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June 10, 2010

Netanyahu's lies on CBC

Karin Brothers

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Dear Mr. Mansbridge: I was expecting to be disappointed by your interview with Netanyahu, knowing that the CBC would have to be respectful of him as leader of Israel, but I was appalled at your refusal -- or inability -- to confront him on the dangerous propaganda and outright lies that he had the chuzpah to spew on CBC, including:

1. If Israel respects democracy ("as the only democracy in the Middle East"), why isn't it dealing with Hamas, the elected Palestinian government? And why isn't it treating all Israelis equally instead of giving only Jews full citizenship rights?

2. Israel is asking for Palestinian "recognition"? You might have noted the lies:
- Even before its election, Hamas offered to officially recognize Israel as soon as Israel recognizes Palestinian rights: why hasn't even one Israeli official ever recognized legal Palestinian rights? Why shouldn't recognition be mutual?

- Hamas has implicitly recognized Israel since 2003, when it first said it would accept the pre-Six Day War borders.

- But: "recognition" for what territory? Israel has no declared borders. How could Palestinians be protected if Israel declares its borders to include occupied Palestinian territory? This is a trick Hamas cannot fall for.

3. Israel wants to create a "demilitarized" Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state?

- What about the rights of Palestinians to a sovereign state?

- If they have no military, what will protect them from ongoing Israeli mistreatment?

- What will become of the 1 in 5 Palestinian-Israeli citizens?? Will they continue to have virtually no rights?

- What about the international humanitarian laws that ban unequal rights of citizens?

4. Israel wants to negotiate without preconditions, face to face with Palestinians?
- Why didn't you ask him why Israel wants to negotiate now after years of ignoring Palestinian pleas to negotiate?

5. Why wasn't Netanyahu confronted with the history of Israel's bad faith in agreements with Palestinians?:

+ Why wasn't he asked why Israel should be trusted after they violated the Oslo Accord by quickly doubling the settlers in occupied Palestinian territory and ignoring the dates to finalize the maps?

+ How can Israel be trusted after trashing the Roadmap, the Camp David, Mitchell, Tenet and Annapolis agreements?

+ Did Netanyahu claim the settlement restrictions were new? They were in every agreement!

- Why didn't you ask him why Israel is refusing to agree to Hamas' offers of ceasefire? Or why Israel has broken every ceasefire that Hamas was honoring?

- Why doesn't Israel show good faith by following their obligations under international humanitarian law?

6. Re: nuclear weapons responsibility: Israel is exempt from what is expected of other countries because it is responsible?

- Was Israel acting responsibly when they dropped illegal weapons and WMDs on unarmed Gazans last year?

- You must have been aware of recent documentation proving that Israel offered South Africa their nuclear expertise when it was under sanctions! Why wasn't that mentioned?

- How can Israel be considered a responsible member of the world community when it has not only broken more UN resolutions that any other country but continues to commit documented crimes against humanity?

The prize for the most clueless questions had to be: "Is the western press "biased" against Israel? You need to read Prof. Greg Philo's books or see the DVD "Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land" from www.mediaed.com It is now a free download, so there is no excuse not to be aware of the facts, which are that most people -- thanks to the western media's real bias -- believe that it is the Palestinians that occupy Israel.

Why didn't you ask Netanyahu

- Why they are continuing to block humanitarian aid from Gaza -- this siege, permanently stunting kids, is now into 4th year

- Why is Israel continuing to block materials to rebuild Gaza's infrastructure?

- Why is Israel continuing to attack Gaza and farmers working their fields? And block medical aid and access?

- Why they are attacking the humanitarian fleet trying to bring aid to Gaza at this moment? Why are they characterizing the aid workers -- including 40 Members of Parliament from 9 countries -- as "terrorists"?

The interview was not merely filled with lies and propaganda about the Palestinian situation, but you irresponsibly allowed Netanyahu to spout his dangerous lies to encourage an invasion of Iran.

- Lebanon and Gaza as virtual outposts of Iran?? Why was that claim not challenged? Both Hamas and Hezbollah are democratically popular with their own respective populations.

- Israel's interception of Iranian weapons to Hamas? The supposed interception of Iranian weapons last year was identified as a fraud with the outdated bill of lading that Israel published as "proof"; a previous "interception" of weapons to Palestinians of a few years ago was also documented to be fraudulent;

- Iran as making nuclear weapons? IAEA's El Baradei recently stated that Iran has been acting responsibly; it has been well documented that Iranian enrichment is far short of nuclear weapons production, and that Iran's claim that it is not interested in nuclear weapons is consistent with its actions.

Netanyahu's lies should have been challenged.

- Israeli intelligence 'didn't know" whether Iraq had dangerous weapons? "Israeli intelligence" has been well documented to be a leading source of misinformation to the US on supposed Iraqi WMDs. While the world community was clued in enough to take to the streets by the millions, suddenly leaders claim to have been clueless?? Why didn't you remind Netanyahu or CBC's audience of the reality?

Your interview with Netanyahu demonstrates the folly of speaking with dangerous propagandists without either the knowledge or the nerve to confront them with any facts.

This fawning interview was not only a disservice to the public, but a danger to world peace.

You should be ashamed of what you have done.

Karin Brothers

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