Israeli Sources Research Articles

Editar la Palestina

Introduction. The purpose of journalistic style guides is to provide media practitioners with guidance on language to convey a neutral and objective presentation of information. This paper investigates thematic style guides published with a focus on Palestine and analyzes how these style guides construct media bias. Literature Review. In the literature reviewed a structural media bias against Palestinians that favors Israeli narratives is documented in research as an integral part of anglophone mainstream media through the reproduction of Orientalism, Zionist narratives, and anti-Palestinian racism. Methodology. A comparative content analysis was conducted on four thematic style guides, sampling common terms through a grounded theory approach. Results. The results show similarities and differences in the style guides’ definitions, sourcing, and explanations of key terms related to Palestine and its historical, legal, and geographic contexts. Discussion. The style guides notably differ in their content with some perpetuating anti-Palestinian bias in various implicit and explicit ways, such as Nakba denial, questioning Palestinian history, and reproducing Israeli sources and narratives. Conclusions. Our analysis concludes that anti-Palestinian bias and racism are an integral part of some anglophone newsroom policies and practices as implemented in style and editorial guidelines. Thematic style guides on Palestine thus can further perpetuate colonial conquest and anti-indigenous violence.

THE IMPACT OF THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS ON SOVIET MIDDLE EASTERN POLICY. HOW IT LED TO THE SIX-DAY WAR, 1967

The widespread perception of the “Caribbean” crisis as a setback for the Soviet Union overlooks the major achievement that Moscow did score. This was Khrushchev’s success – which, unfortunately for his future in the Soviet leadership, he agreed to the Kennedys’ demand not to publicize – to gain the withdrawal of American Jupiter missiles from Turkey. But within three years, the joint French-Israeli development of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems threatened to plug the gap that had thus been created in the ring of nuclear-armed western pacts that were the subject of perennial Soviet fears. Documents and memoirs that surfaced in the early years after the USSR’s collapse, cross-checked against US and Israeli sources, reveal this motivation for, and the hitherto unknown features of, the Soviets’ response when in late 1965 an authoritative informant confirmed that despite domestic political change and US pressure, Israel was about to cross the nuclear threshold. This added urgency to Moscow’s regional considerations in favor of supporting an Arab attack on Israel, and produced what was in several respects a mirror-image of the Cuban affair. A joint plan was developed with Egypt, to provoke an Israeli first strike that would legitimize Soviet military intervention to “aid the victims of aggression” and ensure Israel’s defeat. The provocations included overflights of Israel’s nuclear facility by advanced Soviet aircraft; the intervention was to include targeting of the facility by Soviet strategic bombers. This plan’s fiasco in the Six-Day War of June 1967 shaped the Middle East as well as Soviet policy there for decades to come, as an indirect but distinct consequence of the Cuban crisis

