"Time Magazine and its Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Karl Vick, are making a habit of defaming Israel." So writes CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
The latest piece (January 11 on the Time Web site) is entitled "Israel's Rightward Lurch Scares Some Conservatives." CAMERA calls the article "jaundiced and factually-challenged… Vick mainly parrots far-left attacks on Israel, ignores warranted security concerns, disregards the normalcy of fractious debate in a democracy, reduces complex issues to caricature and indicts the entire public."
"Vick’s disparagement of the 'Israeli public'," CAMERA writes, "is indicative of his coverage – heavy on snide editorializing, light on fact."
CAMERA is generally critical of Vick, writing, "This is the same reporter who depicted Israelis generally as materialistic hedonists indifferent to peace in Time’s notorious September 13 edition, considered anti-Semitic by many with its Star of David emblazoned with the headline: "Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace." In December, the reporter blamed Israelis for the hostility directed against them."
In his latest article, Vick writes that "Netanyahu encouraged support for the [funding investigation], appointing a panel to investigate independent organizations that are critical of government actions."
Such language [the last four words] is journalistically unethical, CAMERA alleges, "disguising the aims and extreme political hue of the groups listed.
"For instance, while Breaking the Silence assails the IDF with anonymous accusations, it "steadfastly refuse[s] to report the alleged [IDF violations] to the proper authorities, and hides behind a cloak of anonymity…
"...Likewise B’Tselem’s partisanship and shoddy methods [and] bias is demonstrated in its listing, for example, Abdul Salaam Sadek Hassouneh - who murdered six Israelis at a Bat Mitzvah in 2002 and maimed 35 - under the category of 'Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli security forces' …
"...Gisha, a supposedly objective group, has signed ads labeling Israel apartheid. Israel’s Physicians for Human Rights was criticized by Dr. Yoram Blachar, president of the World Medical Association, as 'a radical political group disguised as a medical organization.'"
After countering a series of further anti-Israel insinuations in the TIME article, CAMERA concludes, "Readers should let Managing Editor Richard Stengel know that pushing the limits of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish journalism will cost him in readers and reputation."