Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East
Press Letters editor strikes again
After not ‘reopening the debate’ on five earlier occasions when KBRM members wanted to rebut false charges against Israel (see posts of April 24, May 21, Aug 7, Sep 29 and Oct 17), The Press (Chch) reopened it on Nov 14 for an attack on KBRM, accusing us of ‘Orwellian propaganda’, and accusing Israel of ‘destroying a neighbouring country’. At least six letters were submitted in rebuttal, but only one was published, after being ‘toned down’ with editing:
In response to ________ (Nov. 14), the following facts are beyond question:
Israel has no intention of destroying a neighbouring country, and never has. In 2005 it removed its soldiers and citizens from Gaza, hoping to ‘live and let live’.
Hamas has repeatedly declared its intention of destroying Israel and carried out 7000 rocket attacks after Israel withdrew.
Israel attacked Gaza in December after trying to persuade Hamas to stop its attacks. It withdrew after destroying some (but not all) of Hamas' military capability.
The life of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank did not deteriorate in 1967 when Israel took over administration from Jordan and Egypt (which had seized them in 1948). It actually improved.
To deny these facts and attack an advertisement that consisted of quotes by recognised authorities as ‘Orwellian propaganda’ is only to show one's ignorance.
Here are the other five KBRM letters submitted in response to the first letter:
If ____ wants Orwellian propaganda, he need look no further than the Goldstone Report (14th November). Not only does it equate a democratic nation with a terrorist organisation, but all four of its members publicly expressed anti-Israeli views before commencing their Mission. So much for impartiality.
____ speculates on what Palestinian life was like before 1948. It didn't exist since the term ‘Palestinians’ only came into use after 1967. Before that there were Arabs, mainly of Syrian and Lebanese origin, living in a provincial backwater of the Ottoman Empire and latterly, in the British Mandate. They carried out terrorist attacks and massacres on Jewish inhabitants during the 20s, 30s and 40s and never sought their own state while under Jordanian or Egyptian occupation for 19 years.
Perhaps ____ should ask himself what life has been like for Israelis since 1948. They have endured 60 years of repeated attacks and invasions, all unprovoked and by up to seven Arab armies at one time seeking to annihilate their tiny state, the size of New Jersey. In the 1948 war they suffered 6,000 casualties, one percent of their population.
The arithmetic of death has since been mastered by the Palestinians who willingly sacrifice their citizens to dupe people like____. To quote Hamas leader, Fathi Hammad, ‘We desire death while you (Jews) desire life.’
The key to ____‘ letter of 14/11 is the phrase ‘the Palestinians have little means of killing Israeli civilians’. The true objective of Hamas in Gaza is not peace but to kill Israeli civilians.
The minute stage of Israel is filled with puppets controlled by shadowy masters in Iran and Arabia who operate in a theatre of war that stretches from Turkey to Pakistan. Islam surrounds Israel from every direction except the sea and it suits it to keep this conflict going because it provides a reliable fulcrum on which militant Islam is gradually levering western civilization apart.
It is truly Orwellian! Orwell claimed that ‘all war-propaganda, all the screaming, lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting’.
Colonel Richard Kemp pointed out that Hamas and Hizbollah are expert at driving the media agenda and are adept at staging and distorting incidents.
____ might do well to wonder where the billions of US dollars in aid from mostly Western countries (including Israel), that have poured into ostensibly improving the life of Palestinians, have gone. He would find the answers the off-shore bank accounts held by Palestinian officials and into the weapons which are stacked high in tunnels in Gaza and elsewhere. The Palestinians' leaders have little interest in the health, education and economic development of their people but continue, as they have done since the creation of the State of Israel, to devote themselves to a single mission: that of the destruction of Israel. Until that sick culture of hatred instilled by Islamic Jihadists has somehow been overcome, the lot of the Palestinian people will not change.
______‘ letter (14 Nov) demonstrates clear Orwellian double speak. Israel has never destroyed any neighbouring country. Gaza is a terrorist entity controlled by a terrorist organisation, not a country, and its continuing efforts to ferment terror against Israel's population is hardly a sign of total destruction. The claim that Arab Palestinians were better off prior to 1967 and 1948 is another example of myths masquerading as truth. The standard of living and life expectancy of Arab Palestinians is now considerably better than it was prior to 1967. I guess we should blame the dastardly Israelis for this shocking statistic.
In a letter printed in Saturday's Press, letter writer _____ recommended that we ‘compare the life of Palestinians now with how they lived before 1967, or 1948.’ I agree that this is an excellent suggestion, and is a good indication of how the Palestinian population has fared under Israeli rule. Here are a few basic statistics for the Palestinian population in 1967, at
the end of almost 20 years of Egyptian and Jordanian rule:
Life expectancy at birth: 44 (males), 46 (females)
Infant mortality rate: 170 (per 1000)
Adult literacy rate: 72.2% (males), 34.9% (females)
.
