Film on “Radical Islam” Tied to Pro-Israel Groups

WASHINGTON - A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described “pro-Israel” groups, according to an IPS investigation.

Abbreviated versions and segments of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film’s connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.

HonestReporting marketed “Obsession” but denies it produced or funded the project.

“We initially gave some guidance to the ‘Obsession’ staff,” wrote Pesach Bensen, editor of Mediabackspin.com, the organization’s weblog, in an email response to IPS. “We’re thrilled to see it succeed beyond our wildest expectations.”

When “Obsession” was released last year, news pundits and anchors on FOX and CNN praised the independent film for its candid look at Islamic militancy. FOX incorporated footage from the film into a one-hour special, which aired seven times in November 2006. CNN’s right-wing pundit Glen Beck called it “one of the most important films of our time”. Sean Hannity of FOX News described it as “shocking beyond belief”.

While such enthusiasm from right-wing talk show personalities comes as no surprise, mainstream cable news programs also appeared to accept, without question, the premise of the film, which explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Consider, for example, CNN news anchor Kyra Phillips’s exhortations during an adulatory interview in December 2006 with Raphael Shore, the film’s producer: “I encourage everybody to see this movieà you definitely get an incredible education from watching this filmà The movie left many of us speechlessà We appreciate what you’ve done.”

HonestReporting was founded in 2000 by British university students who objected to what they considered anti-Israel coverage by European media in response to the second Palestinian intifada.

There is no mention of HonestReporting’s connection to “Obsession” on the film’s website, www.obsessionthemovie.com. In an online “Ask the Filmmakers” segment on the FOX News website, Shore stated that he could not identify the film’s funders for fear of retaliation by the “radicals” the filmmakers exposed.

Brian Gaffney, executive producer of the FOX News Documentary Unit, declined to comment on whether HonestReporting’s connection was disclosed to the audience, or whether FOX was aware of the organization’s ideological perspective.
“There is no mistaking that this was a film with a clear point of view,” Gaffney wrote in an email to IPS. “Its forceful case against Radical Islam spoke for itself.

In the case of CNN, which ran segments of the film in the context of a joint interview with Shore and cast member Nonie Darwish, it appears that producers were unaware of the connection.

“I was told that HonestReporting was not involved with this film,” said CNN spokeswoman Megan Mahoney.

Any relation between HonestReporting and “Obsession” is also missing on the film’s website, but the organization’s name does appear at the end of the film’s credits. In addition, a call for tax-deductible donations to help “launch” the film appeared on HonestReporting’s website, promising a free DVD of “Obsession” upon release. Contributors of 250 dollars or more were promised a free copy of the book “Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror“. An entry on Mediabackspin.com, the organization’s weblog, also describes HonestReporting as a “proud partner” of the film.

“Obsession” features interviews with Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, investigative journalist Steve Emerson, Itimar Marcus of Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, and Daniel Pipes, a controversial scholar of medieval Islamic history whose website campus-watch.org sparked criticism in 2002 for its alleged McCarthyesque attacks on Middle East studies professors.

Its production credits include the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, a translation service founded in 1998 by Col. Yigal Carmon, who spent more than 20 years in Israeli intelligence and later advised two Israeli prime ministers; and the Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli group founded by Marcus, that monitors Palestinian news organizations for alleged anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic propaganda.

“Obsession”, for all its fans, has engendered contentious debate on U.S. university campuses not only for its disquieting barrage of video footage culled from the Arab media, but also for the film’s distribution network.

According to the New York Times, when a Middle East discussion group organized a screening at New York University earlier this year, distributors of the film required those in attendance to register at IsraelActivism.com, the official website of the Hasbara fellowships.

The program, also known as the Jerusalem fellowships, was started in 2001 by Aish Hatorah — an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization and yeshiva based in East Jerusalem — in conjunction with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to its website, the group “educates and trains university students to be effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses” by providing its participants with “tools, resources and confidence to return to their campuses as leaders in the fight for Israel’s image.”

Aish Hatorah helped found HonestReporting. Rabbi Ephraim Shore, the president of HonestReporting, also helped found Hasbara.

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, a summer screening of “Obsession” in St. Louis was sponsored by the local branch of Aish Hatora and featured a post-film discussion with Walid Shoebat, an ex-Palestine Liberation Organization militant who was interviewed in the film. In the summer of 2006, Shoebat, a convert to evangelical Christianity, also spoke at the “Night to Honor Israel,” a three-day event presented by Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, a lobby group that aims to mobilize Christian Zionists as a political force, according to the San Antonio Express.

While watching the film, it becomes clear that the controversy surrounding “Obsession” has less to with what it says about the threat of radical Islam, than how it presents the information. While the film contains disclaimers stating that “it’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror,” critics argue that it makes little distinction between the religion of Islam and the political realities that inform terrorism.

