Accident or Anti-Semitism? : Reuters and AP Make Bibi Look Like Hitler

Both Reuters and AP ran photos of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his address to the UN today clearly intended to be reminiscent of Hitler making his familiar salute. Since the two pictures in question were chosen from what must have been hundreds of available shots, and their evocative symbolism is unmistakeable, it must be considered an unambiguous attempt to liken Netanyahu to the Nazi leader.

First, to state what should be obvious, given the unspeakable suffering Jews suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany, the comparison is morally grotesque. The insidiousness of the analogy, heavy handed enough to be immediately obvious but still not so explicitly stated as to surrender some measly measure of deniability, is the mark of journalistic cowardice. It is a perfect exemplar of racism, one part blinkered ignorance and two parts spinelessness.

It is only more extraordinary when one considers that no such attempt to tar Iranian President Ahmadinejad was made despite the fact that his speech was speckled with unrepentant hate speech, by turns denying the Holocaust and calling for (not to mention outright predicting) the “elimination” of Israel. He delivered his address on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, and the day a coalition of Arab states attempted to purge Israel from the Middle East in 1973.

And as for the persistent and maddening charge that Israel is racist or an apartheid state or that Zionism is itself racist consider this: it is typical in the Arab world, not Israel, to regularly run television programming that depicts its adversaries as monkeys, monsters, demons, sorcerers, vampires and mendacious murderers. If Israel were ever to portray Arabs in the manner Arab nations nightly depict Jews there would an explosive salvo of international indignation. There would be demonstrations outside synagogues with a blind eye turned to vandalism and violence. Whole Foods everywhere would boycott Israeli hummus. We would be inflicted with an angry melange of self-indulgent political posturing by the same crowd that responded to the world wide terrorist attacks with feint-hearted apology and sheepish capitulation.

It is the Arab world that regularly peddles literature that portrays Jews as subhuman. It is the Arab world that denies Jews the right to live safely among them while over a million Arabs live peacefully in Israel, raising families, owning businesses, serving in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament). One reason Israel has had such difficulty securing its borders is because so many Arabs long to live there, knowing that they would find better treatment, political representation, and economic opportunity in Tel Aviv than anywhere in Damascus, Riyadh, Cairo, or Amman.

Meanwhile, Christians, homosexuals, women, and anyone who dares express even the barest hint of political dissent is brutally persecuted in Iran while welcome in Israel. Given the relentless hostility of its neighbors, and the shadow of mortal danger they live under daily, Israel very well might be the most authentically multicultural nation in the world. Anyone who values diversity and tolerance should consider Israel a patch of sacred land amidst a dank swamp of malignant hate. And any well-informed followers of international news should consider AP and Reuters bastions of racism.

Alana Goodman also reports on the story at Commentary magazine.

Category: Featured, International