The Media is the Message > Die Welt Lied About RT; Twitter Rejects UN Rapporteur as Not Notable

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‘Will Die Welt acknowledge it was wrong?’ Head of RT in Germany

asks newspaper after courts rule it published lies about outlet

18 Aug, 2021 13:24

(L) © Die Welt; (R) © RT Deutsche;

The head of RT in Germany has challenged Die Welt to take responsibility for publishing untruthful facts harming RT DE’s reputation. The claims were made in a column about alleged Russian disinformation printed by the newspaper.

Dinara Toktosunova, head of RT in Germany, called out the influential media giant Axel Springer’s daily publication on Wednesday, citing two injunctions ordered by German courts. Both rulings dealt with the same opinion piece published by Die Welt last month, which was highly critical of the channel and made several claims that RT DE found objectionable. The district court in Berlin and Frankfurt sided with the channel, agreeing that the column stated untruthful facts about RT DE.

“I hope our colleagues will have the dignity to acknowledge their mistake,” Toktosunova said on social media.

Or was it a mistake or a deliberate provocation, what do you think?

The column, bylined by Die Welt writer Ulrich Clauss, sought to expose a purported Russian disinformation campaign in Germany and targeted RT DE as one of its elements. The alleged operation, the article said, was being conducted under the so-called ‘Gerasimov doctrine’. It's a non-existent Russian military policy that even Mark Galeotti, the person who coined the term, acknowledged was a product of translation error.

Two of the claims that made RT DE file complaints in German courts were about the infamous 2016 ‘Lisa case’. Lisa F. is a Russian-German girl who went missing for several days, scaring her family. After returning home, she claimed she had been raped. German police later said the girl actually ran away from problems at school and that the accusations were fabricated. The investigators also found that Lisa, who was 13 at the time, did have a sexual relationship with an adult man, Ismet S., who was consequently tried for violating German age of consent laws and sentenced to a suspended term in 2017.

The situation caused a top-level diplomatic rift between Russia and Germany and fueled anti-immigrant sentiments in Germany, after the girl’s family reportedly falsely claimed that her alleged rapists were Arabs. Die Welt’s columnist claimed RT DE “invented” the case and called on the Russian-German community to protest. Both statements were falsehoods rather than opinions, the courts said.

The third point of the RT DE complaint was about a misleading passage citing Lennart Maschmeyer, a senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich. It said “broadcasters like ‘RT Deutsch’ remain the main actors in disinformation,” without explaining whether the quotation marks indicated a direct quote of the expert.

In fact, Maschmeyer’s February paper that the Die Welt article referred to did not mention the channel at all. So the courts agreed that a reasonable reader of the column could be left with a wrong impression of what the expert actually said in his research.

The August 11 ruling of the Frankfurt court said RT DE was correct in believing that the false claims harmed its reputation and ordered Die Welt to cease their dissemination. The Berlin court, which issued its decision on August 4, instructed the newspaper to add to the column a highly visible notice reflecting RT DE’s position. Both rulings can be appealed.

As of Wednesday, the controversial material remains available on Die Welt’s website in its original form.

Not notable enough? UN torture rapporteur who defended

 Assange gets rejected by Twitter for verification

18 Aug, 2021 23:08

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer, shown at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 2, 2020.

©  REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Twitter apparently never heard of the UN special rapporteur for torture Nils Melzer – an outspoken defender of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, among others – since it denied his verification request, saying he wasn’t notable enough.

“Seriously?” Melzer tweeted on Wednesday, posting a screenshot of the message he received from Twitter’s Verification service saying that “the evidence provided did not meet our criteria for notability.”

“I am an official international mandate holder of [UN special procedures experts] appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, with an official webpage @UNHumanRights & countless publications & public appearances. “How (on earth) does that ‘not meet your criteria for notability’?” he fulminated.

One of the screenshots Melzer provided was of his UN biography page, which lists his extensive employment history, publications and notable UN work. The Swiss scholar has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment since November 2016.

As such, he has repeatedly spoken out about the illegal imprisonment of Assange, the WikiLeaks co-founder who spent years trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK. After being stripped of his asylum and dragged out of the embassy in April 2019, Assange was sent to the Belmarsh prison outside London, where he has been held in de facto solitary confinement ever since, pending US demands to have him extradited on spurious “hacking” charges.

