Al Jazeera English under Jewish infiltration
By Freedom Research, January 2012
[Note: underline of quotes in articles below
have been added by Radio Islam for emphasis.]
When Al Jazeera English was launched many people had expectations that at last there would be an English language
media outlet that wasn´t just a mouthpiece of the Jewish agenda. But lo - were they wrong.
Just a quick check on the opinionmakers employed by this "Arab" TV
channel's Internet pages gives an astounding high percentage of people of the Jewish
mafia, delivering their analysis and perspectives on how to interpret
the world. A world very much affected by the actions of their
Jewish co-mafiosi in world Economics, US/French/British/Russian
politics, and so forth...
 
Left Column:
Al Jazeera English main page (screensaved), 11th September
2011, Jewish opinionmakers:
Weisbrot, Chomsky,
Sachs, Falk, Miliband,
Rogoff, Shabi (Iraqi
Jewess)
+ Zionist Gordon Brown
Right Column:
Al Jazeera English main page (screensaved), 6th August 2011,
Jewish opinionmakers:
Rosenberg, Rothman,
Sachs, Rogoff,
Miller, Rosenberg
|
|
And as the Arab Spring in 2011 continues this channel has been in the forefront
of delivering the "information" But in whose interest? That the Libyan operation
was very much supported by the very same Qatari rulers that direct the Al
Jazeera channel is well known. But what is the role of the Jewish
analysts in their folds?
In the sample below taken as screen savings from the Al Jazeera
English´s main page (23 September 2011) we for instance see the Israeli Jew Nir
Rosen
acting
as "Al Jazeera special correspondent" with access to the
Syrian opposition, informing the audience on how the Syrian regime will be
combated militarily (in September 2011 a possible development which just happens
to be in Israel´s interest):
The same page, top right corner:
Even Israeli TV has realised the impact of Jews in Al Jazeera's
midst, see Israeli TV clip below:
Note that the Israeli Jewish editor "Roy"
at Al Jazeera English's Washington bureau openly wears the
Star of David around his neck and himself states very revealingly
that:
"I know that if I weren´t here, maybe they wouldn´t feature the
Israeli side as much."
We thus also see the Jewess Joanne Levine as the executive producer of
programming for the Americas at Al Jazeera.
Levine writes in the article
"Al-Jazeera, as American as Apple Pie" in The
Washington Post, 25 June 2006:
I'm a New York Jew married to a Jordanian Druze whom I met when I lived in Amman
in 2002 on a fellowship. I heard plenty of anti-Semitic comments there from
those who didn't suspect that I might be Jewish. Today, some people ask me how a
Jew can work for al-Jazeera. It's that kind of thinking that builds up walls,
rather than tearing them down. The racism I experienced was unacceptable in
Jordan. And it is unacceptable in the United States.
[...]
Al-Jazeera has even been labeled "Zionist" by the Arab street and its regimes.
It is the only Arabic broadcaster to put Israeli officials on television and to
report the Israeli side of stories. Israeli leaders such as Ariel Sharon and
Shimon Peres have been invited to appear on the network, although they
ultimately did not. But Israel routinely sends Arabic-speaking officials to
participate on various programs.
Jewess Joanne Levine, executive producer of
programming at Al Jazeera.
Amongst other Jewish actives in Al Jazeera during the years we also see:
Iraqi Jewess Rachel Shabi a contributor to Al Jazeera
English, see list of opinion makers above. Rachel Shabi´s book on Israel's Oriental
Jews, "Not the Enemy: Israel's Jews from Arab Lands" was published in
2009 and received a National Jewish Book award. She's also a contributing writer
to The Guardian, the Times, Jane's Intelligence Digest, Foreign Policy, the New
Statesman and the National (UAE).
Avram David (Avi) Lewis is a
Canadian-Jewish
documentary filmmaker and host of the
Al Jazeera English show
Fault Lines. According to Wikipedia "Avi Lewis is the great grandson of
Moshe Losz (Lewis), an outspoken member of the
Jewish Bund". Avi Lewis, married to world famous Jewish journalist and author
Naomi Klein, became host of Frontline USA for
Al Jazeera television in 2008.
Arthur Neslen
Jewish freelance journalist based in Tel Aviv and considered by his
Jewish critics to have been "the first Jewish employee of Al
Jazeera".
Jewess
Rebecca Lipkin, deceased 2009, was a director of Al Jazeera's programs,
AJ's executive producer for documentaries, and helped establish the network's
English-language programming in London.
