Posted on 12/25/2003 7:33:57 AM PST by dianaA
Lies Mariam Sobh Tells
Miriam Sobh, a graduate student in journalism at the University of Illinois, writes a regular column for the Daily Illini. Her disregard for factual accuracy is breathtaking. Here is the lie that Mariam Sobh published on Dec. 11.. She wrote, “Stop Turning a Blind Eye,” that Ariel Sharon said the following in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956: "I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do." Unfortunately for Sobh, there is no evidence that "General Ouze Merham" exists. No source for the quote beyond the attribution to a fictitious General. No record of a military incident causing multiple deaths in 1956 in Rafah, which was then Egyptian territory. And the term Palestinian was not yet in use in the 1950s. For these and other reasons, a writer on Independent Media, an aggressively anti-Israell news outlet, calls the quote, “a very poor fabrication.” Ms. Sobh has a history of citing fiction as fact. On Nov. 20, Sobh printed another nasty anti-Israel canard that, like the fake Sharon quote, circulates widely on anti-Semitic WEB sites. In “Legacy of Suspicion,” she calls the 1967 sinking of the USS Liberty “one of the most horrific and deliberate attacks against the United States.” In fact, the wartime accident occurred when Israeli pilots mistook the American ship for an Egyptian ship that was shelling Israeli forces. On July 3, “Pipes, the Wrong Man,” Sobh described Daniel Pipes as having no credentials in the field beyond having done “some undergraduate work in it.” “He isn't even a leading scholar in the field,” she wrote. In fact, Pipes earned a PhD in Islamic History at Harvard, studied in Egypt for three years, has taught Middle Eastern history at Harvard, U. of Chicago, and the Naval War College, and is the author of 12 books on the Middle East. Ms. Sobh is fully aware of how misleading the WEB can be. In a Sept. 18 column about the amount of misinformation that circulates on the WEB, “The Easy Way Out,” Sobh wrote “It's also disturbing that people would rather forward information that sounds dramatic than to verify the truth. “Anyone can write up a malicious e-mail, and on that same token we can all refuse to forward them unless we are sure the content is accurate.” Then Sobh proceeded to publish malicious e-mail rumors as fact, instead of verifying the truth. Ms. Sobh is entitled to her opinions. She is not entitled to print lies, or malicious canards, as though they were facts.
http://netwmd.com/articles/article353.html
Miriam Sobh, a graduate student in journalism at the University of Illinois, writes a regular column for the Daily Illini. Her disregard for factual accuracy is breathtaking.To start with a small example, Sobh wrote a column about Daniel Pipes, a major scholar of the Middle East. Sobh describes Pipes as having no credentials in the field beyond having done “some undergraduate work in it.” “He isn't even a leading scholar in the field,” she writes, “yet he's promoted himself so much that people believe him.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/jul03/jul24/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
In fact, Pipes earned a PhD in Islamic History at Harvard, knows Arabic, French, and German, studied in Egypt for three years, has taught Middle Eastern history at Harvard, U. of Chicago, and the Naval War College, and is the author of 12 books on the Middle East.
Ms. Sobh’s problem is not so much that she dislikes Mr. Pipes’ politics. Her problem is that she apparently gets her “facts” from radical anti-American and Anti-Israel WEB sites where a good deal of misinformation masquerades as fact. [http://www.danielpipes.org/cair.shtml]
Ms Sobh is aware of how misleading the WEB can be. As she recently wrote: “It's also disturbing that people would rather forward information that sounds dramatic than to verify the truth.
“Anyone can write up a malicious e-mail, and on that same token we can all refuse to forward them unless we are sure the content is accurate. After all, what's the point in spreading more inaccurate information in the world.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/sep03/sep18/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
Instead of taking her own advice, Ms. Sobh recently began her column by publishing a fabricated quotation purportedly by Ariel Sharon that circulates as a malicious e-mail. A quick check would have established that the quote is a work of fiction.
Here is the lie that Mariam Sobh published:
“I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.
