These days, things happen that are truly ironic. Yesterday, I saw a report written by one Julie Stahl, CNSNews Bureau Chief stationed in Jerusalem, which I read with absolute disbelief.
I said to myself: "How on earth is it possible that a foreign news bureau stationed in Jerusalem and reporting on something of regional if not global importance could get so many facts so totally, totally wrong?"
I toyed with the idea of making this yesterday's ZGram, but then I decided I wasn't going to get sidetracked by something that silly - I concluded that the reporter must have surely smoked something odd.
Just for the heck of it, I will now run it, interspersing my Zundelsite comments, just so you see what I mean. The article is titled "Holocaust Deniers Plan Conference in Jordan On Israel's Independence Day" and is dated May 2, 2001:
Stahl:
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel's top religious leader urged Jordan's King Abdullah II Wednesday not to allow Holocaust deniers to hold a conference in his country.
Zundelsite:
First sentence: First factual error! The planned Writers Forum was NOT a "Holocaust Denial" conference!
Stahl:
The conference, originally planned to take place in Beirut, is now reportedly to begin in Amman on May 15, the 53rd anniversary of Israel's independence.
Zundelsite:
Second sentence: Second factual error! Oner cannot compare these two events - that would be comparing apples and oranges. Furthermore, the date for the Forum is falsely given!
Stahl:
Entitled "Revisionism and Zionism," the conference intends to gather individuals from around the world who purport that the Nazis' systematic mass murder of six million Jews did not take place or that the number of those reported killed was grossly exaggerated.
Zundelsite:
This entire paragraph is one big deliberate falsehood!
Stahl:
The gathering was to have taken place in the Lebanese capital at the end of March but was cancelled by government order after heavy campaigning by Jewish organizations, and the opposition of some Arab intellectuals. It would have been the first time that such a gathering was held in an Arab capital.
Zundelsite:
Again false! The Beirut conference was not simply to be moved to Amman - that is a grossly false allegation!
Stahl:
Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau sent a letter to Abdullah on Wednesday saying that holding the conference in Jordan would be a "terrible blemish" on the country and damage relations between the two neighbors.
Zundelsite:
Can Israelis officials really suffer from such poor intelligence gathering - or is it fear and panic that dictate this overreaction?
Stahl:
Lau said he appealed to the king not only as the chief rabbi of Israel, but also as a survivor himself. Most of Lau's family perished in the Holocaust, and he was held in the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Zundelsite:
Maybe Revisionist researchers ought to check Lau's claims for its factual, historical basis. Pardon us for being doubtful - these days, survivors come a dime a dozen. don't they, now?
Stahl:
The director of the Simon Weisenthal Center (SWC) in Jerusalem, Ephraim Zuroff, said earlier it was "quite terrible" for Jordan to hold such a conference, "considering Jordan has signed a peace treaty with Israel."
Zundelsite:
So the signing of peace treaties forbids intellectuals and historians from holding conferences? Does it not get ever more bizarre?
Stahl:
Lau's spokesman, Yitzik Rat, said that organizers did not need the permission of the king to hold the conference. Nonetheless, Lau was certain that if the king were aware of it he would cancel it.
Zundelsite:
That's either presumptuous, arrogant - or whistling in the dark.
Stahl:
Lau also hoped to arouse international public opinion against the conference, Rat said.
Zundelsite:
Arouse the organized mob of Zion's world-wide Fifth Column - like the ADL, AIPAC, or the Simon Wiesenthal Center's well- oiled, well-financed lobby efforts, thanks to the funds from Marc Rich and others of his ilk?
Stahl:
Anti-Defamation League spokesperson in Jerusalem, Laura Kam Issacharoff, said she would be surprised if the king would allow such a conference to take place. It would undoubtedly antagonize the U.S. government.
Zundelsite:
As if the US was their lackey!
Stahl:
Sponsored jointly by the U.S.-based Institute for Historical Review and the Swiss-based Verite et Justice (Truth and Justice), the conference was originally described in great detail on the IHR's website.
Zundelsite:
Once more: The Beirut conference was NOT the Jordanian Writers Forum.
Stahl:
On Wednesday, however, both the "Conference" and "Beirut 2001" links on the site did not work.
Zundelsite:
Once again - these conferences had nothing to do with the Amman Forum!
Stahl:
Earlier, it was touted as a great victory by the IHR to hold such a conference in an Arab venue.
Zundelsite:
Wrong conference! Wrong information for the reader! False!
Stahl:
Anti-Semitic articles and cartoons are regular fare in state-run media throughout the Middle East. Israelis are often depicted as Nazis and the Palestinians as their victims. Israelis are accused of using the Holocaust as an excuse for establishing a state in the Middle East. Other times, the fact that the Holocaust took place is denied altogether.
Zundelsite:
Not only has Israel suffered a media image disaster in the Middle East with its brutal policies of oppression against the Palestinians, but in Russia, Western Europe (especially England) and even in Lobby-dominated America did Israel get blamed. Even Jewish intellectuals like Professor Norman Finkelstein and Peter Novick speak up about using and abusing the Holocaust, as Israel is constantly doing.
