Unplugged Mike

One more thing: I have another letter in Al-Ahram. It criticizes a piece by Khalid Amayreh, the newspaper's West Bank correspondent and the correspondent for Al-Jazeera's english site. In his latest piece, he claimed that Jews controlled the American media and that Likudniks wanted to take over parts of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The first claim is boilerplate antisemitism; the second claim is just wacky. I've actually had it out with Khalid in mideastwebdialog (where he used to post) and in a new, thoroughly anti-Israel group called PeaceandDialogue where he currently posts. His ideas about Judaism are - strange.

Here is the letter:

Not so conspiratorial

Sir-- Khaled Amayreh's 'In the kill zone' ( Al- Ahram Weekly, 29 April - 5 May) includes two highly misleading statements about Jews and Israel.

The first is his repetition of the commonly held myth that Jews control American media, evidenced by what he perceives as a lack of criticism of George Bush's endorsement of Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

In fact, many newspapers here did criticise it, led by the New York Times and the Washington Post. The second, is his claim that some members of Israel's Likud Party would like to take over parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Though scholars believe that parts of these countries were part of the biblical Israelite kingdom, there is no evidence whatsoever that Israelis wish to take them over as part of a greater Israeli state.

Michael Brenner
New York, NY
USA

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/689/letters.htm

posted by Michael Brenner @ 8:20 PM