“It’s all part of that industry of Muslim bashers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“The sentiment is there, you can see in the [1995] Oklahoma City bombing that it was originally seen as an act of Islamic terrorism,” said Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. “It’s almost a default position for the media, so you’re going to have work like this received uncritically.”

The Oklahoma City bombing, initially attributed by the mainstream media to Islamic terrorists, was actually perpetrated by right-wing extremists from the U.S. midwest.

The film’s director, Wayne Kopping, argues that it aims to uncover the mixed messages propagated by radical Islamists in the Muslim world, who moderate their voices only when they speak in Western media outlets.<

“Children in the Arab world are… breastfed on a diet of hatred for the West. Not only that — the entire culture is permeated with it,” said Kopping in a FOX interview. “The question is what are they [the spokespeople] saying in their own language, on their own TV stations to their own people. That’s when you really hear what they think, and they call for jihad.”

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25 Comments so far

granfromwisconsin March 27th, 2007 1:36 pm

This is Muslim Bashing at its very worst !! I refuse to see CNN and Fox Networks, they are biased and should be ashamed of themselves.. This is spreading Hate ,and quite frankly enough allready… I have a lot of Muslim friends and also have friends in the Middle East who are suffering at the hands of Biased Reporting and Israel I might add,, I WILL NOT be seeing this movie to see more hatred and falsehoods against the Muslim Community and the Middle East, This is a Outrage !!! I would recommend boycott of this Movie !! Also I might add, I was a supporter of so called Progressive Russ Feingold here in Wisconsin, Until that DAY, when Israel decided to bomb Lebannon, and HE and other Members of Congress decided to do NOTHING and stand by while innocent children women, fathers, and grandparents and the such died a horrible death,!! I will continue to support the Palestine/ Muslim communities in thier fight against racism.. Myrna Ulrich- Cross Plains Wisconsin

Ragdoll March 27th, 2007 2:19 pm

Remember when Colin Powell intervened to try to stop distribution of the Egyptian film based on the Protocols of Zion, aother infamous piece of propaganda? So where is Secretary Rice on “Obsessions?”

It is an outrage and far from being in the best interests of the Israeli people to allow this kind of distorted propaganda! Let’s hope the moderates in Israel find their voices to cry out against this outrage too.

As to CNN how about organizing a zap out day now and then?

Jaded Prole March 27th, 2007 3:35 pm

Another example that in many ways, Zionism is anti-semetic. It is tied inextricably to US imperialism.

colleen March 27th, 2007 4:26 pm

Jeff Greenfield on CNN compared Barak Obama with Ahmadinejad.

They both wear similarly styled clothes. It was supposed to be “humorous” but of course it is not funny to compare a US presidential candidate with someone who denies the Holocaust.

CNN is as tainted as Fox is with bias imo. And I think they will try to eliminate Obama from the field unless he sucks up to right wing Jews. Our news is being influenced by people who have a very strong interest in preserving Isreal. The news in other nations is showing some of the problems that ordinary Palestinians are facing because of Israeli policies.

I have no problem in protecting Israel.

I think that war is not going to be successful in helping protect Israel.

There are over one billion muslims and there are 14 million Jews. 40 % of all Jews world wide live in the US, which is about 6 million Jews or 2% of the US population. There are fewer Jews in Israel than in the US. Much of the debate about Israel is going on in the US among Jews here.

I have a friend who is imo right wing in his devotion to Israel. Israel can do no wrong and he supported the war on Lebanon. How do you convice someone like that that war will make the situration worse. He lost aunts and uncles in the Holocaust. It is a form of hysteria and right wing films like “Obsession” encourage that hysteria.

Any time this kind of debate occurs, the right wing claims that the people who oppose them are anti-semites.

This kind of hysterical reaction is like watching someone committ suicide, because it is ridiculous to think that Israel can survive if they do not eventually find some accomodation with the large muslim nations surrounding them.

consider March 27th, 2007 4:37 pm

I have not seen the film and I’m sure it’s not made to be fair and balanced but to stir up emotions. That said, if you ask people who have lived in the Middle East and who are immersed in the culture (ie read Arabic etc) they will confirm what is probably the gist of this film: that people, and especially young people are incited to hatred and terrorism on a daily basis. Ragdoll mentioned the Protocol of Zion (an early Zarist Russian fabrication of a supposed plot by “the Jews”). That kind of junk is believed by 90% of Muslims who are fed BS like that every day. I’m not denying the US’ evil power politics in the region, or the machinations of the Israeli propaganda machine (which is a major player) but please: do face the reality. People in the middle east are being brainwashed every day, and their particular religion, Islam, lends itself to the cult of death and suicide murder unlike any other religion. When Buddhists go to the extreme they burn themselves. Muslims explode themselves and their children to kill as many innocent bystanders as possible with very questionable logic about what political goals can be achieved by that.
Muslim bashing? I’m an atheist, if I lived in a Muslim country I’d have to fear for my life because that supposed religion of peace does not practice tolerance but submission or death. And all for a childish concept of a supposed higher being that gives not the slightest indication of existing.

consider March 27th, 2007 4:40 pm

PS: Forgot to say that one of the premier people to read or ask about the reality of Muslim indoctrination is none other than Robert Fisk who has been living in Lebanon for I think now 28 years. He’s hated by Neocons and Arab people and heads of states alike because he tells it as it is, regardless of whom he pisses off. It surprises me he’s still alive after all these years.

