Middle East and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict -- toward a new Pravda or Truth
Why Pravda? Pravda means "truth" in Russian, and was also the name of the major Soviet newspaper.
This blog questions whether the US mainstream media presents "truth" or "pravda" -- judge for yourself with coverage that is hard or impossible to find in the American media.
This blog is formed on the belief that it takes an informed American population to demand a just settlement -- and it takes "fair and balanced" American leadership to bring the parties to a just settlement.
Saturday, October 18, 2003
Why keep blogging? Neoconservatives
I have been running a small survey amongst my American friends to see how many know about the neoconservatives. The answer to date is--none.
Yet both my sisters in England are well aware of who they are.
It is deeply disturbing when a small group can dominate American foreign policy with so little media coverage and almost no awareness in the general public of their links to Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Likud party. Their 1996 paper for incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested that the recently-signed Oslo accords might be dispensed with and urged Israel to abandon any thought of trading land for peace with the Arabs. They urged the getting America to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq, followed by action against Syria.
Sound familiar?
I have been running a small survey amongst my American friends to see how many know about the neoconservatives. The answer to date is--none.
Yet both my sisters in England are well aware of who they are.
It is deeply disturbing when a small group can dominate American foreign policy with so little media coverage and almost no awareness in the general public of their links to Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Likud party. Their 1996 paper for incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested that the recently-signed Oslo accords might be dispensed with and urged Israel to abandon any thought of trading land for peace with the Arabs. They urged the getting America to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq, followed by action against Syria.
Sound familiar?
Why keep blogging?
It's a fair question but easy to answer every time you see propaganda masquerading as news or op-ed. The most recent: a piece by Cal Thomas. Daily Herald, October 18, 2003 , “Sharon makes it clear he will not back down on matters of security”
Cal reported that Sharon handed him a sheet of paper and as of Oct. 11, 884 Israelis had been murdered and 5,956 injured. Israel has a population of 5 million. In United States the comparable murder rate would be 49,150.
Cal overlooked the following analysis. Israel has a population of about 6.5 million but 23% of them are Israeli-Arabs so Sharon didn’t count them. He also didn't count the first year of the intifada, especially the year 2000, when 279 stone throwing Arabs died. He did count the 41 Israelis, half of whom were soldiers firing at the Palestinians. Sharon could not remember if he counted the 12 Israeli-Arab protesters shot by Israeli police in Israel.
As of September 2003, 2,233 Palestinians were dead with 21,360 wounded. (Palestinian Authority figures show 2,647 dead and 36,448 wounded but Cal would like prefer we use the lower numbers.)
Those Palestinian dead would be equivalent to 177,362 murders. Injuries? The US comparable numbers would be 326,758 Israelis and 1,696,580 Palestinians.
The bottom line is that Palestinians are more than three times as likely to die and five times as likely to be injured.
Cal was very busy that day in Israel because it was October 14, 2003. He had hoped to stop in Ramallah to analyze the Palestinian numbers but had a pressing 50th anniversary engagement in a small overlooked place called Qibya.
I know Cal is very proud of his reputation as a thorough and fair minded op-ed columnist. He would want you to check out www.IfAmericansKnew.org
It's a fair question but easy to answer every time you see propaganda masquerading as news or op-ed. The most recent: a piece by Cal Thomas. Daily Herald, October 18, 2003 , “Sharon makes it clear he will not back down on matters of security”
Cal reported that Sharon handed him a sheet of paper and as of Oct. 11, 884 Israelis had been murdered and 5,956 injured. Israel has a population of 5 million. In United States the comparable murder rate would be 49,150.
Cal overlooked the following analysis. Israel has a population of about 6.5 million but 23% of them are Israeli-Arabs so Sharon didn’t count them. He also didn't count the first year of the intifada, especially the year 2000, when 279 stone throwing Arabs died. He did count the 41 Israelis, half of whom were soldiers firing at the Palestinians. Sharon could not remember if he counted the 12 Israeli-Arab protesters shot by Israeli police in Israel.
As of September 2003, 2,233 Palestinians were dead with 21,360 wounded. (Palestinian Authority figures show 2,647 dead and 36,448 wounded but Cal would like prefer we use the lower numbers.)
Those Palestinian dead would be equivalent to 177,362 murders. Injuries? The US comparable numbers would be 326,758 Israelis and 1,696,580 Palestinians.
The bottom line is that Palestinians are more than three times as likely to die and five times as likely to be injured.
Cal was very busy that day in Israel because it was October 14, 2003. He had hoped to stop in Ramallah to analyze the Palestinian numbers but had a pressing 50th anniversary engagement in a small overlooked place called Qibya.
I know Cal is very proud of his reputation as a thorough and fair minded op-ed columnist. He would want you to check out www.IfAmericansKnew.org
