Israel Matzav

Is Junior Scholastic brainwashing your kid?

Barry Rubin discusses some of the biases in the September 6, 2010 edition of Junior Scholastic that his son received in school.

Main Article: “Obama’s In-Box” pp. 6-8. An article about challenges facing the President. Most of the short items are balanced—immigration, oil spill, terrorism (domestic only), Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea-- in that they present more than one side and avoid partisan language.

There are three exceptions, however:

--The Middle East: This is seriously slanted. After being told Obama wants to make peace the kids are instructed:

“Muslim extremists often use U.S. support for Israel as an excuse to commit terrorist acts. But some Israeli policies, Obama says, work against peace.”

While the first sentence is certainly true, in this context (with no other factors being presented) the kids are being taught that U.S. support for Israel threatens their lives. (Obvious answer: Protect yourself by ending support for Israel.)

As for the second sentence, Obama’s considerable prestige is thrown in to blame Israel for the lack of peace. That’s it. No criticism of the Palestinians. Nothing about Hamas or any hint of anti-Israel terrorism or the goal of wiping Israel off the map.

Do I think this was conscious and deliberate? Probably not. Is it damaging and dangerous? Definitely yes.

Is the way elementary school kids in the US think about Israel being molded by people who are hostile to Israel? Possibly.

There are a lot of other biased statements there too, which would bother me greatly if my kids lived in the US and reading Junior Scholastic.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:27 PM