Star from Israel TV (State-owned) lobbying for Palestine + Peace Now - on
Jewish Holiday
Monday, 24 October, 2005
Susie Dym, spokesperson - Mattot Arim sddym@bezeqint.net
Mattot Arim - an Israeli grassroots organization working toward
peace-for-peace since 1992
Chaim Yavin, state-owned Israel TV's prime-time news show host, will give a
Peace Now-funded virulently anti-settlement presentation for a Palestinian
lobby group, the ATFP, in Washington DC. The event was scheduled for
Tuesday 25 October - although this date is a Jewish and Israeli national
holiday (Shmini Atzeret abroad - Simchat Torah in Israel).
The ATFP -- American Task Force on Palestine -- is a Palestinian lobby group
endorsed by Abu Mazen and others. Information characterizing this
Palestinian lobby group appears below -- along with a reproduction of the
email sent out by the group to its distribution list regarding Yavin.
The Yavin presentation, which has been shown here in Israel, consists of a
film about the Jews of Yesha. Billed by Yavin as a "documentary", the film
is in fact partisan and one-sided, having been described even by the liberal
New York Times as "angry" and "intensely personal". Israel's Yediot
Achronot, hardly a friend of the settlement movement, described the film as
being crafted to inspire viewers to "get up next Saturday, go to the
settlement nearest to his place of residence, and drag its inhabitants,
kicking and screaming, across the road".
Israel State TV broadcasts news nightly on Channel 1. Yavin has been the
anchor for decades. Yavin's salary comes not from the private sector but
from the budget of the State of Israel - and from a tax levied by the State
on all Israeli television set owners. Therefore, most newsmen working under
and with Yavin are strictly prohibited from publicly promoting
contraversial positions. How then, could Yavin be entitled to do this? We
are informed by Israel's Media Watch (www.imw.org.il) that technically,
Yavin is not an employee of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He has
circumvented this status by establishing a "company" which employs one
person only - himself. He has a contract to supply services to the Israel
Broadcasting Authority in the form of Yavin. The contract between this
company and the Israel Broadcasting Authority is such as to allow Yavin to
work for anyone he wants to -- whereas all other IBA workers are
contractually prohibited for working for anyone else without IBA's express
permission.
Minister Ehud Olmert is responsible for Israel State TV. Is there anything
specific that Minister Olmert can do -- since after all the contract between
the Israel Broadcasting Authority and Yavin is a fait accompli? The answer
is YES:
a. Olmert can take official note of the fact that Yavin's behavior,
even if legal, is unprofessional. He can state that Yavin's contract will
not be renewed. He can embarrass Yavin by publicly asking him to resign.
b. A minimalistic alternative to (a) is that Olmert can clarify to
Yavin that if he chooses to continue appearing on behalf of contraversial,
pro-Palestinian concerns, his contract will, as a result, not be renewed.
c. Olmert can close the Yavin loophole by issuing the following
obvious instruction to the IBA's legal advisor: that all contracts with
"companies" like Yavin's must in future include clauses prohibiting Israel
TV stars from taking unfair advantage of the publicity they receive to
promote causes which are objected to by Yavin's captive audience -- the
Israeli taxpayer.
If you would like to encourage Minister Olmert, the Israel Broadcasting
Authority and Israel TV to stop Yavin's unprofessional behavior, please
simply forward this email to the following email addresses (click "forward",
then color all addresses below with your mouse and paste into the "to"
field):
lishka@moital@gov.il; sar@moit@gov.il;
mabat@iba.org.il; dover@iba.org.il;
ombudsmann@iba.org.il;ombudsman@iba.org.il;webmaster@iba.org.il
sshalom@knesset.gov.il;zhanegbi@knesset.gov.il;yiskatz@knesset.gov.il;llivnat@knesset.gov.il;dnaveh@knesset.gov.il;
sar@mfa.gov.il;
sar@moag.gov.il; sar@education.gov.il; sar@matat.gov.il;
The above address groups belong to, respectively, Minister Olmert, the
Israel Broadcasting Authority, and several possibly sympathetic Likud
ministers.
Below, please find:
* Facts about the Palestinian lobby group (ATFP) which Yavin has chosen to
work with (Appendix A);
* The email sent out by ATFP regarding Yavin's presentation (Appendix B)
APPENDIX A: Facts about the "American Task Force on Palestine" lobby group
http://americantaskforce.org
* Israel blamed for 9-11: The American Task Force on Palestine lobbies
against Israeli "conquests", a euphemism for Israeli presence beyond the
1967 cease-firelines, going so far as to blame this presence for the 9/11
terror attack at the World Trade Center ("The ill will directed at the
United States by its perceived support for Israeli conquests ... has created
serious security risks for our country, as demonstrated so horrifically on
9-11."
* Israel is not on the map: Israel is not marked on at least one map
appearing in the ATFP website (in contrast, so-called "Palestine", which is
not a state, is marked); instead, Israel's entire land area is shaded brown
on the map to indicate that Israel's land area is considered part of the
Arab World (in contrast, Western Sahara, for example, is not shaded brown
in the same map).
* Violence OK while Israel remains east of Green Line: The ATFP's
understanding of the Roadmap's "central feature" is "a simple quid pro quo:
an end to Palestinian violence against Israelis in exchange for an end to
Israeli settlement of Palestinian lands."