Melzer has also sought to protect the human rights of peaceful protesters, such as an elderly German woman whom a viral video showed being brutalized by police in Berlin, during an anti-lockdown protest earlier this month.

None of this seemed to matter to Twitter, which told Melzer in what appeared to be a form letter that they “could not reliably verify that the account associated with the request is a notable person, organization, or brand.” The San Francisco-based platform urged him to try again in 30 days.

Maybe he will be more famous in 30 days?

However, last week Twitter announced it was pausing the verification process to “make improvements to the application and review process,” so they can “get things right.”

The only way to get things right is to stop working for Deep State. Like that's going to happen.

Why Melzer got the form letter questioning his notability if this pause has been in effect since August 13, or why he was advised to try again before the verification resumes, remains unclear at this time.

 

IDF Soldiers Get 6 Months Jail Time Over Beating Handcuffed & Blindfolded Palestinians

This story comes from RT which is definitely antisemitic as are most of its readers.

Why I include it here will be obvious at the end of the article.

© Reuters/Mussa Qawasma

Two of the five Israeli soldiers accused of severely beating restrained Palestinian prisoners have reached a plea agreement with military prosecutors. They’ll be demoted in ranks and get six and a half months in jail.

The soldiers are the first of the five belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion to admit to beating a father and his teenage son who remain in Israeli custody without charges. While the plea agreement will help them avoid more serious charges of aggravated assault, they will still face six and a half months in prison and a demotion.

Negotiations are ongoing regarding charges against the remaining three soldiers whose detention has been extended until Wednesday. Two of the five are also being charged with obstruction of justice for attempting to collaborate their stories beforehand.

The Israeli soldiers were arrested on January 10, days after allegedly striking their Palestinian prisoners “with slaps, punches and bludgeons while they were handcuffed and blindfolded, causing them serious injuries,” the IDF said.

According to the indictment, the soldiers’ removed the teenager boy’s blindfold and forced him to watch his father being beaten. The father’s injuries were so severe he was unable to be interrogated and had to be hospitalized. The teenager also sustained serious heads wounds and significant swelling to his face.

A video of the incident revealed the soldiers joyfully laughing as the prisoners are being beaten while they cry out for help.

The two Palestinians were detained in a wave of arrests after a shooter killed two members of the IDF soldiers’ battalion in December. Prosecutors believe the beatings were motivated by revenge.

No doubt they are right about that.

The Truth Is:

This is an amazing example of Israeli intolerance of inhuman behaviour, even by its own forces at a time of such violence. This action of justice could never have happened in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian soldiers torturing Israelis would be heroes, not criminals; they would be rewarded, not jailed. Yet, it is Israel that receives the condemnation in the international press. 

NBC Shooting Themselves in the Foot With Their Fanatical Attacks on Tulsi Gabbard

Who Do You Trust More? NBC Journalist’s Stab at RT

Backfires Spectacularly

Eager to defend NBC News’ claim that Democrat Tulsi Gabbard was being promoted by a ‘Russian machine,’ journalist Kasie Hunt asked Twitter if they trusted her network or RT more. The results were not what she'd hoped for.

Fresh from a disastrous interview with Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Wednesday morning, in which Hunt claimed that US troops were sent to Syria “pushing back against [President Bashar] Assad” rather than to fight Islamic State, Hunt asked her Twitter followers to compare the NBC story that claimed that Russia was “boosting” the congresswoman, to the report from “Russian state media” RT.

Kasie Hunt✔
@kasie
 Here is ⁦@NBCNews⁩’ excellent reporting on the Russian machine that now appears to be boosting Tulsi Gabbard https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna964261 …

Experts who track websites and social media linked to Russia have seen stirrings of a possible campaign of support for Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard.

nbcnews.com
Kasie Hunt✔
@kasie
Here is the “debunking” of the NBC News report from RT, the Russian state media. You tell me which you think is more credible https://www.rt.com/usa/450613-nbc-gabbard-new-knowledge-smear/ …

NBC’s claim Tulsi Gabbard is supported by a Kremlin propaganda effort is based on data from a cybersecurity firm already exposed for creating fake Russian bot accounts, prompting a sharp rebuke from...

NBC’s “excellent reporting” was based on “experts” from New Knowledge – a shady outfit that was exposed in December for making up fake Russian bot accounts to help Democrats during a 2017 Senate election. It was Glenn Greenwald from The Intercept that pushed back on NBC’s claim first, a fact duly noted in RT’s article – but not in Hunt’s tweets.

