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February 13, 2012
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
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January 13, 2012
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
August 28, 2003
/ 30 Menachem-Av, 5763
The mainstreaming of terrorists: How ‘enlightened’ media whitewash horror perps
By
Joel Mowbray
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Intentionally killing civilians from America, Europe, or Asia (or almost anywhere else) makes you a terrorist — but intentionally killing innocent Jews in Israel merely makes you a "militant." At least in the eyes of the "mainstream" media.
The vocabulary makeover is part of the moral equivalency that is rampant in media coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues.
The USA Today's editorial page recently informed readers that "both Israeli and Palestinian leaders are captives of fanatical extremists," as if a democratically-elected government seeking to protect its citizens from mass murderers is on a par with a self-appointed dictatorship aiding and abetting those same mass murderers in the intentional slaughter of innocent civilians. But at least that's the editorial page.
Far more sinister is the subliminal marketing campaign waged on news pages to varnish the image of Palestinian terrorists. In the same issue of the USA Today, the front page contained a story with the following lead sentence: "The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad called off an 8-week truce with Israel Thursday and vowed to stage more suicide bombings." Notice that in the same sentence containing two groups' joint promise to kill more innocent civilians is the label of the organizations as merely "militant" — in an ostensibly objective news story.
The dictionary definition — and the usual connotation — for "militant" is: "Having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause: a militant political activist." Groups that exist for the primary purpose of killing innocent civilians are not "combative" or "aggressive." Murderous, perhaps. Terrorizing, certainly.
If anything, though, the definition for "terrorist" — those who employ "the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments" — does not fully capture the depths of the depravity. The goal of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad is not just to "intimidate" or "coerce"; it is actually to kill Jews. And that's in their own words.
Earlier this summer, Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi declared, "By G-d, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine (meaning Israel as well as the territories)," justifying his pledge by claiming, "This is our land, not the Jews'." Last year, the leader of Hizbollah, Hassan Nassrallah, mused, "If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." And Hizbollah's protector, the Syrian government, is no less open about its desire to kill all Jews. Syria's Minister of Defense, Mustapha Tlass, opined in a television interview two years ago that if "every Arab killed a Jew, no Jews would remain," and added that he personally wanted "to kill any Jew he faced."
Given that the terrorists openly — and proudly — call for the murder of innocent civilians, why does the media insist on calling them "militants?" Even the Associated Press has hopped on the bandwagon. The day after the recent bus bombing that killed 23 — including six children — a search of the AP photo archive with the word "terrorist" yielded results from Asia and elsewhere in the Middle East, but none for the attack in Jerusalem. To find those photos, the search required the word "militant."
One must wonder what exactly about the intentional murder of 23 innocents on a bus packed with small children is "combative" or "aggressive."
When Israel responded by killing the Hamas terrorists responsible for planning and ordering the attack, the Middle East's sole democracy was portrayed as the aggressor. Typical is the following New York Times headline: "With Cease-Fire Crumbling, Israel Refuses to Suspend Raids."
But the worst offender — and the originator of the "militant" fad — is Reuters, the international news wire service. Whereas some news outlets merely imply moral equivalency between Israel and the terrorists, Reuters is overt. Reuters described Israel's move against Hamas as a "relapse into the tit-for-tat bloodshed that doomed previous peacemaking."
"Tit-for-tat" is explicit equivalency; Reuters is informing the entire world that from an objective news perspective, there is absolutely no difference between the targeting of terrorist masterminds and the mass murder of innocent civilians.
Although there is some temptation to pin the blame on latent — or maybe even cognizant — anti-Semitism, a more likely culprit is the innate belief most have that there exists similar legitimacy on opposite sides of almost any dispute. But using terms such as "militant" and "spiral of violence" only serves to extend the "spiral of equivalency," masking the true evil of the "militants."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Joel Mowbray is the author of the forthcoming book "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Endangers America's Security". Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, Joel Mowbray
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