Cumhuriyet Dönemi Hadis Şerhçiliği: Ömer Fevzi Mardin Örneği

Commentary works are of great importance in the effort to understand and interpret the material of hadith and sunnah. Therefore, throughout history, many scholars used great efforts in terms of correct understanding and commenting of hadiths; and as a result, they concentrated on annotating activities, which have targeted to explain every expression in hadiths. These activities each region continued in the Republic period, too, as did in previous centuries; and some scholars became prominent. One of them is Ömer Fevzi Mardin. Ömer Fevzi, as a member of well-known deep-rooted family with the name of Mardin, and who was born in Mardin in 1878, is the son of Mardinizâde Seyyid Arif Pasha. His mother Zarife Khanım in the daughter of Bedirhan Pasha from Bedirhanoğuls family. And his grandfather, Seyyid Yusuf Sıdkî Mardin is one of the sheiks of Nakshibendî or Kadirî tariqat; he served as a qadi‘asker during the reign of II Abdulhamid. This family, which was known as Mardinîzades, have also been mentioned as ağazades (sons of aga) as a tribute to Ağa Çelebi. Ömer Fevzi, who grew up in such a family that was close to mysticism and denomination and acquainted with state affairs, initially had education in military schools being affected from his family and acted as a soldier for years. Ömer Fevzi, who participated in Arûsi Selâmi denomination in Libya during Tripoli war, became the sheikh and pir of this denomination during the Republic period. His closeness as a military origin person brought together itself that some high rank officers of the Republic period and directors joined this denomination. As is the case, Ömer Fevzi, who was criticized due to several views he adopted and some fatwas that he submitted, was exposed to several allegations and accusations like missionary. Ömer Fevzi, who was quite good at in the fields of military and mysticism, was interested in the sciences of hadith; and he wrote a work named as Hadith Sharifs Classified-Annotated According to Subjects. In this study, based on the work called Hadis-i Şerifler (Hadiths Sharifs), which is one of the examples of hadith commentary literature of the Republican period, the author's interpretation technique and commentary method was revealed; and hadith commentary of the period was investigated through this example. In the study, benefitting from documentation method the works of the author were found out, and the necessary hadith inferences were made while some of the narrations mentioned in the work, which are the subject of this study, were discussed. After the investigation, the following results were attained: In this work, the author, moving from several sources especially Sahih Bukhari, compiled nearly 1635 hadiths and annotated them. One of the important properties that attracts attention in the work is that the author did not make use of classical and contemporary hadith annotations. Therefore, the explanations given place in the work consist of the personal comments and assessments of the author. According to this, the hadiths are particularly commented considering the unity of the Qur’an and Sunna; and within these terms, several methods were followed. That some words that were present in the text of hadith and difficult to be understood were explained and that he tried to make the hadiths to be understood in terms of Holy Book by attributing Israeli sources, Torah, Bible or Zabur and that sebeb-i vurûd (the reason that a hadith was uttered) was pointed and that jurisprudential provisions were deducted from hadiths and that interpretations related to kalam, mysticism and wisdom were given place and that the views of scholars were referred and that sociological, psychological analyses were done are some of them. However, when the general structure of the work is examined, it is seen that mystical and philosophical interpretations are more dominant. This seems to have arisen from the fact that the author is of a religious sect and mysticism origin.

Review of Susanne Rohr, Von Grauen und Glamour: Repräsentationen des Holocaust in den USA und Deutschland

Much has already been written on the Holocaust and its history, but the question of how we can cope with it, how we can live with what we know about it, or how we can imagine what has been called “unimaginable” has been haunting several generations of those who collectively inherited either a history of pain and suffering or a history of collective crime. In view of such moral complexities, Susanne Rohr’s study of representations of the Holocaust in the United States and Germany is a remarkable scholarly achievement. It deals with seventy years of artistic and literary documents—memoirs, autobiographies, fictions, films, graphic novels—written by subsequent generations of artists (survivors, the children and grandchildren of survivors, or the children and grandchildren of the perpetrators)—i.e., texts in at least two languages and in the changing historical contexts of at least two cultures and societies. (In addition to American and German documents Rohr occasionally includes Israeli sources.) She is also aware of the changing theoretical frame surrounding these documents—the problems inherent in the concept of a “generation,” of “collective memory,” of “trauma” and the possibility of its generational transmission; of the postmodern or poststructuralist rejection of even the possibility of representation. The questions raised by this book and its author concern the status of the Holocaust in the memory of those who did not experience it, for whom, therefore, it will always be a mediated event—mediated through historiography, literature, and, increasingly, through genres of popular culture (i.e., by films, TV-shows, comic books and graphic novels).

Extracts from the comparative description of linguistic images in the phraseological systems of Hebrew and Yiddish

This work is devoted to the study of the formation of the Hebrew phraseological system from the perspective of the supposed influence of the phraseological system of Yiddish on it. The choice of this Germanic language among the many Jewish languages as an object of research is explained by the fact that for the overwhelming majority of immigrants to their historical homeland, even Yiddish was the spoken language. On the basis of examples collected from Russian, Israeli, German and Polish sources, the article substantiates the theoretical prerequisites for the possible interaction of phraseological systems of both languages and notes cases of its absence. The study was carried out selectively in several thematic groups, a comparative analysis of which made it possible to establish significant interlingual inconsistencies, caused, in particular, by a change in the phraseological image of Hebrew. It was found that the process of independent development of the Hebrew phraseological system without a significant influence on it of the Yiddish system of stable expressions is naturally conditioned by the change of realities, which contributed to the formation of a new nationally mediated phraseological image. The own forces of the Hebrew language were able to give impetus to the formation of a phraseological system that was not subject to significant external linguistic influences. The article proposes further development of the Hebrew phraseological system, including through closer interaction with the Yiddish language.

