www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=MEMRI
MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East. "Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over US policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, and Jerusalem, where MEMRI also maintains its Media Center. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian."
discussion on the propaganda and bias of MEMRI Although MEMRI's viewpoint is pro-Israel, it is not the case that it contains no criticism of Israel or is monolithically anti-Arab. Many of the articles distributed by MEMRI are in fact criticisms of the Arab world offered by Arab liberals, and some of those are critical of Israel. It can be argued that MEMRI, despite its faults, amplifies the voices of reformers and liberals in the Arab and Muslim worlds, extending a platform that they would not otherwise have because of societal taboos and government censorship. Critics of MEMRI face something of a contradiction in this respect, since it is these liberal and reformist views that they themselves tend to favor. MEMRI's stance is that it is opposed to Islamic fundamentalism, not Islam itself, although the integrity of this position may be questioned because of links on MEMRI's website to certain evangelical Christian organizations who take a harder line on Islam. Though a number of its founders worked in Israeli intelligence, this may be explained by the fact that former Israeli intelligence officers are also the most likely Israelis to know Arabic. Yigal Carmon, MEMRI's founder, actually worked for both Labor and Likud governments. Moreover, the fact that one works for Israeli intelligence evinces little; four former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service, are in fact supporters of peace negotiations and proponents of the two-state solution. Both criticism and praise of MEMRI should be taken with a grain of salt, since analyses of MEMRI are almost always motivated by politics, not the quantity or quality of MEMRI's work. It should, however, be noted that MEMRI has gained currency with most writers in mainstream. For example, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman, a influential foreign affairs columnist, has used MEMRI translations a number of times in his columns.
Selective Memri investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems, Guardian Unlimited, August 12, 2002.
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