Israel Matzav: Oprah Discovers the Holocaust; Debbie Disses Jordan

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Oprah Discovers the Holocaust; Debbie Disses Jordan

Those of you who have been reading my missives since the days when I was doing "The Matzav" as an email list may recall that I really like Debbie Schlussel. Some of you may even know that I used to run marathons and, as you might expect, we all got a good laugh when Oprah Winphrey started trying to run them (lest you think I was one of those people who crawl to the finish, my best one was 3:24:22 in New York).

Debbie has an article in FrontPageMagazine.com in which she take Oprah to task for her "vapid" tour of Auschwitz. But then she gets down to the real meat: Oprah is a big fan of Jordanian Queen Rania, and has an agenda of promoting Jordan and Islam. Some of what Debbie says about Jordan may surprise you. It surprised me - I would have attributed many of Jordan's "firsts" to Saudi Arabia or the 'Palestinian Authority:'

The alleged premise of the show was, "The World's Youngest Queen," Queen Rania of Jordan (she's Palestinian). But that was the ruse to present viewers with features on several carefully selected Jordanian women whose message was: "Life in Jordan is just like yours." The women spoke perfect English with nary an accent. Just like us. They had careers and ordered Domino's Pizza. Just like us. And they and their husbands who love them are watching their weight. Just like us.

Oprah gushed so much over Queen Rania and her beauty, it was hard to remember she is from the Islamic Middle East. And that was the point. Oprah has been working overtime to promote Jordan and Islam. This is Rania's second Oprah appearance in five years, with the first on an "Islam 101" episode just after 9/11.

But here's the real Jordan you didn't--and will never--see on Oprah:

A 2005 Pew Research Center survey of 17,000 people found that Jordan the most anti-Semitic country in the world. Not just 95 percent of its people have unfavorable views of Jews. It is 100 percent. A full 41 percent of them don't like Christians either.

Queen Rania's largely Palestinian country (a demographic not mentioned on Oprah) didn't just beat the world in hatred for the Jews. Jordan leads in support for homicide bombings AND confidence in Osama Bin Laden "to do the right thing."

A whopping 88 percent of Jordanians support suicide bombings. That's up from 2002, when "only" 65 percent of Jordanians supported this "method" of dealing with perceived problems. Then, there's Bin Laden. Some 80 percent of Jordanians have "confidence in Osama Bin Laden to do the right thing regarding world affairs." And 57 percent of Jordanians said "violence against civilians in defense of Islam is justified."

Just like us?

Rania told Oprah that while Jordanians don't like U.S. policies, "they love America and Americans." Really? Pew Research says the country is the most anti-American in the world, with 79 percent viewing the U.S. unfavorably. Rania claimed women in her country are different and will end Mid-East violence. Pew Research found Jordanian women held the same hateful viewpoints as men.