According to the Washington Post, July 24, 2009:
In 2005, Ms. Lipkin joined al-Jazeera in London as
director of programs and helped establish the network's
English-language programming in London. She was credited
with bringing former ABC newsman Dave Marash to al-Jazeera
as a news anchor in 2006.
Lipkin
has also been hailed in the Jewish Women's Archive
(a site honouring influential Jewish women activists) after her
death "as a proud Jew".
Lipkin thus introduced fellow Jew Dave Marash. The article below will
also tell how
Jew Dave Marash´s equally Jewish wife, Amy Marash,
also was hired as Al Jazeera´s Washington bureau's deputy news
editor.
From The Jewish Exponent,
January 26, 2006:
Veteran ABC Newsman
to Anchor Al Jazeera in English
January 26, 2006
 |
| Dave
Marash |
Robert Wiener
New Jersey Jewish News
Whippany, N.J.
Veteran TV-news correspondent Dave Marash's recent
assignments for ABC's Nightline have included stints
in Iraq, Pakistan, areas affected by the Asian
tsunami, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Good training, perhaps, for the flak he's about
to take for his latest career move: The former New
Jersey resident will become an anchor for Al Jazeera
International, an English-language news network
based in Washington, D.C.
[...]
The 63-year-old veteran journalist - a familiar
presence on New York local news before his years at
the ABC network - insists the Arab-owned news
satellite channel's agenda is one of "open
discussion and information exchange and not …
ideological triumphalism."
He pointed out that he is "not the only Jewish
person they have hired, and they've made it quite
clear that they regard my religious background as
incidental to my professional credentials."
Preceding him on the AJI payroll was New Yorker
Rebecca Lipkin, a colleague of his at Nightline,
who's based in London as AJI's executive producer
for documentaries.
In addition, his Jewish wife, Amy Marash, a
former photographer and field producer at American
networks, has been hired as the Washington bureau's
deputy news editor.
"I don't believe Al Jazeera is anti-Semitic,"
said Marash. "I don't believe we are anti-Israeli. I
don't believe we are anti-American. I don't believe
we are anti-Western."
"I am very, very comfortable that I am not
betraying my Jewish heritage or my American
citizenship. But in this job, I think I am going to
be able to express the best sides of my religious,
cultural, social and political background. It is
what makes this such an attractive job."
[...]
Marash draws a distinction between the new
English-language service and the one now
broadcasting in Arabic, which emanates from Doha,
Qatar, and reaches an estimated 30 million viewers
in the Arabic-speaking world.
"Let me make one point extremely clear," he said.
"Al Jazeera in English is an entirely different
channel."
Even as he stressed that difference, Marash said
that "the philosophy of Al Jazeera's Arabic network
is very much like our philosophy."
[...]
The broadcaster also argued that among
Arab-language news-gatherers, Al Jazeera was the
first to use Israeli sources: "If you believe in the
possibility of peace and reconciliation between
Israel and the Palestinians, between Jews and Arabs,
between the West and the Islamic worlds - any way
you draw the line in the clash of civilizations and
cultures - Al Jazeera is the bridge."
[...]
Marash, who first began reporting for Nightline in 1989, is
leaving the show as it undergoes major changes, including
the departure of anchor Ted
Koppel, who reportedly turned down an offer from Al
Jazeera and has since joined the Discovery Network.
Before Nightline, Marash was as an investigative
reporter for WNBC-TV and the news anchor for
WCBS-TV, both New York City-area stations.
Here we see Marash reiterating that Al Jazeera English is a different
thing from Al Jazeera Arabic. Here we also see that the Jew Ted Koppel also was intended to be part of the
Jewish cabal.
More on Marash, Al Jazeera's Jew, is read in the Jewish magazine
Moment:
Moment, February 2007
A Jew in Al Jazeera's House
In the Studio with Dave Marash
Boris Weintraub
Dave Marash is on the air, seated at the
news anchor desk in a television studio on K Street in
downtown Washington, DC. He’s reading his script from a
teleprompter as he introduces a clip from a speech by United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
“Yikes,” he mutters into his microphone
when the film clip fails to appear. This is live TV—glitches
happen—and the 64-year-old veteran reporter is unfazed by
the mishap, even slightly amused, eyes narrowing in his
avuncular, cherubic face. Marash, his gray beard matching
what little hair remains on his head, ad-libs for a moment
and promises to return as the network switches back to an
anchor at its headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
[...]
