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Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

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Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned below, I find it disingenuous that people often use the term 'anti-semitic' when they mean 'anti-Israel', as if any judgement on the actions of the state of Israel automatically implies hate of Jewish people.

It's obviously not the case that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. However, it should be equally obvious that some is; surely the anti-Semites that do exist will criticize Israel. So the question is how to distinguish the legitimate criticism from the anti-Semitic criticism. I don't have an answer to this question, unfortunately. One (flawed) test that's often proposed is to see whether the criticism is propor…

I criticize the Indian government all the time. But I find it strange that for my criticisms to be taken seriously I also have to criticize all other countries equally. I may be the most anti Indian person in the world, but should that discredit my criticism if its valid ?

I got thrown off by the terminology "anti-Semitic criticism". From the context it seems to mean: criticism by an "anti Semitic" person, you probably meant "criticism that has no truth in it". Why cloud matters then, with terminology that is already too loaded to begin with ?

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#112
post #56

Every time Al Jazeera is brought up, people claim that it is anti-semitic, racist, anti-US, etc. But to that I say: so what? Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves? As the old adage goes, "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If Al Jazeera is indeed "the enemy", then all the more reason to make Al Jazeera…

while they worked for BBC, they were unbiased; but the moment they started working for AJ

The BBC is generally regarded as being anti-Israel: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bbc-fights-to-sup...

When people say a news source is "unbiased" they really mean "agrees with me".

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#113
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously not the case that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. However, it should be equally obvious that some is; surely the anti-Semites that do exist will criticize Israel. So the question is how to distinguish the legitimate criticism from the anti-Semitic criticism. I don't have an answer to this question, unfortunately. One (flawed) test that's often proposed is to see whether the criticism is propor…

I criticize the Indian government all the time. But I find it strange that for my criticisms to be taken seriously I also have to criticize all other countries equally. I may be the most anti Indian person in the world, but should that discredit my criticism if its valid ? I got thrown off by the terminology "anti-Semitic criticism". From the context it seems to mean: criticism by an "anti Semitic" person, you probab…

Well, are you Indian or Pakistani? The unspoken condition of that test (which I already stated is imperfect) is that the person not have a direct personal connection to that country. I wouldn't necessarily call a Palestinian preoccupied with criticizing Israel anti-Semitic; I'd be a little more inclined to wonder about the motives of, say, a Belgian.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#114
post #96
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just making things up.

No, everything claimed is easy to verify. Races aren't segregated, racism isn't taught (as in, it's not part of the curriculum.) All races are equal under Israeli law. Your education on this subject had to have been seriously skewed to think otherwise.

All races are equal under Israeli law.

From that I can conclude that you are either ignorant or a liar. Because races are NOT equal in Israeli law. Either in theory OR practice.

Let me give some examples. The Law of Return only applies to Jews. The military draft does not apply to certain ethnic groups, because Israel doesn't want most of them in its military forces.

And that's in theory. In practice it is much worse, as was documented for the Israeli government in the Or report.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#115
post #112
post #56

Every time Al Jazeera is brought up, people claim that it is anti-semitic, racist, anti-US, etc. But to that I say: so what? Do you think Americans are that stupid that they won't see antisemitism? Do you think we're little children who can't think for ourselves? As the old adage goes, "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If Al Jazeera is indeed "the enemy", then all the more reason to make Al Jazeera…

while they worked for BBC, they were unbiased; but the moment they started working for AJ The BBC is generally regarded as being anti-Israel: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bbc-fights-to-sup... When people say a news source is "unbiased" they really mean "agrees with me".

But you see, everyone has problems with BBC. Israeli think it's anti-Israel, Putin says it's anti-Russian. In reality though it's simply not pro-Israel or pro-Russian. Just telling the truth infuriates lots of people.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#116
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned below, I find it disingenuous that people often use the term 'anti-semitic' when they mean 'anti-Israel', as if any judgement on the actions of the state of Israel automatically implies hate of Jewish people.