The role of MI6 in Egypt’s decision to go to war against Israel in May 1948

ABSTRACT David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the State of Israel, repeatedly accused Britain of provoking the Arab states to invade Israel the day after its establishment in May 1948. To date, historians have not found proof of his accusations in British archives. However, evidence may be found in French archives, especially in Syrian and secret British documents obtained by the French secret services, originating from agents who had infiltrated the Syrian government in Damascus and the British Legation in Beirut. This article, based on French, Syrian, Israeli and British sources, argues that under the Labour government, Arabist MI6 officers in the Middle East, in collaboration with the British High Command in Cairo, pursued an alternative policy to that of the Foreign Office. They provoked Egypt’s King Faruq to go to war against Israel without the knowledge or approval of either Prime Minister Clement Attlee or Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, frequently misinforming and misleading them. This watershed research provides details of the goals and modus operandi of those involved in that clandestine plot.

Organic waste composting and sustainability in low-income communities in Palestine: lessons from a pilot project in the village of Al Jalameh, Jenin

PurposeA pilot composting project was initiated as part of a 200 tons/day solid waste recycling plant with active involvement of several local stakeholders. The project aimed at introducing compost production and use in the village of Al Jalameh, Palestine. This paper describes the successes and lessons from the pilot project.MethodsBased on the data collected on the population, waste production and economic activities, the best production methodology and composting units were designed and piloted. The compost was produced from animal manure, farm waste and organic fraction of domestic solid waste. Approaches to increase profit and sustain the initiative was implemented.ResultsThe facility managed by Al Jalameh Agricultural Cooperative Society, recycles 60% organic fraction of domestic waste reducing the quantity of waste to the landfill. An estimated 1425 m3/year of compost are required for local agriculture while 800 tons/year is produced. With most of their compost coming from Israeli sources, the composting facility is at a competitive advantage. To increase the profit, around 28,125 kg of waste plastic sheets from greenhouses are collected for recycling each year generating a stable income of 5625.00 JOD/year.ConclusionsThe compost produced in the village is purchased by the local farmers increasing access to compost at competitive price. Farmers are economically encouraged by compost production that could solve the organic waste management issue and at the same time guarantee a sort of “self-production” of fertiliser useful for local agriculture. This initiative could be extended to other villages in Jenin and other developing countries where agriculture is their major occupation.

Israeli Media Gatekeeper during Gaza War 2014 Coverage: Case of Study of Yedioth Ahronoth Newspaper

The third Gaza War between Israel and the Palestinian resistance erupted on the 7th of July 2014 and lasted for 51 days leaving behind thousands of victims between deceased and wounded, the majority of whom were Palestinians. The focus of this study is the coverage of the media gatekeeper for 2014 Gaza War; the Hebrew online newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth as a case study. The study is testing Gatekeeping Theory using quantitative methodology and content analysis as data collection technique. The main findings include the use of interesting frame for the presentation of information by Yedioth Ahronoth, the focus of the newspaper is to show the Israeli issues, perspective, and to ignore the Palestinian sources of news and to depend on the Israeli sources instead. This also included the provision of justifications for Israel, portraying it as a victim of war, and ignoring the Palestinian losses. Thus, Yedioth Ahronoth was biased to the Israeli side.

Framing of media coverage of the Palestinian -Israeli conflict in CNN and FoxNews

Use of media, especially television, is an important point in the history of important events and recent wars. This type of media coverage of events and wars transfers the audience to the heart of the event and has a direct impact on public opinion Internationally. For example, much criticism has been directed at the American media regarding coverage of the Israeli aggression on Gaza. Many demonstrations against the two largest networks in the United States, CNN and FOXNEWS, have also taken place in New York City to protest against the biased media coverage of the Palestinians and the Israeli aggression against Gaza.This paper contains various news frameworks used in media coverage of events and its result and impact on different audiences. In conclusion, the study addressing the mentioned conflict declared that the coverage was biased and non- objective, relying heavily on Israeli sources in comparison to Palestinian sources.

Selections from the Press

This section includes articles and news items, mainly from Israeli and Arab press sources but also from international and U.S. outlets, that provide insightful or illuminating perspectives on events, developments, or trends in Israel and the occupied territories.

