We live in curious times.
There are so many journalists today in the Jewish world who are more appropriately deemed ideologues, imparting bias in place of facts, conveying personal opinion over thoughtful facts. We also live in time when you can act one way, but claim something else, and have like-minded so-called journalists back you up.
This is very much the case with the New Israel Fund and its cohorts of supporters – of which there are many in the liberal Jewish media.
As readers of Jewish media are by now aware, over the last year, together with George Birnbaum (former chief of staff to PM Netanyahu), and Hank Sheinkopf, the well-known Democratic strategist and former President Clinton advisor, I have been campaigning to show donors to the extremist organization, The New Israel Fund (NIF), the true nature of this group, in the hope that they would stop their support of this duplicitous entity. NIF grants $30 Million Dollars annually to groups within and surrounding Israel, which in turn, furthers their own missions of boycotting Israel, humiliating Israel’s army and the men and women who protect the Jewish state, and funding organizations that work tirelessly to make Israel appear illegitimate in a global community. These are facts – indisputable facts – but NIF’s funding activities are representative of the work its grantees do each and every day; its own annual reports and filed tax forms demonstrate this.
Indeed, NIF’s website presents a disingenuous message when is claims to reject BDS while admitting to granting groups that engage in boycotts, “assuming they meet our other rigorous funding criteria.”
From funding Breaking the Silence, which produced a report attempting to prove that Israel’s military intentionally sought to kill people in Gaza, and supplied documents to the United Nations, to aiding Adalah, which wages a tactic called Lawfare at Israel on a continuous basis, and fund Israel Social TV, which often runs programming endorsing boycotts of Israel.
If it harms Israel, count on the NIF to be involved.
On Monday, August 17th, The Jerusalem Post ran an op-ed by me, Sheinkopf and Birnbaum, entitled “American Jews must stand with Israel against its enemies” which continued our initiative of exposing the damage NIF’s grants cause to Israel. In response, on Friday, August 20th, The Jerusalem Post published an op-ed by NIF’s Naomi Paiss which included numerous inaccuracies.
The Jerusalem Post was wrong to run an op-ed from an organization that presented untruths. Compounding this mistake, the organization funds boycott actions against Israel. Recognizing the mistake, the editors of The Jerusalem Post removed the article shortly after publishing it. The newspaper clearly recalled that the Israeli Supreme Court recently upheld Israel’s Anti-Boycott Law of July 2011.
Despite threats and scare tactics by the NIF, The Jerusalem Post stood strong and deserves to be commended for its decision and action. Along these lines, I have accepted the apology of The Jerusalem Post for “the factual errors, as well as for the hurtful tone” of Ms. Paiss’ op-ed.
The Jerusalem Post has assured its readers that in the future it will not publish articles encouraging boycotts.
While the New Israel Fund continues to claim it opposes boycotts of Israel, its grantees, funded by NIF money, petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, spent funds on legal fees challenging Israel’s anti-boycott law. Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the Law Preventing Harm to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott. That ruling includes all of the State of Israel, including Judea and Samaria. As Justice Hanan Meltzer ruled, “Calling for boycotts and participating in it, therefore, can sometimes be considered ‘political terror.’”
Across the Israeli political divide–Labor to Likud, ultra-Orthodox to secular– boycotts of Israel are unacceptable. In maintaining its position, the NIF remains far outside the pale of the Israeli political spectrum.
Another journalist has posted an article on this matter. Debra Nussbaum-Cohen, a left-wing writer who often writes for Ha’aretz or The Forward, has written a poorly researched and short-on facts article in the LA Jewish Journal centered on this campaign, intended to steer the reader rather than inform.
Some key points:
- Nussbaum-Cohen reported on a chain of emails between myself and the Jerusalem Post, yet she obtained those emails from the New Israel Fund (who was not party to the emails). Both parties advised the LA Jewish Journal that the emails provided by NIF are inaccurate, but the word of the parties involved was not given the credence from this biased third party.
- Nussbaum-Cohen claims errors as facts: “In Fact, the NIF, which does advocacy work, as well as grant making, has had a policy for the last several years of opposing boycotts of Israel, while permitting a targeted boycott of products from the settlements.” Pre-1967 Israel boycotts ARE a boycott of Israel – and NIF admits to funding groups that do just that. Yet, for the Jewish Journal, if it’s a boycott of East Jerusalem then its not a boycott.
