[SJackson]

Jerusalem: Bitterly divided

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Balancing the Divide: LA Times' Jerusalem Feature

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem, the Los Angeles Times' features an online multimedia three-part series on the holy city and its many divisions. By and large, it is balanced.

The first article "A Holy City Still Divided," contains several important facts about Jerusalem often neglected by the mainstream media. For instance:

Heavy immigration had made Jews a majority in the city decades [before 1948], and by 1948 they accounted for 60% of its population.

Frequently the media diminishes the importance of the Temple Mount in Judaism by wrongly stating the Western Wall is the holiest site in Judaism. LA Times reporters Ken Ellingwood and Richard Boudreaux get it right:

Once again [after the war Israelis] had access to the holiest Jewish site: the plateau that Jews revere as the Temple Mount, which abuts the Western Wall and lies atop the ruins of the ancient Jewish temples.

And, unlike the New York Times, the LA Times makes clear that Palestinians building in eastern Jerusalem is on a massive scale, both legal and illegal.

It also allows the Jerusalem mayor to comment on the issue of disparity in infrastructure between eastern and western parts of the city:

[Mayor Uri Lupolianski] said East Jerusalem lagged because it was not developed under Jordanian rule, then grew so fast that Israeli officials couldn't keep up.

"The problem between East and West is a give," Lupolianski said. "We have to remember that we did not invent this situation. In 1967, a large part of East Jerusalem didn't have infrastructure such as running water and electricity."

Again, unlike the New York Times, the LA Times states clearly that east Jerusalem Arabs are entitled to receive Israeli citizenship:

Israel offered citizenship to Palestinians in East Jerusalem after the war, but few accepted.

The video for part 2 is also balanced, spelling out the inconveniences and difficulties for Arabs in eastern Jerusalem and the surrounding area due to the construction of Israel's security barrier, as well as discussing the context of Palestinian terror attacks against Jerusalem citizens and pointing to the dramatic reduction in these attacks thanks to the barrier.

The barrier proves to be an incovenience for many Arabs and a literal lifesaver for Israelis

In an interesting bonus, the LA Times provides pdf's of the front pages of the June 5-11, 1967 editions.

But there the multi-part feature has problems, too.

Most glaringly, no mention is made about the city under Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967, when the longstanding Jewish population was entirely expelled and synagogues and tombs were systematically destroyed and desecrated.

Also, at least twice in the videos, the reporters allow false Arab claims to go unchallenged. First, in "One City, Two Worlds," Wadi Joz neighborhood activist Moaz Zatari parrots the false canard:

It's impossible to get permission and if you build without permission, they'll fine you 300,000, 400,000 shekels and they'll destroy it anyway.

Similarly, in the video "Building Divisions," an Arab resident justifies his community's hostile rejection of their isolated Jewish neighbors by asking rhetorically:

If I go and buy a house on the Israeli side you think they will let me live there?

The answer is yes, although Ellingwood and Boudreaux don't say so there. They do report, however, in the article for part 2 that:

Rents [in eastern Jerusalem] have shot up, prompting some families to move into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.

The last section of the series will be published tomorrow. Stay tuned.

[NRA1995]

those were the days when such men as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Morrow were the role models.Gotta learn your role models, dearie....Edward R. MURROW

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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[an amused spectator]

Media Schadenfreude ping.

Arlene Peck takes no prisoners @ the LA-LA-Times!

[geezerwheezer]

I do not understand the MSM’s bias towards Israel. Seems as though no matter what happens over there, if it is something awful, it’s because Israel did something wrong! This must be stopped, and stopped soon. I say that we should just turn the Israelis loose over there and help them clean up the Muslim’s radical factions as soon as possible, before it totally consumes us, as well as Israel!Like the TV ad says, "You can pay me now, or pay me later."

[RKV]

Apparently Ms. Peck didn’t want to “get it.” For those of us who have been paying attention, the LAT has been a terrible paper for quite some time. Myself, I attended an event which was grossly misreported on the front page of the LAT, thirty years ago. I stopped trusting it then, because of the evidence of my own eyes.

Why does Ms. Peck wake up now and why does she chime in on this subject? Because they make a mistake about Israel and the Palestinians? I see a double standard here. Its the same old leftist bs. This person really needs to get a dose of reality. It isn’t just reporting on Israel that the LAT screws up.

[weegee]

Of course, those were the days when such men as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Morrow were the role models.

They subscribed to a policy of "Fake But Accurate" too. This is nothing new. Exposure of TRUTH is new.

[kellynla]

BTTT

[George W. Bush]

They understand death and destruction, and they want a martyr's death. I'm all for giving it to them.

Me too.

Expel the Palis. Bulldoze their homes and properties, sell the land and rebuild settlements.

Forget halfway measures and "peace". They don't want that. It's Israel or the Palis. Face it, deal with it.

[LantzALot]

This is the same paper that doesn't write about how the open borders with Mexico have turned California into Mexifornia and our cities into places resembling Third World countries.

This is also the same paper that (last I heard) owns a controlling interest in the region's Spanish language newspaper, La Opinion.

[LantzALot]

When the Los Angeles Times calls to try to get me to subscribe, I give them the old Ted Bentzen line:

I know newspapers. I worked for newspapers. And believe me, The Los Angeles Times is not a newspaper.

[SuziQ]

The LA reporters might want to pay more attention to the promise that once the Muslims are finished with the Saturday people, they will implement their plans for the Sunday people.

I'm guessing that since many of the LA Times folks are neither Saturday NOR Sunday people, they think the Muslims will leave them alone. Fatal mistake.

[Popocatapetl]

Anyone with illusions that “journalists”, that is, reporters, were and are anything more than whiskey soaked, ink stained wretches, should read the writings of perhaps America’s greatest ever reporter, H.L. Mencken.

And though giving them college degrees in journalism, and employing them in the corporate “info-tainment” oligopoly, might on the surface seem to elevate them, at least to the level of reality show scriptwriters or car wash employees, in truth, it has made them even worse.

Because now they are of a single mind that there is, and can be, no better way of generating what passes for news to the public. Their “journalism” teachers told them so.

In truth, we are in an extended stagnant period of “journalism”, which will only end when someone creates a newspaper without the institutional alzheimers that afflicts them today. It will need a publisher who just publishes, an editor with no experience in newspaper editing, and reporters with no credentials, only an ability to write, and a willingness to seek out and find news stories themselves.

It will use no wire service news. Most likely, its international and national news will come from original Internet sources, and will be bylined as such.

And even its writing style will be abbreviated to just the critical facts and minimal puffery. It will also be heavy with local news.

But to tell this to a reporter today, and he will choke on his free sports bar hot wings. He will become outraged, say that it cannot, that it must not, be done, that it is sacrilege, profane and probably illegal.

Which is why he will soon be out of a job. He and his peers just got too big for their britches.

[gcruse]

From the site—

“Arlene Peck, an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess (W0W! It’s Arlene Peck)”

Heh, that’s what happens when you get to name your own show.