I’m spending the afternoon with Marash,
who joined Al Jazeera English in January 2006 in preparation
for its November launch. Marash might seem an unlikely
candidate to lend his expertise, mellifluous voice and
prestige to an Arab network that hopes to compete with CNN,
BBC and the new France 24. The highly respected veteran of
radio and TV news spent the past 16 years parachuting into
hot spots around the world as global correspondent for Ted
Koppel’s Nightline on ABC. Oh, and by the way, this
key figure for an Arab-owned and operated TV news network is
Jewish.
“I am not a particularly observant Jew in
the sense of going to temple, but Judaism, Jewish culture,
Jewish ideas and Jewish debates have been at the heart of my
life from the day I was born,” Marash tells me. “I look
Jewish; I sound Jewish; I act Jewish. It’s obvious that I am
Jewish. I have affirmed my Judaism in places like Iraq or
Kosovo or the occupied territories, where there is some risk
in doing this.”
At Al Jazeera English, Marash hosts two
nightly newscasts and also provides news cut-ins in the
afternoon, such as the one with the missing Annan clip. When
I arrive, the network is airing Annan’s speech live. Marash
is working on a script when the speech ends, so I turn my
attention to a monitor next to his desk, on which a
Georgetown University professor criticizes Annan for
tolerating Saddam Hussein’s “flagrant violations” of UN
resolutions and failing to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
The 2 p.m. news roundup, anchored from
Doha, leads with the deaths of three children in Gaza,
presumably at the hands of Hamas, whose father had ties to
Fatah. Reports on Lebanese politics, North Korean nuclear
talks, fighting in Sri Lanka and Iraqi violence follow.
Particularly notable is a piece on Iran’s Holocaust-denial
conference, which includes haunting footage of concentration
camp survivors just after their rescue—footage that appeared
on few American network TV newscasts later in the day.
The
report also features scenes of an Iranian protest rally,
showing a student tearing up a photograph of Iran’s
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
When Marash goes on the air a second
time, the Annan clip runs without a hitch. His afternoon
stint over, he rises from the anchor desk. Seated, Marash
looks almost round, so it is a surprise to discover that he
is nearly six feet tall. We walk to a nearby carryout shop,
where he picks up a bowl of soup, and return to the office.
As he eats at his cluttered desk, we schmooze—Marash’s
word—and I ask what a nice Jewish boy like him is doing
working for Al Jazeera.
Marash isn’t perturbed by my question.
He’s used to this. “I did my due diligence,” he replies
calmly. “I had my ‘mole’ inside the network. I read into the
policies and history of the channel, and I found little to
trouble me.”
[...]
Al Jazeera English, says Marash, shares
this same commitment to top-notch international reporting.
“The stories are all international. They’re all serious and
significant. We have four news bases—London, Washington,
Doha and Kuala Lumpur—with autonomy in setting our own
priorities and creating our own assignments. The
responsibility here is to cover not just Washington and the
U.S. but the whole western hemisphere, so my global itch got
scratched. And this is most critical to me: our qualitative
standard is the highest, most nuanced of all the cable news
channels. I find this job every bit as intellectually
interesting and stimulating as Nightline.”
The son of a Jewish Community Center
director in Richmond, Virginia, Marash believes it is
crucial to distinguish between Al Jazeera in Arabic and Al
Jazeera English. The first claims to reach 50 million Arabic
speakers in 137 countries and focuses primarily on news and
culture in the Middle East. The latter wants to be the first
non-western international news source for a billion-plus
English speakers worldwide, including millions of Muslims
who don’t speak Arabic.
Supporters call the Arabic Al Jazeera an
independent voice that gives Middle Eastern viewers a rare
opportunity to hear all sides of the region’s many
conflicts. Its breadth and unprecedented willingness to
criticize Arab powers-that-be have led some to call it one
of the most positive and significant cultural phenomena in
centuries. Itamar Rabinovich, president of Tel Aviv
University and former Israeli ambassador to the United
States, remarked recently that, for all its problems, Al
Jazeera is a force of “democratization” in the Middle East.
But the network’s detractors—including a number of American
media watchdog organizations, both Jewish and not—see it as
a propaganda tool for opponents of the Jewish state, foes of
America and western values and even terrorists.
Marash contends that the English-language
Al Jazeera audience is more sophisticated by nature than
viewers of the Arabic version. For most of its market,
English is a second language, which suggests a certain level
of education and appreciation of nuance. The Arabic-language
network is, he says, more of a classic tabloid, the voice of
the Arab street.[...]
