Israel Resource News Agency
CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH Ltd.
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Tel. (+972-2) 623 6368 or cell phone (+972-54) 722-2661
David Bedein, Bureau Chief
Media@Actcom.co.il
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Israel Resource Review
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Israel At War With the New York TImes
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By David Bedein
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Wed Nov 10 2009 |
The days of quiet diplomacy between the government of Israel and the New York Times are over.
Israel has declared an uprecedented war against the New York Times, for what it calls tendentious and unfair coverage of the Jewish state.
At the focus of the storm is the Goldstone report.
The Israeli delegation in the UN sent an official complaint to the newspaper's editorial board.
The complaint, signed by the Israel UN delegation's spokeswoman, Mirit Cohen, says that the newspaper uses subjective negative language about Israel and failed in writing fair and accurate coverage.
The New York Times has yet to respond. ========================
Letter sent on Nov. 5, 2009
Dear Mr. Clark Hoyt, Public Editor of The New York Times,
I write in connection to a series of articles published in The New York Times in recent weeks regarding the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, colloquially referred to as the Goldstone Report. I am deeply concerned by the subjective and often damning language that The New York Times uses towards Israel as it fails to accurately reflect the nature and scope of the report.
Over and over, The New York Times’ articles on this matter employ language that easily leads the reader to believe that the Goldstone Report found conclusive evidence that Israel committed war crimes. In Neil MacFarquhar’s “U.N. Council Endorses Gaza Report” (Oct. 16), the article states that the Goldstone Report “details evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli Army...” In Sharon Otterman’s “Gaza Report Author Asks U.S. to Clarify Concerns” (Oct. 22), the Goldstone Report is described as having “found evidence of war crimes committed by Israel...” In yet another example -- MacFarquhar and Otterman’s “Palestinians, in Reversal, Press U.N. Gaza Report” (Oct. 14) -- the Goldstone Report is once again described as having “found evidence of Israeli war crimes...” These articles reflect only a sample of the many that discuss Israel vis-à-vis the Goldstone Report in conclusive and condemnatory terms.
In stark contrast, a Reuters article carried by The New York Times on Oct. 14, “Israel Urged to Investigate Gaza War Crimes Charges,” describes the Goldstone Report as reflecting “U.N. allegations of possible war crimes.”
The description offered by the Reuters piece is a critical component of any factually accurate discussion of the Goldstone Report. In sharp contrast, the aforementioned Times articles fail to reflect this vital distinction as readers will falsely assume that the Goldstone Report found conclusive evidence of Israeli war crimes.
I wish to reiterate Israel’s position that the Goldstone Report is deeply flawed and one-sided as it offers legitimacy to Hamas terrorism and its deliberate strategy to launch attacks, store weapons and use as shields the civilian population and infrastructure of Gaza. At the same time, the report’s mandate predetermined its findings that wrongly condemned Israel’s legitimate exercise of its right to self-defense. The tendency of The New York Times to gloss over such realities must be rectified and I sincerely hope that paper will use accurate and appropriate language to ensure that its coverage of the Goldstone Report and the wide Middle East is fair and honest. I remain at your disposal if you would like to further discuss this matter.
Yours truly,
Mirit Cohen, Spokesperson, Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN |
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| Displaying Comments 1-5 of 9. |
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Ria Westerman
2009-11-28
21:28:09 hrs. PDT
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Dear editor of the New York Times, Shalom!
Hereby my response to your antisemitic reports to the Goldstone report.
See article / video of British Colonel Richard Kemp's speech before the UN Human Rights Council on 16.10.'09 in reply to the Goldstone Report. at: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/10/024784.php
Quote:
"The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.
Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes" End quote.
Yours sincerely,
Ria Westerman, Jerusalem
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| 2 |
Rachel Koping
2009-11-17
06:51:24 hrs. PDT
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Your paper should be sued by the Government of Israel for defamation, libel and slander. I hope the people who support New York Times would cancel their subscriptions as well as readers of this dirty rag you call a newspaper. |
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BURTON RUDMAN
2009-11-16
13:19:40 hrs. PDT
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THE NY TIMES HAS SUBVERTED ITS LONG-STANDING AND RESPECTED MOTTO TO "WE PRINT ALL THE NEWS THAT FIITS OUR NEEDS" |
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JOSEF
2009-11-15
16:41:53 hrs. PDT
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As a past subscriber to the LA Times I felt their pro Palestine bias but they never responded to my mail. As last resort I canceled my subscription. Now I get all the news I need from the WSJ.
JG |
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| 5 |
Linda Cohn
2009-11-15
12:28:07 hrs. PDT
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Well, it's about time. Israel should have objected to the NYT bias a long time ago. By now Israel should be doing a lot more than objecting. They should be suing the NYT for defamation, libel, and/or slander. And pro-Israel New Yorkers should be calling the advertisers of the NYT and asking them to drop their support of that libelous paper. |
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