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Film on "Radical Islam" Tied to Pro-Israel Groups

Abbreviated versions and segments of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film's connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel. HonestReporting marketed "Obsession" but denies it produced or funded the project. "We initially gave some guidance to the 'Obsession' staff," wrote Pesach Bensen, editor of Mediabackspin.com, the organisation's weblog, in an email response to IPS. "We're thrilled to see it succeed beyond our wildest expectations." When "Obsession" was released last year, news pundits and anchors on FOX and CNN praised the independent film for its candid look at Islamic militancy. FOX incorporated footage from the film into a one-hour special, which aired seven times in November 2006. CNN's right-wing pundit Glen Beck called it "one of the most important films of our time". Sean Hannity of FOX News described it as "shocking beyond belief". While such enthusiasm from right-wing talk show personalities comes as no surprise, mainstream cable news programmes also appeared to accept, without question, the premise of the film, which explicitly compares the threat posed by radical Islam to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Consider, for example, CNN news anchor Kyra Phillips's exhortations during an adulatory interview in December 2006 with Raphael Shore, the film's producer: "I encourage everybody to see this movieà you definitely get an incredible education from watching this filmà The movie left many of us speechlessà We appreciate what you've done." HonestReporting was founded in 2000 by British university students who objected to what they considered anti-Israel coverage by European media in response to the second Palestinian intifada. There is no mention of HonestReporting's connection to "Obsession" on the film's website, www.obsessionthemovie.com. In an online "Ask the Filmmakers" segment on the FOX News website, Shore stated that he could not identify the film's funders for fear of retaliation by the "radicals" the filmmakers exposed. Brian Gaffney, executive producer of the FOX News Documentary Unit, declined to comment on whether HonestReporting's connection was disclosed to the audience, or whether FOX was aware of the organisation's ideological perspective. "There is no mistaking that this was a film with a clear point of view," Gaffney wrote in an email to IPS. "Its forceful case against Radical Islam spoke for itself." In the case of CNN, which ran segments of the film in the context of a joint interview with Shore and cast member Nonie Darwish, it appears that producers were unaware of the connection. "I was told that HonestReporting was not involved with this film," said CNN spokeswoman Megan Mahoney. Any relation between HonestReporting and "Obsession" is also missing on the film's website, but the organisation's name does appear at the end of the film's credits. In addition, a call for tax-deductible donations to help "launch" the film appeared on HonestReporting's website, promising a free DVD of "Obsession" upon release. Contributors of 250 dollars or more were promised a free copy of the book "Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror". An entry on Mediabackspin.com, the organisation's weblog, also describes HonestReporting as a "proud partner" of the film. "Obsession" features interviews with Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, investigative journalist Steve Emerson, Itimar Marcus of Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch, and Daniel Pipes, a controversial scholar of medieval Islamic history whose website campuswatch.com sparked criticism in 2002 for its alleged McCarthyesque attacks on Middle East studies professors. Its production credits include the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, a translation service founded in 1998 by Col. Yigal Carmon, who spent more than 20 years in Israeli intelligence and later advised two Israeli prime ministers; and the Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli group founded by Marcus, that monitors Palestinian news organisations for alleged anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic propaganda. "Obsession", for all its fans, has engendered contentious debate on U.S. university campuses not only for its disquieting barrage of video footage culled from the Arab media, but also for the film's distribution network. According to the New York Times, when a Middle East discussion group organised a screening at New York University earlier this year, distributors of the film required those in attendance to register at IsraelActivism.com, the official website of the Hasbara fellowships. The programme, also known as the Jerusalem fellowships, was started in 2001 by Aish Hatorah -- an Orthodox Jewish outreach organisation and yeshiva based in East Jerusalem -- in conjunction with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to its website, the group "educates and trains university students to be effective pro-Israel activists on their campuses" by providing its participants with "tools, resources and confidence to return to their campuses as leaders in the fight for Israel's image." Aish Hatorah helped found HonestReporting. Rabbi Ephraim Shore, the president of HonestReporting, also helped found Hasbara.

