On Wednesday's The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN host Jake Tapper devoted attention to Palestinian incitement of violence against Israelis in a way rarely seen in the dominant media as he pressed PLO official Maen Rashid Areikat about recent stabbing attacks against Jews.
Benjamin Netanyahu
By Cal Thomas | October 20, 2015 | 9:44 PM EDT
When President Obama meets in Washington November 9 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I would imagine Netanyahu's main concern will be to find out exactly what the U.S. means by "infringement" as it applies to the Iran nuclear agreement. What exactly will the U.S. do when, not if, Iran violates the deal? What if Israel and the U.S. disagree as to whether there has been a violation?
By Tom Blumer | October 3, 2015 | 10:02 PM EDT
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations. As described by George Jahn at the Associated Press, it was "an impassioned speech interspersed with bouts of dramatic silence."
Jahn failed to report the absence of U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power and Secretary of State John Kerry. So did Rick Gladstone and Judi Rudoren at the New York Times. An unbylined Reuters report drily noted that U.S. representation at Netanyahu's speech consisted of "Ambassador Samantha Power's deputy, David Pressman, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro." Breitbart also noted the presence of "Richard Erdman, Alternate Representative to the UN General Assembly." Reuters uniquely explained why Power and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in town, did not attend (bolds are mine throughout this post):
By Tom Blumer | September 16, 2015 | 10:53 PM EDT
Nowhere is the anti-Israel bias of so much of the establishment press more evident than in its coverage of terror attacks and crimes committed by Palestinians.
One such example occurred almost a year ago in the Associated Press. In that instance, the story concerned a Palestinian who drove his car into a crowd and killed a three-month old baby girl. He was in turn shot and killed by the police when he tried to flee. The AP's initial headline read: "Israeli police shoot man in east Jerusalem." On Tuesday, the New York Times got into the act in a big way, in a headline and story by Diaa Hadid which gave rocks, which are after all inanimate objects, extraordinary powers (HT Kevin Williamson at National Review via Instapundit; bolds and numbered tags are mine):
By Brad Wilmouth | August 3, 2015 | 9:12 PM EDT
On Friday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes hinted that there was similar credibility between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blaming the terrorist group Hamas for the murders of three Jewish students a year ago, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat blaming the Israeli government for the recent murder of a Palestinian boy by Jewish extremists, even though Prime Minister Netanyahu forcefully condemned the attack.
After recounting the boy's death that occurred after his family's home in the West Bank was firebombed, Hayes showed a soundbite of Erekat indicting Israel:
By Curtis Houck | July 16, 2015 | 12:39 AM EDT
The major broadcast networks continued their defense on Wednesday night of the Iranian nuclear arms agreement and specifically President Obama’s press conference from hours before, ruling that the President was “on offense” in providing “a spirited defense” of the “history-making deal.” While all three network anchors interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley who hounded Netanyahu on the deal and encouraged him "to talk things over" with Iranian President Rouhani in Tel Aviv.
By Mark Finkelstein | July 15, 2015 | 9:16 AM EDT
Zbigniew Brzezinki is the man who infamously advised President Obama to shoot down Israeli warplanes should they attempt to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. So when David Ignatius asked him on today's Morning Joe what he thought of Bibi Netanyahu's condemnation of the Iran deal, Zbigniew knew he was being teed up to unload on the Israeli PM.
By Zbigniew's vituperative standards, his response was in fact relatively measured. Still, the utter disdain with which he regards Netanyahu was evident, calling him "not a very serious person" who can entertain Congress but is not good for Israel.
By Mark Finkelstein | April 13, 2015 | 8:50 AM EDT
Ronald Reagan: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: we win and they lose." Thomas Friedman on Barack Obama: "He actually knows what America looks like from the outside in. And he can actually see America even to some point from the Iranian perspective."
So whom will history record as being more effective in countering America's adversaries? The "simplistic" Ronald Reagan, or that cosmopolitan sophisticate, Barack Obama? Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Friedman apparently thought he was praising Obama, but Joe Scarborough wasn't so sure, asking "is it an admirable quality for us to have a president who can look at the world through the eyes of a regime that you and I both know has been the epicenter of terrorism since 1979?"
By Mark Finkelstein | April 1, 2015 | 9:05 AM EDT
Sometimes you just want to shake the TV and say "enough with the cutesy facial expressions, already: spit it out, Mika!" Morning Joe mavens will know what I mean: Mika Brzezinski has the annoying habit of letting a series of sighs, raised eyebrows and facial tics substitute for a clear articulation of her position on a given issue.
There was a prime example of the phenomenon on today's show, when after rolling a clip of Bibi Netanyahu criticizing the prospective Iran deal, Mika announced that she would "reserve" comment, satisfying herself yet again with dramatic pauses, grimaces, etc. [see example below].
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2015 | 11:39 PM EDT
One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.
On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is impossible to imagine the program putting on a skit showing Ronald Reagan doing to the same thing to Ted Kennedy — who, in an objectively treasonous act, sought the Soviet Union's help in the 1984 presidential election for the purpose of defeating Reagan.
By Tom Blumer | March 25, 2015 | 10:50 PM EDT
The pundit class in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world is still seething over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral triumph last week.
On Monday, Dan Perry at the Associated Press took that hysteria to a new level, in effect attempting to discredit Bibi's win by writing that, after all, it may not really be correct to call Israel a democracy. That's because "Palestinians" who are in the occupied territories — whose leaders, and more than likely a majority of its residents would vote to expel all Jews from Israel in a heartbeat if they could — can't vote (HT Dan Gainor; bolds are mine):
By Bryan Ballas | March 25, 2015 | 10:18 AM EDT
Joe Scarborough, MSNBC’s solitary leaner toward the center-right, was unavailable for Monday’s broadcast of Morning Joe. Without him to restrain her, Mika Brzezinski proceeded to make a piñata out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election comments, repeatedly accusing him of “race-baiting.”
This is odd, considering Mika insisted just a few days before that Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin was not race-baiting with his “back of the bus” comments about Loretta Lynch.