"Just like Hitler fought the Jews, we too should fight and burn them".

[Womble]

The following is an excerpt from a symposium of students at Universite Libanaise, hosted by Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV and broadcast on November 29, 2005. The symposium marked the anniversary of November 29, 1947, the day the U.N. General Assembly passed the Partition Plan, which is marked annually in the Arab world with ceremonies of solidarity with the Palestinians. Al-Manar's TV symposium was devoted to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and participants included Shafiq Al-Hut, a former PLO representative in Lebanon, and Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian students.

It should be noted that Universite Libanaise is Lebanon's only government-run university, and the country's largest.

Mediator: "The Arab regimes have all accepted the establishing of a Palestinian state on the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In other words, the 1967 borders only. They believe that the reality and the balance of power do not allow more than that at this stage. Do you support this 'realism,' or do you adhere to what has come to be known as the historical, original Palestine? Let us... Let us... Go ahead."

Student 1: "My name is Hisham Sham'as, and I study political science. I just want to say everyone is talking about..."

Mediator: "Please address the question."

Hisham Sham'as: "The state shouldn't be only within the 1976 borders... Or rather, 1967... Israel must be wiped out."

Mediator: "You mean, reviving the motto of erasing Israel from the map."

Hisham Sham'as: "Israel should be completely wiped out, so the Palestinians will have a country to return to."

Mediator: "If someone tells you this motto is unrealistic, how would you respond?"

Hisham Sham'as: "There is no such thing as unrealistic. Just as Israel... Just like Hitler fought the Jews - We are a great Islamic nation of Jihad, and we too should fight the Jews and burn them."

The spirit of their beloved leader is alive and well, it seems.

[wideman]

DEAR WOMBLE DO YOU KNOW WHO IS MEMRI???

BRIAN WHITAKER FROM THE GUARDIAN

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag...hitakerVID.gif


Selective Memri

Brian Whitaker investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems

For some time now, I have been receiving small gifts from a generous institute in the United States. The gifts are high-quality translations of articles from Arabic newspapers which the institute sends to me by email every few days, entirely free-of-charge.
The emails also go to politicians and academics, as well as to lots of other journalists. The stories they contain are usually interesting.

Whenever I get an email from the institute, several of my Guardian colleagues receive one too and regularly forward their copies to me - sometimes with a note suggesting that I might like to check out the story and write about it.
If the note happens to come from a more senior colleague, I'm left feeling that I really ought to write about it. One example last week was a couple of paragraphs translated by the institute, in which a former doctor in the Iraqi army claimed that Saddam Hussein had personally given orders to amputate the ears of military deserters.

The organisation that makes these translations and sends them out is the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), based in Washington but with recently-opened offices in London, Berlin and Jerusalem.

Its work is subsidised by US taxpayers because as an "independent, non-partisan, non-profit" organisation, it has tax-deductible status under American law.
Memri's purpose, according to its website, is to bridge the language gap between the west - where few speak Arabic - and the Middle East, by "providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media".

Despite these high-minded statements, several things make me uneasy whenever I'm asked to look at a story circulated by Memri. First of all, it's a rather mysterious organisation. Its website does not give the names of any people to contact, not even an office address.

The reason for this secrecy, according to a former employee, is that "they don't want suicide bombers walking through the door on Monday morning" (Washington Times, June 20).

This strikes me as a somewhat over-the-top precaution for an institute that simply wants to break down east-west language barriers.

The second thing that makes me uneasy is that the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone in this unease.

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Times: "Memri's intent is to find the worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as widely as possible."

Memri might, of course, argue that it is seeking to encourage moderation by highlighting the blatant examples of intolerance and extremism. But if so, one would expect it - for the sake of non-partisanship - t o publicise extremist articles in the Hebrew media too.

Although Memri claims that it does provide translations from Hebrew media, I can't recall receiving any.
Evidence from Memri's website also casts doubt on its non-partisan status. Besides supporting liberal democracy, civil society, and the free market, the institute also emphasises "the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel".

That is what its website used to say, but the words about Zionism have now been deleted. The original page, however, can still be found in internet archives.

The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

Retrieving another now-deleted page from the archives of Memri's website also throws up a list of its staff. Of the six people named, three - including Col Carmon - are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence.

Among the other three, one served in the Israeli army's Northern Command Ordnance Corps, one has an academic background, and the sixth is a former stand-up comedian.
Col Carmon's co-founder at Memri is Meyrav Wurmser, who is also director of the centre for Middle East policy at the Indianapolis-based Hudson Institute, which bills itself as "America's premier source of applied research on enduring policy challenges".