Marash is firm in his defense of Al
Jazeera’s overall coverage. “In their role of covering the
news of the Arabic-speaking world, they have no choice but
to carry hate speech, because it’s an active part of the
‘multilogue’ of politics and society in the Middle East,” he
argues. “But there is a real attempt to balance hate speech
with more moderate and informed voices. In fact, Al Jazeera
has a unique record in the Middle East of allowing Israeli
and other Jewish speakers unlimited opportunity to say
whatever they want. Al Jazeera in Arabic doesn’t limit
itself to friendly Israeli voices but regularly books some
of the most hostile, anti-Islamic voices in the world Jewish
community.”
In truth, Marash asserts, Al Jazeera and
the Qatar royal family favor democratization and
reconciliation in the Middle East. The network has
criticized many Arab governments, he notes, and irked both
Hamas and Fatah by its coverage. “Honesty is very
important,” he says. “I am a Jew. I’m proud to be a Jew, but
I am a Jew who still believes in the possibility of
reconciliation with Judaism’s adversaries.
“I believe that Al Jazeera, probably more
than any other point in the Arabic-speaking universe, has
done more for reconciliation than any other institution I
can name.”
Marash admits that Al Jazeera made a
savvy public relations move by hiring a Jew as a key on-air
figure for the English-language outlet. But, he adds, he’s
not alone. “Al Jazeera English has at least a minyan here,”
he quips. “You’d have to waive the gender part but, if we
allow women in, we’ve certainly got a minyan.”
[...]
Marash’s Jewish identity and his obvious
pride in it, has made some in the Arab world uneasy.
There’s also concern that he and other western-trained
journalists will somehow dilute the network’s Arab
authenticity.
[...]
Marash bristles at the accusation on some
Internet sites that he took the job because he is “a
self-hating Jew.” “To me, that’s one of the most inherently
illegitimate and insulting charges that can be made,” he
says heatedly. He also points out that most reaction to Al
Jazeera English in its early months has been positive.
The
“pre-action” anxiety, he says, that it would be anti-Jewish,
anti-American, “maybe even pro-terrorist”
has faded “like
fog burned away by the morning sun because, if you watch us
for even a few minutes, you’ll see that there’s nothing to
any of those charges.”
[...]
Boris Weintraub
(“A Jew in Al Jazeera’s House”) is a contributing editor at
Moment who most
recently wrote about the revival of the Ladino language and
culture in the April 2006 issue. He was a senior writer for
National Geographic
Magazine for 16 years.
Note: A "minyan" is a Jewish congregation consisting of
minimum of 10 Jews.
The Jewish Daily Forward
Al Jazeera Gathering Draws a Full
Minyan To Heart of Arab World
By Orly Halpern
April 27, 2007
Doha, Qatar -
Some participants at the third-annual forum of
the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera were sorry they didn’t bring
matzo with them — had they known how many fellow Jews were attending
the media conference, they would have made a Passover Seder.
“We could have used the hotel wine to fill our
cups,” Mark LeVine said only half-jokingly. A professor of Middle
East studies at University of California in Irvine,
LeVine was one of several Jewish participants
who attended the invitation-only conference in Doha, organized by Al
Jazeera.
Ethan Zuckerman, whose wife is a Reform rabbi,
said that he had originally planned to hold a Seder in Doha. “I told
my wife, and she wrote me a two-page Haggadah,” he said, shortly
after speaking on a panel on Internet and the media. “But I didn’t
bring the matzo.”
The Jewish participants
were by no means relegated to the sidelines.
New Yorker correspondent Seymour Hersh gave the
keynote address; LeVine and International Herald Tribune executive
editor Michael Oreskes were panelists, and David Marash, the
Washington bureau anchor of Al Jazeera English, logged a stint as a
moderator.
The relatively high number
of Jewish academics, journalists and media experts who attended the
event stood in stark contrast to the view in some circles that the
network is anti-Jewish and anti-Western. Some critics have
gone so far to brand it “Osama Bin-Laden’s TV Network,” a name which
Al Jazeera executives say comes from the Bush administration and
conservative American television commentators.
The general atmosphere at the event was open and
friendly among Arab and Western participants. “If there is any
antisemitism lurking around here, it hasn’t been directed at me,”
said Danny Schechter in a heavy New York accent. “They make a
distinction between U.S. or Israeli policy and religion.”
Schechter, vice president of Globalvision, a
documentary film production company, said that he attended the event
because “in the post-9/11 world it is imperative to understand what
people think and this forum provides the opportunity to mingle,
discuss and even to get into arguments.”
Like many other participants, his main criticisms
were that few women participated and panel discussions were not
engaging enough. Indeed, whether dressed in sharp suits and ties or
starched white floor-length dishdashas and white head coverings, the
well-heeled forum panelists mostly agreed with each other. If
anything, it appeared that some of the Al Jazeera moderators were
avoiding conflict.
