Anthony Tommasini’s Feb. 2, 2009 NY Times music review, “In a New Generation, a Searing Opera Breaks Free of Polemics,” in praise of the Adams opera, contains an anti-Israel message as does the highly politicized opera itself. The opera characterizes the Arab/Israel conflict through use of an actual murder that took place in 1985 following the Palestinian hijacking of a cruise ship. Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew, had been shot and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by members of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Army.

While Tommasini’s text is more nuanced than the headline which falsely states that the opera is suddenly now free of polemics, his bias is indicated in describing an anti-Israel polemic contained in the opera:

One scene seemed especially timely in the face of the roiling Gaza war. Mamoud tells the captain of the brutality his family has faced, his mother driven away during a raid, his brother decapitated.

Thus, Tommassen is able to present, without challenge, a baseless accusation – that Israeli solders commit decapitations of Palestinians – and even link it to the current conflict in Gaza thereby echoing the mainstream media’s tendency to accept wildly unsubstantiated claims by Palestinians of brutality perpetrated by Israeli soldiers.

Tommasini, while mentioning what some critics said of the opera at its American premiere performance (the hijackers were given “sympathetic voices” while the passengers were depicted as “stereotypical self-absorbed Westerners”), could have gone further as did a March 16, 2003 Newsday article:

When it opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1991, Newsday’s Tim Page protested that it treated the Palestinian thugs as “real men – Rousseau’s noble savages made flesh – as opposed to the opera’s nattering, ineffectual Jewish characters.” Alice Goodman’s libretto was widely denounced as naive at best and anti-Semitic at worst, and Adams was cast as her musical enabler.

The opera has not fared well since its debut in 1991, seldom being performed especially in major venues.

A Boston radio station was compelled by listeners’ protests to rehire two broadcasters who had been recently let go in a cost saving move. The protests to WBZ had included vows to boycott advertisers and picket broadcasting facilities. The story was reported by the Boston Globe and elaborated on at the WBZ Web site.

A Web site audio clip says that the protestors registered their feelings with WBZ by use of many “e-mails clogging the system, notes (letters) and phone calls that rang off the hook.” In addition, the protestors had blogged at various Web sites, some containing petition forms and a list of WBZ contacts.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, a BBC/NPR favorite, habitually fingers the U.S. and Israel in his blame game

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi lauded the recent throwing of shoes at President Bush in Iraq as “a proper goodbye for a war criminal.”

This is the same person who applauds Sadam Hussein — responsible for the murderer of countless Arabs and Iraqi Kurds — for “preserv[ing] the unity of Iraq, its Arab and Islamic identity and the coexistence of its different communities” (Dec. 31, 2006, Africa News) and who proudly declared in 2007 that “if Iranian missiles hit Israel, I will dance in Trafalgar Square.“

Yet to BBC World Service Radio and NPR, who often feature him on their broadcasts, this extremist is considered an objective, expert commentator on Middle East events!

And Atwan is only one of many such biased BBC/NPR choices to discuss Middle East events who advocate violence against Israel. How can this choice of biased speakers possibly conform to journalistic standards?

The “Campus Battleground” documentary film in the PBS series, “America At a Crossroads,” ostensibly reported objectively on “Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli activists clash[ing] at UC Berkeley and Columbia University.” However, when the film was closely scrutinized by CAMERA, something other than objectivity was revealed (Film Review: Campus Battleground (2007)).

Problematic aspects of the film include: 1) No mention of serious instances of pro-Palestinian intimidation and violence on campus such as Concordia/Montreal (2002). 2) Footage is provided of a class teaching only a Palestinian perspective on history, yet there is no similar clip demonstrating an Israeli or a more neutral perspective on history. 3) The mainstream Palestinian perspective opposing Israeli security checkpoints and the security barrier is shown but not the mainstream Israeli perspective explaining the need for these measures. 4) Completely inadequate discussion of the problems arising from the fact that numerous instructors on American campuses indoctrinate students with false teachings defaming Israel. Examples of this last point:

Rashid Khalidi, professor of Middle East Studies at Columbia University and the director of Columbia’s Middle East Institute, has defamed Israel for many years with falsifications such as the claim that non-Jews are barred from most land in Israel.

Joseph Massad, Columbia University professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history, frequently defames Israel in his classroom and then bullies students who dare to question either his tendentious, often false facts or his opinions.

Steve Niva, a defamer of Israel, teaches Middle East Studies at Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington). Mr. Niva, frequently lecturing and writing on the Arab-Israeli conflict, maintains falsely that Israel itself – not Hamas, Islamic Jihad or any other terror group – is to blame for the suicide bombings which have killed hundreds of Israelis.