This “quotation” appears on hundreds of virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic WEB pages, but it is an obvious hoax. The clues would be obvious to any competent journalist. None of the WEB pages gives a source for the quote., beyond alleging that it was in “an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.” But neither I nor others have been able to find any evidence that a “General Ouze Merham” ever existed. [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php]
No sophisticated person would be likely to find the quote plausible. It refers to Arabs as “Palestinians,” a term that was not yet in use in the 1950’s. It talks of Palestinian women as slaves of the Jews, a kind of rhetoric never used even in Israeli hate-literature. Talking of Jewish women as slaves of the Arabs, by contrast, is a commonplace in Arab hate-literature. For these and other reasons, a writer on Independent Media, an aggressively anti-Israel news outlet, calls the quote Sobh published, “a very poor fabrication.” [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php]
Both Ms. Sobh and her editors failed to exercise even minimal standards of fact checking before publishing this quote. They ought to have been more cautious. Not merely because she used a quote that has no source, and not merely because they ought to carefully fact-check inflammatory quotations, but because Ms. Sobh has a history of citing fiction as fact.
In a November column she published another nasty anti-Israel canard that circulates widely on anti-Semitic WEB sites. This one regards the sinking of the USS Liberty. [http://www.dailyillini.com/nov03/nov20/opinions/stories/opinions_column02.shtml]
This tragedy took place during the 1967 war. Egyptian naval vessels were shelling Israeli troops. America, which was not involved in the War, had announced that it had no vessels in the vicinity. Israeli intelligence mistook the Liberty, 14 miles off the coast, for the Egyptian vessel shelling Israeli troops, and sank it. It is the sort of tragic misidentification that happens all too frequently in wartime. [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty.html]
The “information” cited by Ms. Sobh in her column comes under the heading of nut-case conspiracy theory.
Ms. Sobh tells these lies because she wants to destroy the nation of Israel. Or, as she calls it, “Palestine, which is often referred to as Israel.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/aug03/aug28/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
She is entitled to her opinions. What she is not entitled to do is to publish obvious falsehoods as fact.
To start with a small example, Sobh wrote a column about Daniel Pipes, a major scholar of the Middle East. Sobh describes Pipes as having no credentials in the field beyond having done “some undergraduate work in it.” “He isn't even a leading scholar in the field,” she writes, “yet he's promoted himself so much that people believe him.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/jul03/jul24/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
In fact, Pipes earned a PhD in Islamic History at Harvard, knows Arabic, French, and German, studied in Egypt for three years, has taught Middle Eastern history at Harvard, U. of Chicago, and the Naval War College, and is the author of 12 books on the Middle East.
Ms. Sobh’s problem is not so much that she dislikes Mr. Pipes’ politics. Her problem is that she apparently gets her “facts” from radical anti-American and Anti-Israel WEB sites where a good deal of misinformation masquerades as fact. [http://www.danielpipes.org/cair.shtml]
Ms Sobh is aware of how misleading the WEB can be. As she recently wrote: “It's also disturbing that people would rather forward information that sounds dramatic than to verify the truth.
“Anyone can write up a malicious e-mail, and on that same token we can all refuse to forward them unless we are sure the content is accurate. After all, what's the point in spreading more inaccurate information in the world.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/sep03/sep18/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
Instead of taking her own advice, Ms. Sobh recently began her column by publishing a fabricated quotation purportedly by Ariel Sharon that circulates as a malicious e-mail. A quick check would have established that the quote is a work of fiction.
Here is the lie that Mariam Sobh published:
“I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.
