News flash! Islamofascists hate Jews!
Posted by Richard on August 2, 2006
How ignorant and stupid can you be and still be a successful mainstream journalist? How totally clueless? Apparently, pretty ignorant, stupid, and clueless. At least, that’s the conclusion suggested by a segment on Tuesday night’s Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN, in which the big-shot news anchor, Cooper, interviewed the esteemed foreign correspondent for The New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg:
Jeffrey, thanks very much for being with us. You know, I reread your article from several years ago about south Lebanon. It is just a fascinating look at life under Hezbollah, and of the inner workings and the message of Hezbollah.
I think what’s been lost in a lot of this coverage is just how anti-Semitic Hezbollah is in the rhetoric.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG, "THE NEW YORKER": Yes, it’s absolutely fascinating, Anderson. The anti-Semitism — there’s two things that are fascinating, rather. One is how embedded in the core of Hezbollah ideology, anti-Semitism is. And I don’t mean anti-Israel thinking or anti-Zionism. I mean frank anti-Semitism.
The other thing that’s so interesting about it is how blunt they are and how frank they are about their anti-Semitism. They don’t hide it. They don’t try to mask it in any way. They state very openly to you when you ask their exact feelings about Jews, which are quite extreme.
COOPER: It’s interesting because I talked to a representative news editor from al-Manar TV, and I asked him, you know, does Hezbollah still want to destroy the state of Israel? And I know Larry King has asked him that same question, and he rarely — he basically doesn’t answer that question. He sort of seems to avoid it. Which is so at odds because I mean Nasrallah himself is very point blank and matter of fact and open about his hatred of Jews.
GOLDBERG: Well, you know, al-Manar is an interesting place. They are slightly more schooled in let’s say obfuscation or public relations. The leadership — I mean, one of the things about Nasrallah that’s so interesting is how straightforward he is. And you see that in all of his statements on Israel. And even his statements on America. There’s no attempt to soften the language.
And the other thing about it that’s so shocking, I think, when you first hear it — is I always notice this — and one of the first things I noticed, was the use of epidemiological metaphors to describe the role of Jews in the world. Not just Israel, but Jews. Talking about Jews as a cancer, talking about Jews as a parasite on society. And they generally are very forward about this.
Is that truly bizarre? High-profile professional journalists amazed — shocked, even — that radical Islamists hate Jews and openly express extreme views about Jews? I hardly know what to say — it’s like a Saturday Night Live parody. What reality do these people inhabit?
(HT: Rush)
Leave a Comment