From time to time, films in the Crossroads series are re-aired so that Campus Battleground was re-broadcast (not merely once but twice) on Thursday, October 30, 2008, by many PBS stations across the U.S. One of these stations was Boston’s WGBH World (a digital cable channel). The Crossroads broadcast schedule provides a local-stations one and two-week advance listing for premieres and re-airings.

Fortunately, Crossroads provides a Web site feedback process for complaints.

USA Network, an NBC affiliate, aired on Oct. 24, 2008 a “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” encore episode (entitled “30”) which had been originally broadcast by NBC on Feb. 27, 2007. At that time, CAMERA’s Web site documented the problematic broadcast in a report entitled “NBC’s ‘Law & Order’ Promotes Anti-Jewish, Anti-Israel Sentiment.”

In this segment’s plot, Israel is a suspect in the fatal polonium poisoning of an American investigative journalist. The episode also portrayed fictional Israeli brutality towards Palestinians and depicted fictional New York police detective Mike Logan (played by Chris Noth) repeatedly hectoring his Jewish captain, Danny Ross (played by Eric Bogosian), with the dual-loyalty canard accusation (including covering up for Israel).

That CAMERA posting was cited as the source in a March 11, 2007 Jerusalem Post report by Michael Freund who wrote:

Contacted by The Jerusalem Post, NBC sent a statement via e-mail which said, “As you know, the program material on Law & Order: CI has traditionally addressed provocative, contemporary issues. Its ‘ripped from the headlines’ stories often spark debate on many controversial subjects. As noted on air, the program is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.” An NBC spokesman declined to respond to questions concerning allegations of anti-Semitism in the show’s dialogue and plot.

The “ripped from the headlines” story line for this L & O episode was presumably ripped from a headline story having absolutely nothing to do with Israel: A former Russian spy turned Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned by polonium 210 in London in 2006 and subsequently the British justice system charged a former officer of the Russian special services with the crime.

Such a defamatory, mean-spirited show that incites scorn for Jews and Israelis is hardly worthy of the Law and Order: CI series, or of USA Network, or NBC.

Palestinian films have falsely portrayed Israel as the culprit of the Palestinian refugee problem, portrayed terrorism as legitimate activity against Israel and miscast Israel’s security measures as “oppression.” What’s new is that these films have become wrapped in a cloak of heightened respectability thanks to the entanglement of established local entities as sponsors and presenters of Palestinian film festivals. The list of sponsors of the Boston Palestine Film Festival (Oct. 3-12) includes these members of the Boston area’s arts and academic communities: Department of Cinema Studies at Northeastern University, Coolidge Corner Theatre and Harvard Film Archive (HFA). The festival’s co-presenters are HFA and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA).

Are the sponsors and presenters not concerned about such warning signs as the presence of at least one obsessively anti-Israel festival advisory-board member (Leila Farsakh), or the formal honoring of the festival in May 2008 by the notoriously anti-Israel American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)?

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There is currently no state of Palestine, and no international border between Israel and Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank). The borders and territory of any future Palestinian entity are disputed. However, the NBC Olympics Web Site includes a map showing Judea and Samaria (the West Bank, along with with the Gaza Strip) as part of a country called “Palestine.” Conversely, a map of Israel is shown minus that territory. In other words, NBC mapmakers are playing political arbiters and have awarded the disputed territory to the Palestinians.

The Palestine country page shows:

The Israel country page shows:

Viewers of the January 20 WABC (channel 7) UpClose Sunday weekly talk show (11AM – 11:30) – seen in New Jersey and Connecticut as well as New York – were subjected to a severely one-sided castigation of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. Hosted by Diana Williams, the guests were Yonatan Shapira (former Israeli air force captain) and Bassam Aramin (former Fatah fighter) touring the U.S. on behalf of their group, “Combatants for Peace.”

Dog and pony show lacked scrutiny of controversial, questionable views:

Williams intoned, “Snapshots of life in a land torn apart by violence,” as lead-in video clips showed suffering on both sides. Williams said, “They (the Israeli military) credit the series of checkpoints in the West Bank (for reducing the number of suicide bombings).” However, this statement is countered by an “Arab professor” (Mustafah Barghouti), described as a “moderate Palestinian,” who says, “The checkpoints serve only one purpose, which is collective punishment.” The host fails to mention Barghouti’s role as a well-known Palestinian spokesman and propagandist.

Failing to provide an Israeli mainstream perspective, the program equated the violence to both sides, describing the conflict as a “circle of revenge” and omitting discussion of Islamic fanaticism while blaming the conflict mostly on settlements and occupation. Ignoring the Hamas – and other terrorists – aim to destroy Israel, Shapira answered the question – “What was the turning point for you?” – by describing the bombing by a fellow pilot of a Hamas leader’s home causing several collateral casualties.
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