UNESCO, Palestine and Archaeology in Conflict

On 23 November 2011, Palestine became a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”), and acceded to and ratified a number of UNESCO’s Conventions. Some observers view this membership as decisive, or at least significantly dispositive, in the debate on the international recognition of Palestinian statehood. UNESCO is characterized as a springboard by which Palestine can further recognition of its international sovereignty, which, at the present time, is inexorably stalled. However, this recognition is not without challenge – for example, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has not recognized Palestine’s acceptance of the Court’s jurisdiction. UNESCO has, in turn, descended into a budgetary crisis with the withdrawal of funding from the U.S. and other states, which represent twenty-two percent of its budget. In February 2012, UNESCO responded to this crisis with a plan to “re-engineer” the organization, implicitly confirming that it will not allow any revocation of the Palestinian membership vote, despite a campaign to “un-admit” Palestine. This paper analyzes the legal consequences of Palestine’s membership in UNESCO and its ratification of UNESCO conventions through an examination of the protections afforded by the UNESCO treaty framework governing cultural, amongst other forms of, heritage. This is particularly relevant as Palestine’s application for UNESCO membership took place in the context of what are termed the Palestinian U.N. initiatives, intended to further Palestine’s status and activate its rights as a state in the international legal order. The initiatives manifested in a resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on 29 November 2012 “upgrading” Palestine’s observer status.For more than a century, Palestinian cultural heritage and property has been the subject of capture and destruction by other states. Palestine’s accession to various UNESCO conventions testifies to the effect that no other sovereign controls its cultural heritage and property. Palestinians have habitually asserted internationally-recognized principles as a point of departure in “final status” negotiations on what is termed the “archaeology file,” yet have been unable to maintain complete control of such property. Ahmad A. Rjoob of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities describes Palestinian cultural heritage as “one of the most intensively abused, excavated and subsequently disturbed worldwide,” a result of more than a century of management from different administrations, each with its own methods of research and distinct political purpose. “The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Israeli sources estimate that between 1967 and 1992 about 200,000 artifacts were removed from the occupied Palestinian territory annually,” with approximately 120,000 removed each year since 1995. This hemorrhaging of Palestinian cultural property is occurring in a context where archaeology has been used by Israel “as a pretext to gain territorial control” and exercise sovereign rights “over Palestinian lands [in order] to further its settlement enterprise” and exploit natural resources.Section II traces the history of archaeological laws and practices in Palestine, from the Ottoman era to contemporary Israeli military orders. Section III examines the rules governing the protection of cultural property during military occupation under the aegis of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and the consequences of future Palestinian ratification of the Convention and its 1999 Second Protocol. Section IV tracks the illicit trade in antiquities from Palestine, and the potential effects that ratification of two instruments would have on regulation and restitution – particularly, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. Section V focuses on the underwater cultural heritage off the coast of Gaza and the maritime zones of legal control granted by the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, the first international treaty that Palestine has ratified. Finally, Section VI assesses the consequences of UNESCO membership, including whether membership of a U.N. agency means that Palestine can ratify instruments outside of UNESCO’s competence.

Egyptian Policy Toward the Palestinian Refugees, 1948 to 1952: Incorporating Arab Sources into the Historiography of the 1948 War for Palestine

The academic or scholarly record of the events of 1948 has largely been fashioned via the lens of Israeli and Western sources. The historiography of the 1948 War for Palestine was challenged beginning in the late 1980s with the emergence of the self-proclaimed Israeli “New Historians,” who inter alia challenged the inherited and dominant historical narrative of the state of Israel, or the “old history.” While the work of the New Historians provided new insights into the events of 1948, the New Historians — like the “old historians” — failed to fully cull primary and secondary Arab sources in their examinations into the historiography of the 1948 War for Palestine. This study utilizes the Egyptian press — particularly, al-Moqattam and al-Ahram, the two leading Cairo dailies, as well as a number of Egyptian weeklies — to examine the events of 1948 as they unfolded in Egypt and other Arab states. Specifically, this study examines Egyptian policy towards the Palestinian refugees during the time period spanning from April 1948, when the first wave of destitute refugees arrived in Egypt, to July 1952, when the liberal era was brought to an abrupt close at the hands of Gamal `Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers Movement. By relying on the Egyptian press, this study seeks to incorporate more fully primary and secondary Arab sources into the historiography of the 1948 War for Palestine. In addition to providing distinctive insights into what took place in Cairo during the events of 1948, the Egyptian press also facilitates a more nuanced assessment of what transpired in Israel/Palestine during and subsequent to the 1948 War for Palestine.

