Thursday, October 29, 2009
There are so many silly editorials in the Globe they're generally not worth commenting on, but this one was so jaw-droppingly absurd that it sets a new low in absurdity (and it's highly on-topic). I read this and had to look at the front page to make sure someone hadn't substituted a regime rag from some Islamist paradise for my Globe (yes, I still see the Globe print edition on occasion): Israel must end provocative digs
AS A DISPUTE over land and statehood, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is combustible enough. But recent clashes over the site in Jerusalem that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif are injecting religious passions into one of the world's most dangerous confrontations. Extremists on both sides are playing with fire. But since Israel is the dominant power, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears primary responsibility for smothering that fire before it erupts into a much larger conflagration.
The current crisis originates in Palestinian fear and anger over archaeological excavations near, but not underneath, the Al Aqsa mosque. The digs are under the control of an ultra-nationalist Israeli group intent on justifying a Jewish claim to Jerusalem by locating remnants of what is called the City of David. Those excavations have weakened the foundations of nearby Arab houses and led critics across the Muslim world to warn of a plot to cause the collapse of the Al Aqsa mosque...
Does the Globe simply not know history? The "Jews are undermining the Al Aqsa Mosque" meme has been used for decades...maybe centuries...to incite murder. It never needed any basis in fact and doesn't have one now. At least they note that archaeologists are not digging under the Temple Mount, but they're happy to play right along and advise appeasing the unappeasable, stoking sympathy for the bloodthirsty. In fact, it's the Muslim Waqf that has been digging beneath the Mount, and intentionally destroying and discarding the treasures buried there. Perhaps they would consider denouncing that instead.
The digs aren't under the control of "ultra-nationalists...intent on justifying a Jewish claim to Jerusalem" because they have nothing to justify. It's a simple fact, and they are simply doing science and exposing the buried record -- something we should all be grateful for.
This is typical of the lefty Globe mindset. When the other side pushes, their prescription is to roll over and show their bellies, when the truth is that's just what the wolf wants the porcupine to do. They threaten and step over the line, you step back and redraw it...they step again. It never ends, particularly with totalitarian movements, represented in Islamist form in this case. (See: Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing.)
The moral inversion of the Globe's stance is stunning. The Islamists lie, incite, threaten and commit violence in a predictable and oft-repeated pattern, and the Globe brain-trust manages to place responsibility on the Jews, completely switching right with wrong.
Read the rest (only two more paragraphs), if you must. I'm out, but you get the gist. For once I recommend reading the comments. This one goes too far even for some of the Globe's regulars (and don't assume all the deleted comments were from the usual Jew haters, either).
This whole story sounds familiar. I can't pinpoint the exact year off the top of my head, but didn't Arafat pull this same routine with the opening of the "Western Wall Tunnels?" (Was it 95 or 96?)
I guess the Globe's editorial board can't bother was history....
The Tunnel Riots
http://www.meforum.org/426/the-medias-tunnel-vision
They've pulled this over and over. It doesn't matter to the Globe.
sometimes it is hard to criticize because you think they have elaborated something new till you realize it is just the same old same old. you could make a career... in fact many bloggers do... just keeping up with their bullshit. at a certain point you just have to decide it isn't worth listening to their side of story and remain loyal to your own because their lies take work to dig up all the time.
I know this might be a bitter pill to take, but in some ways we do better by not taking what they take seriously till it directly effects us and then pull resources to combat it. 99% of the accusations are just reframed old accusations
NDS,
The problem in not highlighting this rubbish is that everyday there is someone born who will believe it and it is a lot harder knocking the ingrained dirt off the wall than tackling it while still fresh.