This “quotation” appears on hundreds of virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic WEB pages, but it is an obvious hoax. The clues would be obvious to any competent journalist. None of the WEB pages gives a source for the quote., beyond alleging that it was in “an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.” But neither I nor others have been able to find any evidence that a “General Ouze Merham” ever existed. [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php]
No sophisticated person would be likely to find the quote plausible. It refers to Arabs as “Palestinians,” a term that was not yet in use in the 1950’s. It talks of Palestinian women as slaves of the Jews, a kind of rhetoric never used even in Israeli hate-literature. Talking of Jewish women as slaves of the Arabs, by contrast, is a commonplace in Arab hate-literature. For these and other reasons, a writer on Independent Media, an aggressively anti-Israel news outlet, calls the quote Sobh published, “a very poor fabrication.” [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php]
Both Ms. Sobh and her editors failed to exercise even minimal standards of fact checking before publishing this quote. They ought to have been more cautious. Not merely because she used a quote that has no source, and not merely because they ought to carefully fact-check inflammatory quotations, but because Ms. Sobh has a history of citing fiction as fact.
In a November column she published another nasty anti-Israel canard that circulates widely on anti-Semitic WEB sites. This one regards the sinking of the USS Liberty. [http://www.dailyillini.com/nov03/nov20/opinions/stories/opinions_column02.shtml]
This tragedy took place during the 1967 war. Egyptian naval vessels were shelling Israeli troops. America, which was not involved in the War, had announced that it had no vessels in the vicinity. Israeli intelligence mistook the Liberty, 14 miles off the coast, for the Egyptian vessel shelling Israeli troops, and sank it. It is the sort of tragic misidentification that happens all too frequently in wartime. [http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/liberty.html]
The “information” cited by Ms. Sobh in her column comes under the heading of nut-case conspiracy theory.
Ms. Sobh tells these lies because she wants to destroy the nation of Israel. Or, as she calls it, “Palestine, which is often referred to as Israel.” [http://www.dailyillini.com/aug03/aug28/opinions/stories/opinions_column01.shtml]
She is entitled to her opinions. What she is not entitled to do is to publish obvious falsehoods as fact.
". . . the wartime accident occurred when Israeli pilots mistook the American ship for an Egyptian ship that was shelling Israeli forces . ."
You might want to double check that.
IIRC, there is evidence that at least some of the pilots knew that the Liberty was gathering electronic intelligence for the U.S.
to delineate your paragraph opening. If you are in the "reply" section,you won't need it. Excellent post !
There's a <p> that you can't see at the end of the line above. To get it to show up in this sentence, I used these characters but without the spaces between them: "& l t ; p & g t ;".
The "& l t ;" shows up as the less-than symbol and the "& g t ;" shows up as the greater-than symbol when there are no spaces between the characters.
Beyond that, I have been collecting lefty academic "histori-lies" for many years. These are fabrications inserted into academic material, sometimes almost incidentally and often in subjects other than history. This is apparently done both to mis-inform students and to provide totalitarian activists with a superficially credible source for Goebbels-style whoppers. Almost all such histori-lies, needless to say, are intended to demonize the United States. To students, the incidental nature of the comments will make them seem like part of the commonly understood and accepted background of events.
Among recent catches:
The Boeing XB-15 was one of the most widely used bombers of the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War --University of Texas bibliographic notes(only one of these was built, it was rejected for service and remained firmly under US Army control for its entire existence.)
The US Navy bombarded the coast of Mexico in 1914 to punish Mexican peasants for refusing to salute the American flag. ---Howard Zinn, top histori-liar, speech at Rutgers, October 2002. (US forces landed at Vera Cruz to seize a shipload of German arms and Mexican troops resisted
Pol Pot was an ally of the United States and was able to seize the Cambodian government mainly because of US military assistance. ---"common knowledge" in academia, thousands of sources
The US Army Air Corps carpet-bombed the black neighborhoods of Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921, killing thousands.---instructor's lecture notes, Colorado College, 2003.
US forces invaded the Dominican Republic in 1961 and "many" American troops were killed ---Curtis Paul Ramsey, U of North Texas, course manual. The now-retired Ramsey, btw, was associated with the University of Hebron for many years. (the "invasion" never happened. The actual intervention in 1965 is mentioned separately, so it isn't a simple typo)
Moreover, accounts of Sharon's military exploits make this story almost impossible; Sharon's command always included a sizeable proportion of very religious soldiers who would not have tolerated the sort of cruelties that Sharon is being made to brag about. And the Israeli command, then and probably now, would not have tolerated it either.
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