[wvns] ZIO-AMERICAN PRESS AGAINST THE VATICAN
AMERICAN ZIONIST PRESS AGAINST THE VATICAN
Our good friend François Costes brought out this timely paper
substantiating accusations that the case of abusing priests was
brought forth and motivated by Israel Lobby to stop the Church from
opposing Israeli and American policies. Costes compared the
anti-Church publications and real-time events: the calls to attack
Iraq, bombardment of Palestine etc. They fit to a tee!
Below: the short version of the Costes paper; full and quite long
with all dates is on
http://www.israelshamir.net/Documents/Doc1.htm
AMERICAN ZIONIST PRESS AGAINST THE VATICAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
CAMPAIGN "SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH"
FEBRUARY 1, 2002 | AUGUST 31, 2002
STATISTICS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of texts published on the Church "scandals"
(articles, editorials, statements, readers' letters, dispatches, related):
More than 475
Number of photos/graphics/cartoons:
More than 285
Number of issues dealing with the topic (in the March-June period):
93% (114 issues out of 122)
Article or reference on the front page of the NYT (in the March-June
period):
63% (77 issues out of 122)
During the standoff of the Church of the Nativity in Palestine (April
2-May 10, 2002), the New York Times published at least 182 texts and
138 photos/graphics/cartoons related to the "scandals".
In other words, an average of 4.67 texts and 3.54 photos/graphics per
day for more than 5 weeks...
(Some February 2002 figures are still missing.)
HOTTEST DAYS OF THE CAMPAIGN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Numbers of texts published per day
1. Tuesday, April 23, 2002 : 11
2. Tuesday, April 30, 2002 : 11
3. Wednesday, April 10, 2002 : 10
4. Thursday, April 25 : 10
5. Friday, April 26 : 10
6. Saturday, June 15, 2002 : 8
7. Sunday, April 21 : 7
8. Monday, April 22 : 7
9. Sunday, April 28 : 7
REPORTERS HIT-PARADE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five publications or more about the "Scandals in the Church"
1. Pam Belluck
2. Daniel J. Wakin
3. Laurie Goodstein
4. Sam Dillon
5. Anthony DePalma
6. Melinda Henneberger
7. Adam Liptak
8. Fox Butterfield
9. Francis X. Clines
10. Frank Bruni
11. Jodi Wilgoren
12. John Tagliabue
13. Dean E. Murphy
14. Richard Lezin Jones
TITLE TERMINOLOGY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most frequent words used in the NYT titles
1. Archbishop, archdiocese, bishop, cardinal, clergy, diocese, prelate
2. Priest
3. Abuse, abusive
4. Church
5. Sex, sexual
6. Scandal, crisis
7. Pope, Vatican
8. Accused, accuser, accusation
9. Pedophile, pedophilia, rape, raping, molestation, pornography
10. Sin
11. Victim
12. Boy, girl, child, children
13. Charge, charged
14. Parish, parishioner
15. Suit
16. Catholic
17. Secrecy, secret
TABLOID TITLES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most smearing titles
"The 2 Faces Of A Priest: Protector, Predator"
National edition
Fox Butterfield & Jenny Hontz
Sunday, May 19, 2002 (front page article w/ 3 photos)
"Is The Pope Catholic?"
National edition
Bill Keller
Saturday, May 04, 2002
"Let Us Prey"
National edition
Bill Keller
Saturday, March 09, 2002
"A Priest Abuses a Child: Who Pays the Price?"
National edition
(readers' letters)
Wednesday, March 06, 2002
"Sins of the Church"
National edition
Frank Bruni
Monday, April 08, 2002
"Sent To California On Sick Leave, Boston Priest Bought Racy Gay Resort"
National edition
Nick Madigan
Monday, April 15, 2002
"Am I My Brother's Keeper?"
"David Clohessy spent more than 10 years angrily unearthing the
church's dark secrets of sexual abuse."
National edition (5-page article in the NYT Magazine)
Frank Bruni
Sunday, May 12, 2002
"The Vatican Rag"
National edition
Maureen Dowd
Sunday, March 24, 2002
"Priests and Sex: Europe Has Problems, But Not Like America's. Maybe."
National edition
John Tagliabue
Sunday, April 21, 2002
"Crime and Punishment: Prosecuting the Church"
National edition
Frank Bruni
Sunday, April 14, 2002
[ source: François Costes, Chapel Hill, USA ]
===
WHAT WAS GOING ON IN 2002 WHILE THE NEWSMEDIA SMEARED THE CHURCH?