A Lack of Balance: An Examination of Local Detroit, Michigan, Newspaper Coverage of the 2006 War in Lebanon and the 2008–2009 War in Gaza

By examining source use and the emergence of frames, this study analyzes news coverage of the 2006 War in Lebanon and 2008–2009 War in Gaza in two local newspapers in Detroit, Michigan, USA: The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. Metropolitan Detroit is home to the largest concentration of Arab individuals outside of the Middle East, as well as a substantial Jewish population, making it an interesting case to explore how local reporters use sources and frames to portray issues important to its readership. In the coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War, three frames emerged in both newspapers' coverage: Arabs versus Jews, interfaith efforts to bridge understanding, and the lack of American support for either side of the conflict. Several years later, the only frame that emerged in coverage of the Gaza War was Arabs versus Jews. An analysis of source use in the coverage of both wars revealed that local reporters favored Lebanese sources during the 2006 war and Israeli sources during the 2008–2009 war.

Antiviral Activity of 3(2H)- and 6-Chloro-3(2H)-Isoflavenes against Highly Diverged, Neurovirulent Vaccine-Derived, Type2 Poliovirus Sewage Isolates

BackgroundSubstituted flavanoids interfere with uncoating of Enteroviruses including Sabin-2 polio vaccine strains. However flavanoid resistant and dependent, type-2 polio vaccine strains (minimally-diverged), emerged during in vitro infections. Between 1998–2009, highly-diverged (8 to >15%) type-2, aVDPV2s, from two unrelated persistent infections were periodically isolated from Israeli sewage.AimTo determine whether highly evolved aVDPV2s derived from persistent infections retained sensitivity to isoflavenes.MethodsSabin-2 and ten aVDPV2 isolates from two independent Israeli sources were titered on HEp2C cells in the presence and absence of 3(2H)- Isoflavene and 6-chloro-3(2H)-Isoflavene. Neurovirulence of nine aVDPV2s was measured in PVR-Tg-21 transgenic mice. Differences were related to unique amino acid substitutions within capsid proteins.Principal FindingsThe presence of either flavanoid inhibited viral titers of Sabin-2 and nine of ten aVDPV2s by one to two log10. The tenth aVDPV2, which had unique amino acid substitution distant from the isoflavene-binding pocket but clustered at the three- and five-fold axies of symmetry between capsomeres, was unaffected by both flavanoids. Genotypic neurovirulence attenuation sites in the 5′UTR and VP1 reverted in all aVDPV2s and all reacquired a full neurovirulent phenotype except one with amino acid substitutions flanking the VP1 site.ConclusionBoth isoflavenes worked equally well against Sabin 2 and most of the highly-diverged, Israeli, aVDPV2s isolates. Thus, functionality of the hydrophobic pocket may be unaffected by selective pressures exerted during persistent poliovirus infections. Amino acid substitutions at sites remote from the drug-binding pocket and adjacent to a neurovirulence attenuation site may influence flavanoid antiviral activity, and neurovirulence, respectively.

Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday (review)

