How The Media Helps The Palestinians Erase Jewish History

From the New York Times to the BBC to the European media, Jew-hatred is the most under-reported - and arguably most important story - of our times.
Caroline Glick

Caroline Glick writes that not only does the media ignore the growing problem of Muslim Antisemitism, the media ends up collaborating with the Palestinian attempt to erase Jewish history:

The Western media has two basic approaches to their non-reporting of Islamic Jew-hatred and its significance for international security. The first approach is to ignore the issue because it is ideologically inconvenient.

The New York Times, like every other major Western media outlet except The Wall Street Journal, is of the opinion that the Islamic world should be appeased. The Muslim Brotherhood and Iran should be accommodated.


If they gave Islamic Jew-hatred coverage commensurate with its actual significance, they would be undermining their ideological agenda. In light of their ubiquitous and vituperative obsession with Jewish people, it is obvious that it is impossible to appease the Muslim world.

The second approach to contending with Islamic Jew-hatred is to justify it by claiming that Israel has earned all the hate coming its way. It's "political" they say. The Islamic demonization of Jews is understandable given the Palestinians and all that.

Obviously, both of these approaches to the story of Islamic Jew-hatred are appalling. The former approach involves a breach of the very concept of objective journalism. After all, the purpose of journalism is to report on the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.

And the latter approach is no less bigoted than the hatred it serves to whitewash.

One growing issue that the media makes a point of ignoring is the goal of Palestinian propaganda to rewrite the history of the area in general while obliterating traces of Jews from the history of the Land of Israel.

Unfortunately, the media not only ignores what the Palestinian Arabs are doing to erase Jewish history--the media also collaborates with them as well:

For instance, on Tuesday, the New York Times published an article about the efforts of the Palestinians from Battir, an Arab village southwest of Jerusalem, to have their ancient terraced irrigation system recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site [A Palestinian Village Tries to Protect a Terraced Ancient Wonder of Agriculture]. They claim the designation is necessary and urgent because if they don't get it, Israel may build a portion of the security barrier through the village and harm the irrigation system.

Isabel Kershner, the Times' reporter, referred to the irrigation system as "a Roman-era irrigation system."

But as the bloggers Yisrael Medad [Battir's NYTimes's 'Sprightly elderly woman'] and Elli Fischer pointed out [NYT misses a big part of Battir’s cultural heritage], it is a Jewish irrigation system from the Second Temple period. And while Battir is a reasonable candidate for World Heritage Site status, it is first and foremost a Jewish heritage site. Battir is the Arab name for the ancient Jewish village Betar, the site of Bar- Kochba's last stand against the Roman Empire.

It is the last place where Jews were sovereign until the establishment of the State of Israel.

But Kershner didn't mention any of that.

Apparently, The New York Times is of the opinion that 'appeasement is bliss'--a position that reveals a woeful ignorance of history in general.

Hat tip: Israel Matzav, How the Western media minimizes Islamic Jew hatred

Technorati Tag: Israel and Media+Bias and Jews and Jewish History.