Israel Matzav: Poor Jodi Rudoren: Listen to both sides of a story, get bashed by the Left

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Poor Jodi Rudoren: Listen to both sides of a story, get bashed by the Left

New York Times bureau chief Jodi Rudoren did a fair profile of Yesha Council Chairman Dani Dayan for her newspaper. Now, she's being blasted from the Left for not claiming that he murders and tortures 'Palestinians.' This is from the second link.

All this by way of background to my comment: your story of Dani Dayan today is simply shameful. He represents nearly all that is not merely "wrong" or "self-destructive" about Israel, but what is evil. It is entirely irrelevant if you find him to be pleasant, "worldly," and "pragmatic," nor whether he genuinely believes--or purports to believe--that he is serving the true interests or security of Israel. It is also irrelevant that he might not be quite as evil as some of the people that he represents.

When evil, insanity, violence, thuggery, and self-destructiveness reach a certain level, it longer matters how "worldly" or "pragmatic," or personally seemingly genial and pleasant some of its leaders may be, and any discussion of them that focuses on such trivialities is not merely irrelevant but dangerously misleading. I'm sure you can think of some of the obvious examples.

Those of us--in the U.S. and in Israel--who had given up on the NY Times in general and Ethan Bronner in particular, and who had hoped for awhile that you might make a real difference, are already in shock at your apparent naivite. I hope you will come to grips with the reality and with your own responsibilities as soon as possible. Even Thomas Friedman is finally beginning to grasp the full realities; I hope it won't take you as long.

In other words, Dayan cannot possibly be human according to the writer, one Jerome Slater.

Here's one from the third link, from James North at Mondoweiss:

There is not even the standard evasive Times boilerplate in the article making passing reference to the fact that the settlements are illegal under international law. No, they are "disputed." And Rudoren does not ask Dayan's unwilling Palestinian neighbors for a token sentence of rebuttal, let alone describe the fractional amounts of water from their own land that they can draw compared to Dayan and his ilk. Who cares if he likes art and nice wine? What are he and his fellows and the Israeli army doing to make Palestinian lives miserable?

In other words, again, Dayan cannot possibly be human and have human wants and needs.

The problem is that the editors of the Times need to sell newspapers, and if they believe that the only people who read the paper are the likes of Slater and North, they aren't likely to let Rudoren publish any more articles that don't represent the views of the extreme Left. So please, if you have a blog, write about this. If you don't have a blog, please comment on a blog about it or on the NY Times' website. And tell all your friends. Otherwise, we'll get articles that will please Slater and North and their ilk, which will be hopelessly biased against Israel.

Labels: Jodi Rudoren, liberal media bias, New York Times