"In France, a court is deciding whether a government TV channel, France2, showed faked footage of the supposed death of a Palestinian boy, Mohammed al-Durah, during the second intifada in 2000, to make it look like he was killed by Israeli soldiers.
When the judge ordered France2 to turn over all of its footage of the incident, it also showed the boy moving his arms and peering through his fingers after he was supposed to be dead. But Muslim rage at the original France2 news story led to countless reprisals against Jews around the world. It was even mentioned by terrorists as a reason for the beheading Daniel Pearl.
Scott Jacobs, Editor at DemocracyBroadcastingNews.com, says the France2 story "globally defames the Jewish nation, Israel, with a fabricated icon of hypocritical brutality and immorality; and criminalizes Jews and their State to justify pariah / punishment."
Full article and/or video from ABC Family Channel's "The 700 Club" here.
Full article and/or video from ABC Family Channel's "The 700 Club" here.
Prof. Richard Landes, chronicler of the Al Dura Affaire via The Second Draft, is the academic authority on the problem and the ramifications:
"Israelis repeatedly express astonishment at why Jews from the diaspora care about setting this record straight when they just wish it would go away. When they realize how powerful the impact not only on Israel, but on Jews around the world, they express surprise.
As Karsenty later explained to the judges, “The day after al Durah, one of my employees came into the office and challenged me, ‘Look at what your army has done, murdering an innocent child!’” In Brussels, a rabbi was attacked the next day on the way to New Year’s services, never having seen the footage. That’s the core of the blood libel: a Jew deliberately murders an innocent child, and all Jews everywhere are held responsible. Five days later crowds of immigrant Muslims and European leftists would hold a huge banner aloft in Place de la République with a "Star of David = Swastika = picture of the al Durahs behind the barrel," shouting “Death to Israel! Death to the Jews!”
In related news, 'Ron Hogan on Media Bistro writes a review of philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy who appeared at NY's 92nd Street Y. He weighed in on the ways that anti-semitism has reconfigured itself for the 21st century.
"I am a few months younger than Israel," Lévy quipped at the start of his speech, but he cannot remember any moment in his lifetime when the nation seemed "as lonely, as vulnernable, and as threatened" as it is now, particularly as the anti-semitism that he sees at the root of much anti-Zionist rhetoric has become more openly expressed. "The dikes are broken," he warned, citing the UN conference at Durban and the boycotts being mounted against book fairs in Paris and Turin which have chosen to honor Israel's contributions to world literature.
So what can Jews do against this pernicious worldview?
"Respond blast for blast," Lévy urged, and dismantle this new anti-semitic rhetoric before it coalesces into a political movement with real power. (As he noted, the new anti-semites are openly looking to acquire nuclear weapons, and if they get them, they plan to use them.) He also called upon Jews to strengthen their alliances with other persecuted groups, and to work whatever influence they could muster to ensure that moderate Muslims prevail in that religion's internal struggle with fundamentalism. (He even suggested that the Koran might benefit
from the application of Talmudic reading.) And, he noted, "the morale of Israel is at its best," and ready to deal with this threat. "The best defense is attack," he said, citing Clausewitz, "and the best attack is confrontation."
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