Nietzsche March 27th, 2007 7:19 pm

Neither Christians nor Jews have any moral high ground from which to lecture Islam.

suhail_shafi March 27th, 2007 7:55 pm

If racist progams like Glenn Beck that openly call for Muslim Americans to be deported en masse to concentration camps and the hate sermons of the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were to be translated into Arabic and shown on Arab TV there can be no question at all that most Arabs would eventually become convinced that the US is a nation of racist right wingers and religious fanatics.

But heres the rub - if the inflammatory Islamophobia and rabidly racist attitides towards Arabs that you see on the Glenn Beck show, the Club 700 or Fox News can all be condoned in the name of freedom of expression, then by the same token even the hateful language that is amplified and magnified in right wing websites like MEMRI. Why is it that even the most provocative of hate language in the Western world is condoned in the name of free speech and even the mildest criticism by Arabs of the West’s policies is seen as a sign of extremism ? Could it be that freedom of expression has been monopolised by the West ?

I have a theory - Americans believe in free speech as long as it does not offend them or go against what they believe in - in this respect they are similar to the Muslim fanatics whose ideology they see as the pole opposite of what they stand for. Ironic but true.

suhail_shafi March 27th, 2007 7:59 pm

By the way, has anyone bothered to ask yet how Walid Shoebat, an openly self confessed terrorist who is known to have been involved in a slew of terrorist acts managed to come to the US and become a US citizen ? It is a well kept secret that people involved in terrorist and subversive actions are not supposed to be issued US visas, let alone US passports !

Could it be that terrorists who switch sides are more favoured than others ? Who knows, by that yardstick, Osama might someday become an American !

tiredofitall March 27th, 2007 10:24 pm

bush/cia funded for sure. why did bush have all doc.s about u.s. iran/iraq dealings from all past admiastrations sealed ,just weeks before 911? hmmm maybe it would show how good of friends good ole dad was with sadam.

iwarrior March 27th, 2007 10:51 pm

Radical Islam exists, and I think is a threat. But people don’t look at what causes it. No one wants to ask why these people hate the West, and when the question is brought up, it’s answered in typical “good vs. evil” fashion, i.e. “they hate our freedoms.”

Sure a lot of them hate us. They hate us because we occupy and raze their nations. We steal their natural resources. We aid and abet their enemies. We try to “Westernize” them, forcing our culture and style of government down their throats. We import their people into our countries to work in jobs we can’t be bothered to do so that they become second-class citizens.

Let’s leave the Arab world the hell alone and stop shaking the damn beehive already. People embrace fanaticism due to poverty, desperation, fear, and anger. So, let’s stop making them poor, desperate, fearful, and angry.

Every religion has its underbelly. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, you name it. However, religion has also been a catalyst for positive social change and has turned around and saved lives. People need to keep that in mind as well.

Vince Lawrence March 28th, 2007 12:51 am

To follow through where iwarrior started: Our official policies pay off stooges and proxies to get what we want. It’s always easier to deal with a corrupt cabal than to deal with a democracy. Remember Mosadegh? The Iranians did.

We (the west) continue to create the circumstances where the majority of the people in that region have only their faith to sustain them. It is only natural that that faith (or any other) should become twisted and deformed by the anger and frustration of decades while we tank their wealth accross the sea.

hybridoma2001 March 28th, 2007 1:20 am

I lived in Andalucia, Southern Spain, for eight years. In my travels there I was able to see and visit many of the architectural remains of the time the Arabs controlled the south of Spain. And it wasn’t only the architectural wonders, but also the intellectual exchanges during those days before Isabel and Ferdinand conquered Andalucia, forcing the Moors from Spain. The Jews were also either forced to leave or change their faith.
But there was a long period there when everyone seemed to get along and share knowledge and culture. Differing religious beliefs were tolerated. What happened to all of that?
How did the Andalucia go from a place of peaceful co-existence to intolerence and decline?
I could offer some of my opinions but I am no scholar in this area and so I won’t make any statements without some more knowledge of what I want to discuss.
But it is obvious that something went terribly wrong back then, just as something - many things - are going terribly wrong today. Why?

octotroph March 28th, 2007 1:52 am

I lived in the middle east for ten years from 1989 to 1999 and I never felt one ounce of hatred. The Arabs do not hate Americans, they hate our government’s support of Israel which seems so unfair to them. They do not hate Christianty. They are taught in the Koran to welcome the people of the Book. How can we condemn Islam for violence when the Bible teaches violence as well? Why are we so ignorant that we believe everything on Fox and CNN? Guess we are so busy trying to make a living that we don’t have time to find out the truth. Just accept what the talking heads say and most Americans will agree with you.

macchendra March 28th, 2007 2:55 am

Obama has already pledged his allegiance to the Israeli government and AIPAC. He doesn’t suck up as much as Hillary or Edwards, so he probably won’t be the media selected “front-runner”, but he did give a speech in which he trumpeted the usual lies (google it). Kucinich is the best option.

