When Bob Simon of CBS’ 60 Minutes went to the West Bank and uncovered for American viewers, the effects of Israel’s military occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands (see below), it did not draw as much criticism as when Jon Stewart hosted the Palestinian activist, Mustafa Barghouti, and the Jewish American human rights activist, Anna Baltzer, just recently.
In the context of US media’s long history of censorship and pro-Israel bias in reporting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the roof caved in.
Jon Stewart’s comedy news show The Daily Show is reportedly under fire from pro-Israeli groups for giving airtime to two pro-Palestinian figures on Wednesday night. Stewart hosted Palestinian democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti and human rights activist Anna Baltzer, author of A Witness in Palestine, who explained the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Palestinian side.
According to a letter reportedly written by Baltzer and circulated by blogger Eric Johnson, the show “was overwhelmed with angry emails and phone calls prior to the appearance, and up until the last minute it seemed like they might cancel.”
“During the taping the show had its only heckler in 11 years,” Baltzer wrote. “The entire staff were very nervous and may come to regret the monumental decision (and not make it again) as they will surely be inundated now that the show has aired.”
The story is worth following.
For reference sake, the Bob Simon’s 60 Minutes episode was called, Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution? It’s subtitle is particularly significant given Netanyahu’s rebuff of Obama’s peace efforts and his unwillingness to stop the colonialism:
60 Minutes: Growing Number Of Israelis, Palestinians Say Two-State Solution Is No Longer Possible.
The CBS site still makes available the Bob Simon segment (click above).
Jon can shine line where others fear to tread.
Yes Jon can shine, both he and Bob Simon, who also broke the code of silence. In the face of its hypocracy, saying nothing to human rights injustices, silence can become a burden that decent people are unable to carry. And so here is a few of them.
Link
Thanks for the posting, Alice.
For a time there, it was believed that the Daily Show put up a censored version of the interview, with key issues excluded. But that apparently has been remedied.
Texas can’t seem to get a break from creeps!
I hope this gets more press, he deserves lots of light shining on his activities.
Rick Perry seems to be in the same class as Charles Johnson, proprietor of Little Green Footballs, the pro-Israel, anti-Arab/Muslim, Islamophobic site, who also received a reward from Israel for his good work.
This is one mention of him traveling to Israel, but 2 years old, and claims expenses paid by “, whomever that might be.
Would be nice to have more “official” (newsy?) links as to his repeat offenses in this arena.
Fort Worth, Texas CBS report.
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(GAZA) Jan. 24, 2009 – Among Israel’s Jews, there is almost no higher value than Zionism. The word is bathed in a celestial glow, suggesting selflessness and nobility. But go anywhere else in the Middle East and Zionism stands for theft, oppression, racist exclusionism.
No place, date or event in this conflicted land is spoken of in a common language. The barrier snaking across and inside the West Bank is a wall to Palestinians, a fence to Israelis. The holiest site in Jerusalem is the Temple Mount to Jews, the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims. The 1948 conflict that created Israel is one side’s War of Independence, the Catastrophe for the other.
George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader who is Mr. Obama’s new special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, could find something similar when he arrives here.
Even though an understanding crystallized a decade ago over the outline of an eventual solution here — Israel returning essentially to its 1967 borders and a Palestinian state forming in the West Bank and Gaza — the two sides’ narratives have actually hardened since attempts to reach a peace foundered.
(Israel News) Feb. 11, 2009 – Forgive me if this letter is not quite coherent. I’m still weeping over your sad plight. You want to be a good journalist by reporting “in a way both sides can accept as fair” and everyone is picking on you. No one’s happy. What’s a reporter to do? To paraphrase Herr Eichman, you are just doing your job, following your conscience. We all know (we all should know) that there is no such thing as absolute truth. There are only different perspectives, competing narratives. Had you been working for the Times during World War II, you would surely have been the one courageous enough to show the Nazi side (After all, there’s always another side to the story): how traitorous Jews betrayed Germany’s war effort causing it to lose World War I; how plutocratic Jews undermined the German economy; how Communist Jews were trying to take away the profits of hard-working German citizens; how degenerate Jews were leading to the general decline of culture and morality; how even American auto magnate, Henry Ford, and the inspirational Catholic priest, Father Coughlin, subscribed to Nazi views on the Jewish menace.
Wishing the extremists on both sides ‘all the best’ living side by side in a two-state solution to the conflict. Or are you offering another option to the “problem“?
≈ Cross-posted from my diary — Clinton Using Netanyahu’s Vocabulary ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."