Gilead Ini writing last week on the excellent media watch site CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) notes a highly curious example of the AFP “doctoring” a Times of London report seemingly to fit the Middle East policy orientations of the French Foreign Ministry. Whereas the original Times piece reported that [...]
Last week, Medienkritik noted the irony of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) at Johns Hopkins University giving a prize to Bertelsmann CEO Gunter Thielen. The AICGS is, according to its own mission statement, dedicated to “strengthening the German-American relationship in an evolving Europe and changing world”, whereas Bertelsmann publications in Germany, as [...]
The "Arab World" was guest of honor at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair and the anti-Semitic literature on display – not to mention the participation of a notorious Holocaust denier at the opening ceremonies – caused a bit of controversy. But what a difference a year makes. Matthias Küntzel visited this year’s edition of the [...]
A passage from today’s Le Figaro ("Les Israéliens partagés sur les conséquences de la crise syrienne") touching on two "Palestinian organizations" by the name of Hamas and Islamic Jihad that someone apparently has described as "terrorist". The more and more pressing threats against [Syrian President] Bashar Al-Assad have been received as a blessing by Israeli [...]
In “Teaser: More on Germany and ‘Paradise Now””, I mentioned that one of the German public agencies that provided support for the making of “Paradise Now” is the Federal Cultural Foundation. The Cultural Foundation was established by the German government in 2002 and is “dedicated to the demands of art and culture in the 21st [...]
As part of the inaugural issue of the Trans-Int Quarterly, we have been proud to bring you Matthias Küntzel’s meticulously researched history of the "Road Map" peace plan for the Middle East. The Mediacrity blog today provides a brazen example of how neglect of the provisions of the "Road Map" in the pages of the [...]
The Trans-Int Blog rests on the weekend – but if you’re looking for some weekend reading, why not check out the inaugural issue of the Trans-Int Quarterly on "Europe, Radical Islam and the Middle East Conflict". For just $5 (euros, pounds and other major currencies converted automatically), you’ll have access to in-depth reports and analyses [...]
(With Update) The “companion guide” to “Paradise Now” by Germany’s Federal Bureau for Political Education (BPB) about which Matthias Küntzel writes in “Suicide Bombing ‘for a Higher Ideal’” is prominently featured on the BPB website. If you click on the thumbnail on the BPB page (not here, sorry), a pop-up opens displaying in large format the [...]
I have pointed out before – in the context of contrived charges of xenophobia against the renegade former SPD Party Chair Oskar Lafontaine – that the German magazine der Spiegel practices a form of taqqiya on its English-language site. In his contribution on the discourse of Tariq Ramadan in the current issue of the Trans-Int [...]
Back in February, it was the smash hit at the Berlin Film Festival: Hany Abu-Assad’s “Paradise Now”, a sympathetic portrait of two young Palestinian suicide bombers. Now it is out in German theaters and Germany’s Federal Bureau for Political Education has produced a brochure to go with the film. Matthias Küntzel has seen the film [...]