Here is his platform:

* Creating a single-payer system of universal health care that provides full coverage for all Americans.
* The immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq and replacing them with an international security force.
* Guaranteed quality education for all, including free pre-kindergarten and college for all who want it.
* Immediate withdrawal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
* Repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.
* Fostering a world of international cooperation.
* Abolishing the death penalty.
* Environmental renewal and clean energy.
* Preventing the privatization of social security.
* Providing full social security benefits at age 65.
* Creating a cabinet-level “Department of Peace”
* Ratifying the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto Protocol.
* Introducing reforms to bring about instant-runoff voting.
* Protecting a woman’s right to choose while decreasing the number of abortions performed in the U.S.
* Ending the war on drugs.
* Legalizing same-sex marriage.
* Creating a balance between workers and corporations.
* Ending the H1B and L3 Visa Programs
* Restoring rural communities and family farms.

macchendra March 28th, 2007 3:06 am

BTW, that was Kucinich’s platform above, in case you just skimmed it.

Here is Obama’s

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Barack_Obama

Basically, he is a BS artist.

So, if Edwards, Clinton, or Obama win the ticket, there is no way I am voting Democratic. I once thought: “I’ll just vote democratic so they can get in power and start the needed prosecutions.”, but after all of this “impeachment is off the table BS, it’s Kucinich or I’m voting Green ->.

hybridoma2001 March 28th, 2007 3:32 am

I noted in another article that I like Dennis Kucinich but the chances of him being elected the way things are today are slim to none. But I think he’s a sincere man who isn’t afraid to promote unpopular ideas.
Earlier in this thread of entries, I finished my essay wit the question, Why? What I am going to type next isn’t against any people neccessarily, but against institutions. Why did Andalucia change from a wonderful area of learning, art and architecture to one of intolerance? The Christians came. And today the so called religious right and the Israeli fringe groups continue to foster hatred and blame it on anyone but themselves. Sharon was a terrorist. Begin was a terrorist. So are many Arabs now terrorists. But who created the situation in the first place? There’s plenty of blame to go around but in all honesty, the Israeli’s are the first to attack anyone who dares to question them.
It’s time to stop funding this madness. It’s time for Israel to follow International law. It’s time for everyone to stop killing in the name of religion.

ryarzagaray March 28th, 2007 5:37 am

I completely agree with you machendra. There is no way or place in these universe in which I will ever vote dem. if Hillary, Obama or Edwards win the party nomination. That said, I am open to Nader or Kucinich as a first option.

Nietzsche March 28th, 2007 9:20 am

Even if a third party candidate has no chance of winning a vote for her is not wasted. That is a vote against two parties,both of whom have sold their souls to corporate America. Kucinich is demonstrating to the system what they all should be talking about. He deserves your vote. he is the only one who does.

GBubbles March 28th, 2007 10:04 am

Kucinich sounds like a man after my own heart, but I can’t see him getting elected. In my take on religion,”religions” seldom get it right, but there are those who see all of us as loved unconditionally regardless of religion. That lover can sneak into the “religions” if there are people who can put up with sharing with all the rest.

Chicago March 28th, 2007 10:39 am

Please people read, start with some stuff from the 70’s like UN Resolution 338, 1973, and like the UN Resolution 465 dated 1980, then try and think about what is going on today. There is a pattern , I will not try and open your eyes you will have to do that for your selves, however Suhail above, has it right. I am all for a 3rd. party however it will take a larger movement then this country is capable of, people are not seeing the truth yet, the likes of Rush and O’Riely have way to many followers and no leaders. The Greens have no one loud enough nor connected enough to get on TV let alone win anything. By the time most of us Vote the choice is already made all we can do then is choose, by not voting you are still giving one of them a vote, so VOTE that is one thing that only 48% of this country bothers to do! Yet we send our kids to die for someone else to get the chance we do not do. So VOTE! Send them all out each and every election! that is the power the people have, voting, nothing else.