Arab-American signs on as co-chair of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaig

CONCORD, New Hampshire: One of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top supporters says if the Democrat wins the White House, he wants to be part of her team negotiating peace in the Middle East. Bill Shaheen, a second-generation Lebanese American who is married to former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, last week joined Clinton as co-chairman of her national and state campaigns. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that reports that he withheld his endorsement until he was promised an ambassadorship were wrong. “Did she promise (an ambassadorship)? No,” Shaheen said. “That’s not how I work. I don’t think Senator Clinton is thinking that far down the road and I would be disappointed if she was.” Shaheen helped run Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976 and went to the Palestinian territories last year as an election monitor for the Carter Center. Shaheen is considered one of New Hampshire’s political kingmakers and helped run the New Hampshire campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry. Shaheen met with bloggers after a news conference announcing his endorsement last week. One blog, GreenMountainPolitics1, quoted Shaheen as saying Clinton promised to make him her Middle East envoy. “The only thing I made Hillary promise in return for helping on her campaign is that she will send me over to the Middle East to help her work for peace in the region,” blogger Chris Stewart quoted Shaheen as saying. In an interview Tuesday, Stewart said Shaheen never used the word “ambassador.” The blog BlueHampshire quoted Shaheen as saying: “I said if I do all this for you, I only want one thing: I want to be on that team that brings peace to the Middle East. I believe in it. I don’t need to get paid. I just want to be on that team.” Mike Caulfield, who posted the BlueHampshire entry, said his quotes are accurate and Shaheen did not say Clinton had made any promises. “My impression is that he was not presenting it as a quid pro quo,” Caulfield said. “He never said anything about what Hillary said back to that.”

Activists look to politically energize Arabs

PATERSON – Last year was a tough one politically for local Arab-Americans. War raged between Israel and Lebanon. The war in Iraq dragged on. In Passaic County, state Democratic heavyweights forced a promising Lebanese-American freeholder candidate named Sami Merhi to drop out of the race in the wake of a controversy over comments he had made four years earlier, remarks that some interpreted as a tacit approval of terrorism against Israel. “Last year, (Arab-Americans here) were not really feeling they could make a difference,” said Maram Abdelhamid of the Washington, D.C.-based Arab American Institute. More than 65 people crowded into the Al Basha restaurant in South Paterson Sunday afternoon to network, break bread and to mobilize the Arab-American community to get involved in the political process. Organizers hope the meet-and-greet brunch will be the first of a monthly series that will travel throughout the state to energize New Jersey’s Arab Diaspora. Hesham Mahmoud, co-chair of the state’s Arab American Republican Caucus, who is active with the Arab American Institute, said there has been a growing sense that Arabs and Muslims in America need to become more politically involved, particularly in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York on Sept. 11, 2001. “Prior to 9/11, when we had voter registration, we could go and spend hours—we’d have a hard time finding five, 10 people,” Mahmoud said. “After 9/11, it’s effortless.” The crowd at the brunch reflected a wide cross section of Arabs in America: women and men; Muslims and Christians; immigrants from Egypt, Morocco, the Palestinian territories and Algeria and lifelong Americans. As the diners chatted and laughed at the jokes of Arab-American comedians projected on a screen, some of the older generation in attendance pointed to Merhi’s ouster from the county Democratic machine as a catalyst for young people. Merhi himself attended the event with friends and family. He said that his fall from party politics—he has said that his words were twisted and misrepresented—served as an eye-opener that will ultimately bring more young Arab-Americans into the process. “Kids are getting involved,” he said. “It’s reassuring we are on the right path—socially, economically and politically. It’s refreshing.” Lena Soukieh , an 18-year-old high school senior from Bogota, attended the brunch with a friend. “We can make a difference,” she said. “I would like to see more Arabs involved in politics, and to change the views Americans have of Arabs.” Mehdi Eliefifi, whose New Jersey Outreach Group helped to sponsor the event, said the time has come for Arab-Americans to focus not only on their own families and neighborhoods, but to turn to the public arena to ensure their voices are heard. “This community has been around since the 1800s,” he said. “We are part of the American mosaic. We contribute like everyone else. This is the time to get involved.”

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