Greenwald responded by comparing NBC journalists to being more obsessed with Russia that J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the FBI for almost 50 years.

Glenn Greenwald✔
@ggreenwald
 NBC personalities find more Russian infiltration than J. Edgar Hoover ever did. Also, @Kasie, you "forgot" to mention that the "experts" on which NBC relied for its McCarthyite smearing just got caught fabricating Russia data on behalf of Democrats. https://theintercept.com/2019/02/03/nbc-news-to-claim-russia-supports-tulsi-gabbard-relies-on-firm-just-caught-fabricating-russia-data-for-the-democratic-party/ …

Kasie Hunt✔
@kasie
Here is ⁦@NBCNews⁩’ excellent reporting on the Russian machine that now appears to be boosting Tulsi Gabbard https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna964261 …

There were hundreds of replies to Hunt’s question. While some expressed support for NBC and repeated the claim that Gabbard is a Russian agent somehow, the majority sided with RT and The Intercept.

When the author of the original NBC report, Ben Popken, jumped to Hunt’s defense, The Nation’s Aaron Mate called him out for “sleazy McCarthyite tactics.”

Aaron Maté✔
@aaronjmate
 Correct, and Glenn Greenwald completely discredited your report. (https://theintercept.com/2019/02/03/nbc-news-to-claim-russia-supports-tulsi-gabbard-relies-on-firm-just-caught-fabricating-russia-data-for-the-democratic-party/ …) That’s why you have to resort to repeating your report’s sleazy McCarthyite tactics — “look everyone, a Russian outlet is talking about ____!” — to try to defend it.

Ben Popken✔
@bpopken
Pressed by @kasie on NBC's reporting, Gabbard didn't dispute a single fact and instead said it had been discredited. When asked by whom she wouldn't name them. I'll tell you who: RT, Russia Insider, Sputnik, and Glenn Greenwald.

Lest one think the Intercept is supporting Gabbard’s candidacy, the publication actually ran a fiercely critical piece about her in early January, accusing the congresswoman of being close to Hindu nationalist groups in India.

Of the candidates that have announced their intent to compete for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020, Gabbard is the only one so far to campaign on opposing foreign wars, including the US intervention in Syria, ostensibly against ISIS, and the ongoing effort to force regime change in Venezuela.

Being an outsider to the war-mongering establishment (read Deep State) in Washington, expect Mainstream Media to keep pounding Tulsi with shoddy, dishonest and fabricated reporting. 

MSM Peddling Fake News & Diverting Public Attention with Russia-Bashing Stories – Jon Gaunt

Yes, I know this is RT, but this is an interview with a popular British journalist who would never be allowed to speak the truth on Main Stream Media

Jon Gaunt - Despite the Media Establishment’s current reticence, Jon is undeniably one the UK’s most decorated Talk Show hosts and has won numerous broadcasting awards including being the only presenter to win three Sony Gold Awards (The Oscars of the Industry) in one night.

Freedom of speech rally © imago stock&people / Global Look Press

The BBC and other mainstream media outlets have been slammed by a leading British journalist, who claims all they do is peddle the government’s “fake” narrative.

Speaking to RT’s Bill Dod, radio host and journalist Jon Gaunt said he fears that disinformation is being spread by mainstream media outlets on a daily basis.

When Dod asked him whether he personally feared the spread of fake news, Gaunt responded affirmatively, saying he “sees it every day on the BBC.”

"The idea that the BBC and the government of Britain are preaching on fake news, come on, behave! They are up to it too,” Gaunt said, citing both the Salisbury spy case and the alleged chemical-weapons attack on the Syrian town of Douma in April.

“No one knows the truth of either of those but if you read a British newspaper or watched BBC or Sky you will believe that Vladimir Putin did both.”

The journalist, who has himself featured regularly on the BBC and Sky, appeared on RT UK to comment on Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson’s appeal on Tuesday for journalists and those with IT skills to join the armed forced to counter fake news and cyber-propaganda.

Gaunt branded the appeal “a load of nonsense” and said: “To counter fake news we get new people to make more fake news. It’s just ridiculous.”

He added it was no coincidence that less than 24 hours after Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s resignation over the Windrush scandal, the defence secretary “comes out” with yet another Russia-bashing story.