The ubiquitous Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's defence policy board, recently joined Hudson's board of trustees.

Ms Wurmser is the author of an academic paper entitled Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism? in which she argues that leftwing Israeli intellectuals pose "more than a passing threat" to the state of Israel, undermining its soul and reducing its will for self-defence.

In addition, Ms Wurmser is a highly qualified, internationally recognised, inspiring and knowledgeable speaker on the Middle East whose presence would make any "event, radio or television show a unique one" - according to Benador Associates, a public relations company which touts her services.

Nobody, so far as I know, disputes the general accuracy of Memri's translations but there are other reasons to be concerned about its output.

The email it circulated last week about Saddam Hussein ordering people's ears to be cut off was an extract from a longer article in the pan-Arab newspaper, al-Hayat, by Adil Awadh who claimed to have first-hand knowledge of it.

It was the sort of tale about Iraqi brutality that newspapers would happily reprint without checking, especially in the current atmosphere of war fever. It may well be true, but it needs to be treated with a little circumspection.

Mr Awadh is not exactly an independent figure. He is, or at least was, a member of the Iraqi National Accord, an exiled Iraqi opposition group backed by the US - and neither al-Hayat nor Memri mentioned this.

Also, Mr Awadh's allegation first came to light some four years ago, when he had a strong personal reason for making it. According to a Washington Post report in 1998, the amputation claim formed part of his application for political asylum in the United States.

At the time, he was one of six Iraqis under arrest in the US as suspected terrorists or Iraqi intelligence agents, and he was trying to show that the Americans had made a mistake.

Earlier this year, Memri scored two significant propaganda successes against Saudi Arabia. The first was its translation of an article from al-Riyadh newspaper in which a columnist wrote that Jews use the blood of Christian or Muslim children in pastries for the Purim religious festival.

The writer, a university teacher, was apparently relying on an anti-semitic myth that dates back to the middle ages. What this demonstrated, more than anything, was the ignorance of many Arabs - even those highly educated - about Judaism and Israel, and their readiness to believe such ridiculous stories.

But Memri claimed al-Riyadh was a Saudi "government newspaper" - in fact it's privately owned - implying that the article had some form of official approval.

Al-Riyadh's editor said he had not seen the article before publication because he had been abroad. He apologised without hesitation and sacked his columnist, but by then the damage had been done.

Memri's next success came a month later when Saudi Arabia's ambassador to London wrote a poem entitled The Martyrs - about a young woman suicide bomber - which was published in al-Hayat newspaper.

Memri sent out translated extracts from the poem, which it described as "praising suicide bombers". Whether that was the poem's real message is a matter of interpretation. It could, perhaps more plausibly, be read as condemning the political ineffectiveness of Arab leaders, but Memri's interpretation was reported, almost without question, by the western media.

These incidents involving Saudi Arabia should not be viewed in isolation. They are part of building a case against the kingdom and persuading the United States to treat it as an enemy, rather than an ally.

It's a campaign that the Israeli government and American neo-conservatives have been pushing since early this year - one aspect of which was the bizarre anti-Saudi briefing at the Pentagon, hosted last month by Richard Perle.

To anyone who reads Arabic newspapers regularly, it should be obvious that the items highlighted by Memri are those that suit its agenda and are not representative of the newspapers' content as a whole.
The danger is that many of the senators, congressmen and "opinion formers" who don't read Arabic but receive Memri's emails may get the idea that these extreme examples are not only truly representative but also reflect the policies of Arab governments.

[wideman]

Memri's Col Carmon seems eager to encourage them in that belief. In Washington last April, in testimony to the House committee on international relations, he portrayed the Arab media as part of a wide-scale system of government-sponsored indoctrination.

"The controlled media of the Arab governments conveys hatred of the west, and in particular, of the United States," he said. "Prior to September 11, one could frequently find articles which openly supported, or even called for, terrorist attacks against the United States ...

"The United States is sometimes compared to Nazi Germany, President Bush to Hitler, Guantanamo to Auschwitz," he said.

In the case of the al-Jazeera satellite channel, he added, "the overwhelming majority of guests and callers are typically anti-American and anti-semitic".

Unfortunately, it is on the basis of such sweeping generalisations that much of American foreign policy is built these days.

As far as relations between the west and the Arab world are concerned, language is a barrier that perpetuates ignorance and can easily foster misunderstanding.