Not only that. Jewish people are not the only Semites. Arabs are Semites too. The word anti-semitic has totally lost all of its literal meaning, much like the word hacker.

This is -- pardon my french -- either the most dishonest or the most uninformed argument that has been made on this topic so far.

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#117
post #78
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "They do seem" as a claim on it's own has no persuasive power. Sorry. I meant they seem to _me_ I wasn't asserting a general truth. I am just one of the HNers here. So it is more of a personal observation. > Look, it even comes with allusions to the comparison of Israel and the Nazis! ---- excerpt from first article ------ In mid-January, dozens of young Jews attacked Muslims at a mosque in Yafo or Jaffa, the histo…

It is easy to draw intuitive statistical conclusions in a small town ; you bet if there weren't usually race based violence in a small town, that if you saw 4-5 incidents in a short period of time, there would be very few non-racism based explanations that were plausible. Israel is 7.5 million people with 75% Jews. That provides a large enough pool of incidents of Jews attacking Muslims to draw from just because ther…

you must be very unhappy with this "journalism" thing then. Have you ever seen that journalists would do statistics on anecdotes? Most of them have trouble researching and pointing to similar accidents that happened in the past.

I don't think anybody would base any serious policy on an article in the news. So there is not much reason to perform real science on it. When you're putting together anecdotes of racial attacks in Israel and you have to give it a title ...

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#118
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MEMRI is a Israeli non-profit organisation to "aid the understanding of the Middle-East". It is not by any means objective. Its goal is mostly to find inflammatory or antisemitic fragments in Middle Eastern media and provide them to a Western audience. I looked at the fragment on the MEMRI site and it was devoid of any context. Airing a speech does not imply endorsement. (Most, if not all, American media outlets have…

Actually, MEMRI is an American non-profit, which in principle doesn't accept financing from any government ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Inst... ): Apparently the mere inclusion of Israelis (I recognize 3 Israeli names out of the 7 listed in its staff page) is enough to label it "Israel's PR department". Al Jazeera, on the other hand, have received so far over $160m from the Emir of Qatar…

[deleted]

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#119
post #55
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you implying that anyone criticizing Israel should be automatically discarded on the basis of intolerance? You don't seem to have listened. It wasn't about that one article, it was about their coverage of the issue, which is skewed in one obvious direction. And by the way, the article is nothing more than a bunch of anecdotes misrepresented as an accurate representation of the issue (the article itself even ack…

Jacob, are you in Israel? Would you care to shed some perspective? For instance, are the races segregated? Are children taught to distrust other races? Are they taught all peoples are equal?

[deleted]

Re: Why can't people in US watch Al Jazeera?

#120
post #73
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you implying that anyone criticizing Israel should be automatically discarded on the basis of intolerance? You don't seem to have listened. It wasn't about that one article, it was about their coverage of the issue, which is skewed in one obvious direction. And by the way, the article is nothing more than a bunch of anecdotes misrepresented as an accurate representation of the issue (the article itself even ack…

> "They do seem" as a claim on it's own has no persuasive power. Sorry. I meant they seem to _me_ I wasn't asserting a general truth. I am just one of the HNers here. So it is more of a personal observation. > Look, it even comes with allusions to the comparison of Israel and the Nazis! ---- excerpt from first article ------ In mid-January, dozens of young Jews attacked Muslims at a mosque in Yafo or Jaffa, the histo…

> Sure I wasn't there on the ground witnessing this, but I believe that story to be true.

It is true.

There is a recent (and very dangerous, IMO) rise in Anti-Arab attacks in Israel; Jewish hooligans attacking Israeli-Palestinians, Rabbis calling to ban businesses employing Arabs, a prominent businessman saying in an interview he won't sell housing (in East-Jerusalem, an occupied Palestinian territory) to Arabs, etc.

Translated daily updates about racist incidents, as well asother undemocratic activities from Israel can be found @ http://www.hahem.co.il/slipperyslope/en/

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