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Emboldened by the success of
their candidate, the Times has a rip-roaring double header today (ll/8/12)
with ample opportunity to slam Israel and project some negative
stereotypes about Jews. The first article, by Middle East Bureau
Chief Jodi Rudoren, bears the misleading title “Netanyahu Rushes to
Repair Damage With the President” as the pretext for bashing the Israeli
prime minister with selective quotes from hand-picked pundits.
Here’s Mitchell Barak (a pollster/strategist you’ve probably never heard
of): “Netanyahu backed the wrong horse. Whoever is elected
prime minister is going to have to handle the US Israel relationship and
we all know Netanyahu
is not the right guy.”
Translation: He’s
certainly not the Times’ guy. And here’s Ehud Olmert:
“Given what Netanyahu has done these recent months, the question
is: Does
our prime minister still have a friend in the White House?”
Journalistic
query: Would it have been ethical to identify Mr. Olmert as a
possible opponent of Mr. Netanyahu in the next Israeli election?
Here’s Ms. Rudoren herself, editorializing with some classic slurs about
the Jews of AIPAC: “And freed from electoral concerns, the second
term president may prove likelier to pursue his own path without worry
about backlash from Washington’s powerful and wealthy pro-Israel lobby.” What
she was thinking: I hope the readers notice that I omitted
hook-nosed so as not to appear guilty of lookism. And finally,
mirabile dictu, the Times publishes a quote by Bob Zelnick (former ABC
correspondent) that totally contradicts everything they strategically
printed about Obama before Nov. 6th: “My sense is that he both
dislikes and distrusts Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and that he is
more likely to use his new momentum to settling scores than to settling
issues.” Ipse loquitur.
The front page of the Arts
Section has an overview of the annual Israelbash Event at the JCC, aka,
The Other Israel Film Festival. From the Times perspective, the
word “other” is a misnomer since most of what they normally print
concerns the same Israel that is depicted in these films. That
would be a bellicose, apartheid country that is primarily an occupying
force intent on humiliating innocent Palestinian farmers as they
peacefully tend to their olive and lemon trees. The
festival was created and paid for by Carol Zabar, wife of the
world-renowned expert on lox, and herself a harsh critic of Israel’s
treatment of Palestinians. She would know a great deal about this
subject, having lived in Jerusalem briefly fifty years ago and
undoubtedly being a subscriber to the New York Times. When criticized
in previous years, the JCC adamantly insisted that this festival gave
equal time to showing films by Arabs that were critical of
their leaders’ policies and tactics. Full disclosure:
when pressed, they couldn’t name any. This year, the Times reports
that the festival is boycotted by Arabs as part of their general refusal
to deal with Jews as well as Israelis. Not to worry, there
are enough films by Jews and Israelis with plenty of home-grown malice
towards the only country in the middle east that offers freedom to gays,
equality to women, superior health care (including abortion) and public
education for all, citizenship to Palestinians, a unique track record for
integrating immigrants and just about every other mandate of the most
liberal wing of the democrat party.
There is no mention anywhere in
today’s Times about how many missiles were shot into Israel this week or
how many terrorists were thwarted from infiltrating its borders, or the
fact that the right wing Netanyahu has managed to abstain from any
war despite constant provocation. I doubt that there will be a
single film shown at the JCC dealing with the traumas of Israeli victims
of terrorist incidents and probably nothing dealing with the children and
grandchildren of refugee Jews who were dispossessed and expelled from
their centuries’ old homes in Arab lands. If you feel even slightly
unsettled about this reality, think about getting your news from a more
objective purveyor than the moribund Times and buying your lox at
Fairway. |
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