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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Hyperzionisten proberen aandacht af te leiden met slecht nieuws over anderen



Coolassprov MC
03-02-08, 12:55
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=950374

Bloggers try to counter anti-Israel media bias with bad news on other states
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent

What began six months ago as a brazen attempt to counter a perceived anti-Israel slant in the Dutch media has evolved into a network monitoring the media in eight countries across the world. The idea is simple: Beat press bias at its own game by advertising only bad news about one place.

Over the past months, seven activists from Israel and elsewhere have been exposing online readers to scandalous yet accurate reports from media in Britain (violent drunk teens), France (high homeless mortality), Norway (serial child molesters), Finland (sexual harassment in parliament), Sweden (soaring suicide rates), The Netherlands (menacing Muslim unrest), Mexico (rampaging flood victims) and Los Angeles (drive-by killings).

The seven bad-news activists visit one another's online blogs and have incorporated links referring the dozens of surfers who visit their pages every day to sister-sites. Though they all act out of a desire to counter what they see as media bias against Israel, they operate independently and have little communication with one another. Some of them rely on friends to send them interesting bits of bad news.

"This project demonstrates how media coverage can degrade any country's image by using selective news without context," explains media analyst Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld from Jerusalem. His seminar last summer, entitled "Bad News about the Netherlands," became the kernel of his blog.

Gerstenfeld told Anglo File at the time that by maligning Dutch society he was "merely employing the methods of some in the Dutch media." Those parties, he said, habitually report only about Israeli aggression while omitting any reference to Palestinian violence, among other tactics.

The Netherlands' former ambassador to Israel, Bob Hiensch, indicated he found the project "simplistic and naive" - which hasn't stopped Gerstenfeld from updating the site every day. His blog attracts up to 300 readers a day.

Dr. Genevieve Benezra cites a sense of deep frustration in explaining what made her launch her bilingual Bad News from France blog two months ago. "For years I'd fume over bias in French papers and television," she says. Benezra, a retired jurist from Kfar Hayam near Hadera and veteran French immigrant, heard about the initiative from Gerstenfeld last year at a conference for child survivors of the Holocaust.

It was around that period the British blogger, who preferred to remain anonymous, joined the Bad News club. John (not his real name), who immigrated to Israel from Britain 12 years ago, heard about Gerstenfeld's pet project at a lecture. "We agreed we could make a very good one on Britain," he recalls. "I realize this can be seen as unpatriotic, but the truth is British society never fully accepted me. I was always a Jew there," says the 69-year-old academic. "You could say I have a chip on my shoulder, even though I love British culture in general."

David Silon, a Los Angeles are Jew from birth, runs Bad News from L.A. He says defaming his hometown - which enjoys some degree of glitz in foreign media - is only a means to demonstrate how easily media reports can be manipulated.

Appearing patriotic seems to be of little concern to Kenneth Sikorski, a Finnish non-Jew who runs both Bad News from Finland and Bad News from Sweden. "Even harsh criticism does not generally register as unpatriotic in Scandinavia," says the 48-year-old retired paper industry machinist. Sikorski, who was born in the U.S. and immigrated to Finland 20 years ago, has been monitoring the media for years. "I observed egregious errors in the reports about Israel. One major newspaper said the Separation Fence was electric instead of electronic," he says.

"I have written countless letters to editors," says Leif Knutsen, 48, who runs Bad News from Norway. "I usually received no response and my letters weren't published." Knutsen, a management consultant who converted to Judaism and immigrated from Norway to New Jersey 15 years ago, says the Norwegian press is particularly hostile to Israel. Part of this, he says, draws from Norway's strong peacenik tradition of the 1960s, which Knutsen thinks has resulted in "a simplistic world view where Israel is seen as the one remaining imperialist client state of the U.S."

Gerstenfeld would most like to see a bad news blog covering Belgium. "If it faced Israel's difficult position, Belgium would have disappeared long ago," he says. Benezra would especially like to cover the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec. "I may include it, though I don't know how helpful my blog is," she says. "At least it relieves some of my frustration."

The Bad News Blogs:

Bad News from Los Angeles

Bad News from The Netherlands

Bad News from Mexico

Bad News from Britain

Bad News from Sweden

Bad News from Finland

Bad News from France

Bad News from Norway

Related articles:

In praise of the Jewish blogosphere

Nobel laureate cancels trip to 'anti-Israel' U.K.

Of polls and prejudice

Shemharosh
03-02-08, 15:48
Men vindt altijd wat die zoekt....hier wat goed hyperzionistische nieuws....kunnen we "Marokkannen" wat van leren:

'Israël heeft straks geen olie nodig'
JERUZALEM - Israël wil zijn invoer van olie drastisch terugdringen door met elektrische auto's te gaan rijden. De Israëlische president Shimon Peres zei in de maandageditie van de Financial Times dat zijn land over een paar jaar de helft minder olie nodig heeft. Met meer gebruik van vooral zonne-energie heeft Israël over een tien jaar helemaal geen olie meer nodig, verwacht Peres.

In de toekomst rijden elektrische auto's door straten van Jeruzalem.
De regering maakt deze week plannen bekend om in anderhalf jaar tijd een half miljoen oplaadpunten voor autobatterijen over het hele land te verspreiden.Het initiatief komt uit de particuliere sector maar de overheid omarmt het enthousiast. Het is volgens Peres vanuit politiek en economisch oogpunt een goed plan.

Deze maand heeft de regering alvast een belastingvoordeel gekoppeld aan het gebruik van elektrische auto's. Die zijn nog steeds niet populair door hun beperkte actieradius en dure batterijen, maar dat moet in Israël veranderen.

De onderneming Project Better Life (PBL), gesticht door de Israëlisch-Amerikaanse zakenman Shai Agassi, heeft al 160 miljoen euro bij elkaar om te beginnen. PBL heeft onder meer de autobedrijven Renault en Nissan benaderd om een elektrische auto te maken die meer dan 150 kilometer kunnen rijden zonder een oplaadpunt aan te doen. Vanaf 2011 zou die op grote schaal kunnen worden gemaakt en verkocht. De grootschaligheid kan de kosten van het gebruik drukken. De autobatterijen zullen overal in de joodse staat kunnen worden vervangen of opgeladen.

Indien de twee miljoen auto's in het land door elektrische zouden worden vervangen, dan zou dat volgens PBL 2000 megawatt elektriciteit per jaar vergen. Dat kan worden gegenereerd na een investering van vier miljard euro in zonnepanelen. Peres heeft er alle vertrouwen in: „Olie is de grootste vervuiler en de grootste financier van terreur. Olieproducerende landen maken democratie belachelijk. Maar de zon is permanent, democratisch, vriendelijk en niet vervuilend.”