Countering the Crawford Combobulation--'Showdown' at the Crawford Corral?

Arutz Sheva ^ | 4-14-05

[SJackson]

The level of logic that President George Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed at their Crawford meeting is tantamount to declaring a commitment to combating obesity by setting up chocolate factories on every corner and giving free chocolates to anyone who says they are committed to loosing weight. And if they don't commit, well, give it to them anyway, to appease the United Nations of Weightwatchers.

In their recent email exposing the dishonest reporting about the Crawford meeting, Honestreporting.com [posted below] enumerated what actually was discussed and agreed upon in Crawford. The points are self-contradictory to the core.

Point one: The United States is committed to Israel's security. Point five: The United States supports a Palestinian State.

The Palestinian Charter declares the goal of obliterating Israel, so how can you support a secure Israel with a Palestinian State? It's like committing to the health of a person while implanting a deadly disease in their chest.

Point eight: Israel should remove unauthorized outposts and meet its Road Map obligations regarding settlements in the West Bank. Point seven: Need for an immediate, strong and sustained effort to combat terrorism in all its forms.

So-called unauthorized outposts, together with the settlements are the best way to counter terror. They get in the way of terrorists. One lone caravan on the outskirts of settlement is much better security than a security fence. The terrorists come right up the fence, and military experts agree that the fence gives a total of one extra minute for defense purposes. Sometimes, a minute is important, but a much better alternative is an outpost. The terrorists know they cannot come right up to the settlement; in fact, they are risking their lives if they approach the outpost.

The army simply can't be everywhere. So, residents are needed. Plus, there is an advantage of the soldiers guarding communities - where they can have personal interaction and are treated warmly, with appreciation - rather than guarding unoccupied land and buildings. Case in point, there was no community at the Tomb of Joseph (Kever Yosef), which was abandoned by the army under fire.

Terrorists should not be encouraged by success. The answer to each bullet fired should be another community in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and to each bomb, a new settlement. Let the terrorists get some negative feedback for a change, as an additional weapon in the war against terror. To combat terror, we need more settlements, not less.

There is one concretely accurate point on the list. It is a quote from President Bush: "Sharon is showing visionary leadership.... I strongly support his courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank." Yes, Sharon is showing visionary leadership. If you don't believe me, look at the synonyms I found for visionary on thesaurus.com: abstracted, ambitious, astral, chimerical, daydreaming, delusory, fanciful, fantastic, grandiose, illusory, imaginary, impractical, introspective, otherworldly, pretentious, quixotic, radical, romantic, speculative, starry-eyed, unreal, unrealistic, unworkable, unworldly.

For those of you, like me, who are unfamiliar with the word "chimerical", I looked it up at dictionary.com. It's a great word. Too bad it applies to the prime minister. The definition is, "Created by a wildly fanciful imagination." And the definition of another word I was unfamiliar with, "quixotic": "Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality." Heaven help us!

Which brings me to my next point. Heaven help us.

The word for peace, Shalom, also means completeness, without division. If we want HaShem to grant us Shlaimut HaAretz, our land in its entirety in peace, we should act with Shlaimut HaAm, a nation that is without division, and Shlaimut HaTorah, observing the complete Torah.

Last summer, in an act of achdut (unity), the grand human chain linked Gush Katif with Jerusalem, by the joining together of Jews with different backgrounds, assorted attire and diverse opinions. To show achdut from abroad, Blumah Wineberg, Chabad shlucha in Kansas City, and I contacted dozens of summer camps and arranged to have them form chains on the date of the chain in Eretz Yisrael. While in formation, the children said p'sukim, phrases, from Torah and tefilah, prayers, and passed around charity boxes with coins for all to put in.

This was our way of showing HaShem that we have Shlaimut HaAm and Shlaimut HaTorah. But why children and not adults? The answer is in a letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, dated the 15th of Tammuz, 5733 (1973). Please note, the deportation is scheduled for the time frame of Bein HaMetzarim (a mournful period associated with the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. - ed.):

"I particularly wish to broaden your understanding of a particular point relating to the rapidly approaching time period of Bein HaMetzarim, the three-week period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av. While you are surely aware of the history and the theme of these days, I wish to emphasize the following point:

"Concentrate and focus on the unique merit that Jewish children possess in their ability to positively affect the entire Jewish people, in keeping with King David's statement: 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have established strength, to vanquish Your enemies, to silence foe and avenger.' (Tehillim 8:3)"

It is time to mobilize the children once again. Blumah and I, and a group of concerned women, are using email, mail, internet, networking and even phones and faxes, to reach individuals, families and communities worldwide, to encourage assembling of children on Wednesday of Chol HaMoed Pesach, to participate in Torah, tefilah and tzedakah, charity. All three represent Shlaimut HaTorah. Wednesday is the 18th of the month of Nissan, or as we say, Chai Nissan. Chai means "life", Nissan means miracle. And we need a live miracle! It is also a special day on the Lubavitch calendar - it is the birthday of Reb Levik, the Rebbe's father.