neoconned March 28th, 2007 10:43 am

Nice posts Nietzsche. This is nothing more than the continuing effort of the Israeli led US government to propagate disinformation about Islam. When the USSR fell and dissolved I thought China would be the next bogey man for the US-Israeli military industrial complex. For they cannot exist without an enemy to fight against. Interestingly, if the basic truths of all 3 religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism were followed by those people who profess to be of these faiths, there would be no need for an Intifada or a war on Iraq Afghanistan or “terrorism”. What has happened here is the word “terrorist” is now synonymous with Muslim in the western media. The word “Islamist” which never appeared in print until after 9-11 is all over the media now. There is a very Nazi-esque effort being coordinated by both US and Israeli government and business to characterize Islam as violent and anti western. The reality is far from the propaganda. Islam is the worlds fastest growing religion, on ALL continents despite the propaganda efforts. Ponder the fact that when Timothy McVeigh bombed Oklahoma City the media immediately blamed Middle Eastern terrorists. When they were wrong they issued no apology. Nor did anyone in the media call McVeigh a Christian terrorist, which technically he was. No one mentioned that Eric Robert Rudolph was a Christian terrorist who killed innocent Americans in Atlanta, Birmingham and probably other places. Terrorism was what was employed against the British in our own revolution in 1776. Instead of blindly following what the major US media is pushing, STOP watching CNN and Fox for good. Get your news online or in magazines which still take the time to do thorough research, provided you do not get information from any mainstream western media. Keep in mind that there is only 5 companies operating the media in the US. Collusion comes to mind.

internetter March 28th, 2007 12:13 pm

Whatever the agenda, whoever supported its production, it has much more truth in it than fiction. Those radical Muslims are extremists. Failing to accept that is to deny reality.

donaldcurrie March 28th, 2007 12:20 pm

A quote from Judge William Young’s sentencing of the Shoe Bomber

“It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom.

How dumb can we get? To say that terrorists fight because they ” hate our freedom” is intellectually dishonest and reflects on our ignorance and unwillingness to recognize our past actions. Come in to my home by knocking down my door, take away my sons, bomb and destroy my neighborhood and I will hate you. The Arab people hate us for invading and destroying Iraq, they hate us for the overt support of Israel in their ongoing unequal struggle with Palestine, they hate us for imposing western cultural and pop values on arab nations, they hate us for contributing to the death of thousands of men women and children in Iraq, they hate us for destroying the power of secular Sunnis and turning the country over to fundamentalist Shiites, they hate us for UN sanctions that claimed the lives of up to 500 thousand people, they hate us for Fallujah, they hate us for sanctioning torture, they hate us for the luxurious palace in the Green Zone( much bigger than anything their dictator built) and they hate us because they believe we are conquerors who will never leave.. Of course they hate us; we are invaders, and they are daily exposed to our soldiers, humvees and helicopters. Wouldn’t any intelligent American, Brit or members of the Alliance of the Willing (ie bought) feel the same way under the same conditions?

Ephriam March 28th, 2007 3:47 pm

I’ve seen the one hour pre-release DVD of “Obsession”. There is a real problem with both Muslim and Zionist fundamentalist fanaticism and terrorism, the Muslim version now expressed worldwide, and the latter in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
I can’t see how a documentary like “Obsession” can fail to address the Israel-Palestine axis of the problem without appearing one-sided.

granfromwisconsin March 27th, 2007 1:36 pm

This is Muslim Bashing at its very worst !! I refuse to see CNN and Fox Networks, they are biased and should be ashamed of themselves.. This is spreading Hate ,and quite frankly enough allready… I have a lot of Muslim friends and also have friends in the Middle East who are suffering at the hands of Biased Reporting and Israel I might add,, I WILL NOT be seeing this movie to see more hatred and falsehoods against the Muslim Community and the Middle East, This is a Outrage !!! I would recommend boycott of this Movie !! Also I might add, I was a supporter of so called Progressive Russ Feingold here in Wisconsin, Until that DAY, when Israel decided to bomb Lebannon, and HE and other Members of Congress decided to do NOTHING and stand by while innocent children women, fathers, and grandparents and the such died a horrible death,!! I will continue to support the Palestine/ Muslim communities in thier fight against racism.. Myrna Ulrich- Cross Plains Wisconsin
Ragdoll March 27th, 2007 2:19 pm

Remember when Colin Powell intervened to try to stop distribution of the Egyptian film based on the Protocols of Zion, aother infamous piece of propaganda? So where is Secretary Rice on “Obsessions?”

It is an outrage and far from being in the best interests of the Israeli people to allow this kind of distorted propaganda! Let’s hope the moderates in Israel find their voices to cry out against this outrage too.

As to CNN how about organizing a zap out day now and then?
Jaded Prole March 27th, 2007 3:35 pm

Another example that in many ways, Zionism is anti-semetic. It is tied inextricably to US imperialism.
colleen March 27th, 2007 4:26 pm

Jeff Greenfield on CNN compared Barak Obama with Ahmadinejad.

They both wear similarly styled clothes. It was supposed to be “humorous” but of course it is not funny to compare a US presidential candidate with someone who denies the Holocaust.

CNN is as tainted as Fox is with bias imo. And I think they will try to eliminate Obama from the field unless he sucks up to right wing Jews. Our news is being influenced by people who have a very strong interest in preserving Isreal. The news in other nations is showing some of the problems that ordinary Palestinians are facing because of Israeli policies.