Reviewed by: Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday John R. C. Martyn Kogman-Appel, Katrin, Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery and the Passover Holiday, University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006; hardback; pp. xxii, 295; 16 colour plates, 168 b/w illustrations; RRP US$99.00; ISBN 0271027401. Dr Kogman-Appel's admirable display of scholarship, assisted by funding from Spanish, American and Israeli sources, is presented most attractively in this book, which was printed in China and published expertly by the Pennsylvania State University Press. The combined expertise and/or funds of American, European, Middle-Eastern and Chinese agencies are most impressive. The four most significant Spanish manuscripts, but not the earliest, which contain Haggedah illuminations are shown by Kogman-Appel to be those from Sarajevo (c. 1320), the British Library (codices 28884 and 27210; c. 1320) and the John Rylands Library (cod. 6; 14th cent.) Colour plates are unfortunately restricted to those four plus one in Bologna (cod. 25589; c. 1300). The earliest such manuscripts from Spain are in fact two Bibles moralisées, now in Vienna (cod. 2554; c. 1225) and in Oxford's Bodleian (cod. 2706; c. 1230), followed in [End Page 198] time by the Bologna manuscript (c. 1300). In the pictorial section, the pride of place is given to the British Library 27210 Haggedah, which shows two plates each with the usual four scenes, depicting the original Passovers, worthy of inclusion in any general work on medieval illuminated manuscripts. Their attractive artistry is in contrast to the quite crude sketches in plates iv-v, from British Library 2884. Kogman-Appel makes no attempt to judge the artistic qualities of this selection, but rightly stresses their difference from the almost unadorned Haggedah manuscripts from non-Spanish sources, like for instance the Kauffman Haggadah from Hungary, with its familial Passovers and little else. Kogman-Appel discusses the unusual way in which picture-cycles in the Spanish texts replace the written word, normally so highly treasured. Yet folios iii and vii are highly artistic examples of the Hebraic text. But as stated by Kogman-Appel, art as a means to teach the uneducated and illiterate does not apply to Jewish art, especially in the case of illuminated Haggedah. Incidentally, in Pope Gregory's letter (9.209) to Serenus, the bishop of Marseilles, sent in July 599, he attacks him for destroying all of the religious art works in his church, arguing that they should certainly not be worshipped, but that the illiterate should be given a chance to learn the Church's stories through them. But denial of the visual was normal in synagogues, although the Haggedah manuscripts in Spain, which were mainly owned by private patrons, seem to have been an exception. Kogman-Appel's choice of illuminations, which are skilfully integrated with the interesting text, show the most popular selections from the Hebrew scriptures made by the various artists, in these early Haggedah manuscripts. Most popular by far are those on the birth and exploits of Moses, with 92 pictures, as well as 46 pictures of the Pentateuch in figure 143. To these one could add the 53 pictures of the plagues in Egypt (darkness 9, locusts 8, first-borns' deaths 8, boils 6, morrain 5, hail 4, arov 4, frogs 3, blood 3 and lice 2). A further nine show the Red-Sea and Passover, adding up to 159 on Moses and Egypt. Joseph's life comes next with 69 pictures, and Jacob's with 33, and then the Creation with 31. Noah's Ark and Flood have 13, Abraham 10, Lot's escape 8 and the Tower of Babel 6. For Jewish ritual there are just 22, namely the Synagogue, Messianic temple (2), Ark of the Covenant, the Universe, the Short side of the Universe, Solomon sacrificing, the Slaughter of the Paschal lamb (4), Striking the door-post (7) and the Sedet ceremony (4). These 22 pictures on ritual, compared with the 330 on Hebraic history, underline the special nature of these early Spanish Haggedah manuscripts, a point not noted by Kogman-Appel. Not only are humans depicted, male and at times enticingly female, but...