During breaks between panels, however, there was
plenty of chatter in the elegantly appointed lobby outside the
conference hall, where participants shmoozed over hors d’oeuvres,
and journalists and academics feverishly networked.
“To be here with the media makers and icons of
the Western world as they converge with those of the Arab world is
really inspiring,” said Nora Friedman, as she sat around a round
table where she shared a buffet lunch with a number of American and
Arab journalists. A 28-year-old producer at Pacifica Radio in
Berkeley, Calif., a left-wing radio network that tends to be
fiercely critical of American foreign policy, Friedman said that the
forum was “building a bridge between the Western and Arab media and
confronting the prejudices in the so-called ‘War on Terror.’”
“There is no problem with Jews here,” said Abdel
Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Arabic-daily Al-Quds
Al-Arabi, a regular commentator on Middle East affairs who opposes
American support for Israel as long as it occupies Palestinian
territory.
In general, Al Jazeera officials took the same
line, insisting that the network does not make distinctions based on
race, religion or gender. When asked by e-mail to provide contact
details for Jewish employees to be interviewed for this story, Lana
Khachan, the senior spokesperson at Al Jazeera English refused. “We
are not interested in pursuing a story based on our staff’s
religion,” Khachan wrote back. “We have over 900 highly experienced
staff based [around the world]. We have qualified people on board of
all nationalities and religions each employed for their merit. The
staff comprises of more than 30 different nationalities 45
ethnicities, enabling Al Jazeera English to provide a unique
grassroots perspective on important world events and report on the
untold stories from the under-reported regions of the world.”
Several of the top
employees at the network’s English operation are Jewish: Marash and
his wife Amy work in the Washington bureau with an Israeli-American
producer, and former BBC journalist Tim Sebastian moderates the
televised monthly Doha Debates.
Al Jazeera has been harshly criticized in the
West for providing airtime to terrorists like Osama bin Laden, but
it notes that American networks borrowed that material.
It was also the first Arabic network to give
Israelis air time. “Al Jazeera was seriously attacked by Arabs —
Islamist, nationalist, and even governments like Saudi Arabia — for
inviting Israeli journalists and government officials to present
their point of view,” Atwan said.
Despite the network’s declared dedication to
openness, not one member of the Israeli media was present at the
forum, even though the Israeli YES satellite
carrier pushed BBC Prime off air to make room for Al Jazeera
English, which already boasts of having 500,000 homes viewing in
Israel. The absence of Israelis was particularly noticeable
given the theme of this year’s event: “Media and the Middle East,
Beyond the Headlines.”
“I don’t know the reasons no Israeli journalists
attended, but I think there is a general attitude of talking about
peace with Israel but not talking to Israel,” said Yoav Stern, the
Arab Affairs correspondent of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.
“I think it’s a pity,” said
Stern, who is frequently interviewed in Arabic on Al Jazeera.
“I know that Al Jazeera specifically can make pioneering decisions
in this regard, because it has credibility and trust from its
viewers.
Apart from this policy of infiltration we also see outright plans
of Jewish overtake of the ownership of the channel. The 2004 article
Israeli millionaire to purchase 50% of Al-Jazeera shares
was the first on this theme, but it has since been repeated.
Israeli paper Ha'aretz, online edition:
Egypt-born Jew
looks to buy 50% of Al-Jazeera
Haim Saban first showed a reported interest in
the Doha -based network after a visit in 2004.
By Nimrod Halpern
Egyptian-born Jewish businessman Haim
Saban is negotiating with Qatar's emir the
purchase of 50 percent of the Al Jazeera
television network, the independent Egyptian
newspaper Al-Mesryoon reported earlier this
week.
Saban was first reported to be
negotiating the purchase of half the Doha
-based network in 2004, after visiting the
emirate with former U.S. President Bill
Clinton.
The media mogul, estimated to be worth more than
$3 billion, brought the Power Rangers franchise to the Arab world
and made a fortune out of developing and
selling the Fox Family cable network together with News Corp.
In Israel, Saban owns a controlling stake in
Bezeq.
Last month Saban blasted
calls to boycott Israel for the occupation of the West Bank.
He called those who support boycotting the Toronto film festival's
decision to showcase Tel Aviv "anti-Semites" and "Jew haters."
"The world always had anti-Semites," the
Hollywood financier told the Los Angeles Times in an e-mail exchange
last month. "It has now and always will, but the people of Israel
always have, and always will live and prosper. Sorry Jew haters. You
lose."