Stahl:
Rat said Lau did not expect to receive a quick response to his letter, which was sent through the Foreign Ministry.
Zundelsite:
Exorcising demons of his own making! No such conference was planned!
Stahl:
In the letter Lau said, "the conference of Holocaust deniers carries with it a message opposite of promising peace and brotherhood. It is planned to take place purposely on the day that the state of Israel was established 53 years ago." Lau noted that Lebanon refused to host the conference and even Jordan postponed it once before.
Zundelsite:
Deliberate false news to scare and fearmonger the little kingdom!
Stahl:
"Your glory will not be renowned nor the glory of your kingdom, by cooperation with the Holocaust deniers, even though it is passive," (Lau) said, appealing to the king to do all within his power to prevent the conference from being held.
Zundelsite:
Prevent a conference that was never planned for Amman?! Are these people scared of what these Arab scholars, now digging around Zion's closet of skeletons, might find! One fine reason to keep on digging! :)
Stahl:
According to the SWC, the conference was apparently to have been held on April 8, but was delayed by organizers so it would not embarrass the king on the eve of his first meeting with President Bush.
Zundelsite:
Even the SWC either cannot keep its facts straight or is so rattled by the possibility of Arab scholars probing Zionism's hitherto hidden criminal past, they are truly going off the deep end, as the man in the street would point out.
[END OF COMMENTS}
So much for my thoughts. I simply couldn't believe such an absolutely poorly researched and written article! Absolutely spiked with errors and misinformation. What a disgrace! What absolute crock!
A few hours later I received the following response from Dr. Ibrahim Alloush, a member of the Jordanian Writers Association:
[START]
DISTRIBUTE WIDELY PLEASE
Dear Readers,
According to the report (above), it seems that Chief Rabbi Lau sent a letter through the foreign ministry urging King Abdallah to ban the Forum on Revisionist Historians in Amman that is supposed to take place around May 15th under the sponsorship of the Jordanian Writers Association (forcibly postponed twice already). In that letter, Chief Rabbi Lau tells King Abdallah to do everything in his power to ban the forum of the Jordanian Writers Association, or else, it ìwould be a "terrible blemish" on the country and damage relations between the two neighborsî.
The report by CNSNews ... however, is a supreme example of Zionist political manipulation and media spin. As you read along, please keep in mind the following official counter- declarations from the Jordanian Writers Association:
1) The writer, CNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief Julie Stahl, is not exactly an unbiased source. She is a former editor of the Israel Information Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a Master's in Journalism from Regent University, according to the CNSNews website.
2) Neither the Institute of Historical Review in the United States, nor the Institute of Truth & Justice in Switzerland, have anything to do with the Forum on Revisionist Historians in Amman. Zionists know that too. Proof: look up articles in Haartz and the Jerusalem Post on April 20 and April 22 that name the Jordanian Writers Association specifically as the sole sponsor of the forum in Amman. The [Zionist] Simon Weisenthal Center that is cited (above), has already issued a public invitation to the Jordanian Writers Association to come visit the Museum of Tolerance in response to the JWA's resolve to hold the revisionist forum in Amman. The invitation was directed at the JWA, not revisionist historians in Europe or the U.S., because it was clear that the JWA was sponsoring the forum. Now, this issue is being blurred on purpose to make the forum look like a foreign activity on Jordanian land that merits the King's direct interference.
3) The cancelled conference titled "Zionism and Historical Revisionism" in Beirut is something completely different from the Forum on Revisionist Historians in Amman that will convene under the title of "What Happened to the Revisionist Conference in Beirut?". The former is an international conference. Ours is a local forum with local speakers.
4) Chief Rabbi Lau has no right to infringe on the sovereignty of Jordan or to interfere in its internal affairs. The Forum that is being sponsored by the Jordanian Writers Association is an internal JWA activity that embodies Jordanian citizens practicing their constitutional right to express themselves freely within the bounds of the law. The JWA is confident that Jordanian officials will not tolerate this infringement on Jordanian sovereignty by Chief Rabbi Lau, and will firmly reject any outside meddling in Jordan's internal affairs.
5) The United States itself allows revisionist historians to hold conferences and publish literature. Why should Jordan accept an interference in the free speech rights of its citizens that is not applied to American citizens?!
6) To call the forum in Amman a "Conference for Holocaust Denial" is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. First of all, the forum is a local activity, not a conference, as we explained above. Secondly, historical revisionism is not about "denying the Holocaust", but about setting it in its proper scientific context. Thus, historical revisionism is about setting the establishment of "israel" in its proper context. It is clear then that the historical review of WWII is not merely a stale academic issue, but a current political topic, hence the hysterical Zionist overreaction to unbiased scientific historical research. (...)
Ibrahim Alloush
Media Coordinator of the Association against Zionism and Racism
[END]
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