I have no problem in protecting Israel.

I think that war is not going to be successful in helping protect Israel.

There are over one billion muslims and there are 14 million Jews. 40 % of all Jews world wide live in the US, which is about 6 million Jews or 2% of the US population. There are fewer Jews in Israel than in the US. Much of the debate about Israel is going on in the US among Jews here.

I have a friend who is imo right wing in his devotion to Israel. Israel can do no wrong and he supported the war on Lebanon. How do you convice someone like that that war will make the situration worse. He lost aunts and uncles in the Holocaust. It is a form of hysteria and right wing films like “Obsession” encourage that hysteria.

Any time this kind of debate occurs, the right wing claims that the people who oppose them are anti-semites.

This kind of hysterical reaction is like watching someone committ suicide, because it is ridiculous to think that Israel can survive if they do not eventually find some accomodation with the large muslim nations surrounding them.
consider March 27th, 2007 4:37 pm

I have not seen the film and I’m sure it’s not made to be fair and balanced but to stir up emotions. That said, if you ask people who have lived in the Middle East and who are immersed in the culture (ie read Arabic etc) they will confirm what is probably the gist of this film: that people, and especially young people are incited to hatred and terrorism on a daily basis. Ragdoll mentioned the Protocol of Zion (an early Zarist Russian fabrication of a supposed plot by “the Jews”). That kind of junk is believed by 90% of Muslims who are fed BS like that every day. I’m not denying the US’ evil power politics in the region, or the machinations of the Israeli propaganda machine (which is a major player) but please: do face the reality. People in the middle east are being brainwashed every day, and their particular religion, Islam, lends itself to the cult of death and suicide murder unlike any other religion. When Buddhists go to the extreme they burn themselves. Muslims explode themselves and their children to kill as many innocent bystanders as possible with very questionable logic about what political goals can be achieved by that.
Muslim bashing? I’m an atheist, if I lived in a Muslim country I’d have to fear for my life because that supposed religion of peace does not practice tolerance but submission or death. And all for a childish concept of a supposed higher being that gives not the slightest indication of existing.
consider March 27th, 2007 4:40 pm

PS: Forgot to say that one of the premier people to read or ask about the reality of Muslim indoctrination is none other than Robert Fisk who has been living in Lebanon for I think now 28 years. He’s hated by Neocons and Arab people and heads of states alike because he tells it as it is, regardless of whom he pisses off. It surprises me he’s still alive after all these years.
Nietzsche March 27th, 2007 7:19 pm

Neither Christians nor Jews have any moral high ground from which to lecture Islam.
suhail_shafi March 27th, 2007 7:55 pm

If racist progams like Glenn Beck that openly call for Muslim Americans to be deported en masse to concentration camps and the hate sermons of the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were to be translated into Arabic and shown on Arab TV there can be no question at all that most Arabs would eventually become convinced that the US is a nation of racist right wingers and religious fanatics.

But heres the rub - if the inflammatory Islamophobia and rabidly racist attitides towards Arabs that you see on the Glenn Beck show, the Club 700 or Fox News can all be condoned in the name of freedom of expression, then by the same token even the hateful language that is amplified and magnified in right wing websites like MEMRI. Why is it that even the most provocative of hate language in the Western world is condoned in the name of free speech and even the mildest criticism by Arabs of the West’s policies is seen as a sign of extremism ? Could it be that freedom of expression has been monopolised by the West ?

I have a theory - Americans believe in free speech as long as it does not offend them or go against what they believe in - in this respect they are similar to the Muslim fanatics whose ideology they see as the pole opposite of what they stand for. Ironic but true.
suhail_shafi March 27th, 2007 7:59 pm

By the way, has anyone bothered to ask yet how Walid Shoebat, an openly self confessed terrorist who is known to have been involved in a slew of terrorist acts managed to come to the US and become a US citizen ? It is a well kept secret that people involved in terrorist and subversive actions are not supposed to be issued US visas, let alone US passports !

Could it be that terrorists who switch sides are more favoured than others ? Who knows, by that yardstick, Osama might someday become an American !
tiredofitall March 27th, 2007 10:24 pm

bush/cia funded for sure. why did bush have all doc.s about u.s. iran/iraq dealings from all past admiastrations sealed ,just weeks before 911? hmmm maybe it would show how good of friends good ole dad was with sadam.
iwarrior March 27th, 2007 10:51 pm

Radical Islam exists, and I think is a threat. But people don’t look at what causes it. No one wants to ask why these people hate the West, and when the question is brought up, it’s answered in typical “good vs. evil” fashion, i.e. “they hate our freedoms.”

Sure a lot of them hate us. They hate us because we occupy and raze their nations. We steal their natural resources. We aid and abet their enemies. We try to “Westernize” them, forcing our culture and style of government down their throats. We import their people into our countries to work in jobs we can’t be bothered to do so that they become second-class citizens.