All it takes is a small but active group of Israelis to exploit that barrier for their own ends and start changing western perceptions of Arabs for the worse.

It is not difficult to see what Arabs might do to counter that. A group of Arab media companies could get together and publish translations of articles that more accurately reflect the content of their newspapers.

It would certainly not be beyond their means. But, as usual, they may prefer to sit back and grumble about the machinations of Israeli intelligence veterans.

[Reffo]

DEAR WOMBLE DO YOU KNOW WHO IS MEMRI???

BRIAN WHITAKER FROM THE GUARDIAN

Dear Wideman Do You Know Who Is The Guardian???

They Are Biased, Pro Arab, Anti American And Anti Israel .....consistently. They Are Just Doctronaire Idialogues With Their Own Agenda.

[Mira]

wideman,

The fact that some of the people at memri are former Israeli intel officers doesn't mean that the translation is bad. Can you dispute the translation with another source?

[MGB8]

Its funny, all the attacks on MEMRI have never, ever been able to show a faulty translation. So much sound and fury, signifying nothing (expect for the attacker's Jew Hatred).

ps - most recent Guardian deception - they talked about Jerusalem annexed in 67 and how "the 200,000 Pal Arabs don't have the same rights as others" - COMPLETELY IGNORING the fact that Israel offered (offers) all the Pal Arab J'lem residents citizenship. LYING ANTI-SEMITE SCUM - that is what the guardian is. I don't know how they can call themselves journalists, as opposed to merely propagandists, with a straight face? Actually, that's easy - they lie with no consience.

[MGB8]

Wideman... does he equal Michael? Hmmm... we shall see.

[Womble]

DEAR WOMBLE DO YOU KNOW WHO IS MEMRI???

I know, don't worry. I also know that the video of the symposium I'm talking about is right there on the MEMRI website, and I have Arabic speaking acquantances who can verify the translation for me.

I am well familiar with Whitaker's article, and with MEMRI's rebuttal to it. And I find MEMRI very trustworthy.

[Cato]

1. Bring me an innacurately translated Arab media, or news article if Memri is so biased, you stupid anti-semite.

2. If memri were just the hand of Israel why is it that memri documents Turkish anti-semitism? It is in Israel's best interest to make Turks happy right now.

3. What is relevant is the quality of memri's translations, and as a fluent Arabic Speaker I garuntee you that every translation from memri has been totally accurate.

4. Why is it the only thing anti-semites can come up with is that memri was founded by Israeli jews in order to trash it?

5. Show me the mistranslated article, and the Arabic original, oh thats right there are none because memri is an organization of great integrity that translates articles fairly and above all else accurately.

6. http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/med...h_Guardian.asp

Tha Gaurdian is not a good source for anything Middle Eastern. It even attacked Israel for having the audacity to appoint a Phoenician (Most people consider them to be Arabs) to the Supreme Court, accussing Israel of appointing him to play politics.

[tzanchan]

as a fluent Arabic Speaker I garuntee you that every translation from memri has been totally accurate.

Unrelated to the thread, but are you a native arabic speaker or did you learn as a student?

[Cato]

Unrelated to the thread, but are you a native arabic speaker or did you learn as a student?

I'm multilingual.

[tzanchan]

I'm multilingual.

I was curious how long it took for you to learn arabic, and where you learned. I currently am studying.

[Cato]

I was curious how long it took for you to learn arabic, and where you learned. I currently am studying.

I learned it at home, since my family is very diverse in terms of who is in it. I can't say how long it took me though, since I learned it as a child.

[tzanchan]

I learned it at home, since my family is very diverse in terms of who is in it. I can't say how long it took me though, since I learned it as a child.

you understand both fusha and colloquilal?

[wideman]

Memri's purpose, according to its website, is to bridge the language gap between the west - where few speak Arabic - and the Middle East, by "providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media".

Despite these high-minded statements, several things make me uneasy whenever I'm asked to look at a story circulated by Memri. First of all, it's a rather mysterious organisation. Its website does not give the names of any people to contact, not even an office address.

The reason for this secrecy, according to a former employee, is that "they don't want suicide bombers walking through the door on Monday morning" (Washington Times, June 20).

This strikes me as a somewhat over-the-top precaution for an institute that simply wants to break down east-west language barriers.

The second thing that makes me uneasy is that the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone in this unease.

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Washington Times: "Memri's intent is to find the worst possible quotes from the Muslim world and disseminate them as widely as possible." [/B]