Among the artists who signed the petition calling
for a boycott of the festival's Tel Aviv Week in August were Ken
Loach, Julie Christie, Danny Glover, David Byrne and Jane Fonda ¬
though Fonda later retracted her decision.
Meanwhile, a number of
Hollywood Jews, including Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen and
Natalie Portman, issued a counter-statement in defense of the
festival's decision.
More on Zionist Jew Haim Saban can be read in
our list of powerful media Jews in the section on The Jewish Hollywood.
As if this wasn´t enough Wikileaks documents have also
appeared that shed light on the Al Jazeera channel bowing for
U.S. dictats.
FP - Foreign Policy
What Wikileaks Tells Us About Al Jazeera
Is the rapidly expanding Middle East satellite
television network and voice of the Arab Spring as
independent as it claims?
BY OMAR CHATRIWALA
|
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
Al Jazeera has been making waves in the Middle East
ever since it aired its first broadcast on Nov. 1, 1996.
In its news dispatches and talk shows, the pan-Arab
satellite channel, which is funded by the state of
Qatar, has been a strident critic of U.S. foreign
policies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian
Territories, even while it has been a thorn in the side
of many an Arab autocrat. But after the last dump of
leaked U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, on Aug. 30,
articles have begun to circulate -- especially in
Iranian and
Syrian media outlets -- about Al Jazeera's
close relationship with a surprising interlocutor:
the U.S. government.
In particular,
a
newly
released cable issued by the U.S. Embassy in Doha
and signed by then ambassador Chase Untermeyer, details
a meeting between an embassy public affairs official and
Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera's director general, in which
the latter is said to agree to tone down and remove what
the United States terms "disturbing Al Jazeera website
content."
There have been longstanding accusations that Al
Jazeera serves as an arm of its host nation's foreign
policy, and
earlier leaked documents referred to the news
organization as "one of Qatar's most valuable political
and diplomatic tools," which could be used as "a
bargaining tool to repair relationships with other
countries." Another document urges Sen. John Kerry to
engage the Qatari government on Al Jazeera during a
visit to the Gulf country, saying, "there are ample
precedents for a bilateral dialogue on Al Jazeera as
part of improving bilateral relations."
Despite those assertions by U.S. diplomatic sources,
both the network and the Qatari government fiercely
insist that it is editorially independent and free from
interference.
Skeptics take the latest leak as proof, though, that
Al Jazeera is susceptible to external pressures, not
least in part due to the document's summary:
PAO [Public affairs officer] met 10/19 with Al
Jazeera Managing Director Wadah Khanfar to discuss
the latest DIA [U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency]
report on Al Jazeera and disturbing Al Jazeera
website content.... Khanfar said the most recent
website piece of concern to the USG [U.S.
government] has been toned down and that he would
have it removed over the subsequent two or three
days. End summary.
In what some are seizing upon as evidence of an
American-Qatari conspiracy, the cable, dated October
2005, continues with a quote from Khanfar saying, "We
need to fix the method of how we receive these reports,"
mentioning that he had found one of them "on the fax
machine."
Later, there is a reference in the memo to a sort of
understanding that's been reached between Al Jazeera and
the U.S. government:
On a semantic level, [Khanfar] objected to the
use of the word "agreement" as used in the August
report on the first page, under the heading
"Violence in Iraq", where a sentence reads: "In
violation of the station's agreement several months
ago with US officials etc". "The agreement was that
it was a non-paper," said Khanfar. [A non-paper is
diplomatic jargon for a proposal that is unofficial
and has not been committed to.] "As a news
organization, we cannot sign agreements of this
nature, and to have it here like this in writing is
of concern to us."
Leaving it at that, the cable appears to be a smoking
gun showing Al Jazeera at the U.S. government's beck and
call. Iran-owned
Press TV uses this to conclude that "the US
government has previously had a say in what content to
appear on the al-Jazeera website." The website
ArabCrunch similarly denounced Al Jazeera for
responding to U.S. pressure, and says the cable "might
have revealed the reason behind the AJ one sided
coverage of Iraq in the recent years." Read in their
full context, though, this and other leaked cables tell
a very different story.
Khanfar could not be reached for comment, and Al
Jazeera has made no official response to the latest
claims, but a source at the channel told Foreign Policy that these
sorts of meeting between high-level Al Jazeera
management and U.S. officials are standard practice, and
continue today. Elaborating, he said that
representatives of numerous diplomatic missions
regularly bring lists of complaints to Al Jazeera, but
that doesn't mean they are heeded or given undue weight.
