Terror Attack in Israel? CNN Can't Find the Words

                                                                                                                                                                     photo: Thomas Coex, AFP/Getty Images

On Friday, a Palestinian man rammed his car into five Israeli border policewomen and then ran over an Israeli riding a bicycle on Shimon HaTzadik Street near a light rail station in Jerusalem. The attacker got out of his car assaulting the pedestrians with a knife before police stopped him by shooting at him. The victims were taken to the hospital with moderate to light injuries and the attacker was also taken to the hospital. One other person was treated for shock.

CNN’s headline:

"Driver hits Israeli border police, authorities call it terror attack"

According to CNN, itself, Israelis aren’t the only ones who call it an attack.  The short article includes this:

"Hamas applauded the attack.

'Hamas movement blesses this heroic act and considers it a natural response to the Occupations (sic) crimes,' Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman posted on Facebook."

Of course, even more difficult for CNN is the term, terror.

During this November’s spate of terror attacks in Jerusalem, CNN reported in an outlandish manner on the brutal killings at a synagogue in the Har Nof  neighborhood. Their first headline read “Deadly attack on Jerusalem mosque” and their follow up story changed the headline to “4 Israelis, 2 Palestinians dead in Jerusalem,” simply counting the killers who had hacked the rabbis to death among victims.

For news from Israel it’s usually most reliable to go directly to Israeli news sources, for instance to Times of Israel or Ynet News.  In their stories, you not only get the actual details about the attack but other connected information such as the fact that this street was “also the site of a November 5 hit and run terror attack that killed one border police officer and injured 13 others. The area has seen no less than five terror attacks this past year.”

By contrast, the only other information included in the CNN article is a seemingly gratuitous reference to the number of Palestinians killed during this summer’s conflict.

CNN used to call itself “the most trusted name in news” and it’s good to know that this slogan has been retired.

Now they call themselves “America’s best news team” but many American outlets did a better job than CNN reporting from Jerusalem this week.

MLA Guidelines for Opposing Resolutions Against Israel

                                                                                                              published at Times of Israel

Whether it fails or passes, the Modern Language Association’s resolution urging the US State Department “to contest Israel’s denials of entry to the West Bank by United States academics” has prompted a valuable response from its opponents.

In their fact-sheet identifying what’s wrong with this resolution, MLA Members for Scholars’ Rights appear also to have identified what’s wrong with all the academic resolutions against Israel and calls for boycott I have seen.

The next time a faction of your university council or professional academic organization offers up Israel as the one country of the world most needing to be contested, censured or boycotted, these four points can help guide your opposition, for it is likely the resolution you are facing:

1. mischaracterizes

2. “overlooks key facts and context”

3. “is based on minimal, weak and unconvincing evidence”

4. “is biased and discriminatory”

Likely too, Israel has little to do with the mission of your student government or academic group. In this case, given the many problems directly affecting the Modern Language Association--the ever growing use of part-time faculty and the diminishing funding for and status of the Humanities are examples--one would expect a resolution on other topics to address some dire situation.

Yet only because the issue of travel restrictions has been mischaracterized is it even on the table. Israel simply has border policies consistent with other democratic countries.  And in the past year, for instance, only .023% of visa applications from US scholars were turned down by Israel.  A considerably larger percentage of Israeli scholars, 5.4%, were turned down when they applied for US visas. Larger contexts are overlooked in the resolution such as Israel’s security needs. And according to MLA Members for Scholars’ Rights, the minimal evidence for the resolution included only “four named cases of denied entry.” 

But what most defines resolutions like this one, as well as the more sweeping condemnations, is that they are biased and discriminatory. Though academics have recently faced “politically motivated state-sanctioned disruptions of travel in the United Arab Emirates, China, Bahrain, and United Kingdom, among others,” the only country criticized is Israel, and with little evidence. 

Likewise, Israel is the only country of the world threatened with academic boycott. The comments of the many MLA members who have signed a petition publically opposing the current resolution are well worth reading.

UPDATE:  The resolution failed!

Afraid to Visit Israel?

                                                                                                        photo by Framing Israel

(published at Times of Israel)

In California, I interact with many people who have never been to Israel and many who imagine it is a place they would never visit.   Their questions have become predictable, enough so that I’ve developed a kind of routine for shifting a previously uncomfortable dynamic. Now, I almost enjoy these conversations (maybe it’s a perverse kind of enjoyment) and sometimes, the person with whom I’m speaking actually pauses to reconsider his or her assumptions, at least momentarily.

“You were in Israel? What was THAT like?” sometimes followed by “I bet you’re glad to be back!”  

“It was so much fun!” I watch their faces for the familiar quizzical look and, before I’m interrupted with question 2, I crowd in a whirlwind of typical tourist Israel:

“The beaches are beautiful. And there is so much going on, music festivals, art fairs, gorgeous places for hiking and being in nature. And the food! It’s amazing. There are great cafes, especially in Tel Aviv. And of course, there are all the historical sites.  In Jerusalem…” by which time, question 2 will certainly be interjected:

“But weren’t you afraid?”

“Well, yes.  It’s scary driving there. Sometimes I do rent a car but Israelis tend to drive really fast and there are people honking at you if you slow down at all. The roads are pretty good but I usually get around just on the trains and the busses...” About now, or sooner, question 3 shows up in an attempt to clarify:

“I mean, isn’t it dangerous?”

“It’s true they’re surrounded by countries who are run by terrorists or who harbor terrorists or who even tell children it’s a good idea to kill other children. It’s a very weird part of the world. So, Israel’s pretty much the expert country on safety.  And honestly, I feel safer there than I do here, certainly, safer than in any big city in America. I can walk around by myself at night, which I never do here.  There isn’t anything like the kind of crime we have in American cities.  And there’s a lot more care about safety; when you go into a public building or event there’s almost always a guard or security check….” Now, having raised the issue of security, question 4 appears, posing usually as the “gotcha” question:

“So I guess it’s pretty grim and militaristic?’

That’s the question that makes me laugh no matter how often or in how many forms I’ve heard it. I pull out my phone to show a few photos, of a Tel Aviv beach, or a shuk or shopping mall, or kids playing at a park. Or my favorite, the light rail in Jerusalem crowded with every demographic of the country, a picture confounding what they’ve heard about the “evils” of Israel and sometimes even leading to an actual conversation, one in which I get to ask questions, too:

“It’s really the most relaxed yet intense place I’ve ever been. Pretty much the opposite of ‘grim.’ You know that Israel is one of the happiest countries in the world, right?”