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Politics south Africa media must adopt its own agenda

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 POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: ‘Media Must Adopt Its Own Agenda’


 Nazeem Dramat interviews WILLIAM BIRD, media observer

 JOHANNESBURG, Feb 13 (IPS) – Electioneering in South Africa is in full 
swing. Party posters emblazon lampposts and the media has been lapping 
up the weekly rallies and manifesto launches as parties set out to woo 
voters. As in previous elections, the focus has been on party 
political events.

 According to press watchdog Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), South 
Africa’s media enjoys considerable freedom and independence but it has 
allowed politicians to set its agenda. It has been praised for its 
balance, fairness and accuracy but scored poorly on depth and 
diversity in its reporting.

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Poll 31 of Europeans blame jews for global financial crisis

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 Poll: 31% of Europeans blame Jews for global financial crisis

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspsondent, and Haaretz Service

A recent survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that anti-Semitic attitudes in seven European countries have worsened due to the global financial crisis and Israel’s military actions against the Palestinians.

Some 31 percent of adults polled blame Jews in the financial industry for the economic meltdown, while 58 percent of respondents admitted that their opinion of Jews has worsened due to their criticism of Israel.

 

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The wounds of Gaza

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The Wounds of Gaza

Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences,  share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack.

The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000  in 1956 or the execution  of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead?  We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000. Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008,

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Lobby? what lobby?

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 Lobby? What Lobby?
 
by Michael Scheuer
 
 
Last December, I spoke to the nonpartisan Jamestown Foundation’s annual conference on al-Qaeda. My talk was a worldwide survey of how America’s war against Islamism had gone in 2008; an analysis of al-Qaeda’s current fortunes and growth potential; and an assessment of whether U.S. policies were adequately protecting genuine U.S. national interests as the Obama administration began. I concluded that 2008 was a year of setbacks for America, and that the future appeared rather bleak.
 
For the speech, I took as my text a truncated version of the introduction I wrote for the paperback edition of my book, Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq. In preparing the new text I was pleased to find my predictions in the hardcover had been accurate, but saddened that Americans had not faced the fact that our Islamist foes are motivated by U.S. foreign policies and their impact. One policy I am critical of in Marching Toward Hell is the nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship. I argued that unqualified, bipartisan support for Israel damages U.S. national security, and I damned those who identify critics of the relationship as anti-American, anti-Semitic, or, in my case, according to AIPAC leader Morris J. Amitay, a man who would make Mein Kampf "required reading" at the CIA.
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