Let’s leave the Arab world the hell alone and stop shaking the damn beehive already. People embrace fanaticism due to poverty, desperation, fear, and anger. So, let’s stop making them poor, desperate, fearful, and angry.

Every religion has its underbelly. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, you name it. However, religion has also been a catalyst for positive social change and has turned around and saved lives. People need to keep that in mind as well.
Vince Lawrence March 28th, 2007 12:51 am

To follow through where iwarrior started: Our official policies pay off stooges and proxies to get what we want. It’s always easier to deal with a corrupt cabal than to deal with a democracy. Remember Mosadegh? The Iranians did.

We (the west) continue to create the circumstances where the majority of the people in that region have only their faith to sustain them. It is only natural that that faith (or any other) should become twisted and deformed by the anger and frustration of decades while we tank their wealth accross the sea.
hybridoma2001 March 28th, 2007 1:20 am

I lived in Andalucia, Southern Spain, for eight years. In my travels there I was able to see and visit many of the architectural remains of the time the Arabs controlled the south of Spain. And it wasn’t only the architectural wonders, but also the intellectual exchanges during those days before Isabel and Ferdinand conquered Andalucia, forcing the Moors from Spain. The Jews were also either forced to leave or change their faith.
But there was a long period there when everyone seemed to get along and share knowledge and culture. Differing religious beliefs were tolerated. What happened to all of that?
How did the Andalucia go from a place of peaceful co-existence to intolerence and decline?
I could offer some of my opinions but I am no scholar in this area and so I won’t make any statements without some more knowledge of what I want to discuss.
But it is obvious that something went terribly wrong back then, just as something - many things - are going terribly wrong today. Why?
octotroph March 28th, 2007 1:52 am

I lived in the middle east for ten years from 1989 to 1999 and I never felt one ounce of hatred. The Arabs do not hate Americans, they hate our government’s support of Israel which seems so unfair to them. They do not hate Christianty. They are taught in the Koran to welcome the people of the Book. How can we condemn Islam for violence when the Bible teaches violence as well? Why are we so ignorant that we believe everything on Fox and CNN? Guess we are so busy trying to make a living that we don’t have time to find out the truth. Just accept what the talking heads say and most Americans will agree with you.
macchendra March 28th, 2007 2:55 am

Obama has already pledged his allegiance to the Israeli government and AIPAC. He doesn’t suck up as much as Hillary or Edwards, so he probably won’t be the media selected “front-runner”, but he did give a speech in which he trumpeted the usual lies (google it). Kucinich is the best option.

Here is his platform:

* Creating a single-payer system of universal health care that provides full coverage for all Americans.
* The immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq and replacing them with an international security force.
* Guaranteed quality education for all, including free pre-kindergarten and college for all who want it.
* Immediate withdrawal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
* Repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.
* Fostering a world of international cooperation.
* Abolishing the death penalty.
* Environmental renewal and clean energy.
* Preventing the privatization of social security.
* Providing full social security benefits at age 65.
* Creating a cabinet-level “Department of Peace”
* Ratifying the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto Protocol.
* Introducing reforms to bring about instant-runoff voting.
* Protecting a woman’s right to choose while decreasing the number of abortions performed in the U.S.
* Ending the war on drugs.
* Legalizing same-sex marriage.
* Creating a balance between workers and corporations.
* Ending the H1B and L3 Visa Programs
* Restoring rural communities and family farms.
macchendra March 28th, 2007 3:06 am

BTW, that was Kucinich’s platform above, in case you just skimmed it.

Here is Obama’s

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Barack_Obama

Basically, he is a BS artist.

So, if Edwards, Clinton, or Obama win the ticket, there is no way I am voting Democratic. I once thought: “I’ll just vote democratic so they can get in power and start the needed prosecutions.”, but after all of this “impeachment is off the table BS, it’s Kucinich or I’m voting Green ->.
hybridoma2001 March 28th, 2007 3:32 am

I noted in another article that I like Dennis Kucinich but the chances of him being elected the way things are today are slim to none. But I think he’s a sincere man who isn’t afraid to promote unpopular ideas.
Earlier in this thread of entries, I finished my essay wit the question, Why? What I am going to type next isn’t against any people neccessarily, but against institutions. Why did Andalucia change from a wonderful area of learning, art and architecture to one of intolerance? The Christians came. And today the so called religious right and the Israeli fringe groups continue to foster hatred and blame it on anyone but themselves. Sharon was a terrorist. Begin was a terrorist. So are many Arabs now terrorists. But who created the situation in the first place? There’s plenty of blame to go around but in all honesty, the Israeli’s are the first to attack anyone who dares to question them.
It’s time to stop funding this madness. It’s time for Israel to follow International law. It’s time for everyone to stop killing in the name of religion.
ryarzagaray March 28th, 2007 5:37 am