Three of Four Newspapers Studied Favor Israeli Instead of Palestinian Sources

A reporter for The Los Angeles Times wrote about the Israeli and Palestinian conflict:If a picture is worth a thousand words, a thousand pictures just might win the war ... Every photograph-and indeed, every word-is a weapon in the mediaU.S. newspapers are directly involved in this media war. They relay, create or help frame the press images of both Israelis and Palestinians.Because more Jews reside in the United States than elsewhere, including Israel,2 the media war between Israel and Palestine for more favorable press treatment in the U.S. press is even more intense. Coverage of Israel will likely affect how Americans and the world perceive this Jewish nation. Similarly, with a growing number of Arabic immigrants in the United States, depictions of Palestine and the Muslim world are increasingly likely to influence American politics. Both sides in this prolonged dispute3 are battling for international support for their causes, which makes it a compelling area of study as news coverage can impact regional, and perhaps worldwide peace.Research QuestionThis research explores, both quantitatively and qualitatively, one central question:RQ1:How did reporters use Israeli or Palestinian official news sources in four major U.S. newspapers-The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle-from Jan. 21, 2000, to Jan. 21, 2002?Specifically, this research investigates if these newspapers provided balanced coverage between Israeli and Palestinian sources and if the newspapers under analyses vary.This research is important to journalists as it provides a retrospective on the coverage of two peoples in conflict. What underlies this research inquiry is a mission to determine whether journalists are fairly framing and providing context of a conflict that allows its readership to come to its own conclusions, which is central to journalistic practice.Literature ReviewSeveral studies have examined the depiction of Arabs in the U.S. press.4 In general, since the establishment of Israel as an independent country in 1948, research pointed to an anti-Arab and a pro-Israeli bias in the American press. For example, Mousa's5 content analysis of the Arabs' image in The New York Times between 1916 and 1948, a time frame the author considered the cornerstone in the development of the Arabs' images, found that Israeli sources who provided unfavorable attributions of Arabs were most often cited. Mousa suggested that unbalanced coverage contributed to negative public opinion of Arabs and positive public opinion of Israelis.6The latter opinion is reflected in Wilson's study that found that white people were more willing to have social contact with Jews than with all other minority groups, including blacks, Asians and Arab Americans.7 In a more recent study, Sylvester and Wu8 content analyzed news stories, briefs, photos, cartoons and editorials, from January through October 1998, and found that the Inquirer's news reports provided coverage of both sides of the Arab and Israeli conflict, however, Israeli sources appeared more frequently than Palestinian sources in the news stories, leading to a more pro-Israeli bias.MethodData SetThis research considers a more expansive view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than the research mentioned by content analyzing four newspapers-The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle. The time frame, Jan. 21,2000, through Jan. 21,2002, is also lengthier than the Sylvester, et al., study and covers a turbulent time in America's history, Sept. 11, 2001. The four newspapers under study were chosen for their high circulations,9 and because the communities they cover have large populations of Jewish Americans and Arab Americans.10Using the search terms Israel and Palestine in the Lexis/Nexis database, the researchers yielded a total of 549 news stories:* The New York Times-175* The Washington Post-124* Los Angeles Times-182* Houston Chronicle-68. …

Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited

The myth that the Palestinian exodus of 1948 was triggered by orders from the Arab leaders——a cornerstone of the official Israeli version of the 1948 war and intended to absolve it of responsibility for the refugee problem——dies hard. Thus, it continues to be deployed by apologists for Israel as a means of blaming the Palestinians for their own fate. Even Benny Morris, one of whose major conclusions in his 1986 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem was to discredit the Israeli claim, cannot seem to let go of it completely. Thus, the conclusion of the substantially revised update of the book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004), states that although the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and the local National Committees made efforts to block the exodus of army-aged males, ““at the same time, they actively promoted the depopulation of villages and towns. Many thousands of Arabs——women, children, and old people……left, well before battle was joined, as a result of advice and orders from local Arab commanders and officials……. Indeed, already months before the war the Arab states and the AHC had endorsed the removal of dependents from active and potential combat zones……. There can be no exaggerating the importance of these early, Arab-initiated evacuations in the demoralization, and eventual exodus, of the remaining rural and urban populations”” (pp. 589––90).Given the endurance of this central plank of the Israeli doctrine of 1948, JPS has decided to reprint for the first time a difficult-to-obtain article published in July 1959 by Walid Khalidi in a long-defunct periodical of the American University of Beirut (AUB), Middle East Forum. Entitled ““Why Did the Palestinians Leave? An Examination of the Zionist Version of the Exodus of '48,”” the article was based on a talk Professor Khalidi gave at AUB earlier that year. After tracing the origins and first appearance of the Zionist claim, the article, using AHC and Arab League archival material, Arab and Palestinian press releases and reports, Arab and Haganah radio broadcasts, and other Arab and Israeli sources exhaustively rebuts the claim through showing both what the broadcasts did not say and what they did say. JPS is reprinting the article as is.While the July 1959 article debunks the myth using documents at the national or Arab level, a second article by Professor Khalidi published in December 1959, ““The Fall of Haifa,”” touches on the Arab orders at the local level, an issue equally emphasized by Morris. The article, also published in the Middle East Forum, puts the exodus from the city after the Haganah offensive that led to its capture in April 1948 within the overall military context: Anglo-Zionist collusion, the balance of power, and so on. The article also deals directly with the orders and reproduces the texts of the eleven communiquéés issued by the Haifa National Committee between the UN General Assembly partition decision (November 1947) and the fall of Haifa in April, all of which have bearing on the subject. JPS is reproducing these pages as an appendix but intends to publish ““The Fall of Haifa”” in its entirety at a later date.

