Israel backs down over white phosphorus

Times

Sheera Frenkel in Tel Aviv

Israeli troops stopped using white phosphorus shells in Gaza this year after The Times published evidence that they were injuring civilians.

In its first explicit admission, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that “media buzz” had forced the army to withdraw the shells from its arsenal on January 7 – the day that The Times obtained photographs of stockpiles and two days after the newspaper had exposed the effect of white phosphorus on the population of Gaza.

Israele: le donne del governo Netanyahu «fatte sparire » sui giornali ortodossi

CORRIERE DELLA SERA

La scelta ha provocato un duro attacco da parte del piu’ diffuso giornale israeliano

Le due donne ministro cancellate dalla foto ufficiale pubblicata su 2 quotidiani ebraico-fondamentalisti

MILANO – Sono solo due su trenta le donne ministro nel nuovo governo di Benyamin Netanyahu: Limor Livnat alla Cultura e allo Sport, e Sofa Landver all’Immigrazione. Ma sono già due di troppo per qualche ebreo ultra-ortodosso. E se i precetti rabbinici proibiscono la pubblicazione di foto di figure femminili per ragioni di modestia, e un aiuto in tal senso può arrivare dal programma Photoshop, il gioco è subito fatto: nella foto ufficiale di gruppo pubblicata su due quotidiani ultra-ortodossi, scattata mercoledì scorso subito dopo l’insediamento dell’esecutivo, le due donne sono misteriosamente scomparse. O meglio, oscurate con due macchie nere o in un altro caso addirittura sostituite da due colleghi maschi che così appaiono due volte.

Why does the world media love to hate Israel?

23/03/09

_{By Bradley Burston}

Click here for more articles by Bradley Burston

I was just in the States, speaking to members of Ameinu, an organization which, the times notwithstanding, remains outspoken both in its support for peace and its support for Israel.

Among the topics I was asked to address was the portrayal of the Jewish state in the news media. Phrased a little less delicately, the issue amounts to: “Why does the press love to hate Israel?”

Let’s see the ‘criticism’ of Israel for what it really is

Howard Jacobson, The Independent

Emotions have run high over recent events in Gaza. And in this impassioned and searching essay, our writer argues that just below the surface runs a vicious strain of ancient prejudice.

The first casualty of war: Truth

Feb. 17, 2009
, THE JERUSALEM POST

Which is the greater factor in getting consumers of news to believe that “1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians” were killed during Operation Cast Lead? Intrinsic anti-Israel bias – or a high degree of gullibility to manipulative international media coverage?

Put another way, do you have to be anti-Israel to believe Palestinian lies, or is Palestinian mendacity so well-constructed, so plausible, and so well disseminated by collaborative media outlets like Al Jazeera that even well-meaning people can’t help but believe the worst of Israel?

Israeli press bemoans “stalemate”

BBC NEWS

12 February 2009

Israeli papers agonise over the inconclusive results of Tuesday’s parliamentary elections. With both Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima party and Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud claiming victory, commentators speculate about the possible composition of a coalition government.

Commentators discussed the possibility that Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the “extreme right” Yisrael Beiteinu party, would play kingmaker in the formation of the government. Despite polls suggesting that Kadima would emerge as the largest single party, it remained unclear who President Shimon Peres would choose as prime minister.

Several commentators lamented Israel’s system of proportional representation, held responsible for what one writer described as a “political crisis”. One commentator noted the “dangerous” fall in voter participation of Israel’s Arab community. Irrespective of the final result, said one writer, all of Israel’s top political parties are now “by every accepted international standard” right-wing.

Israeli leaders battle for power

AL JAZEERA INTERNATIO NAL

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister and leader of the Kadima party, has narrowly won the closely fought election race, but the real political battle is only just beginning as negotiations get under way on forming a ruling coalition.

Kadima won the biggest number of parliamentary seats, just one ahead of Likud, but as observers had predicted, the Israeli political scene moved to the right in this election.

Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, made the biggest gains and Likud remains hopeful of uniting the right-wing parties.

Highs and lows of election drama

By Heather Sharp
BBC News, Tel Aviv

The cleaners were starting to sweep an emptying floor at Likud’s gathering, even as Kadima crowds cheered while waiting for their leader Tzipi Livni to speak.

“Bibi got it in the face,” was one translation of the Hebrew slang they chanted in gleeful reference to their surprise turnaround over Benjamin Netanyahu’s party.

The fact that Kadima was leading by only about 1% as the partial results came in did little to dampen the spirits of the party faithful, many clad in “Don’t worry – Believni” T-shirts.

Jubilant supporters kept piling into the glitzy hotel, hugging friends as Kadima’s theme song, a souped-up version of Israel’s national anthem, thumped over the loudspeakers.

Evi Atar Sadon, 25, said he had jumped into his car and driven through storm-lashed streets from the southern town of Ashkelon as soon as he saw the first exit polls.

“We don’t feel the rain, we feel the heat – love is in the air,” he said

Fear More of a Factor Than Hope as Israel Votes

NEW YORK TIMES

11 February 2009

By Robert Mackey

As Israelis vote in Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, the final opinion polls suggest that either the conservative Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister, or the centrist Kadima party, now led by Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister, could end up with the most seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Neither party, however, is expected to win anything close to a majority of the seats, and the contest between the two leaders is to see who will be in the strongest position to stitch together a multi-party coalition to govern the country.

Watching the opinion polls tighten in the final days of the race, The Guardian’s Rory McCarthy wrote — in an article headlined “Israel’s Election Cliffhanger as Livni Closes Gap With Netanyahu” — that the change was due less to a surge in confidence in Ms. Livni than to the phenomenal rise of another party, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home), led by Avigdor Lieberman, which has drawn support away from Likud. As Mr. McCarthy wrote:

Only a few weeks ago Netanyahu had a commanding lead in the opinion polls, a lead apparently reinforced by Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. However, in the final days of the campaign he has begun to lose support to Avigdor Lieberman, a far-right secular politician whose populist tone has captured the public mood like never before.

Arab press despair as Israel votes

BBC NEWS

10 February 2009

The Arabic press contains widespread scepticism that the general election in Israel will offer any impetus for change in regional relations, irrespective of the result.

Opinion polls suggest that there is little to choose between the incumbent Kadima party, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and the right-wing Likud, led by Binyamin Netanyahu. One commentator in the UAE expressed concern that this would provide the far-right Avigdor Lieberman, whose popularity has soared recently, with a decisive role in the formation of a government.

Commentaries in Jordan, Syria and the UAE feared that the election would see the appointment to power of Israeli “extremists”. One Palestinian writer said that the victory of the Israeli right would “push Palestinians to stand by Hamas”, while another questioned how the new US administration would handle the situation.