"The right's latest weapon: 'Zionist editing' on Wikipedia" Haaretz

 "Now the Yesha Council of settlements and another right-wing group, Israel Sheli, are embarking on a Wikipedia battle: Zionist editing on the Web-based encyclopedia. The first course was held yesterday in Jerusalem.

"The idea is not to make Wikipedia rightist but for it to include our point of view," said Naftali Bennett, the director of the Yesha Council.

"The Internet is not managed well enough, and Israel's position there is appalling. Take for example the Turkish flotilla [to Gaza]. During the first hours we were nowhere to be found. In those first hours millions of people typed the words Gaza-bound flotilla and read what was written on Wikipedia."

The course was designed to teach how to register for, contribute to and edit for Wikipedia.

The organizers' aim was twofold: to affect Israeli public opinion by having people who share their ideological viewpoint take part in writing and editing for the Hebrew version, and to write in English so Israel's image can be bolstered abroad."  Haaretz

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Innocent activity?  You tell me and look at the discussion of the wiki article on me on the site.  pl 

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/the-right-s-latest-weapon-zionist-editing-on-wikipedia-1.308667

Comments

[The beaver]

Yvet (Lieberman) better makes sure that the army of Wiki Hasbara journos polish their English grammar and language and not be tempted to include slurs to describe the non-Zionists :(

[johnf]

Another way of looking at this is they've lost the war on American news forums in recent months - they lost it years ago in the rest of the world - and now they're just concentrating on what might still be defensible.

[Thomas]

But "The Free World depends on Israeli power."?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/17/bombs-away-in-three-days/

[The Moar You Know]

I welcome Wikipedia's self-imposed drift into irrelevance. The idea of a user-vetted encyclopedia that discourages/forbids input from subject matter experts was doomed from the start. I'm only sorry that they've got as much mindshare as they have.

There is not one entry there that is reliable, and virtually all of the non-science articles have been taken over by folks with an agenda, just like the situation cited here.

[annie burns]

Ah, yes, digital reference resources. The editing issues with wikipedia have been known since congressional staff started editing the information of political opponents' entries.

Similarly, at the start of the Gulf Oil Disaster, BP bought the rights to display top google hits. They are shown as "sponsored" but it takes a discerning eye to recognize that. The first several of those sponsored hits went to the official BP public relations response.

That's why I (as a reference librarian) am so tempted to find alternate resources whenever I see a wikipedia post here. One does infinitely better with .edu, .gov, .mil or .org. Try Google Advanced to limit by domain.

[DanM]

This has been going on for a long time. Wikipedia in general is a battle between gangs of ideologues and propagandists. Folks who are interested in scholarship and accuracy are driven away.

This is a funny article about the self-proclaimed "Jewish Internet Defense Force." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Internet_Defense_Force

[BillWade]

it'a all so 1984 to me

[walrus]

Yes it is a battle. Yes it is serious, because as the founder of Wikileaks has written: without good information on what is happening in the world, there can be no resistance to tyranny because tyranny cloaks its actions in secrecy and disinformation.

That is the meaning of "The Truth shall make you free."

It is also why we must now fight a battle for internet neutrality or Rupert Murdoch will kill websites like this and ram his version of "news" down our throats.

[Allen Thomson]

I actually esteem Wikipedia greatly. It's pretty good for many factual things, probably not a lot worse than many print encyclopedias.

But for controversial items it's just a starting point. It can serve as a quick way to get an idea of what the issues are and what other searches should be done, as annie burns says, on other presumably more reliable sites.

But you should *never* trust *any* source absolutely. Go out and cross check things as much as possible and hope for the best.

[optimax]

Some people can't handle the chaotic grumblings of democratic institutions. Instead of seeking truth through individual scholarship and group discussion, they are the True Believers who swallow whole the pronouncements of their esteemed authoritarian idols.

The more you know,
the less you think.

[Paul Escobar]

In other Israeli PR related news...
Here is some leaked polling data on American & European attitudes towards Israel:

Source: Haaretz

...[pollster and strategist Stanley Greenberg] presented the poll's findings to senior Israeli officials, including President Shimon Peres, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, as well as officials from the Prime Minister's office...

...by July only 51% of respondents said the U.S. needed to support Israel...

...in July, only 45% of American said they felt Netanyahu was committed to the peace process. 39% responded that Netanyahu and his administration are not committed to seeking peace with the Palestinians...

...Greenberg has analyzed the poll results and says that the section of the American public where Israel is most rapidly losing support is among Liberal Americans who align themselves with the Democratic Party...

[WILL]

i have lost my fire. it has been years since i have been wiki-suspended by the Israeli-Firsters for wikipedia editing. I have refused to archive the suspensions on my discussion page.

i want the world to see how silly they were. they were mostly sustained in defense of the mild mannered professor, one Juan Cole. Othere were on the 2006 Le"v"anon War.