The controversial cable actually backs up this
comment to a certain extent, detailing Khanfar arguing
with some points made in the U.S. government report
presented to him by the embassy representative. "Some
are simple mistakes which we accept and address," he
said. Other points, such as airing views not favorable
to the United States, are taken out of context, given
that the contrasting opinion would have its due in a
later report, he said. Khanfar also tells the
representative that some grievances can't be addressed,
including the use of "terrorist tapes" on air, which he
insists is the network's policy so long as they are
edited for newsworthiness. And obviously, he states, he
can't very well prevent guests or interviewees from
using language deemed by the U.S. government as
"inflammatory."
Reviewing the "troublesome website material" Khanfar
agreed to tone down, the U.S. public affairs officer
cites a sensationalistic report carried by Al Jazeera's
Arabic website:
The site opens to an image of bloody sheets of
paper riddled with bullet holes. Viewers click
on the bullet holes to access testimony from ten
alleged "eye witnesses"...
The unnamed U.S. officer tells Khanfar that the
report "came across as inflammatory and journalistically
questionable." It then says, "Khanfar appeared to
repress a sigh but said he would have the piece
removed."
Al Jazeera -- while lauded internationally for the
quality of its broadcasts -- has more than once
had to backpeddle
on content carried by the
Aljazeera.net website, which operates somewhat
autonomously from the Arabic channel in an office across
town. In 2007, for example, the site carried a poll
asking readers if they "support Al Qaeda's attacks in
Algeria." A majority of the poll's 30,000 respondents
answered yes, sparking a furor from the Algerian media,
accusing the channel of legitimizing al Qaeda. The
website's manager later said posting the poll was a
grave error and had been done without his permission.
Beyond this specific memo, WikiLeaks has published
more
than 30 cables from the U.S. Embassy in Doha with
the label Al Jazeera, and many more making mention of
the news organization, ranging in date from September
2005 to February 2010. But the portrait the leaked
cables paint is not evidence of any sort of conspiracy
so much as an organization struggling to maintain
professional standards.
[...]
he next
available cable documents an earlier meeting between
Khanfar and the embassy's public affairs officer, in
which the Al Jazeera director likens the "War on Terror"
to Osama bin Laden's tactic of saying, "You're either
with us, or against us." Khanfar insists Al Jazeera
belongs in neither camp.
Another document from 2005 describes steps Al
Jazeera has taken to shore up shifting standards in
quality:
Khanfar noted that he holds a daily 1pm meeting
with an AJ quality assurance team entrusted with
implementing AJ's code of ethics and conduct, which
views and anlayzes all Al Jazeera programming,
looking for lapses in professionalism, balance and
objectivity. "That meeting is very tight, tighter
even than your list," said Khanfar.
The author of that cable concludes that Khanfar "is
clearly committed to bringing Al Jazeera up to
professional international standards of journalism and
... seems to be not only open to criticism but to
welcome it."
Following up, U.S. Embassy officials later met with
Jaafar Abbas Ahmed, the head of Al Jazeera's Quality
Assurance (QA) unit, who, they said was frank about
"resistance and hostility" from the channel's older
generation of journalists. Abbas told them some Al
Jazeera staff treat the quality assurance team with
suspicion, referring to them at times as the KGB and
CIA.
[...]
Then in another push to counter the impact of information, the
Jews have finally organized themselves into creating something they
call the "Jewish Al Jazeera".
From the Israeli site YNet News:
Coming
soon: Jewish 'al-Jazeera'
Dr. Alexander Mashkevich announces plan to form
pro-Israel international news network. 'It won't be a
propaganda channel, but will simply tell the truth,' he
tells Ynet during Jewish leaders conference
Liron Nagler-Cohen
WASHINGTON -
Dr. Alexander Mashkevich, president
of the United Israel Appeal's annual conference of
Jewish leaders in Washington, has announced his plan to
form a pro-Israel international
news network, similar to al-Jazeera and the BBC.
This year's conference focused on attempts to
deal with the de-legitimization campaign against Israel, and was
attended by some 200 Jewish community leaders and key
philanthropists.
Al-Jazeera studio in Washington (Photo: MCT)
An announcement on the creation of the international
news network was made at the end of the conference, with
the aim of dealing with anti-Israel defamation in the
media and influence public opinion.
Mashkevich, who also serves as president of the
Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, said that the network would
offer programs in English, French, Arabic and Spanish,
focusing on news only.
"My intention is not to create a propaganda channel," he
told Ynet, "but simply a channel telling the truth.