Death and Lies in Palestine
By Ali Abunimah
The Electronic Intifada
26 November 2002
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article920.shtml
I did not know Mr. Iain Hook, the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for the Palestine Refugees' (UNRWA) official who was killed
on November 22 by Israeli occupation forces in Jenin Refugee Camp.
But I do know many people -- Palestinians and internationals -- who
have worked for the agency. They are, to a person, amongst the most
dedicated and compassionate professionals I have the privilege to
know. Through a sense of humanitarian commitment they have helped
Palestinian refugees to meet their basic needs for more than fifty
years, often in the most dire and dangerous conditions. The vast
majority of UNRWA's staff are themselves Palestinian refugees,
meaning that the agency has not been a source of charity, but of
empowerment and work for those who through ethnic cleansing and war
lost everything.
Iain Hook was killed in the line of duty, armed not with a gun, but
with compassion and courage. Palestinians mourn with Mr. Hook's
family, and share their pain at his tragic death. It should not take
a tragedy like this to remind us all to say thank you once in a
while to the people at UNRWA for all they do and have done.
When it became undeniable that Mr. Hook was killed by an Israeli
occupation soldier, Israel was quick to produce excuses. When one
excuse was exposed as a lie, another was substituted. First, Israel
claimed that Mr. Hook had been killed in "crossfire" when occupation
soldiers were firing back at Palestinian gunmen shooting from the UN
compound where Mr. Hook was working. When it became clear that there
was no fighting in the area, another version emerged -- that the
soldier who shot him mistook the cellular telephone Mr. Hook was
carrying for a weapon.
The UN has categorically rejected Israel's versions of events. Paul
McCann, the UNRWA spokesman, said that the preliminary inquiry into
the killing "does not agree with the statement that firing could
have come from the UNRWA compound. In fact, it is quite clear from
our inquiry so far that this report of firing coming from the
compound is totally incredible." McCann added, according to
Ha'aretz, "the compound is very small and at no stage did we lose
control of it. There were no Palestinian militants in the compound."
(26 November 2002)
UNRWA also said that prior to being shot dead with a single bullet
to the back at a time when there was no military action in the area
of the UNRWA compound, Mr. Hook had been on his cell phone trying to
arrange an evacuation from the area.
McCann told the Independent on Sunday, "we requested repeatedly to
the Israelis that they cease fire long enough for us to be able to
evacuate not only UN staff, but also a disabled woman who was living
in the building opposite the one the Israeli operation was centered
on," but the Israelis ignored the pleas. (24 November 2002)
Speaking from her hospital bed in Jenin, where she was being treated
for a gunshot from Israeli troops, Irish eyewitness Caoimhe Butterly
told Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now that at one point she saw Hook
come out of the UN compound with a big blue UN flag, to alert the
Israeli soldiers to the UN presence, only to be told over a
loudspeaker, "We don't care if you are the United Nations or who you
are. F**k off and go home!" Butterly added:
"There had been resistance early in the morning from a few fighters
in the camp. I witnessed personally the very small group -- who was
fighting -- moved to another neighborhood a good two hours before
the Israelis opened fire on the compound, before the sniper hit
Iain...There had been no gunman inside the compound... There had
been resistance going on close to the compound because a lot of
Israelis stationed in the camp were down in that area....it wasn't
from within the compound and it was a good two hours before the
Israelis opened fire into the compound."
After Hook was shot, Israel prevented ambulances from reaching him
for more than forty five minutes.
Israel's ever-changing story fits a clear pattern of deliberate
deception designed to mislead the international media. This was most
clearly on display recently when the Israeli foreign minister
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed falsely that a November 15 ambush on
Israeli occupation forces in Hebron had been an appalling "Sabbath
massacre" of defenseless "Jewish worshippers." When this was exposed
as fiction, Netanyahu simply changed his story to the equally untrue
claim that the Palestinian fighters who had been lying in wait for
the soldiers had been trying to get inside the Israeli colony of
Kiryat Arba to attack defenseless civilians.
