Jeffrey Heller, Maayan Lubell have cappuccino together over the weekend, come up with new antisemitic campaign

It never ceases to amaze us how correspondents in Reuters Jerusalem Bureau appear to spend all of their time planning, researching, and writing antisemitic stories.  In what amounts to a carnival hall of distorted mirrors, the Reuters crew obsessively reflect only that which, in their view, is grotesque about Israel and its Jewish citizens.

Take for example, two stories published on the Reuters websites early this morning by Editor-in-Charge Jeffrey Heller and correspondent Maayan Lubell, respectively.  Heller's story is about a letter written by Israeli generals to Defense Minister Ehud Barak asking him to refrain from imposing Orthodox religious norms on Israeli soldiers that would tend to result in the exclusion of women from some combat units.

Lubell's 1,100+ word magnum opus reports on an issue near and dear to the hearts of Reuters pseudo-feminists like Lubell and Allyn Fisher-Ilan: gender segregation on Israeli buses.

Now, why do we call these stories antisemitic and refer to Lubell and Fisher-Ilan as pseudo-feminists?

Because while one can certainly debate the legal and ethical merits of incorporating religious sensibilities into civil law which foster gender inequalities, Reuters correspondents never call similar attention to Muslim practices in Israel and the Arab countries which are as, or even more, draconian. 

That's called the soft bigotry of low expectations.  It's also antisemitism.   

Patrick Worsnip explains how the West is "harassing" Syria

3,500 people murdered by the Assad regime in Syria and the world is standing idly by. 

Reuters has been tossed out of the country by Assad and has only one correspondent, Khaled Yacoub Oweis, reporting on the daily mass killings.  With penetrating journalistic insight however, Patrick Worsnip, Reuters UN correspondent, has identified the West's secret weapon:

Western governments have called on Assad to leave power and have waged a campaign of diplomatic harassment, for example by keeping Syria off the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Yes, we're certain Assad is quivering in his jackboots under that intense pressure.

Far out, man!

Name Calling is a propaganda technique intended to "create fear and arouse prejudice by using negative words (bad names) to create an unfavorable opinion or hatred against a group, beliefs, ideas or institutions [the propagandist] would have us denounce. This method calls for a conclusion without examining the evidence. Name Calling is used as a substitute for arguing the merits of an idea, belief, or proposal. It is often employed using sarcasm and ridicule in political cartoons and writing."

Immediately following his lede, note how Reuters correspondent Jeffrey Heller deploys this technique in an effort to disparage Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and discredit in the minds of readers, anything Lieberman believes or is reported to have said:

"I think there's room to lower expectations and get real," Lieberman, a far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, told Israel Radio.

According to Heller, Lieberman is "far-right" and obviously, that means his views are -- take your pick of ugly stereotyped allusion: extreme, radical, outrageous, hateful, vicious, fascist, racist, etc, etc, etc.

Heller doesn't label Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in any similar fashion although Abbas:

1) wrote a doctoral thesis denying the Holocaust and claiming collaboration between Zionists and the Nazis,

2) is reported to have financed the Palestinian terrorist attack and murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics,

3) has refused, as per his obligations under the RoadMap, to end incitement against Israel and Jews,

4) has called for the continuation of armed violence against Israel until the Palestinians get everything they want.

Indeed, Reuters usually refers to Abbas in its stories as a "moderate".

A violation of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism and Trust Principles?  You betcha.

The soft bigotry of low expectations

Reuters Beirut-based correspondent Mariam Karouny pens an ostensibly sympathetic tale of Palestinian Arab refugees living in Lebanon.  Long denied civil and human rights including the ability to work in many professions or even to own an apartment, the descendants of those Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 live in squalid camps and are only now being granted modest opportunities to integrate into Lebanese society:

Palestinians have long been marginalized in Lebanon, where the 1975-90 civil war was sparked by a conflict between Palestinian and Lebanese Christian factions

"The parliament has passed the Palestinian rights (law) which is related to work and (giving them) social security," said lawmaker Nawwaf al-Mussawi after the session. 

The law allows granting refugees work permits without fees and also calls for setting up a fund to cover expenses of work related accidents and end of service pay.

What's interesting about Karouny's story, is how she parrots and rationalizes the Lebanese line on why the children and grandchildren of Arabs who originally lived in what became Israel (most of whom have actually been born in Lebanon) are refused not only citizenship in Lebanon, but basic civil rights as well:

Some politicians in Lebanon argue that granting them [Palestinians] civil rights such as property ownership and work permits would promote naturalization -- an explosive issue which has raised fears of upsetting Lebanon's delicate sectarian balance. 

Can one imagine Reuters treating this type of overt religious discrimination if it occurred in say, Israel or the US, with the same kid gloves?  (Rhetorical question).

Karouny then seeks to make the Palestinians themselves complicit in Lebanon's economic, social and political oppression of its Palestinian Arab population with this utterly absurd generalization:

Palestinians themselves have repeatedly said they oppose plans to settle them in Lebanon, saying they want to go back to the villages their families fled or were forced to flee during fighting which created the state of Israel in 1948.

No scientific survey is offered in evidence for this assertion nor is there recourse to an interview with a single Palestinian living in Lebanon who favors the disenfranchised life of a refugee over the benefits of naturalization (we're certain Karouny could have found one).

Reuters does however, provide proof positive of the Totality of Palestinian aspirations with a photo taken in June of a Palestinian man holding a symbolic key to a house left behind in Israel.

 
Apparently, case closed.

The soft bigotry of low expectations

Reuters correspondent Allyn Fisher-Ilan, who has a penchant for vile anti-Israel propaganda and internet astrology, reports on the Israeli High Court's query into the government's policy of subsidizing ultra-Orthodox buses where women are required to sit separately from men.  Previously, we have noted that on issues involving the restoration of Jewish property, Fisher-Ilan fails to identify or credit the High Court for its decisions.  Having now discovered an issue where she apparently sympathizes, Fisher-Ilan happily names and cites the Court and its Arab Justice Salim Joubran:

"What about tolerance, that positive human attribute?" Joubran added. He said there were no such problems in Arab areas where "everyone sits together". 

Except of course, in Israeli government-funded mosques.

We wonder when "feminist" stargazer Fisher-Ilan will get around to reporting on the way Israeli Arab women are treated in their communities and in their homes.