"Unfortunately, in the current situation most channels simply don't
tell the truth about Israel," he explained. "Every day that passes
we lose the battle for Israel's image. I am sure that Goldstone
is a decent person, who didn't want to damage Israel consciously and
intentionally, but if everything he gets from the media every day is
anti-Israel propaganda, I assume it's hard to make the right
decisions."
Presentation within 3-4 months
Mashkevich, whose fortune is estimated at some $3.7
billion, plans to recruit other philanthropists and
senior businesspeople for the mission. "The
international de-legitimization has become a huge risk
for Israel," he adds.
Anchor
Anderson Cooper. 'We'll get talents from everywhere'
(Photo: AP)
"It's unthinkable that Israel has no television
network like the channels operated by countries such as
the United States, Britain and Russia. The creation of
such a channel is necessary, and does not require
something out of nothing, as there are existing models
we can work according to."
The channel is in the thinking stages, without a target
date for the launching or even a revelation of the other
names behind it. All Mashkevich agreed to say was that
it would be a private, independent channel.
"We are preparing a work program, and in about
three-four months we'll hold a presentation in Israel.
We'll purchase talents from all other channels," he
promised. "From BBC, CNN – everyone."
'If we don't fight back, we'll be in
trouble'
The conference was also attended by outgoing Israeli
Ambassador to Britain and newly appointed Israeli
Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor, and Malcolm
Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who
analyzed the anti-Israeli incitement on international
media.
Student protest in UK (Photo: Leon Ferri)
"We deal with creating awareness," said Prosor. "Today
there isn't one university campus in Britain which I, as
an Israeli ambassador, can enter without facing horrible
protests. If we don't fight back – we'll be in trouble.
"The current situation is that Jewish students in
Britain feel uncomfortable in their own campuses. What I
saw in Britain could definitely be seen here, in the
United States, in the coming years," he warned the
Jewish community leaders.
Prosor told Ynet that the organizations behind the
de-legitimization must be exposed, denounced and suffer
a counter attack. "We have no choice but to strike back
at them, to give a 'price tag' to those who demonize
Israel. Too much is at stake here. We are all at the
front, but if we coordinate, we'll be able to win the
battle."
'Situation like in 1947'
"It's time for us to stop complaining about how bad
Israel's PR is," added Hoenlein. "It's not just Israel
that's in danger – but all of us. The entire Jewish
people are under attack, and this is about the future of
all the Jewish people.
Hoenlein with Peres.
'World recognizes Jewish power, Jews don't'
(Photo: Avi Hayun)
"Those who undermine Israel's right to self-defense –
hurt the entire Jewish people's right to self-defense.
We are not talking about a situation like in 1967, but
like in 1947 – about the entire Jewish people's right to
exist.
"If we unite, others will join us too. So
we must launch
a well-coordinated campaign. It's unthinkable that
according to research we've conducted, the European
governments are more committed to Israel than the public
opinion in those countries. These are the enemies rising
to destroy us – from the inside and the outside.
"Jews today have power, and the entire world
recognizes it – apart from the Jews. We can make a
difference, if only we remember that
it's a battlefield.
We must educate our children from an early age – know
what to answer."
Hoenlein believes the establishment of a news network
like al-Jazeera is vital. "People are influenced by it,"
he says, revealing that he has already held several
meetings in a bid to strike a collaboration with media
organizations and Israeli governmental bodies.
Mashkevich recently bought an apartment in Israel and
lives in the country. He is considered one of the most
influential Jewish oligarchs in the world, and a "warm
Jew" who donates in many fields close to his heart. He
built seven synagogues in different countries, named
"Beit Rachel" after his mother, and donated 17 Torah
scrolls. He also participates in the bringing in of each
new Torah scroll.
"I still remember as a child, how difficult it was
for me to get to the synagogue, which was far away and
crowded," he said.
His parents fled the Nazis and gave him "a proud
Jewish education". His childhood in Kyrgyzstan
contributed to shaping his Jewish awareness as well. "In
Soviet Russia people would never let me forget I was a
Jew, not for one day," he said.
"I feel the persecution of Jews on my skin. We can't
just be indifferent. Every year the situation gets
worse, and we monitor it. People tend to think that the
American Congress members know the truth about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it's not true. All
their information comes from the media.
"Seventy percent of what the international media
reports in terms of the conflict is of anti-Israel
nature. We check the 'anti-Semitism index' in 27
countries, and there is definitely a rise in
anti-Semitism, which I believe is a direct result of
what the media reports."
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