All Anti-Semitism is Not Created Equal

Just read the New York Times to figure it out.

Which of the following two stories made it into the New York Times?

1. One of the top leaders of Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar, a man who has been written about on hundreds of occasions in the Times, responded to the dedication of a synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem by delivering a viciously anti-Semitic rant in which he promised the annihilation of Israel and said that the Jews “killed and murdered your prophets” and “have always dealt in loan-sharking” and are “destined to be destroyed.”

2. A Vatican preacher compared condemnation of the Church over its sex-abuse scandal to the persecution of Jews, remarks from which Church officials immediately distanced themselves.

The first story, of course, was not covered. The second was not just covered, but given above-the-fold, front page treatment. Why is this?

The reason, I think, is because the Times is a left-wing paper and adheres to one of the central tenets of enlightened progressivism: people who can be identified as Third World, or who are not members of the Judeo-Christian/European world, must not be held to the same standards to which white, First World people are held. This double-standard — it is the racism of the enlightened — pervades the treatment of different cultures and religions in the strongholds of Western liberalism, that is, in the media, academia, and the “human rights” community.

Comments

[John Pepple]

This together with many similar incidents is all pretty strange. During the period that I was a more or less orthodox leftist, my view of Muslims underwent a huge change after I saw how Muslims dealt with leftists after the Iranian revolution. This was followed by the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and if I had any doubts, the murder of Theo van Gogh.

From all this I inferred that these people were on the right, a right that was much further to the right than George Bush. And since Hamas is closely allied with Iran, I see them as on the far right, too.

Yet, the left acts as though these people are somehow on the left. Exactly what leftist credentials they have is never mentioned. It just seems to be enough for most leftists that they are against the U.S. and Israel. For me, it's not enough. I want to see how they treat women and gays for starters.

And for those who accuse me of Islamophobia, I'll be happy to change my mind, but only when the Muslims running Iran give up power to secular leftists.

As if that would ever happen.