Author

Ira Glunts

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In February a Rochester, NY, radio station aired a wonderful panel, of pro-Palestinian activists, one of whom deplored children being “taken from their parents” in nighttime raids. Pro-Israel groups attacked the station for the allegedly antisemitic charge that Israeli soldiers “rip children from their parents’ arms.” Well, they do rip children from their parents arms. And the silence of local progressive activists in the face of the antisemitism claim is dismaying.

Ha’aretz diplomatic correspondent and gourmand, Barak Ravid, recently tweeted a picture of “a likeable wine from the Livni vineyard in Kiryat Arba.” “Surprisingly good,” he concludes. The reason that the quality of the wine, produced in the darkest heart of the Israeli-occupied territory, is surprising, I would guess, is that Ravid believes that an admitted, convicted and unrepentant terrorist is unlikely to also become a successful vintner. But in Israel all is possible, at least for Jews.

On Thursday, October 15 during Kate Snow Live, MSNBC aired a segment on the present violence in Israel/Palestine. Amazingly, it presented the four-map graphic about Palestinian land loss. Predictably, a firestorm of anger and invective was immediately directed at MSNBC. None of it was justified, but the pro-Israel lobby relies on brute force and not truth or logic in order to intimidate journalists and politicians. On Thursday October 19, both Snow and Fletcher issued an apology for presenting the map graphic and for their remarks.