HARRY TRUMAN'S RECOGNITION OF ISRAEL

Historiographical accounts of Harry Truman's recognition of Israel have placed undue importance on this apparently sudden act on 14 May 1948. US Palestine policy has not been placed in the correct historical context of the Cold War. As a ‘Cold War consensus’ developed in Washington in the early post-war period, Palestine emerged as a secondary issue to the major concern that was the ‘Northern Tier’ of Greece, Turkey, and Iran. The US was guided by broad but clear objectives in Palestine: the attainment of a peaceful solution, a desire not to implicate US troops, and the denial of the region to the Soviets. Disagreements between the White House and the State Department were all expressed within these broad policy objectives. Israeli sources have been significant by their absence in the existing historiography of recognition. These sources reveal that for the Jewish community in Palestine, diplomatic victories were of secondary importance to the practical achievement of statehood. From both a Washington perspective, and the perspective from Palestine, US recognition was not regarded as a crucial issue at the time. It was a decision taken within the context of broad US objectives in Palestine, and it did not influence the decision of the Yishuv to declare statehood.

Cost containment analysis of childhood vaccination against varicella in Israel.

The low cost of safe and effective vaccines prompted a cost-containment evaluation of a nationwide vaccination campaign against varicella. A model incorporating demographic, epidemiologic and economic data from Israeli sources (supplemented by data from International literature) was constructed to estimate the decrease in morbidity and the consequent reductions in treatment costs and time-off work of a nationwide programme vaccinating children at 12 months. A policy of aiming to immunize a cohort of all 1-year-olds in Israel in the year 2002, for an annual cost of $1.10 million to the health services and $1.27 million to society (including lost work and transport costs), would reduce the number of cases of varicella during the lifetime of a cohort from 123,984 to 10,170 cases. This morbidity reduction would reduce national expenditures by $1.80 million in health service resources alone and by $24.5 million to society, mainly due to inaverted work absences. In addition an estimated 0.93 lives, representing 38.6 life years will be saved in the cohort. Under an assumption of neutrality relating to the potential effects of vaccination on herpes zoster virus, our model based calculations show that a national varicella vaccination programme is likely to be cost saving, not only from a societal perspective but also from the narrower health service perspective.

Atmospheric sulfur flux rates to and from Israel

Both field measurements and model simulation studies have shown that Israel is the recipient of long range transported air pollutants that originated over various parts of Europe. The present paper presents results of aircraft measurements aimed at quantitizing the sulfur flux arriving at Israel's western coast from Europe and the Israeli pollution contribution to the air masses leaving its eastern borders towards Jordan. During the research flights, measurements of sulfur dioxide and sulfate particulates and meteorological data were recorded. Two different legs were performed for each research flight: one over the Mediterranean Sea, west of the coast and the second along the Jordan Valley. All flights were carried out at a height of approximately 300 m above ground level. A total of 14 research flights were performed covering the summer and autumn seasons. The results indicate that the influx of sulfur arriving at the Israeli coast from Europe varied in the range of 1–30 mg S/h, depending on the measuring season. The particulate sulfate level in the incoming LRT air masses was at least 50% of the total sulfur content. The contribution of the local pollutant sources to the outgoing easterly fluxes also varies strongly according to season. During the early and late summer, the Israeli sources contributed an average of 25 mg S/h to the total pollution flux as compared to only approximately 9 mg S/h during the autumn period. Synoptic analysis indicates that conditions during the summer in Israel favor the accumulation of pollution species above the Mediterranean basin from upwind European sources. This season features a shallow mixed layer and weak zonal flow leads to poor ventilation rates, inhibiting an efficient dispersion of these pollutants while being transported eastward. Under these conditions, in flux, local contribution and the total out-flux of these pollutants are elevated as opposed to during other seasons. During the fall, the eastern Mediterranean region is usually subjected to weak easterly winds, interrupted at times by strong westerly wind flows inducing higher ventilation rates. These meteorological conditions and the lack of major emitting sources eastwards of Israel result in lower sulfur budgets to and from Israel for this season. An estimate of the yearly flux showed that approximately 0.06 tg S arrived at the Israeli coast from the west. This is approximately 15% of the estimated pollution leaving Europe towards the eastern edge of the Mediterranean basin. The local contribution to the out-flux towards Jordan was calculated to be 0.13 tg S per year, almost all of the sulfur air pollutants emitted in Israel.