WAS "LAW AND ORDER" EPISODE ANTI-SEMITIC? (Hat tip: Larwyn) Wow, this is weird. I actually watched this episode last night, but didn't get the same impression. But Michael Freund did. Freund writes, with my comments in brackets:

• The show depicts Israeli bulldozers destroying Palestinian schools, with at least one character referring to "Israeli brutality." [I'm not sure, but I believe the context of terrorism was given]
  
  
• It also includes a Jewish police captain who agrees to cover up for Israel by shutting down a criminal investigation at the urging of the head of the local pro-Israel group. [The impression I had was that the shadowy FBI guy who consistently tried to get the police out of the case was behind that. Besides, in the end the captain backs his people]
  
  
• In one scene, after Captain Danny Ross tells his officers to halt their investigation, Detective Mike Logan confronts him and asks, "Are you a Jew first and a cop second?" [Yes, in an argument. It did not come across as a statement the show was trying to make]
  

I agree that we should be on the lookout for anti-Semitism in the media, including in the TV shows. While I respect Michael Freund's opinion, I disagree with his reading of this particular episode and may have gotten a plot element outright wrong. More importantly, as careful as we need to be about anti-Semitism in the media, we need to avoid looking like CAIR in the process.

Technorati Tag: Law and Order and anti-Semitism.