Inside - ColdType

THE ISRAEL LOBBY
Now, the
neoconservativ
e agenda
for the Middle
East maintains
the U.S.
embrace
of Israel with
great
enthusiasm.
And defenders
of that agenda
often resort
to timeworn
tactics for
squelching
debate
20 TheREADER
Overall, in the American news
media, the horrible killings of Israelis
by Palestinian suicide bombers get
front-page and prime-time coverage
while the horrible killings of Palestinians
by Israelis get relatively scant and
dispassionate coverage.
If the U.S. news media were to
become committed to a single standard
of human rights, the shift would
transform public discourse about
basic Israeli policies – and jeopardize
the U.S. government’s support for
them. It is against just such a single
standard that the epithet of “anti-
Semitism” is commonly wielded.
From the viewpoint of Israel and its
supporters, the ongoing threat of
using the label helps to prevent U.S.
media coverage from getting out of
hand. Journalists understand critical
words about Israel to be hazardous to
their careers.
In the real world, bigotry toward
Jews and support for Israel have long
been independent variables. For instance,
as Oval Office tapes attest,
President Richard M. Nixon was anti-
Semitic and did not restrain himself
from expressing that virulent prejudice
in private. Yet he was a big
admirer of the Israeli military and a
consistent backer of Israel’s government.
Now, the neoconservative agenda
for the Middle East maintains the
U.S. embrace of Israel with great
enthusiasm. And defenders of that
agenda often resort to timeworn tactics
for squelching debate.
Last fall, when I met with editors at
a newspaper in the Pacific Northwest,
a member of the editorial board
responded to my reference to neocons
by declaring flatly that “neocon” is an
“anti-Semitic” term. The absurd claim
would probably amuse the most
powerful neocons in the U.S. government’s
executive branch today, Vice
President Dick Cheney and Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, neither
of whom is Jewish.
Over the past couple of decades, a
growing number of American Jews
have seen their way clear to oppose
Israeli actions.
Yet their voices continue to be
nearly drowned out in major U.S.
media outlets by Israel-right-orwrong
outfits such as the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, the
Anti-Defamation League and the
American Jewish Committee.
As with all forms of bigotry, anti-
Semitism should be condemned. At
the same time, these days, America’s
biggest anti-Semitism problem has to
do with the misuse of the label as a
manipulative tactic to short-circuit
debate about Washington’s alliance
with Israel. CT
Norman Solomon is executive director
of the Institute for Public Accuracy
and the author of War Made Easy:
How Presidents and Pundits Keep
Spinning Us to Death.
(www.warmadeasy.com)
E-mail Solomon at:
mediabeat@igc.org.
This essay originally appeared
in the Baltimore Sun.