The latest evidence of the collapse of American Jewish tradition of liberalism and outsider smarts; here are Jewish “leaders”–actually just Malcolm Hoenlein, 68, and Abraham Foxman, 72, but they are powerful– behaving like Stalinists, or the know-nothings who wanted to keep evolution out of the classroom and fluoride out of the water. Haaretz: “US Jewish leaders express concern about impending Al Jazeera incursion into millions of American homes“:
American Jewish leaders have expressed “concern” about the impending entry of the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera network to the U..S television market, citing its record of anti-Israeli coverage and support for extremist Muslim regimes.
Both Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents and Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League publicly voiced their apprehensions on Friday in the wake of reports that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore had sold his Current TV network to Al-Jazeera for $500 million. The sale will allow Al Jazeera to gain access to tens of millions of American homes in which Current TV had been available through various cable providers.
Hoenlein said that although the network’s English-language coverage has been more balanced and had given a platform to Israeli spokesperson, “their general coverage has served to destabilize regimes and favor some of the more extremist elements in the Arab world.”
Foxman was even harsher in his criticism…
Richard Silverstein notes that the lobby’s fear is related to the fact that the Emir of Qatar has made huge investments in Gaza on the theory that the people in Gaza are human beings.
Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t ADL mean anti defamation league.Foxman out of his position. Again
here’s time magazine:
http://world.time.com/2013/01/04/viewpoint-why-al-jazeeras-entry-into-the-u-s-is-a-good-thing/#ixzz2H7WmmDge
What will happen if a news organization in the US does not employ the ubiquitous ‘pro Zionist’ filter found in the rest of America’s ‘main stream media’? Such a question must scare the hell out of Foxman, Kristol, Dershowitz and their ilk. For by denying Americans the right to view information over the public airwaves, they display their contempt for American values such as the First Amendment. Yet, if such information is disseminated without the pro-Israeli gatekeepers, the truth may actually get to the public, with questions asked about America’s unquestioning support of the so-called ‘Jewish’ state which Zionists are either loathe to, or will never be able to answer satisfactorily to the general public. This is hilarious.
The lobby really have nothing to fear. Though it’s still better than most other English-language news channels, Al J has clearly been toning down its criticism of Israel for some time now. I strongly suspect that its expansion into America will see Al J move further towards the American norm of adopting a softly-softly approach to the Holy State.
To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, Al Jazeera in the US would reframe the middle east debate.