Why Don't We Know What's Going On In Israel and Palestine?

Recent studies of U.S. media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveal that the media reported Israeli children’s deaths at rates 7 to 40 times greater than Palestinian children’s deaths. In 2004, when 8 Israeli children were killed and 179 Palestinian children were killed, NBC reported on 100% of Israeli children’s deaths and on 10% of Palestinian children’s deaths, ABC on 100% and 11%. The New York Times reported on 50% of Israeli children’s deaths and 7% of Palestinian children’s deaths.

Rank Ignorance Reigns
Paul Craig Roberts

In keeping with its established role as purveyor of disinformation, Fox "News" talking head Brit Hume misreported Fox's own poll. On Special Report on Jan. 26, Hume said that 51 percent of Americans "would now support" air strikes on Iran. What the poll found is that if diplomacy fails, 51 percent would support air strikes. Can we be optimistic and assume that the American public would not regard an orchestrated failure by the Bush administration as a true diplomatic failure?

To Our Friend in Hawaii,

Thank you for making and sending the disc with the back issues of the IHR Journal. Please contact us about scanning additional back issues. You can e-mail us at: ihr@ihr.org

Iran Invites Blair To Holocaust Conference

Iran invited British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday to an anti-Holocaust conference it plans to hold, the state-run ISNA news agency reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters during his weekly press conference, “I think that it would be good if Mr. Blair takes part in the seminar on the Holocaust in Tehran. Of course, he can make the case in support of the Holocaust and at the same time hear the points of views that he cannot listen to there”.

Nuclear Showdown With Iran

Iran has thrown down the gauntlet to the US and EU by resuming uranium enrichment laboratory tests. Tehran is not heeding a mounting chorus of warnings from its foes in the west and even its friends in Moscow. "We won’t be bullied," said Iran’s Persident, Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, who denied Iran has nuclear ambitions and insisted his nation had every right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium to produce electrical power.

David Irving Speaks From Prison

The discredited right-wing historian David Irving was arrested in Austria last year for denying the Holocaust and faces trial next month. From his Viennese prison, he gives his first interview to German author and academic Malte Herwig, who asks if arrogance is at the heart of Irving's desire for outrage - or something more sinister.

Mozart Honored Worldwide On 250th Birthday

This cobblestoned and turreted city of his birth is pulling out all the stops to celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday Friday, but Austria isn't the only place that has been seized with Mozart madness. Symphony orchestras and opera houses worldwide are going through final rehearsals while radio program directors line up their Mozart CDs.

Iraq War Costs Vastly Greater Than Predicted

It turns out the eventual cost of the war in Iraq will not be several hundred billion, but according to a new study at least a thousand billion dollars - US$1 trillion, in other words. This figure dwarfs any previous estimate by orders of magnitude. Given the projected cost of $1 trillion to $2 trillion, one might imagine that American taxpayers are now rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter while gasping for air.

A Confident Irving Prepares For Court Showdown

He plans to have his pinstripe suit sent to him for his trial on February 20. It's Irving's battle outfit, the same suit he had made by the most expensive Savile Row tailor for his London trial six years ago. This polite Anglo-Saxon treats Holocaust denial in the same way his countrymen treat rugby: a sport for hooligans, played by gentlemen. The self-confident, self-taught writer has always enjoyed causing uproar, especially among mainstream historians, ever since the 1960s when he began digging up documents written by Hitler's cohorts.

McCloskey Says He's Running For House

The 78-year-old McCloskey, a maverick known for environmental causes, told The Associated Press he felt compelled to get back into politics because of his concern for the environment and what he sees as a shift in Washington away from traditional Republican values. He also was prompted by what he described as Pombo's close ties to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a growing corruption scandal.

American Soldier Found Guilty In Iraqi's Death

After six hours of deliberations, the panel of six Army officers spared Welshofer on the more serious charge of murder — which carries a potential life sentence — instead convicting him late Saturday of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty. He was acquitted of assault. Welshofer stood silently and showed no reaction when the verdict was announced. He could be dishonorably discharged and sentenced to a maximum three years and three months in prison at a Monday hearing.

Jewish Criminal Influence Peddlers In The Spotlight

Some observers, including New York Times columnist Frank Rich, already have begun to connect the dots between the two scandals. And as the legal noose around Lay and DeLay tightens, at least one parallel in their defense strategies will become increasingly clear: Both men are blaming their troubles on former Jewish allies who have confessed to crimes and agreed to cooperate with government investigators in return for lighter sentences. Lay says he was duped by Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer.