“What they are trying to do is divert the public’s attention away and make us believe that the Russians are our enemy. It’s not working, it’s pathetic,” Gaunt said.

“The BBC, Sky News and every single mainstream media outlet just pump out the government narrative constantly,” he concluded.

And it is not just in the UK, but most countries in the western world are swallowing the garbage being poured out by governments with regard to Russia and Syria. These are two countries with some serious issues, but neither are guilty of all the things that MSM and western governments have attributed to them. This is Deep State in control.

video 4:10

Israeli Justice Minister Claims BDS Wants to ‘Wipe the Jewish Nation off the Face of the Earth’

Amazing articles (2) not because of what the minister said,

but because of the remarkable naivety of the antisemitic media,

specifically RT and the Washington Post 

Ayelet Shaked, Israel's Justice Minister © Gali Tibbon / Reuters

30 Oct 2016 RT

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has accused the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement of wanting to “wipe the Jewish nation off the face of the Earth” and of being “deeply rooted in anti-Semitism.”

Shaked made the remarks Sunday at the opening plenary of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s latest board of governors meeting.

The board, which meets at least three times a year, is the central policy-making body of the Jewish Agency, a large nonprofit organization which says it aims to “connect the global Jewish family.”

Addressing the board in Jerusalem, Shaked warned “all those agents of ignorance and hatred” against testing Israel's strength and determination to defend the Jewish state, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The BDS movement is a global campaign, first launched in Palestine in 2005, to apply political and economic pressure to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Shaked, however, insisted that the campaign has “no interest in promoting human rights, but in wiping the Jewish nation off the face of the Earth.”

She also referred to the movement as anti-Semitism dressed up as a platform for freedom and justice.

“It's deeply rooted in classical anti-Semitism that has spread all over Europe throughout the past few hundred years,” she said.

The justice minister also claimed the movement was “defeated” and referenced a Bloomberg report from June on foreign investment in Israeli assets.

Foreign capital flow in the country has nearly tripled since the launch of the BDS movement 11 years ago, with investments reaching a record high of $285.12 billion, according to the Bloomberg article.

Shaked is renowned for her anti-Palestinian rhetoric and sparked controversy in July 2014 before she became justice minister for a Facebook post, later deleted, referring to Palestinian children as “little snakes” and apparent warmongering.

She had quoted a former Israeli writer who was referring specifically to children who attack and murder Jews just out of hatred bred into them by their families and friends. RT makes it sound like she refers to all Palestinian children as such, which is not correct and reveals RT's bias.

“This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started...,” she wrote.

Again, this is a quote. See below.


Washington Post WorldViews

Israel’s new justice minister considers all Palestinians to be ‘the enemy’

By Ishaan Tharoor May 7, 2015 

Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party is known for her strident views on Palestinians and the Israeli left. (Tsafrir Abayov/AP)

An 11th-hour deal on Wednesday led to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forming the most right-wing government in his country's history. Netanyahu's slim majority in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, was secured after a pact with the Jewish Home party, led by Naftali Bennett, an ultra-nationalist who draws much of his support from Israel's settler population and rejects a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And he does that because Palestinians don't want a 2 state solution, they want Jews gone.

One of the terms of the alliance was that Netanyahu would tap Bennett's de facto lieutenant, Ayelet Shaked, to be the next justice minister. This is a move not without controversy.

Shaked is known for her strident (some would say extremist) (those 'some' would be RT and The Washington Post, just to name a couple) views regarding Palestinians and the enfeebled Israeli left. In July, in a controversial post on Facebook, the then-member of the Knesset posted the text of an article by the late Israeli writer Uri Elitzur that referred to Palestinian children as "little snakes" and appeared to justify the mass punishment of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The post has since been deleted, but an archived version remains.

It was put up shortly after the discovery of the bodies of three Israeli teens kidnapped last year while hiking in the West Bank. Their killing eventually escalated into a 50-day war in which Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave dominated by the militant Islamist group Hamas, which launched barrages of rocket fire at Israel. The Gaza war killed more than 1,400 Palestinian civilians and reduced whole swaths of the impoverished territory to rubble.

The leftist site Mondoweiss offers a full translation of Shaked's controversial posting, which quotes Elitzur, a former Netanyahu adviser, here. Some excerpts:

The Palestinian people has declared war on us, and we must respond with war. Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation, no destruction of terror infrastructure, no targeted killings. Enough with the oblique references. This is a war. Words have meanings. This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two people. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people. Why? Ask them, they started...

Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. Actors in the war are those who incite in mosques, who write the murderous curricula for schools, who give shelter, who provide vehicles, and all those who honor and give them their moral support. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.

So it is obvious Elitzur was talking about terrorists here not every Palestinian child. The mention of destroying the homes of such terrorists as opposed to destroying the homes of all Palestinians makes that very clear. 

Even if these aren't Shaked's own words, the sentiment is noteworthy, and it reflects what critics say is the Israeli nationalist right's widespread intolerance of the Arabs in their midst, who make up one-fifth of the Israeli population.

So, why does The Washington Post insist on bending that quote to refer to all Palestinian children? Did the Editor simply overlook this piece of antisemitic trash or was he/she in agreement with it? Either way, it reflects very poorly on journalistic ethics and honesty.

Bennett and Shaked's Jewish Home party are avowed opponents of Palestinian statehood. Bennett's proposal for settling the "Palestinian question" involves the creation of semiautonomous territories that some have likened to the bantustans of apartheid-era South Africa.

Again, who are the 'somes' referred to here?

Shaked's appointment as justice minister also has raised fears that Netanyahu's new government will attempt to rein in the Israeli judiciary, as my colleague William Booth reports. Some are rather worried about what may follow.

"The demand to give Ayelet Shaked the Justice portfolio is like giving the Fire and Rescue Services to a pyromaniac," opposition lawmaker Nachman Shai told the Arutz Sheva news site.

OK, it's been nearly a year and a half and I'm still looking for signs of smoke!

Shaked, a photogenic former tech executive, doesn't seem too bothered about the opinions of her opponents. She once dismissed Haaretz, arguably Israel's most internationally respected newspaper, as a publication "read by a mere 30,000 Israelis."

Oh, no! She didn't say that, did she? She ought to be tried for treason, obviously! Good grief!

After all, Shaked is about to gain a cabinet post in a climate in which an Israeli former foreign minister can call for the "beheading" of disloyal Arabs with no political cost and in which warning of Arabs "voting in droves" helped Netanyahu's Likud party win Israel's general election earlier this year.

That's the difference between Israel and many of the Arab countries around them, 1) free speech, 2) free criticism, 3) an Israeli can call for beheading though it would never be taken seriously, but in Iran, Saudi Arabia and who knows how many Muslim countries, it's a frequent occurrence sanctioned by the government.

Yet, here, the Washington Post writer criticizes Israel for not condemning the man for mentioning it; rather than praising Israel for not adopting tactics that are more fit for Islam.

"Shaked is going and taking her place in the pantheon of the extreme right," says leftist Israeli legislator Michal Rozin, "and represents an ideology where her own racism doesn't embarrass her."

Rozin must be one of these 'somes'! So, the question here for Mr. Rozin is, would you be racist if you hated Nazis? Is it 'extremist' to hate people who want to kill you and everyone who is a Jew. Are you too dense to see that if the Palestinians had the capability of the 1930s-1940s Nazis, that they would surely try to accomplish the very same thing, the annihilation of the Jewish race?

Egyptian Activist Hangs Israeli Flag, Calls for End to Media’s ‘Dishonest Reporting’ About Jewish State

by Shiryn Ghermezian 

Egyptian peace activist Ahmed Meligy called for an end to biased reporting against Israel. Photo: Facebook.

An Egyptian-Muslim peace activist expressed strong support for Israel on Monday and called on major media outlets to halt their biased coverage of the Jewish state.

In a video posted on Facebook, Ahmed Meligy criticized the media’s “dishonest reporting” and “brainwash methods” in relation to the current wave of violence in Israel. Filming from Egypt, he spoke to the camera with Israeli and Egyptian flags hanging on the wall behind him. After proclaiming his passion for his home country, the activist said he hung the Israeli flag as well because Israel has the right to be recognized “in a proper, decent, honest way.”

Meligy specifically mentioned the BBC and The Washington Post for “undermining what’s going on in Israel to the point that they are trying to bury it, so the world won’t know.” He cited specific headlines from both media outlets, which report on Palestinians being killed, but fail to identify them as terrorists and attackers.

If you think they are bad, and they are, try reading RT.

