of the Palestinians, was to destroy those greenhouses, and vote in a tyrannical terrorist regime, bent on allocating all monetary and human resources, to the destruction of the state of Israel.

(From my op-ed: Questions Israeli Mainstream Media didn’t and won’t ask Hillary, published on Tel Aviv Vistas and Arutz Sheva, on September 12, 2016).

Not surprisingly, the poll, published on March 30, got virtually no coverage by Israeli mainstream electronic media. But thankfully, Caroline Glick cited the poll, both in an op-ed of hers (‘Israel’s silenced majority’ 03/31/2017), as well as in an interview with Avi Abelow, on his Daily Israel Straight Talk Facebook page.

The poll results are actually really big news, particularly for the center-left and mainstream media, who have continued to stubbornly believe and sanctimoniously insist, that the Israeli consensus is still firmly behind their steamrolled two state solution. But the Israeli public was not oblivious to the fact, that nearly every concession Israel made towards a two state solution, was almost always met with rampant murderous Palestinian terrorism. No matter how hard they tried, the Israeli mainstream media and center left parties, could not whitewash this self-evident evil.

Yet, despite the lack of coverage, the poll seems to have had an impact. Until its publication, on almost a daily basis, across the spectrum of Israeli mainstream electronic media, news anchors, political pundits, and politicians from the left and center left, would whip out this false pretense of alleged overwhelming public opinion support, for a two state solution. They especially would bring it up, when trying to suppress any open debate, about alternative solutions. But since its publication, at least for now, there appears to be almost “radio silence” by the Israeli troika (comprised of the Israeli left, center-left and their mouthpiece — Israeli mainstream media).

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the idiom ‘Old habits die hard’ is used to say it is hard to stop doing things that one has been doing for a long time. This adage, resonates appropriately well in this case, of the Israeli left, center-left and mainstream media.