I am perpetually stunned by how successfully the propaganda about Palestine-the-occupied-country has swept through the minds of educated western people and left nothing else in its wake but false images of Palestine beseiged by Israeli “Nazis.” The “humiliation at the checkpoints” and the faux “murder of Mohammed al-Dura” burn brightly as eternal mental images while the relentless barrage of Kassam rockets against the civilians of Sderot remain non-existent images.
Yesterday, I wrote about Letty Cottin Pogrebin’s Orwellian defense of Ms. Magazine for having rejected the AJCongress’s pro-Israel ad.
Pogrebin quotes Claire Kinberg of Bridges Magazine who says she is outraged by the accusation that Ms. has not published enough about Israel. Well, yes but…In addition to featuring mainly Israeli left-feminists who specialize in criticizing Israel without perspective or mercy, Ms. also publishes pieces about mythical “peace-making” between powerless feminists and about “Palestine,” (a country that does not exist); about the suffering of Palestinian refugees but not the suffering of Israeli civilians who are being blown up, shelled, wounded, etc.; about how brave Palestinian women are rising above their suffering–but not about how brave Israeli women are doing so.
May I suggest that this is the case because everyone over there believes that Israel is indeed, just like Apartheid South Africa and that it would be politically incorrect to document the suffering of the oppressors.
Thus, Ms. Magazine reports on the inspiring and moving events sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement–yes, that’s the group that callously targeted Rachel Corrie for martyrdom and that reguarly sponsors campus hate-fests all across America. And they feature Queen Noor, the former Lisa Halaby, whose book was chock full of poisonous propaganda against Israel. The Queen does not remind her readers that Jordan massacred more Palestinians in September of 1970 than Israel has ever done in wars of self-defense nor does she acknowledge that Jordan will not allow Palestinians to become citizens, that only Israel has allowed more than 1 million Palestinian Arabs to be citizens.
Full disclosure: Once, I demonstrated with Palestinian and Israeli feminists “against the Occupation” but, to paraphrase the acclaimed Israeli novelist Yoram Kiniuk (a great leftist): “I was dancing with my peace partner who turned into a suicide bomber.”
Make up your own mind. Here are links to four articles which are still accessible on the Ms. website.
“”Under the Peace Tent—Part I”: :
http://msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?id=6294
“Middle East: Peace Activists Step in to Pave the Way to the Olive Branch”:
http://www.msmagazine.com/dec02/rabkin.asp
“Queen Noor: The Next Chapter”:
http://www.msmagazine.com/sept03/lafferty.asp
“Images of Palestine”:
http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2004/ramallahfilmfestival.asp
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