Irving Trial Set For Feb. 20 in Austria

British right-wing radical David Irving, presently in pre- trial custody in Vienna, is writing his memoirs, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. "Perhaps I should call them 'My War'," 67-year-old Irving was quoted as saying. He is due to go on trial on February 20 under Austria's anti-Nazi laws. "I would be less confident if I didn't know that the intellectuals of the world are on my side," he declared.

Israel Could Launch Air Strikes If Talks Fail

Israel has drawn up plans for strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities ... Israel regards Tehran as the single greatest threat, a view sharpened by the Iranian president's call for the destruction of the Jewish state and his denial of the Holocaust. Last month Binyamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister and leader of the Likud party, said that if he wins the general election in March he would follow the example of former prime minister Menachem Begin who ordered the Israeli air force bombing of Iraq's nuclear plant in 1981.

Another Undeclared War?
Patrick J. Buchanan

Is the United States about to launch a second preemptive war, against a nation that has not attacked us, to deprive it of weapons of mass destruction that it does not have? With U.S. troops tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Pakistanis inflamed over a U.S. airstrike that wiped out 13 villagers, including women and children, it would seem another war in the Islamic world is the last thing America needs. Yet the "military option" against Iran is the talk of the town. "There is only one thing worse than...exercising the military option," says Sen. John McCain. "That is a nuclear-armed Iran."

Maximum Territory, Minimum Arabs
Tom Segev

In this, Sharon was no different from many others. From the day the Zionist movement began operating in the Land of Israel, it was conscious of the Arabs' resistance. From the day the first pioneers arrived, the Jews here have been arguing among themselves about the right way to live with "the Arab problem." They considered every possibility, everything from transferring the Arabs to another country to forming a binational state; they examined every possibility for dividing the land, but agreed on one fundamental principle: maximum territory, minimum Arabs.

Wiesel's 'Night' Reclassified As Non-Fiction After Oprah Selection

Another Oprah book club pick has raised the issue of fact vs. fiction. Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com both said Tuesday that they were making changes to certify Elie Wiesel's ''Night'' as nonfiction. Barnes & Noble.com is removing the book from its fiction list, while Amazon.com is also changing the categorization of ''Night'' and revising an editorial description to make clear that it does not consider the book a novel. ''We hope to make these changes as quickly as possible,'' said Jani Strand, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com.

Elie Wiesel - A Prominent False Witness
Robert Faurisson

But in what respect is Elie Wiesel a witness to the alleged gas chambers? By what right does he ask us to believe in that means of extermination? In an autobiographical book that supposedly describes his experiences at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, he nowhere mentions the gas chambers. He does indeed say that the Germans executed Jews, but ... by fire; by throwing them alive into flaming ditches, before the very eyes of the deportees! No less than that! Here Wiesel the false witness had some bad luck.

Czech Sentenced for Holocaust Remarks

Antonin Cermak, 21, was given 15 months in prison with a probation of 3.5 years for support for Holocaust. Cermak reacted "only, only" to a Nazism opponent shouting "You have killed 1.7 million Jewish children" during a neo-Nazi demonstration in Prague last year. Cermak and the state attorney have both taken time to appeal. The demonstration of about 70 neo-Nazis took place outside the German embassy in Prague on October 28 in support of Ernst Zuendel, alleged German denier of the Holocaust.

Venezuela's Leader Accused of Anti-Semitism

Quoting Chavez as declaring that "minorities, the descendants of those who crucified Christ, have taken over the riches of the world," the Wall Street Journal's "Americas" columnist, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, charged that his words constituted an "ugly anti-Semitic swipe that was of a piece with an insidious assault over the past several years on the country's Jewish community." Her column, entitled "The New Tehran-Caracas Axis," came in the wake of another article published Thursday in the neoconservative Weekly Standard ...

Bush Policies Further Harm US Economy
Paul Craig Roberts

President George W. Bush has destroyed America's economy along with America's reputation as a truthful, compassionate, peace-loving nation that values civil liberties and human rights. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated the cost to Americans of Bush's Iraq war to be between one and two trillion dollars. This figure is 5 to 10 times higher than the $200 billion that Bush's economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, estimated. Lindsey was fired by Bush...

New DNA Study Traces Origins of European Jews

Almost half of Europe's Jews are descended from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago, a study says. Scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA - passed from mother to daughter - of 11,000 women of Ashkenazi Jewish origin living in 67 countries. The Ashkenazis moved from the Mid-East to Italy and then to Eastern Europe, where their population exploded in the 13th Century, the scientists say. One of the authors said the study shows the importance of Jewish mothers.

