Garbanzo Toons

Today's rant

I write letters to newspapers. It may be a waste of time, but I do it anyway. If it weren't for email, I probably wouldn't do it. I would sit and stew. My letters used to focus on two issues, Israel and education. Now I just focus on Israel. Since I'm a teacher, and an after-school reading tutor, I can attempt to effect the change that the educational establishment needs. With Israel, I can't do much but write about it. I send letters to both of my local newspapers. I sometimes also respond to calls for action by Honest Reporting and some of my favorite bloggers (in the sidebar) when they report something especially outrageous.

The thing about writing to newspapers is that I'm competing with the liars, moral retards, and Jew-haters on the other side. And no, I'm not engaging in hyperbole. The enemies of Israel have created an alternate universe, a Bizarro world, a 1984-style thought process where good is called evil and evil is called good, or is excused because it's the fault of the Jews. Of course they won't say Jews. That would expose them. They use terms like: zionist, neocon, or Israeli. But they mean Jew. And they get printed in mainstream newspapers in the interest of "presenting both sides."

For example, here is a response to a pro-Israel column by News editor, Nolan Finley. (For some reason, I can't find it or I would link to it.)

Following the revolting experience of reading Nolan Finley's extremely racist piece of garbage, several thoughts came to mind. First, I wondered how many Israeli shekels it took to purchase The News. The News has become an ambassador of hate by regurgitating the lies bigots have historically used to dehumanize and terrorize the Palestinian people.

It was none other than your employer, Ariel Sharon, and his Zionist predecessors who defined terrorism in the region and unleashed countless campaigns of brutality and unrelenting terror upon the innocent.

It was written by the membership representative of the Arab American Chamber of Commerce. I'm sure she would deny her antisemitism. And yet, there she is, recalling the anti-semitic canard of Jews owning the media. And there is the Detroit News printing it.

For sheer dishonesty, it would be hard to beat this response by M. Kay Siblani, editor of Arab American News to Nolan Finley's column.

For one thing, Hamas is not part of an effort to take someone else's land away. Its struggle is defensive, not offensive.

Neither does Hamas want to create a state wherein one religion reigns supreme. In Israel, Jews have automatic citizenship and other rights not afforded to people of other faiths. The double standard applied to Hamas -- and Arabs and Muslims -- is fueling support for more extremist groups.

It's OK to have a Jewish state, but not an Islamic one, even though the Jewish state is undemocratic, consistently violates international law, commits state-sponsored terrorism, has no constitution and no defined, internationally recognized borders.

The double standard is glaring on peace negotiations. The Palestinians are portrayed as an equal partner required to make all sorts of concessions before anyone will talk to them. But they have no land, no money, no arms and a compromised leadership.

The Israelis, on the other hand, have a country, an infrastructure, a government, an economy and the world's fourth strongest army. Because of its strength and the biased way in which the United States supports it, Israel continues to take land and kill people even while it convinces the world that it is trying to talk peace.

[ . . . ]

Those who know that the time has come for justice for Palestinians and believe that it will somehow detract from Israel's well-being have descended into name-calling and demonizing. People like this are irresponsible and should not have a public podium.

This was written before the latest successful homicide bombing in Tel Aviv, but I'm sure it wouldn't matter a bit to the lying Siblani.

And it didn't matter to the Israel-haters who wrote letters to the Detriot Free Press to excuse the Tel Aviv bombing and to lambaste the paper for its coverage of the bombing. It seems the Free Press wasn't sympathetic enough to the murderer of nine innocent people. Even though he injured dozens in addition to the nine he killed using a vest filled with explosives, and nails and ball bearings coated with rat poison in order to cause infction and delay blood clotting, they demand that we sympathize with the murderer.

Why?

The usual reasons that usually begin with "it was tragic but-". And then they go on to give the usual delusional reasons why Israel should be blamed and why both sides must be presented. I don't recall that argument being used for Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Timothy McVeigh, or Jeffery Dahmer. But they didn't target Jews. The Free Press printed all of the lies and moral equivalence between murderer and victim.


Golda Meir once said that peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews. With the election of Hamas that obviously hasn't happened. With main stream newspapers printing thinly veiled antisemitism and excuses for Hamas inspired terror attacks, things seem to be getting worse.

Labels: Detroit News, Hamas, Honest Reporting, Israel, Nolan Finley, Osama Siblani, Palestinians

posted by Harry @ 7:55 PM