“Israel has the right to be recognized. What’s going on has to be mentioned fairly without these cheap tactics,” he said. “This [the biased reporting] has nothing to do with honesty. This has nothing to do with integrity and it’s a shame.”

The Egyptian activist urged the public to become the “true news reporters,” saying, “It is our duty to act and show the world what’s going on in Israel.”

Egyptian Activist: "We Were Taught to Hate Israel"

"We have so much in common. Some of my Israeli friends are more Arab then a lot of Arabs I know," said Egyptian activist Ahmed Meligy.

Ben Bresky & INN Staff


Ahmed Meligy in Tahrir Square 2011  Photo Courtesy Ahmed Meligy

Hitler good; Jew bad

"When I was a kid, I wondered why they told us that Adolph Hitler was a good guy and that he did good by the Holocaust," reminisced Ahmed Meligy, a self described Egyptian peace activist. "This sounded like pure racism and ignorance, but I couldn't speak my mind or say that out loud," he continued. Meligy has been making waves since publishing a series of editorials in the Jerusalem Post and other media outlets about his opposition to a more radicalized, less democratic Egyptian government.

The young man gave a live phone interview from Alexandria, Egypt on Israel National Radio's News & Views call-in show with Tamar Yonah. 

"I cannot blame them," said Meligy, referring to anti-Jewish sentiment in Egyptian society. "Years ago while I was in school, we didn't have internet, or cable TV. We just had government TV and this was the only source of information we had," Meligy stated.

President Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt from 1981 until 2011 when he was ousted. The June elections in Egypt have caused Meligy and others concern that the new government will not allow any more freedoms then the old one.

"Our government was telling us whatever they wanted," continued Meligy. "We saw everything from their view. They were saying Israel is this very big monster. They were magnifying it."

Meligy said he has been seeking to communicate with non-Egyptians, specifically Israelis. He found Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio show host Tamar Yonah through Facebook. "I was very curious about the Jewish people and wanted to know everything," he said.

Meligy said he does not blame the Egyptian people for being anti-Jewish because "they were fed propaganda and hatred toward the Jewish world."

Meligy expressed initial shock when he first communicated with real Israelis. "One of the things they were telling us was that the Israelis have nothing to do with the Middle East and Israelis are nothing but Europeans and Americans," he enthused. "I used to believe that, until I started to have Israeli friends who listened to the same music I listen to, who play the same video games I play, who love soccer. We have so much in common. They are some times that my Israeli friends are more Arab then a lot of Arabs I know. So this is why I started my activism. I have to give to show the truth to my people and show the truth to your people that we are not terrorists," said Meligy.

Unfortunately, I am unable to find a good link to this interview.

The Real Reason for the NATO Build-up in Poland and the Baltic States

Poland must target Kaliningrad, Moscow Metro & RT to deter Russian invasion – think tank

FILE PHOTO Members of Poland's special commando unit Lubliniec participate in the "Noble Sword-14" NATO international tactical exercise at the land forces training centre in Oleszno, near Drawsko Pomorskie, northwest Poland September 9, 2014 © Kacper Pempel / Reuters

You should know that this report comes from RT (Russia Today), a state-run news outlet. Nevertheless, it has some excellent information that you should be aware of.

Russia is unpredictable and may attack the Baltic states and Poland at any moment, so Warsaw should strengthen its military and be prepared to hit the city of Kaliningrad with missiles and shut down RT, a think tank with close ties to NATO has said.

Called ‘Arming for Deterrence’, the 25-page document released by the US-based Atlantic Council says what NATO in general and Poland in particular should do to “counter a resurgent Russia.” The threat of such an attack is imminent, the report states.

“Even if Moscow currently has no immediate intent to challenge NATO directly, this may unexpectedly change overnight and can be implemented with great speed, following already prepared plans. The capability to do so is, to a large extent, in place,” the report warns.

"Even if Moscow..." would seem to imply that the think tank is not aware of any such plans. Nevertheless, it feels the need for Warsaw to spend kazillions of dollars buying American-made weapons. I wonder where the funding for the Atlantic Council comes from? I wonder if its members have any shares in weapons manufacturers? Not that I think they may be the least bit disingenuous.