* Veiled threats re renewed Arab boycott: "The Arab world: 2.2 Arab
countries, 300 million people, $1.2 trillion. Palestinian statehood will ...
open the door to a trillion dollar market. ", the ATFP website promises. The
flip side of this glowing conditional statement, however, is that failure to
set up a Palestinian state might cause the United States to forfeit that
trillion dollar market - a subtle ATFP threat that the Arab boycott might
just return.
* Fatal bus attacks by suicide bombers downgraded (compared to accidental
deaths in combat areas):
One day after a double suicide bombing in Beer-Sheva left 16 dead Israeli
civilians including 10 women and a three year old child, the ATFP had this
to say: "[Y]esterday's bombings .... along with the deaths of hundreds of
Palestinian civilians over the course of the past several months... stand in
the way of peaceful coexistence between the two peoples".
* Lack of credibility?? The ATFP does not give a source for the above claim
that "hundreds of Palestinian civilians" were killed within a few months. We
fact-checked and found that even the extreme left affiliated B'tselem
organization puts the total number of Palestinians killed by the IDF in the
months preceding the ATFP statement, including combatants, at a few hundred.
B'tselem's website makes no claim whatever that this number includes
substantial numbers of civilians (as opposed to combatants), as implied by
the vague ATFP statement.
**** The ATFP has six "principles". These principles or positions, plainly
put, include:
* Another terror state endangering Israel's population centers:
Establishment, with no pre-conditions, of yet another Arab state, bordering
with Israel on the old, dangerous 1967 cease-fire lines, situated just
opposite Israel's narrow waistline where most of Israel's population
resides. The ATFP's position favoring (unconditional) establishment of a
Palestinian state is NOT in accordance with the official positions of the
Government of Israel. The Israeli Government has never agreed to the
unconditional establishment of a Palestinian state. The opposite is the
case: The GOI (Gov't of Israel) agreed to accept establishment of another
Palestinian state, only conditional on 14 preconditions, chief among them
the full and complete cessation of Palestinian terrorism. The huge fleet of
bulletproof buses serving Israeli schoolchildren and other citizens daily,
is mute evidence to the vast distance between this precondition and Middle
East reality.
* No Jewish minority tolerated in Palestine: Forced deportation (euphemism:
"evacuation") of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Jews resident in
Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. At the same time, it goes without saying
that a sizeable Arab minority is entitled to continue residing in Israel.
* Independent of demand for Palestinian statehood -- continued pestering of
Israel re "Palestinian refugee problem": Over and above the demand for a
new Palestinian State in Principle 1, Principle 3 contains a separate demand
regarding the Palestinian refugees, whose situation is to be changed "in
accordance with "international legality and the relevant UN resolutions" --
forums in which Israeli vital interests are automatically discounted.
APPENDIX B: Text of email sent out by ATFP regarding Yavin's presentation
The American Task Force on Palestine invites you to a luncheon
briefing with 'The Land of the Settlers' documentary star and
director Chaim Yavin, to be held at the Palestine Center in
Washington, DC. Mr. Yavin is a founder of Israeli television and
the anchor of Israeli TV 's Channel 1 broadcast since 1968.
'The Land of the Settlers' is an explosive Israeli documentary
series that deals with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and
their impact on Palestinians and Israelis alike. Mr. Yavin will
begin his briefing with a screening of 30 minutes of excerpts from
the 5-part documentary series. The series is a personal production
in which Mr. Yavin visited the occupied territories over a period
of two years as a private individual. His critics cross the entire
spectrum of Israeli politics, from those who say he abandoned his
objectivity, to others who complain that he kept silent for too
long.
Mr. Yavin's DC appearance is part of a speaking tour
encompassing Washington, New York, and Chicago and is sponsored
by Americans For Peace Now. The tour is made possible through a
generous contribution from the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
The Washington portion of his tour is being co-sponsored by the
American Task Force on Palestine.
When:
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Where:
The Palestine Center
Potomac Plaza Building, 2425 Virginia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Registration required.
RSVP by 3:00 p.m. Monday, October 24.
Call 202-887-0177 or email rdajani@atfp.net
News Media on 'The Land of the Settlers':
" A documentary about Israel's settlements in the
West Bank that is pessimistic, angry and intensely personal."
New York Times
"The breath becomes short, the heart is choked with
anger.After watching 'The Land of the Settlers,' every caring
Israeli, every humane Israeli, should get up next Saturday, go to
the settlement nearest to his place of residence, and drag its
inhabitants, kicking and screaming, across the road to the side of
sanity." Yedioth Ahronoth
"As a journalistic television product, what can one say about
Yavin's personal journey between roadblocks, in front of the
soldiers who are hardhearted because those are the
orders, next to the chilling Daniela Weiss and in the living room
of the denizens of the settlement outposts, who are so friendly
(until reminded that there are, even fairly close to us, such
beings called 'Palestinians.')?" Ma'ariv
--------------------------------------------------------------
The ATFP is a not-for-profit organization that aims to educate the
American people about the national security interests of the United
States in establishing a Palestinian state. Specifically, ATFP seeks to
promote the awareness of the far-reaching benefits that Palestinian
statehood will have for the United States in the following areas: (1)
enhancing national security, (2) proliferation of American values of
freedom and democracy, and (3) expansion of economic opportunities
throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds.
American Task Force on Palestine
815 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
www.americantaskforce.org
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