World's First Car Celebrates 120th Birthday

The automobile celebrates its 120th birthday on January 29. On this date in 1886, Karl Benz applied for a patent for his "vehicle with gas engine operation." Patent DRP 37435 for the Benz Patent Motor Car granted in November of the same year is regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile. In later years the Benz organization and the company formed by fellow automotive pioneer Gottlieb Daimler would merge to form Daimler-Benz. Karl Benz is, therefore, credited as co-founder not only of Mercedes-Benz but also the automotive industry itself.

US Threatens Norway Over Boycott of Israel Goods

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened Norway with "serious political consequences" after Finance Minister and Socialist Left Party leader Kristin Halvorsen admitted to supporting a boycott of Israeli goods. The reaction was reportedly given to the Norwegian embassy in Washington DC, and it was made clear that the statements came from the top level of the US State Department, newspaper VG reports.

Israelis See Non-Jews As Threat to State's Character

On January 28, 2003, Arnon Soffer was at home watching the results of the Israeli election that won Ariel Sharon a second term as prime minister when the telephone rang. The voice at the other end took the professor of geography by surprise. "It was the prime minister," Soffer, 70, recalled. "He told me: 'bring me your separation maps tomorrow'." The next day, Soffer drove to Tel Aviv and handed Meir Dagan, a Sharon confidant and the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, maps showing how he believed Israel needed to separate from the Palestinians to survive as a Jewish state.

Zundel Trial to Resume Feb. 9

The trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel will restart Feb. 9, a German court said Wednesday, and a verdict is expected in March. The trial at the Mannheim state court in southwestern Germany had to be rescheduled after the presiding judge in November fired one of Zundel's defence lawyers. The court said that a verdict is now scheduled for March 16.

America's Superpower Days Are Over
Paul Craig Roberts

President George W. Bush has destroyed America’s economy along with America’s reputation as a truthful, compassionate, peace-loving nation that values civil liberties and human rights. Nobel prize- winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated the cost to Americans of Bush’s Iraq war to be between one and two trillion dollars.

Lawmakers Propose Several Unique Bills

Indiana high schools would have to teach about the Holocaust under a bill proposed in the House of Representatives. Rep. Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute, is backing the proposal for the second straight year. The bill failed to receive a hearing last session, but Kersey is hopeful the House Education Committee will take it up in 2006. Kersey said the bill was inspired by Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor who runs the CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute. "Eva Kor feels that as time goes on, we tend to forget about the Holocaust and the horrible things that happened," Kersey said. "She's hoping that if we can make it a requirement in the classroom, students will know what Jewish people like Mrs. Kor went through."

Abramoff Used DeLay To Fund Anti-Intifada Activists
Joshua Frank

It shouldn't come as much of a shock that Jack Abramoff, the infamous DC super-lobbyist who has been accused of ripping off millions from his Native American clients, is a rabid Zionist. Abramoff, in the late 1990s, set up a pro-Israel charity front called the Capital Athletic Foundation. Sounds jovial enough. "The pitch ... was hard to resist," Michael Isikoff recently reported for Newsweek, "a good way to get access on Capitol Hill, he told his clients ... was to contribute to [his] worthy charity..." So Abramoff dangled a carrot in front of his clients, advising them to donate to his philanthropic venture. Why not, it was for a good cause. Plus, he boasted, it would buy them access to Rep. Tom DeLay. It may indeed have bought them access, but what Abramoff's customers didn't realize was that a large portion of their money would never be spent on gearing up inner city kids to shoot some b-ball -- rather, their dollars were shipped overseas to help arm Israeli settlers in the occupied territories.

Neoconservatism's Jewish Origins and Agenda

Acknowledging the Jewishness of neoconservatism has always triggered the red, flashing lights of antisemitism, especially since the start of the Iraq War (with extra points if it's Pat Buchanan doing the acknowledging). But there is some truth to the suspicion. If there is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism is it. It's a thought one imagines most American Jews, overwhelmingly liberal, will find horrifying. And yet it is a fact that as a political philosophy, neoconservatism was born among the children of Jewish immigrants and is now largely the intellectual domain of those immigrants' grandchildren. Understanding what might be Jewish about this movement (or "persuasion" as its godfather, Irving Kristol, prefers it be called) should be possible without being accused of conspiracy theorizing about secret cabals pulling strings for Israel.

