Foreign Policy magazine has a nifty little feature out today called 'Postcards from Hell-Images from the world's most failed states.' In it, the author, former Foreign Policy managing editor Elizabeth Dickenson juxtaposes images from the failed states, based on something they call a 'failed state index' with photos designed to illustrate how awful they are.
Most of the prose follows the Leftist catechism with lots of mentions of Global Warming. Some of it is either ridiculously inaccurate or overblown. But the prize has to go to FP's listing of Israel as a failed state, number 54 out of a list of 60.
Yes, Israel, with a booming economy so far hardly affected by the global recession, almost total literacy, some of the best medical care in the world,total political liberty and an independent judiciary is a failed state - ranked below Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Comoros, Mozambique, Madagascar, Bolivia and Djibouti, and just above Angola. I kid you not.
So how did the brainiacs at Foreign Policy justify this? How did presumed foreign policy expert Elizabeth Dickenson square this circle?
Simple. They titled the entry 'Israel/West Bank' and cited some figures from a biased EU-funded British study about how 'tens of thousands of Palestinian families risk being forced to leave their homes as a result of Israeli policies' and that half the children 'suffered from water-borne diarrhea', linked to an article from that equally unbiased source, al-Jazeera!
Just one problem. Aside from the fact that the figures are obviously cooked, the study and the article both focus on a part of Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank) known as Area C. This is the part of Judea and Samaria where the major Jewish communities are, and is fully under Israeli administration. And guess what? Only an estimated 4% of the 'Palestinian' population of Judea and Samaria lives there...if that much. So there aren't 'ten of thousands of Palestinian families' facing eviction and the 'water-borne diarrhea' figures of children are so small as to be negligible...unless of course, you have an agenda.
Foreign Policy is a particularly fact challenged source, especially when it comes to the Middle East and it's home to Israel bashers like Stephen Walt, co-author of the scurrilous 'The Israel Lobby'. They have a perfect right to publish whatever horse manure they choose, but I have a problem with them issuing this kind of propaganda and calling it 'journalism'. At this point, the Israel Derangement Syndrome is so pronounced among 'journalists' like Dickenson that they can't even be bothered to make up lies that are remotely credible. And they ought to be ashamed of that.
As for Israel the failed state, a particularly comical aspect of this is the amount of Africans from some of the countries FP ranked above Israel who have attempted, often by walking amazing distances overland, to enter the country and start new lives. Not to mention the African countries who are the eager recipients of Israeli humanitarian and economic assistance.
Somehow, they didn't get the message it's a failed state.
6 comments:
You really can't make this crap up, can you? Those on the left are beginning to loose it big time.Israel is many things, isolated is not one of them, as the recent events around the flotilla of fools proves.Failed is not one of them, as they are one fo the few countries with a double digit growth rate. I say give it another year. When Obama looses the lefties and Jew-haters are going to need to be institutionalized. Maybe they can look to Obamacare for their mental health support...NOT
"Foreign Policy" is a failed magazine.
Rob: linked to an article from that equally unbiased source, al-Jazeera
Ad hominem. The actual study is by Save the Children, a century-old, highly reputable organization with wide experience helping children around the globe.
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/
Whether this qualifies Israel as a "failed state" is irrelevant to the plight of displaced children.
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/54_9515.htm
I take it from that that you consider al-Jazeera ( AKA JihadTV) an unbiased source Zachriel? If so, I think you need a serious reality check.
Among its other features, al-Jazeera features lectures by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheik Qaradiwi, who broadcasts on the joys of wife beating, clitorectomy and genocide against Jews among his other beliefs.
BTW, no need to shill for Save The Children. Links to the biased study and the al Jazeera article about it can both be found in the link to the Foreign Policy piece, so I'm not stopping anyone from making up their own mind.
Your labeling these 'Palestinian' children as displaced is ludicrous. Unlike the Arabs in 1948, the Israelis did not engage in widespread ethnic cleansing in Judea and Samaria in 1967 although in my mind their ancestors, who were all Jordanian citizens should have been repatriated there. These children are living exactly where they were born and raised.
The study itself is ridiculous, to anyone who has any knowledge of statistics, and was plainly used to demonize Israel.There are a lot of organizations with previously honorable histories in the UK that are besmirching themselves in a similar fashion.it may very well be that you're ok with that, which you certainly have a right to be.
Just own it and drop the pose.
Regards,
Rob
When the Obama admin dropped tainted Freeman as a nominee, FP published a Protocols-like article blaming ... the Jews. It was then I stopped reading FP.
Why, then, did the NYT reproduce FP's argument on the NYT front page a few days later? (The NYT article had not even the decency to mention the letter to Obama by 88 prominent Chinese dissidents, opposing Freeman's nomination.)
Down with the Zionist regime!
Down with Leo Strauss!
Down with the Neo-Cons!
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