Michael Berenhaus
Michael Berenhaus, an American Zionist and a veteran pro-Israel lobbyist, is the co-founder of Pakistan-Israel Peace Forum and the founder of Eye On The Post, an organisation that monitors the Washington Post for its purported "anti-Israel bias". [1] The manifestations of perceived bias include the Washington Post's reference to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied territories" [2] -- the designation given to the territories by the UN and even recognized by Ariel Sharon, Israel's right-wing former Prime Minister. [3] Before setting up this organisation he had also organised a boycott of the paper through the http://www.BoycottThePost.org website.
In a December 29, 2003 Letter to the Editor of The Seattle Times he blames the decline in the number of Arab Christians in Bethlehem not on the depredations of the occupation, but on "Palestinian Muslim violence and intimidation" (emphasis added). He also reproduces an old Zionist canard, now effectively refuted by Israel's own New Historians, to place the blame for the massive ethnic cleansing of the native population in 1948 on the "Palestinian Arabs" and the "neighboring Arab states".
In another Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post on 18 February, 2005 Berenhaus takes strong exception to the paper's use of the word "occupier" in its reference to Israel and its control of the West Bank and Gaza.
Eye on the Post's "strategic alliances" include the ultra-right media watchdog groups CAMERA and Honest Reporting.
Notes
- ↑ 'About Us', EyeOnThePost.org
- ↑ Eric Fingerhut, Post' boycotters continuing protest efforts', EyeOnThePost.org, 20 June, 2002.
- ↑ 'Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Calls Israeli Presence in Palestine “Occupation”', Democracy Now!, 27 May, 2003.