The Whitewashing of Ariel Sharon

As Ariel Sharon's career comes to an end, the whitewashing is already underway. Literally overnight he was being hailed as "a man of courage and peace" who had generated "hopes for a far-reaching accord" with an electoral campaign promising "to end conflict with the Palestinians." But even if end-of-career assessments often stretch the truth, and even if far too many people fall for the old saw about the gruff old warrior miraculously turning into a man of peace, the reality is that miracles don't happen, and only rarely have words and realities been separated by such a yawning abyss. From the beginning to the end of his career, Sharon was a man of ruthless and often gratuitous violence. The waypoints of his career are all drenched in blood, from the massacre he directed at the village of Qibya in 1953, in which his men destroyed whole houses with their occupants — men, women and children — still inside...

Iran Prepares Holocaust History Conference

Iran has decided to rewrite and revise the history of the Holocaust. Following the repeated declarations by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and other senior government officials on the need to re-examine the history of the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War, the association of Islamic Journalists of Iran has been tasked with quickly putting together an international conference on the Holocaust. "President Ahmadinejad has placed at the centre of international attention, a very important question on the truthfulness of the version that Europe and the Zionists have imposed on the world on the murder of Jews during the years of the great war, and therefore we are of the opinion that it is useful and necessary to organise an international conference on that theme, where all the historians and researchers, even those that do not believe in the official version, will be able to express themselves freely," Mehdi Afzali, spokesperson of the Association of Islamic Journalists told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Europe Must Embrace True Free Speech

In Europe, five years into the 21st century, two writers face trial and imprisonment for something they said or wrote. Both could be incarcerated, not for physically harming another person or for damaging property, but for uttering words that European states deem offensive. Yet only one has been defended by the international literati, who have described the attempt to curtail his freedom of speech as an act of "anachronistic brutality." The other writer's plight has been ignored; worse, many liberals have supported the campaign to punish him for expressing outrageous views. As such, the two cases cast a harsh light on the debate about free speech in Europe: They suggest we Europeans have a partial, picky attitude to freedom of expression, and thus do not understand the real meaning of this fundamental liberty. The writers are Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist, and David Irving, a British historian.

Let Ernst Zundel and David Irving Go Home

Ernst Zundel and David Irving may be filled with hate, but they should not be treated as criminals. The German and Austrian governments are the ones who have committed outrageous crimes by jailing these men for voicing their opinions about the Holocaust. Zundel and Irving may be two of the world’s most infamous Holocaust deniers. But they have not initiated physical violence against anyone. They have not ordered others to commit violence. Instead, Germany has put Zundel on trial for operating the Zundelsite website, which contains statements that the Holocaust is a fiction. It’s illegal in Germany to be a Holocaust denier. In November, Irving was arrested in Austria for two speeches he made in 1989, during which he allegedly claimed there had been no gas chambers at Auschwitz. It’s illegal in Austria to be a Holocaust denier. The governments of Germany and Austria want to send Zundel and Irving to prison for many years for publicly expressing these beliefs.

New Year's Greetings from the IHR

From all of us at the Institute for Historical Review, best wishes for a successful and prosperous new year! We've received so many cordial Christmas and New Year's messages in recent weeks that it's not been possible to respond to them all. So please excuse this somewhat impersonal way of expressing our appreciation. This is a time of special challenge. With key revisionist scholars and activists behind bars as “prisoners of conscience,” our responsibility is greater than ever. We remember friends who are in jail because they violated the disgraceful “Holocaust denial” laws in several European countries that criminalize any public challenge of Holocaust dogma. Ernst Zundel, a courageous friend of the IHR, has been locked up for nearly three years now – without ever having been convicted of any crime! He was held for more than two years in solitary confinement in Canada on the absurd pretext that he is a threat to “national security.” After deportation to Germany in March, he was promptly charged with “Holocaust denial.”

Israel's War Deadline: Iran In the Crosshairs
James Petras

Never has an imminent war been so loudly and publicly advertised as Israel's forthcoming military attack against Iran. When the Israeli Military Chief of Staff, Daniel Halutz, was asked how far Israel was ready to go to stop Iran's nuclear energy program, he said "Two thousand kilometers" ­ the distance of an air assault. More specifically Israeli military sources reveal that Israel's current and probably next Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered Israel's armed forces to prepare for air strikes on uranium enrichment sites in Iran. According to the London Times the order to prepare for attack went through the Israeli defense ministry to the Chief of Staff. During the first week in December, "sources inside the special forces command confirmed that 'G' readiness ­ the highest state ­ for an operation was announced" (Times, December 11, 2005). On December 9, Israeli Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, affirmed that in view of Teheran's nuclear plans, Tel Aviv should "not count on diplomatic negotiations but prepare other solutions".