I don't doubt that there needs to be a deterrent to keep Russia from re-absorbing the Baltic States. Putin is ambitious and would love to see Russia return to the power and influence of its 'glory days' under communism. But as in communist days there is a certain paranoia that the west wants to invade and/or destroy Russia. It was fed by the KGB and their predecessors for the purpose of empire building - making the KGB enormously large and powerful. I think it is extremely unwise to feed that paranoia.

The council says a Russian invasion cannot be predicted as it could be triggered by anything from NATO being “distracted by another crisis” to Moscow’s “misperception of NATO’s activities and a miscalculation of the Alliance’s resolve.”

While being unpredictable, “Russia rarely disguises its true intentions,” according to the report. “On the contrary, it has proclaimed them very publicly on various occasions, but, in general, the West has chosen not to believe Russia’s declarations and disregards its willingness to carry them out.”

If Russia does invade, the alliance would be slow to respond, and Russia would try to achieve a fait accompli and use nuclear deterrence to prevent a full-scale war. The goal of Poland as the biggest NATO member close to Russia would be “to delay and bog down an invading force and inflict unacceptable damage on it,” according to the Atlantic Council.

“[NATO] force [in Poland] is not required to win the war, but it must be able to fight alongside the host-nation forces to buy NATO more time for reinforcement. NATO’s presence in the region is currently not large enough to achieve this,” the report said.

Swift reforms are needed if Poland wishes to be able to deter Russia, the report says, suggesting a number of measures for Warsaw to take. Many of them are focused on the Polish military and involves strengthening its numbers and purchasing modern new weapons, such as the US-made JASSM aircraft-launched cruise missiles, which could hit targets deep inside Russia, or the coastal NSM missiles, which can be placed in range of the Russian city of Kaliningrad.

Poland should also procure more multiple rocket launchers, attack helicopters, UAVs and other weapons, the report adds. These efforts would require streamlining the procurement process so that purchases were not stalled by Polish red tape, the report suggests.

All this spending would not allow Poland to withstand the hypothetical Russian onslaught, the report says, so the country should prepare its military for a guerrilla war by building a network of shelters in its wooded areas.

This reads almost like an infomercial. "You should spend half the country's GDP buying American weapons... they won't save you, but we'll make lots of money!"

“This shelter or bunker network, built with significant redundancies, would facilitate the deployment of ‘stay behind’ units. Poland’s military tradition in forest-based guerrilla warfare dates back to the 1830s. More recently, forest units resisted the Germans and Soviets from 1939 to the 1950s,” the council said.

Poland should also make several policy statements, according to the think tank. It should “aim to join the tactical nuclear capability scheme within NATO, so enabling its F-16s to be carriers of tactical nuclear ordnance”. It should also announce targets for potential cyber offensive operations, “which could include the Moscow metro, the St. Petersburg power network, and Russian state-run media outlets such as RT.”

Other advice from the Atlantic Council includes undermining any efforts by the EU to create its own military force, as it would switch resources to it from NATO.

“Any weakening of NATO cannot be countenanced, especially at this political juncture, and particularly with a putative British exit from the EU weakening the Union’s collective military posture outside of NATO,” the report said.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of communism which effectively brought an end to the Cold War, people began to question the need for NATO. Suddenly, a war popped up in Bosnia and NATO was in there like a dirty shirt. The questions regarding NATO's usefulness went away, and the billions (trillions?) of dollars spent on supporting it continued to flow to militaries and arms manufacturers when it could have been put to good use elsewhere.

It's curious why an American think-tank would try to discourage the formation of an EU military which would replace NATO. It could save the US an enormous amount of money. But then, the EU military would be more inclined to buy their weapons from Germany and France. Is this all becoming clear now?

Warsaw should also “find new incentives for its citizens to remain in Poland rather than emigrate to other EU countries,” the document said, adding that “Emigration has reduced Poland’s defense capacity by draining people of military age, often with the technical and information technology (IT) skills that Poland’s forces require.”

Poland and the Baltic states are among the more vocal advocates of an increased NATO military presence close to the Russian border, saying it is needed to deter alleged Russian aggression. The alliance agreed at a summit in Warsaw earlier in July to place additional rotating troops and hardware in Poland and the Baltic States, as well as to step up naval presence in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Russia denies having any intent to attack NATO and says the alliance is trying to justify its existence by drumming up anti-Russian rhetoric. Russia considers NATO’s military buildup in Europe a threat to its national security and accuses the West of reneging on a post-Cold War promise not to enlarge the alliance towards Russia’s borders.