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May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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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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