hz, Author at Netzach Yisrael

Hail Six Most Dishonest Reporters of 2016

hzDecember 21, 2016December 21, 2016News

Jewish Press

HonestReporting, a media watchdog group whose stated mission is “Defending Israel from Media Bias,” on Wednesday released the list of winners of its annual Dishonest Reporting Awards. And so, without further ado, here is a taste of their choices (for the complete thing, kindly click here).

1. Most Distrusted Reporter: Luke Baker, Reuters’ Jerusalem bureau chief, who twitted that Israeli security is “idiocy” (they strip-searched him leaving Gaza), called rightwing Jewish groups “Jewish nutjobs,” and dismissed veteran Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh’s criticism of the media was “a joke.” He also has a reputation for a thin skin when it comes to others criticizing him.

hzDecember 21, 2016December 21, 2016News

Times of Israel

A powerful Knesset committee will convene on Wednesday afternoon to vote on whether to strip Joint (Arab) List MK Basel Ghattas of his parliamentary immunity, after he came under suspicion of passing contraband to Palestinian inmates in Israeli prison.

Ghattas was questioned by the national serious crimes unit of the Israel Police on Tuesday over allegations he handed miniature cellphones and secret notes to two imprisoned Palestinians, one of whom is serving a 37-year sentence for murder, during a visit at Ketziot Prison south of Beersheba on Sunday.

hzDecember 20, 2016December 21, 2016Articles

JNS

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (left) looks on as incoming Turkish Ambassador to Israel Kemal Okem speaks during a ceremony for new ambassadors at the President's Residence in Jerusalem
By Ariel Ben Solomon: Israel and Turkey recently took their latest step towards restoring full ties by exchanging ambassadors, but their slowly improving relationship may be more of an acknowledgement of regional reality than an expression of mutual admiration.

Earlier this month, Israel’s new ambassador to Turkey, Eitan Na’eh, presented his diplomatic credentials to Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Na’eh previously served on Israel’s National Security Council and had worked in the Israeli Embassy in Turkey. Newly appointed Turkish Ambassador to Israel Kemal Okem, meanwhile, is a former adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

hzDecember 20, 2016December 21, 2016News

JTA

In remarks dovetailing with policies embraced by president-elect Donald Trump, Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer delivered a forceful plea for the United States to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

“Israel hopes that next year when the new American ambassador to Israel lights the menorah in his embassy he will light it in the same city where the Maccabees lit it 2,200 years ago,” Dermer said at the annual embassy Hanukkah party on Tuesday evening.

hzDecember 19, 2016December 22, 2016Articles

Maclean's

By Terry Glavin: “Aleppo is now a synonym for hell,” is the way outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the merciless bombardments and massacres that the Russians, Assadists and Shia militias were inflicting upon the last major stronghold of the fractured and hopeless Syrian rebels last Friday. Five years after Syria’s quixotic, non-violent democratic uprising began, nearly half a million deaths, more than five million refugees, and it had all come to this.

“We have collectively failed the people of Syria,” Ban declared at his farewell press conference at the UN headquarters in New York. “Peace will only prevail when it is accompanied by compassion, justice and accountability for the abominable crimes we have seen.”

hzDecember 19, 2016December 21, 2016Articles

Algemeiner

By Ira Stoll: How freaked out is the New York Times over Donald Trump’s decision to nominate David Friedman as the American ambassador to Israel?

Extremely, to judge by the newspaper’s completely over-the-top coverage of the nomination.

hzDecember 19, 2016December 21, 2016News

Algemeiner

Students at the University of Michigan, Dearborn (UMD) have lost interest in anti-Israel activity, a faculty member and long-time BDS activist told local the independent newspaper Arab American News.

David Skrbina, a professor of philosophy, said he is “puzzled” as to why Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement action at the school has “fizzled,” the newspaper reported.

hzDecember 19, 2016December 21, 2016Articles

Forward

By Steven M. Cohen: The overall American Jewish population size is stable and growing, but its character is shifting dramatically. The Orthodox population (Haredi, centrist, and modern) is exploding. The non-Orthodox are in sharp decline.

We can chart the rapid growth of the Orthodox by looking at their numbers in the Pew Research Center data over three generations, each encompassing 18 years of age. From old to young, we have the putative grandparents’ generation (age 56-73), the parents (28-45) and the children (0-17).

hzDecember 19, 2016December 21, 2016News

JNS

The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and other top security officials reportedly met with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to brief them on important security matters.

The security delegation, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, was organized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and included Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, National Security Council leader Yaakov Nagel and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer. No specific date for the meeting was reported.

hzDecember 19, 2016December 21, 2016News

Reuters

Iran expects to get its first new jet within weeks under a multi-billion-dollar deal with Airbus for 100 planes, a senior official said on Monday, as Tehran and Western firms race to reopen trade almost a year after sanctions were lifted.

The first of the Airbus jets should be delivered in mid-January, part of plans to buy or lease 200 planes to renew IranAir’s decaying fleet, against a backdrop of conservative criticism in both Washington and Tehran of last year’s international sanctions deal to allow such business.

Hail Six Most Dishonest Reporters of 2016

Lawmakers to Vote on Lifting Immunity of MK in Phone Smuggling Case

Turkey-Israel Ties Slowly Improve Not Out of Love, but Due to Realism

Israeli Envoy Dermer, Echoing Trump, Calls for U.S. to Move Embassy to Jerusalem

Welcome to the Age of the Despot

New York Times in Full-Fledged Frothing Freakout Frenzy Over Friedman Pick

Anti-Israel U of Michigan Prof ‘Puzzled’ by ‘Fizzling’ BDS Activism on Campus

American Jews Will All Be Orthodox Soon

Israeli Mossad Chief Reportedly Briefs Trump Transition Team in Secret Meeting

Iran to Land First Airbus Jet Within Weeks Under Sanctions Pact