Haaretz Watch - Week of November 29

Sunday –   Newspaper's TV critic bemoans Channel 10's expose of ties between the Palestinian Balad Party— the platform of Knesset members Basel Ghattas, Jamal Zahalka, and Hanin Zoabi – and Hezbollah.

Implying that the party, which openly declares it wants to replace the one Jewish state in the world with a 24^th Arab country, is being tarred and feathered because it is strident.

The head of the party, the man who still pulls the strings and funnels Islamist money from abroad is Azmi Bishara. He fled when his role as a foreign agent was exposed. He lives in Qatar.

Monday -  There's a good piece that commemorates today's anniversary of the anti-Jewish riots in the Arab world, including the WWII-era pogrom in Iraq. 

All this obviously well before the 1948 establishment of Israel.

But there is also an article in which a parallel is drawn between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

Both, writes Zvi Barel, are insincere in their apologies, both refuse to pay compensation (he means for the Mavi Marmara ) and both refuse to put the guilty responsible on trial. 

You don't have to be an admirer of our Napoleonic-leaning premier to find such an association revolting.
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Look for my December 14th cover story in The Jerusalem Report
Have Reform Jews given up on Israel? 
You may be surprised to learn that...well, let me keep you in suspense.
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Tuesday - Last night Channel 2 led with a report that there was a very big story involving the police and Shin Bet but they couldn't tell us what it was about due to a court order.

This morning Haaretz heds with same report but adds that what they can't tell us involves Jewish terrorism.

In his column Moshe Arens argues that the best way to help Palestinian Arabs is not by granting them work permits to labor within the Green Line but to develop and expand industrial zones in Judea/Samaria where they can earn Israeli-like salaries and benefits. Of course the EU is against this approach and is undermining West Bank economy in the hope of pushing Israel back to the 1949 Armistice Lines. The real victims of EU policy are the Palestinians who suffer from high unemployment and low pay in the WB. Naturally, the Palestinian Authority and UN could help them but easing the situation would indirectly benefit Israel so they'd rather see the Pals suffer.

Pals in Gaza are complaining that Gazans aren't getting enough visas to enter Israel for free medical treatment. No these complaints aren't directed at Hamas for creating a state of war but at Israel for not ignoring the state of war.

Finally, Haaretz reports that now that they've been paid more money by EU, Turkey limiting some illegal migrants from entering Greece.    

Nothing outstandingly outrageous today in section one today.

Wednesday - Not much to kvetch about in today's Haaretz front page.  The lead is again about the news they can't report connected to the Jewish terror gang that carried out the murders in Dura.  The page 1 main photo shows the smiling dimwit responsible for the arson attack on a dual Hebrew-Arabic school in Jerusalem. He's shown in court for his sentencing. I suppose Haaretz's message is that Jewish terror is no less a threat than Arab terror.

And in a sense they're right. In fact, Jewish terror while on the margins of Israeli society and claiming few victims is nonetheless a frontal assault on Zionist values and institutions from within. A sort of fifth column.

There's no point in quibbling about today's editorial and op-ed pages which are best simply skipped.  Haaretz has two pages of out-and-out opinion articles – on page 2 and on page 15 –wrapped around a viewspaper that also carries straight news.

Goes back to the beginning: I find myself surprised to be in agreement with the paper's TV critic who is smitten by the opening music to the Danish hit The Bridge. I also liked the dark serial and the sound of its music. Not sure I understand the lyrics. Sounds like a bunch of words strung together, as my buddy Gershom Gale used to say when he read copy that made no sense.

Incidentally, Israel Today (Wed) covers what The New York Times reported Tuesday about the extent of the butchery carried out in 1972 by a Palestine Liberation Organization squad that attacked Israel's Olympic athletes in Munich. Preceding the Islamic State by decades the Palestinian Arabs tortured and castrated some of the Israelis.  None of those who carried out the attack lived to collect their PLO pensions (saving EU taxpayers some money).

Thursday - Haaretz is back in its groove today after an off-day yesterday.

Page One carries a story about how ostensibly pro-Israel German lawmakers are worried about bilateral relations should groups funded by Berlin, Europe states, and the EU be required to report their activities and finances because these organizations basically serve as agents of foreign governments.

Groups like Peace Now would have to reveal their sources of income under some bills now before the Knesset.

Obviously the money defines policy. The policy is to drive israel back to '49 armistice lines.

Also on page One is a campaign waged by Haaretz columnist and Channel 10 advocacy journalist Raviv Drucker to use the courts to undermine distribution of the country's only non dovish/non populist, non-demagogic tabloid Israel Hayom.

So-called leftish Knesset members tried to essentially outlaw the paper via legislative action and failed,

So much for freedom of expression.

I know I said that I don't read the official leader / editorial on page 2, but today's supports another foreign funded lobby called Breaking the Silence in its efforts to undercut Israeli morale in the war under the guise of helping soldiers report illegal or immoral behavior by their comrades.

The UN which has done so much to spread peace around the world has a fellow stationed in Occupied Palestine to solve the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Haaretz reports that he's concerned that the Jewish terrorists responsible for Duma have not been brought to justice. 

Speaking of which, Silverstein, the (ahem) self-described pro-Israel  blogger reported the names of the terrorists in custody -- he's often given stuff by leftish Israeli journalists barred by court order from reporting sensitive details of ongoing investigations.

He's supposedly funded by his readers. I know it because a fellow I bought a bridge over the East River told me so. 

Anyway, and more importantly, now the question arises: are we dealing with another Avishai Raviv cock-up. Was the Shin Bet running a sting operation that got away from it?  That's what's being openly talked about on TV.  Time may not tell.