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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
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
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
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
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
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
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
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
Dec. 1, 2003
/ 6 Kislev, 5764
Silence of the watchdogs
By
Diana West
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Remember the tree that fell in the forest, causing a ruckus of breaking branches and cracking trunks as it crashed? According to the fortune-cookie school of philosophy that popularized this conundrum, there would be no noise, or no verifiable noise, if there were no human being around to witness it ... unless, I would hasten to add, the human witness on hand happened to be a journalist.
With a journalist or, rather, with a press corps you never know what reverberations an event or revelation will generate. And I'm not even thinking of the big media silence on the so-called "Feith Memo." Tossed out many news cycles ago by the Weekly Standard in the form of a big, fat scoop, this top-secret U.S. government memo offers intelligence, in 50 numbered points, on the operational relationship it says has existed between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein since the early 1990s. The Standard called its article "Case Closed," but that doesn't mean the press shouldn't even take a peak.
This time, it's another Big Story that has been reliably launched only to sink with little trace. It concerns the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, and it broke in the Financial Times on Nov. 21. "The European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-Semitism," the newspaper reported, "because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined."
This suppression is a disgrace. Having commissioned the report during a shocking European upsurge in anti-Semitic violence in 2002, the EU has now buried the report during another shocking European upsurge in anti-Semitic violence in 2003. Indeed, the Financial Times published its initial story the same week that two Jewish synagogues in Turkey were devastated by Islamic bombers, and a Jewish school near Paris was firebombed. A French-language news Web site, www.revue-politique.com, now reports that the brutal murder of a Jewish DJ in Paris on Nov. 19 may have been an act of Muslim anti-Semitism.
According to the Financial Times, the EU racism commission (EUMC) was appalled by the report's conclusion that the new anti-Semitism is largely a phenomenon of the 21st-century left and the Islamic movement in Europe. As Juliane Wetzel of the Berlin research center that completed the research told the newspaper in a follow-up story, "The study put the EUMC in a difficult situation because it singled out the group (young Muslims), which they (the EUMC) seek to protect. They refused to publish it because it clashed with political correctness."
Refusing to publish the report is an embarrassment that exposes the lengths to which European bureaucrats will go to suppress a terrible truth to sustain a dangerous fantasy namely, that anti-Semitism is the sole province of jackbooted rightists swilling beer and sieging heil. But the bureaucrats have been thwarted. Their story is out. Juicy details abound as in the fact that the same EU racism commission has already brought out three reports on anti-Islamic attitudes in Europe in the two years since 9/11. But practically no media organization in Europe or the United States has yet to take up the cry.
Such journalistic silence does more than deprive us of information. It sucks the oxygen from the free exchange of ideas, stifling debate before it occurs. This undermines more than the state of the press. It adversely affects public discourse everywhere, lending credence to the pernicious notion that subjects of grave importance Muslim anti-Semitism and European denial, for example must be consigned to furtive whispers, if they are mentioned at all.
This same silence leads to a tyranny of political correctness, as evidenced by author Robert Spencer's recent experience. His 2002 book, "Islam Unveiled" (Encounter, 2002), a carefully researched analysis of the disturbing links between Koranic teachings and Islamic terrorism, was slated for publication in France this month. (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)
Death threats against both the book's translator, French writer Guy Milliere, and its French publisher, Yves Michalon, have frightened the publishing house into canceling the book. ("It's ironic," Mr. Spencer said in an interview with Front Page Magazine. "If you don't say Islam is a religion of peace, they will kill you.") Before shouting vive la France avec irony, it's worth noting that author Ibn Warraq has heard from U.S. publishing sources that similar fears have prevented an American reprint of his excellent 1995 book, "Why I Am Not a Muslim.(Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)"
Hiding facts and suppressing arguments not publishing them, not airing them, not facing them doesn't make them go away. It chokes the free flow of ideas our democracies require to survive.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
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JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial
writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, Diana West
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