Once again, WorldNetDaily stretches the meaning of the word “exclusive”: Jerusalem correspondent Aaron Klein has read the website of hawkish pro-Israel lobby group CAMERA, and found there a press release attacking a CNN documentary that covered Jewish extremism:
CNN special series airing this week entitled “God’s Warriors” – produced and anchored by the network’s chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour – is “one of the most grossly distorted programs” ever aired on mainstream American television, according to a media watchdog report.
…Tuesday’s segment started off comparing “Jewish terrorists” to that of Muslims, specifically focusing on the few instances of violence or attempted violence by religiously motivated Jews against Muslims. It told the story of Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli physician who killed 29 Arabs in the West Bank city of Hebron in 1994. Goldstein’s actions were widely condemned by Israelis and worldwide Jewry. The organization he was a part of was outlawed in Israel.
States the CAMERA report: “While in reality Jewish ‘terrorism’ is virtually non-existent, the program magnifies at length the few instances of [Jewish] violence” comparing it to “violent jihadist Muslim campaigns” when indeed there is no such comparison “either in numbers of perpetrators engaged or in the magnitude of death and destruction wrought.”
However, although “the organization [Goldstein] was a part of was outlawed”, its members are still politically active, and indeed some of them are Klein’s favourite contacts. One of these, David Ha’ivri, features in the Amanpour programme:
We have our own God-given law. The law is called the Torah. The Torah gives us answers to — to all aspects of life…The Arabs have 22 of their own countries. If they want democratic rights, let them go and seek democracy in their own countries.
As for a failed 2002 bomb plot against a Palestinian girls’ school:
I make no judgment. I think that war is an ugly thing.
This cold-blooded attitude may come as a bit of a shock for anyone whose view of the conflict is informed by Klein – from his reports, one would think that Ha’ivri is simply a pious Jew who wants to pray on the Temple Mount (Incidentally, Ha’ivri has made visits to the USA, and in 2004 he was hosted by Americans for a Safe Israel, which has liaised closely with Christian Zionist groups).
Klein has also had other cozy contacts with Kahanists, some of whom have praised the Goldstein massacre. The most egregious example is probably Yekutel Ben Ya’acov, whom Klein describes as a “northern Samaria resident”; Ben Ya’acov, who used to be known as Mike Guzovsky, is a notorious Kahanist who has praised Goldstein’s “love for the Jewish people”.
In 2000, the BBC noted pilgrimages to Goldstein’s grave:
Militant Jews have gathered at the grave of Baruch Goldstein to celebrate the sixth anniversary of his massacre of Muslim worshippers in Hebron.
…Israeli extremists continue to pay homage at his grave in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, where a marble plaque reads: “To the holy Baruch Goldstein, who gave his life for the Jewish people, the Torah and the nation of Israel.”
About 10,000 people had visited the grave since the massacre, Mr [Baruch] Marzel said.
The ineffectually-“outlawed” Kahanists also praised Goldstein on the tenth anniversary of his death:
Extreme right-wing activists of the outlawed Kach party this weekend celebrated the tenth anniversary of Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshipers in Hebron.
During the Purim holiday ten years ago, Goldstein murdered 29 Muslims during a prayer service at the Cave of the Patriarchs before being overcome and killed by the angry worshipers. Memorial services for Goldstein were held Saturday morning at Kiryat Arba and Hebron synagogues, and sextons called him “a saintly person,” Maariv reported.
In private conversations, many praised Goldstein’s act, saying he “did the right thing,” the newspaper said. Red wine bearing Goldstein’s name was handed out to synagogue members. On the bottle’s label, it was written, “A wine that won 29 awards,” according to the number of Palestinians Goldstein killed, Maariv reported.
Aaron Klein, meanwhile, has sought to downplay Goldstein’s act of mass murder; following the 2005 shooting at Shfaram (in which a rogue Israeli soldier, to use Klein’s preferred terminology, “killed” four “Arabs”, before being in turn “murdered” by “Palestinians”), he grudgingly gave some background details:
[Eden Natan] Zada’s hometown of Tapuach is well-known for its high-profile activist residents, most of whom are former members of the Kahane-Chai movement and its various off-shoots. Rabbi Meir Kahane, assassinated in New York in 1990, was founder of the Jewish Defense League. Kach and Kahane Chai, the Israeli branches of his organization, were outlawed in 1994 following statements in support of Baruch Goldstein, a Kach member who carried out a shooting attack against Arabs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
No mention of any fatalities. No doubt that’s the kind of “undistorted” reporting of which CAMERA would approve.
For further details about Klein’s methods, see this article at ConWebWatch.
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