I completely agree with you machendra. There is no way or place in these universe in which I will ever vote dem. if Hillary, Obama or Edwards win the party nomination. That said, I am open to Nader or Kucinich as a first option.
Nietzsche March 28th, 2007 9:20 am

Even if a third party candidate has no chance of winning a vote for her is not wasted. That is a vote against two parties,both of whom have sold their souls to corporate America. Kucinich is demonstrating to the system what they all should be talking about. He deserves your vote. he is the only one who does.
GBubbles March 28th, 2007 10:04 am

Kucinich sounds like a man after my own heart, but I can’t see him getting elected. In my take on religion,”religions” seldom get it right, but there are those who see all of us as loved unconditionally regardless of religion. That lover can sneak into the “religions” if there are people who can put up with sharing with all the rest.
Chicago March 28th, 2007 10:39 am

Please people read, start with some stuff from the 70’s like UN Resolution 338, 1973, and like the UN Resolution 465 dated 1980, then try and think about what is going on today. There is a pattern , I will not try and open your eyes you will have to do that for your selves, however Suhail above, has it right. I am all for a 3rd. party however it will take a larger movement then this country is capable of, people are not seeing the truth yet, the likes of Rush and O’Riely have way to many followers and no leaders. The Greens have no one loud enough nor connected enough to get on TV let alone win anything. By the time most of us Vote the choice is already made all we can do then is choose, by not voting you are still giving one of them a vote, so VOTE that is one thing that only 48% of this country bothers to do! Yet we send our kids to die for someone else to get the chance we do not do. So VOTE! Send them all out each and every election! that is the power the people have, voting, nothing else.
neoconned March 28th, 2007 10:43 am

Nice posts Nietzsche. This is nothing more than the continuing effort of the Israeli led US government to propagate disinformation about Islam. When the USSR fell and dissolved I thought China would be the next bogey man for the US-Israeli military industrial complex. For they cannot exist without an enemy to fight against. Interestingly, if the basic truths of all 3 religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism were followed by those people who profess to be of these faiths, there would be no need for an Intifada or a war on Iraq Afghanistan or “terrorism”. What has happened here is the word “terrorist” is now synonymous with Muslim in the western media. The word “Islamist” which never appeared in print until after 9-11 is all over the media now. There is a very Nazi-esque effort being coordinated by both US and Israeli government and business to characterize Islam as violent and anti western. The reality is far from the propaganda. Islam is the worlds fastest growing religion, on ALL continents despite the propaganda efforts. Ponder the fact that when Timothy McVeigh bombed Oklahoma City the media immediately blamed Middle Eastern terrorists. When they were wrong they issued no apology. Nor did anyone in the media call McVeigh a Christian terrorist, which technically he was. No one mentioned that Eric Robert Rudolph was a Christian terrorist who killed innocent Americans in Atlanta, Birmingham and probably other places. Terrorism was what was employed against the British in our own revolution in 1776. Instead of blindly following what the major US media is pushing, STOP watching CNN and Fox for good. Get your news online or in magazines which still take the time to do thorough research, provided you do not get information from any mainstream western media. Keep in mind that there is only 5 companies operating the media in the US. Collusion comes to mind.
internetter March 28th, 2007 12:13 pm

Whatever the agenda, whoever supported its production, it has much more truth in it than fiction. Those radical Muslims are extremists. Failing to accept that is to deny reality.
donaldcurrie March 28th, 2007 12:20 pm

A quote from Judge William Young’s sentencing of the Shoe Bomber

“It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom.

How dumb can we get? To say that terrorists fight because they ” hate our freedom” is intellectually dishonest and reflects on our ignorance and unwillingness to recognize our past actions. Come in to my home by knocking down my door, take away my sons, bomb and destroy my neighborhood and I will hate you. The Arab people hate us for invading and destroying Iraq, they hate us for the overt support of Israel in their ongoing unequal struggle with Palestine, they hate us for imposing western cultural and pop values on arab nations, they hate us for contributing to the death of thousands of men women and children in Iraq, they hate us for destroying the power of secular Sunnis and turning the country over to fundamentalist Shiites, they hate us for UN sanctions that claimed the lives of up to 500 thousand people, they hate us for Fallujah, they hate us for sanctioning torture, they hate us for the luxurious palace in the Green Zone( much bigger than anything their dictator built) and they hate us because they believe we are conquerors who will never leave.. Of course they hate us; we are invaders, and they are daily exposed to our soldiers, humvees and helicopters. Wouldn’t any intelligent American, Brit or members of the Alliance of the Willing (ie bought) feel the same way under the same conditions?
Ephriam March 28th, 2007 3:47 pm

I’ve seen the one hour pre-release DVD of “Obsession”. There is a real problem with both Muslim and Zionist fundamentalist fanaticism and terrorism, the Muslim version now expressed worldwide, and the latter in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
I can’t see how a documentary like “Obsession” can fail to address the Israel-Palestine axis of the problem without appearing one-sided.

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