- The President & Vice President of the New Israel Fund made reckless statements which Nussbaum-Cohen left unchallenged. From statements about boycotts to absurdly claiming that I am on the “…same page as the Global BDS people, because they also see no difference between Tel Aviv and Ariel, and we do.”
- In upholding the anti-Boycott law, the Supreme Court of Israel agrees with me – Israel includes Eastern Jerusalem, Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim. In fact, Actress Scarlett Johansson was celebrated throughout the Jewish community for standing up against BDS – which was a boycott of Sodastream which had its headquarters in the “settlements.”
- Nussbaum-Cohen further showed her bias in the questions she asked regarding op-eds which media outlets have run. She claimed that The Jewish Press and other media outlets that were publishing my articles had been paid in exchange for running anti-NIF material; a notion proffered by The New Israel Fund and acceded to by Nussbaum-Cohen.
- Matt Solomon, the op-ed editor of The Jewish Press Online replied via email:“…the accusation that Ronn Torossian purchased content space is offensive to me as an editor and to my paper. To be absolutely clear, no money was ever exchanged between Ronn and The Jewish Press Online; we never paid Ronn and he never paid us. To insinuate otherwise is inaccurate and fall well-below journalistic standards. If you are making accusations of The Jewish Press, and by extension of me, I demand to see your sources, otherwise desist.”
- Nussbaum-Cohen and NIF claims that my articles have been riddled with outright lies, yet, not one single error was mentioned. Rather than mention “lies” – which would have been journalism, she allowed screeches and screeds. Each and every article written has called out the work of NIF grantees that undermine Israel, and linked the money to those who give to the New Israel Fund. Every bit is from NIF’s own reports. I just connect the dots. Media such as The New York Post, The New York Observer and The Hill, as well as Jewish papers across the political spectrum have published the articles exposing the work of the NIF. These pieces, and yes, the whole campaign, might not serve the purpose of the “progressive” Nussbaum-Cohen, yet it remains the truth.
Working against the NIF is not a right-wing issue – Those on the left and right must stand against boycotts of Israel, and stand with the IDF.
- Nussbaum-Cohen asserts, “There is evidence that Torossian also, as the NIF asserts, works in some capacity with [Pamela] Geller.” Producing a single e-mail – and doctored e-mails – her “working in some capacity” consists of a common interest in advocacy work to expose the NIF for its deceptive tactics. In fact, we then work in some capacity with Shas, with Labor – and all those who stand against boycotts of Israel. Nussbaum-Cohen’s “evidence” is only opinion, taken from the NIF – not from emails I produced, and written with “journalistic” conviction.
In running Nussbaum-Cohen’s piece, Rob Eshman, the editor of The LA Jewish Journal e-mailed me stating that “..the Jewish Journal doesn’t take positions as an institution. We report and investigate news and we run columns that reflect the widest possible range of Jewish opinion.”
Eshman runs one of America’s most influential Jewish papers. In that regard, Mr. Eshman surely would not run commentary which favors groups opposed to Israel and Jews such as the KKK or Hamas, yet it is puzzling to me why he is content having his pages used to advocate for a group that still proudly funds operations seeking to boycott the only Jewish State.
As many in Israel and worldwide–including Israel’s ruling political party Likud, Israel’s Education Minister, Birthright Israel, and numerous on both Left and Rght–have come to the realization that the duplicitous nature of The New Israel Fund is anathema to Israel’s best interest, so too should the Jewish Journal and other Jewish papers, maintaining red lines and NOT deal with the NIF.
There is a line between quality journalism and actively causing harm, and it is high time that we stop fooling ourselves into believing that to present the former, you must risk the latter. A boycott of Israel is not something which can be trifled with and The New Israel Fund, which admits it does indeed support groups which do, should be rejected by Jewish media outlets unless they declare sincere opposition for boycotts.
As Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote, “A noisy whining is now being set up by a chorus of ‘peace seekers’ who aim to achieve (by preaching exclusively to Jews) conciliation with the Arabs. It is difficult to free oneself from a feeling of disgust.”
Boycotting Israel won’t bring “peace” – and those who seek to include “balance” by believing in The New Israel Fund’s true mission are rejecting Israel, and attacking The Israel Defense Forces.