[The beaver]

Col.

What do you make of this à propos piece of news of today:

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2029721

Is it sabre rattling from the same "bomb Iran gang"?

We have heard from Bolton -he is so preoccupied with Uranium fuel shipped by Russia being loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21 and now this article. I don't know or heard about this JJ Green chap.

[MRW]

annie burns,

Another search engine is copernic.net. Google is only one of the 14 or 18 sites it checks. Unfortunately, it's only for Windows.

[MRW]

Then spread the word far and wide that Wikipedia is compromised, and snort whenever anyone uses it as a source for anything other than birth dates. Make it a laughing stock.

I know for a fact that Wikipedia even gets birth dates wrong. Of past leaders.

[MRW]

Listen to this interview yesterday with Dr. William Cook, promoting his book on Palestine due out in October. At around 20 minutes in he discusses the following, which was published in Le Monde Diplomatique in May, 2010.

[...] Sir Richard C Catling, deputy head of the special branch of the Criminal Investigation division in Jerusalem in 1944 and then Assistant Inspector General, left us a file that provides insight into conditions in Jerusalem at the time. Catling’s Top Secret file lay untouched in the Rhodes House archives of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University until I received permission to cite its contents two years ago (1).

Two documents stand out (the file has 62 appendices of evidence totalling close to 500 pages). The first is a dispatch sent to the Secretary of State, dated 16 October 1941, by the High Commissioner of Palestine, Harold MacMichael, labelled “Most Secret”. The second is a “Top Secret” Memorandum on the Participation of the Jewish National Institutions in Palestine in Acts of Lawlessness and Violence, prepared by the Criminal Investigation division headquarters, the Palestine Police, Jerusalem, dated 31 July 1947.

With the scholarly work of the Israeli new historians Ilan Pappe and Benny Morris, plus Catling’s records, the truth surrounding the creation of the state of Israel becomes clearer: the Jewish Agency provisional government did not accept the Jewish state designated under UN resolution 181 with the intention of abiding by the General Assembly goal of providing a state for two peoples in the land of Palestine. Rather, it sought to use it as a means of gaining control of all the land and ridding it of its indigenous people so far as possible.

At 38 min., Cook reads the six points of the plan from the declassified police reports that the Jewish Agency set up in the early 40s to secretly fight and destroy the British and kick all Arabs off the land. This was before Israel was created. As Cook says, the myth that incoming Jews from Europe were a bunch of ragtags just seeking a homeland and a refuge is just that: a myth.

I mention this because the subject of Pat's post is one of those talking points. These gangsters have made it internal policy for nearly 70 years.

Interview here: the whole thing is interesting, and it starts out slowly:
http://edwardrynearson.wordpress.com/kevin-barrett-converses-with-william-cook/

Le Monde here: http://mondediplo.com/blogs/palestine-the-forgotten-mandate
________________________________
(1) Sir Richard C Catling, Personal Classified “Top Secret” files, Rhodes House Library Archives, #145. Mss. Medit. S 20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Appendices circa 475 pages of seized documents, Bodleian Libraries. Oxford.

[Roy G]

What, Conservapedia isn't enough?

http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page

[The cranky, sciatic ghost of General Daniel Morgan]

It must be admitted....the prize for "Best Zionist Editor"--a trip in a hot air balloon--is a real hoot.

Similar efforts, though homegrown (last I checked), were recently uncovered at Digg.

You should be honored. If you were just some blowhard with nothing of any importance to say, they wouldn't bother.

[William R. Cumming]

So is it down to two days before Israel attacks Iran?

[Patrick Lang]

wrc

OK. I missed it. Why the 21st? i have been busy supervising the installation of a new wheat pump upstairs. pl

[DanM]

Bolton said some really dumb things, which were amplified by even dumber reporting, about Bushehr.

[William R. Cumming]

Based on fueling of new reactor?

[johnf]

BBC is reporting - not confirmed on their website yet - that Israel Palestine peace talks are to start very soon.

Perhaps that's the real deadline.

[Fred]

WRC,

Bolton is repeating blatantly false technical information on spent uranium as a source of nuclear grade plutonium. As if placing commercial fuel cells in a power plant would instantaneously convert them into completely spent fuel which could then be instantly available in an enriched form for assembly into a bomb. Besides not having the correct type of plutonium for weapons use, the fuel will be utilized in a 6-8 year cycle to achieve maximum economic usage and only then moved for re-processing. This assumes the Iranian's have already designed the correct geometry and triggering mechanism. Why should they bother? All they need to do is wait for the Israeli attack and the subsequent Pakistani disintegration. They can then buy, steal or otherwise obtain one from whatever extreme government takes over Pakistan.

Bolton's been responsible for enough wars already. Too bad he might get away with helping start another one.

[Fred]

"... that Israel Palestine peace talks are to start very soon."

Yes, like it's 1949 again.