According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, these are the figures for
2004, after 37 years of Israeli rule:
Life expectancy at birth: 71.4 (males), 72.9 (females)
Infant mortality rate: 24.2 (per 1000)
Adult literacy rate: 96.5% (males), 88.0% (females).
Sounds like the Palestinians have done pretty well under Israeli rule.
Incredibly, The Press then 'reopened the debate' a second time for the same writer to repeat the same accusation. This time at least five letters were submitted in rebuttal and again only one was published, as follows.
____ (Nov 19th) tries to sever cause from effect. The fence, checkpoints and buffer zones are all necessary aspects of Israel's right to protect her citizens from the savagery of terrorism. After 1967 when Israel took responsibility for health and medical services in the Territories, Palestinian infant mortality dropped from 150 per 1000 live births to 25 and 90% of all children were immunised. What other nation would truck in thousands of supplies every day to an enemy sworn to its destruction?
The writer of this letter said later, ‘I had actually earmarked my letter for the ‘In a few words’ column because Vance has rejected my last 2 letters and I thought I might be luckier for the briefs column... I had kept the info to a minimum and would have included more stats... if I'd known he'd publish it in the longer letters section.’ Thus readers were never given the statistics they would need to evaluate the accusations. Following are other KBRM letters submitted but not published:
____ (Nov. 19) grasps at straws to support his opinion that Palestinian life worsened when Israel took over in 1967. Following this takeover, the life expectancy rose from 45 years to 72 today, the infant mortality rate dropped from 17% to 2.4%, and the literacy rate rose from 54% to 92%. If that's not improvement, I don't know what is.
Yes, there are walls, checkpoints and border controls, but they were erected only after repeated suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinian terrorists. They would come down if these attacks were to cease. Such measures are not unusual. They are a nuisance, but travellers put up with check points at airports every day, for similar reasons.
Yes, there have been house destructions, mostly for legal and security reasons, but not ‘to suit settlers' housing and roads’. Any resulting inconvenience is small when compared with the huge benefits enjoyed by the entire populace.
I see that you again published a letter from ____ where he claims that Palestinians were better off in 1967 than they are today. Unfortunately the dry facts seem to disprove this point (If the Press has ‘fact checkers’ I would be very grateful if they could confirm or correct these facts in print). I am resubmitting my letter with minor changes, I hope that this time it
will be accepted for publication.
In two separate letters, correspondent ______ makes the claim that Palestinians are worse off today than they were before 1967 when they were under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation. ____ seems unaware that today the Palestinians of the West bank and Gaza have one of the highest levels of education, health care, and life expectancy of any Arab population in the Middle East. Here are a few basic statistics for the Palestinian population in 1967, at the end of almost 20 years of Egyptian and Jordanian rule:
Life expectancy at birth: 44 (males), 46 (females)
Infant mortality rate: 170 (per 1000)
Adult literacy rate: 72.2% (males), 34.9% (females).
According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, these are the figures for
2004, after 37 years of Israeli rule:
Life expectancy at birth: 71.4 (males), 72.9 (females)
Infant mortality rate: 24.2 (per 1000)
Adult literacy rate: 96.5% (males), 88.0% (females).
Sounds like the Palestinians have done pretty well under Israeli rule.
Dear Mr Vance
In regard to the rejection of my letter on 16 November 2009, I understand that you can't print all letters. However I must point out a disturbing pattern concerning letters about Israel and Jews. There have been recent letters that are riddled with hate and blatant lies, and then when letters in rebuttal are published they are so limited by space and sometimes abridgement that they seem weak and ineffective. It sounds to the reader like one word against another. The only way to combat lies is with facts, figures and references. This can't be done in one short letter. If someone accuses Israel & Jews of racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing & Nazi behaviour, all false and inciteful charges, there must be a detailed refutation of these lies. A case in point is the letter by ____. The one published response by Rodney Brooks, while well put, did not carry enough impact to convince the reader. If you had published my letter as well, that would have been a small step in that direction.
This, of course, assumes that you recognise the difference between opinions and facts and that you don't want your letters column used to promulgate lies and falsehoods. You may not realise it, but a drip feed of anti-Israel hate which is appearing in the media on a regular basis contributes to an increasingly poisoned environment against Jews and the Jewish State. Ideally, letters which make such disgusting accusations should be banned, but if you can't do that, you should at least allow adequate space in the letters column to expose these accusations as the lies that they are. Your readers deserve nothing less.