Israel's official narrative is that Israeli occupation forces never
shoot innocent, unarmed people. All who are killed are by definition
"terrorists," or at least being used by "terrorists" as human
shields. In addition to claiming that fire was coming from the UNRWA
compound, an Israeli army statement about the killing of Hook
contained the usual lurid and infantile claim that "In two cases
terrorists opened fired while using civilians as human shields. In
one of the cases, a terrorist opened fire while taking cover behind
a woman holding an UNRWA flag." (23 November 2002)
It is no wonder that Israel grabs for the most implausible excuses,
given the enormous number of children it kills and injures on a
daily basis. On November 19 in Tul Karm, 15-year old Amr Qudsi was
shot dead by the occupation forces. Israel said he was throwing
bombs. On November 25, 8-year-old Jihad al-Faqih was shot dead in
Nablus, when Israeli occupation forces opened fire on schoolchildren
breaking the permanent curfew that has been imposed on the city for
six months. Witnesses and hospital officials said the boy had been
standing in a side alley when he was shot. "The IDF [Israel Defense
Forces]", according to Ha'aretz, "said the boy threw two explosive
devices at troops carrying out operations in the Casbah." (26
November 2002)
On the same day that Hook was killed, 12-year-old Muhammad Bilalweh
was also shot dead in Jenin by Israeli occupation forces. Three
other children were injured by Israeli bullets and shrapnel,
according to the human rights group LAW. The Israeli army statement
said absolutely nothing about the children it had killed and
injured, and expressed "regret" at the death of Mr. Hook without
even bothering to name him. Meanwhile, a clear sense of where the
army's priorities and values lie was demonstrated by its admission
that "Three IDF jeeps and the personal gear of an Israeli soldier
were damaged." (23 November 2002)
No matter what the case, whether it is a 53-year-old British UNRWA
official, or an 8-year old-boy standing next to his house, the lie
is always the same. The victim was a "terrorist" or appeared to be a
"terrorist," who with a cell phone, a rock, his bare hands, or even
a Pepsi bottle full of solvent, threatened the lives of heavily
armed occupation troops riding around in 65-ton Merkava tanks in the
middle of a refugee camp.
Because Mr. Hook is a senior UN official, the Israeli claims were
not allowed to pass unchallenged. But in the case of so many
hundreds of Palestinians, the Israeli lie passes as "news" if the
incident is even reported at all. The child killed at the door of
his home was "throwing a molotov cocktail," the farmer killed while
tending his fields was an "armed terrorist attempting to infiltrate
an Israeli settlement," the Bedouin woman and her children blown to
bits by flechettes while sleeping in a tent were a "terrorist cell."
And so on.
Butterly, speaking to Democracy Now, observed:
"The types of human rights violations and war crimes that were seen
so blatantly in April go on on an every day basis and I think it's
just the fact that internationals were involved -- that Palestinian
blood has been so cheapened that it doesn't normally get mentioned
-- that this is nothing new. Really, the hospital is normally
jam-packed full of the casualties of the everyday struggle to
survive in Jenin where going to the market, or to the school, or to
the mosque, is a potentially suicidal act at this stage."
Earlier this year, UNRWA was the target of a vicious campaign of
incitement by Israel and some of its staunchest allies in the U.S.
Congress, who accused the agency of assisting Palestinian
"terrorists." Mr. Hook's two sons had not yet arrived in Jerusalem
to take their father's body home before Raanan Gissin, spokesman for
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, was launching new accusations
at UNRWA. The Associated Press quoted Avi Beker, Secretary-General
of the World Jewish Congress declaring that "UNRWA has been
transformed into a shield for terrorism." (26 November 2002)
While Iraq is threatened with invasion if one of its officials so
much as forgets to mention something to a UN official, will Israeli
troops be allowed to shoot a UN official dead with total impunity?
Will the UN give up on its stated aim to investigate Mr. Hook's
killing in Jenin as quickly as it abandoned the UN Security
Council-mandated investigation into Israeli war crimes in the same
camp earlier this year? And will the media ignore the repeated
lesson that when they rely on Israeli government statements to
justify and explain the killings of so many unarmed men, women and
children in the Occupied Territories, they are habitually misleading
their audiences? Let us hope that the answer to all of these
questions is "no," and that Mr. Hook's sacrifice will not have been
in vain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) 2001-2002 electronicIntifada.net unless otherwise noted. Content
may represent personal view of author. This page was printed from
the Electronic Intifada website at electronicIntifada.net. You may
freely e-mail, print out, copy, and redistribute this page for
informational purposes on a non-commercial basis. To republish
content credited to the Electronic Intifada in online or print
publications, please get in touch via electronicIntifada.net/contact
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept donations via
credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are tax deductible. More info
at http://electronicIntifada.net/contact/
*********************************************************************
WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE
To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
wvns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
NEWS ARCHIVE IS OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEW
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
Need some good karma? Appreciate the service?
Please consider donating to WVNS today.
Email ummyakoub@yahoo.com for instructions.
To leave this list, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:wvns-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:wvns-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
No comments:
Post a Comment