MANFRED GERSTENFELD'S BAD NEWS PROJECT

Dr. Madfred Gerstenfeld of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs was interviewed recently by Israel Insider and talks about how, in his view, Holland, and even a couple of other countries, are much darker than they seem. To do this, he began a blog called Bad News from the Netherlands. And since he began it, a few other, similar projects began, including Bad News from Britain, Bad News from Mexico, Bad News from Finland, and Bad News from Norway.

Now what does he tell about Holland for starters:

Q. What motivated you to start this blog?

A. For many years I had seen how many foreign journalists distort news about Israel in various ways. They take matters out of context, leave out essential information and blacken Israel. The same goes for other types of media and many Western politicians. As I am writing a book about the Netherlands, the Jews and Israel, the Dutch examples particularly struck me.

Q. Can you give some examples?

A. One concerns Conny Mus, the former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Israel. In April of 2007, he was the first western TV journalist to interview Ismael Haniyah of the Hamas, who was then Prime Minister of the short-lived Hamas-Fatah government. Mus said on TV that he could ask whatever he wanted, yet he didn't raise the most relevant question: What about killing all the Jews as stated in the Hamas Charter?

Another example is Dutch Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders. In a recent press release on 3 million dollar emergency help for the Palestinians in Gaza, he blamed the area's economic problems on the closure of its border by Israel. He also lamented the wilting of flowers in Gaza which should have been exported to the Netherlands. Koenders' press release did not even mention the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza.

Now I see just what's wrong with the Netherlands, and why they may on their way to disaster as well: when you discriminate against one country, it only makes sense that this discrimination will end up affecting your own country as well.

See all those blogs, with the one about Norway possibly being the most important, to see what they have.