An Answer to Jeffrey Goldberg’s Question
Since Snapshots is in the question-answering mood — see our most recent post, “An Answer to the New York Times’ Question” — let’s take a stab at a question posed by Jeffrey Goldberg on his blog today.
Responding to a stunningly surreal article on the Guardian website about the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, Goldberg asks the Guardian: “Shouldn’t your editors do a better job of masking prejudice on your website?”
The piece he’s talking about, by Deborah Orr, slams Netanyahu, and Israel, and Zionists, and implicitly Jews, for trading over a thousand prisoners for Gilad Shalit. Why? Because, Orr argues, it is evidence that those guilty parties believe the “obscene idea that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives.” Later in the piece, she substitutes “the lives of the chosen” for her earlier reference to “Israeli lives.”
Hamas’s hard-line negotiating position is proof of “Zionist” racism? What can one really say about an idea so obviously shaped by blind hatred rather than rationality? It is, in Goldberg’s words, “almost-comical nastiness.”
So turning back to his question: Shouldn’t Guardian editors do a better job at masking prejudice?
No. The Zeitgeist that produces Orr’s piece is the same one that colors the newspaper’s distorted treatment of Israel in general, and its better for people know it.
Modern haters tend to realize that masked prejudice has more power to influence than the unmasked variety. And if an observer tries to remove the mask, or even just tries to rebut a hateful slur, they’re frequently attacked for “using the anti-Semitism card.” Better, then, for the hater to remove his or her own mask. If Guardian editors want to make their anti-Israel bigotry more apparent, let them. Hopefully the reasonable public will take note.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Haaretz Editorial Repeats Inaccuracy About East Jerusalem Arabs
April 17, 2018
Despite the fact that just last month Haaretz corrected a news story which erred on the status of east Jerusalem Arabs, an April 10 editorial again misrepresents about the rights of this population, stating: Palestinians [...]
AP and Times of Israel Correct,
Haaretz Retains“Explosive Bullets” ChargeApril 13, 2018
Update: To its credit, Haaretz has also corrected its piece. After intervention by CAMERA, the Associated Press and Times of Israel have commendably corrected stories relaying the outlandish claim that gunshot injuries with exit wounds [...]
‘Moderate’ Fatah Names Children’s Summer Camp After Murderer
April 12, 2018
Khalil al-Wazir and Yasser Arafat, Abbas' predecessor Fatah, the movement that dominates the West Bank-ruling Palestinian Authority (PA), has named a children’s summer camp after a terrorist. Major media outlets routinely describe both Fatah and [...]
Top Palestinian Official: Hamas is Using Human Shields in Gaza for Media Coverage
April 9, 2018
Mahmoud al-Habbash. Image courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch A high-ranking Palestinian Authority (PA) official, Mahmoud al-Habbash, has said that Hamas is sending civilians to die in violent demonstrations along the Israel-Gaza border in order to [...]
Where’s the Coverage? Syria Violates Demilitarized Buffer Zone with Israel
April 8, 2018
Bashar al-Assad The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has placed tanks and heavy artillery inside a demilitarized border zone with Israel. Although Assad’s move violates a “decades-old agreement,” it was widely ignored by major U.S. [...]