One child saying p'sukim and giving tzedakah may not attract the attention of the media, but it will attract the attention of the G-d of Israel. The more places where children gather in groups of two to two million, the stronger will be the voices of children, our strength "to vanquish Your enemies." These rallies can be done around the kitchen table, in the park or on the swing set. Better yet, they could be a gathering of neighbors, and even better would be a community gathering. The outer trappings will vary, but the results will be the same.

At the children's rallies held by the Rebbe, the children themselves would lead the saying of p'sukim. Each phrase was said by a different child or group of children.

We have prepared a booklet of p'sukim and a story about Pesach to send to anyone who would like our assistance. If you would like the materials, we can be reached at aliza@chabadnorth.com. The Pesach nosh will have to be provided locally; sorry we can't help with that.

Please send pictures of your own event to the above email address so that we can assemble them and present them to the people of the threatened communities. The children will feel especially encouraged by knowing that children around the world are thinking of them and doing what they can to help.

The biggest obstacle to making theses rallies is the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. Right now, mine is telling me that since I am doing the organizing and mailing and writing this article, that I personally am exempt from making a rally. Should I listen to my yetzer hara? Are you going to listen to yours?

'Showdown' at the Crawford Corral?

In coverage of a key Bush-Sharon meeting, media outlets manufacture a controversy that simply didn't exist.

On Monday (April 11), Israeli Prime Minister Sharon met President Bush at Bush's Crawford Ranch in Texas.

News coverage of this important meeting was remarkable for the disparity between the actual content of the meeting, and how the media represented it. Though Bush and Sharon largely conveyed mutual support and understanding, the media described a supposed 'Texas showdown' over the Israeli community of Maale Adumim, just to the east of Jerusalem, which the Israeli government has recently spoken of expanding.

PRE-MEETING COVERAGE

The day began with media outlets predicting the leaders would clash over settlements at Crawford. Take, for example, this CNN headline:

The LA Times also built up the 'tension' and 'discord' in its pre-meeting headline:

THE MEETING ITSELF

At the actual press conference, President Bush emphasized the following points, in this order (see transcript here):

1) Israeli security: 'The United States is committed to Israel's security.. (under) secure and defensible borders.' 2) Economics: 'We discussed ways to expand cooperation of our economies.'

3) Gaza Plan: 'Sharon is showing visionary leadership... I strongly support his courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank.'

4) Growth of Democracy: 'the important and encouraging changes taking place in the region, including a Palestinian election.'

5) U.S. support of Palestinian state

6) Joint commitment to road map

7) Need for 'an immediate, strong and sustained effort to combat terrorism in all its forms'

8) Settlements: 'Israel should remove unauthorized outposts and meet its road map obligations regarding settlements in the West Bank... (but) As I said last April, new realities on the ground make it unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.

Note that settlements were the last of eight items addressed by Bush, qualified by Bush's reiteration that Israel's return to the Green Line is 'unrealistic'. Then, despite reporters' efforts to foist the Maale Adumim issue onto the agenda during the question-and-answer session, Bush repeatedly emphasized that the real test right now is in Gaza. Said Bush, 'To me, that's where the attention of the world ought to be, in Gaza.'

COVERAGE OF THE MEETING

But media coverage of the meeting completely distorted its actual content. Most media outlets clung to their own speculation that conflict over settlements would characterize the meeting. For example:

CNN: The first six paragraphs from CNN's report addressed Israeli settlements, and featured this headline:

MSNBC put this headline on an AP report:

The AP review describes Bush 'prod(ding) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday to abandon plans to expand a key Jewish settlement in the West Bank.' Where exactly, if one reviews the transcript, was Bush's 'prodding' on Maale Adumim?

Reuters' report editorialized that 'the two leaders failed to reach a consensus on the issue (settlements) that is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict', and trumpeted this headline:

Nowhere in Bush's comments ¯ before, during or after the Crawford meeting ¯ did he ever 'caution' Sharon, explicitly or implicitly. On what basis does Reuters promote such fiction in its headline?

So while the real focus of yesterday's meeting was an unprecedented, imminent and painful uprooting of 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza ¯ which the U.S. supports ¯ the media preferred to manufacture some 'tension' and 'dispute' between the two nations over possible building of settlements. As Sharon said to the press afterwards, in a sarcastic tone:

A crisis was not created, what can you do? I know it's difficult to accept that there's no conflict with the U.S.

This was a classic case of the media being more committed to its own agenda than it was to reporting the objective facts.

Did your local media coverage also distort the content of the Bush-Sharon meeting? If so, HonestReporting encourages you to write a letter pointing out the disparity between the documented event itself, and the media's spin.

Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.

HonestReporting

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Links to the articles at Honestreporting.com

[SJackson]

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