Time To Talk To Tehran
Patrick J. Buchanan

Does President Bush intend a preventive war, early this year, to effect the nuclear castration of Iran? Or are we rattling sabers? What makes the question urgent are German reports that CIA Director Porter Goss has been in Ankara, Turkey, negotiating for U.S. use of bases for air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said time is running out on diplomacy to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. The Israelis are warning that if diplomacy fails, and we do not haul Tehran before the Security Council for sanctions, Israel will denuclearize Iran herself. The end of March is said to be the deadline for when Israel decides whether the West is serious. Turning up the heat, the Israeli lobby AIPAC has begun to rap President Bush – for wimpishness on Iran. Prediction: If Bush does not confront or attack Tehran, Israel and its Amen Corner will begin to give him the same treatment they gave his father.

Telling It Like It Isn't
Robert Fisk

I first realized the enormous pressures on American journalists in the Middle East when I went some years ago to say goodbye to a colleague from the Boston Globe. I expressed my sorrow that he was leaving a region where he had obviously enjoyed reporting. I could save my sorrows for someone else, he said. One of the joys of leaving was that he would no longer have to alter the truth to suit his paper's more vociferous readers. "I used to call the Israeli Likud Party 'right wing,' " he said. "But recently, my editors have been telling me not to use the phrase. A lot of our readers objected." And so now, I asked? "We just don't call it 'right wing' anymore." Ouch. I knew at once that these "readers" were viewed at his newspaper as Israel's friends, but I also knew that the Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu was as right wing as it had ever been. This is only the tip of the semantic iceberg that has crashed into American journalism in the Middle East.

Bush Pulls Plug On Iraq Reconstruction

In a decision that will be seen as a retreat from a promise by President George Bush to give Iraq the best infrastructure in the region, administration officials say they will not seek reconstruction funds when the budget request is presented to Congress next month, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The $18.4bn (£10.6bn) allocation is scheduled to run out in June 2007. The move will be seen by critics as further evidence of the administration's failure to plan for the aftermath of the war. A decision not to renew the reconstruction programme would leave Iraq with the burden of tens of billions of dollars in unfinished projects, and an oil industry and electrical grid that have yet to return to pre-war production levels. The decision is a tacit admission of the failure of the US rebuilding effort in the face of a relentless insurgency. Nearly half the funds earmarked for reconstruction were diverted towards fighting the insurgency and preparations to put Saddam Hussein on trial.

Britian's Chief Rabbi Warns of Growing Anti-Jewish Sentiment

Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, fears that a "tsunami of anti-Semitism" is threatening to engulf parts of the world. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme, to be broadcast today, Dr Sacks admitted he was "very scared" by the rise in anti-Jewish feeling, which had led to Holocaust denial, attacks on synagogues and a boycott of Jewish groups on university campuses. He said: "I am very scared by [it] and I'm very scared that more protests have not been delivered against it, but this [anti-Semitism] is part of the vocabulary of politics in certain parts of the world." Figures produced by the London-based Community Security Trust and the Israeli government show that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Britain. The trust recorded 532 anti-Semitic incidents in 2004, including 83 physical assaults. Meanwhile, some groups opposed to Israeli government policy have organised boycotts of Jewish academics and student groups.

Wiesenthal Center Declares 'Whitewash' Over Estonia's Refusal To Prosecute 'Nazi Collaborator'

A Jewish organisation that tracks down Nazi war criminals overnight slammed Estonia's judiciary as inept and corrupt after the Baltic state's prosecutor dropped a case against an Estonian businessman accused of murdering Jews in World War II. "The conclusions of the Estonian investigation of suspected Nazi war criminal Harry Mannil are a pathetic political whitewash and we categorically reject the prosecutors assessments of the case," Efraim Zuroff, the Israeli director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said . "Mannil should be held accountable for his role in the fate of Estonian civilians persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and their Estonian collaborators," Zuroff said. "The Estonian investigation of Mannil is a pathetic whitewash for political reasons of an active Nazi collaborator who, thanks to the ineptitude or corruption of the Estonian prosecution, will apparently never be held accountable for his crimes," Zuroff said.