There was a time, not so long ago, where the boys at the Washington Post were considered the adult crowd in beltway circles. It appears that they have now degenerated into the practice of idol worship, paying daily homage to that notorious war criminal, Ariel Sharon. The sophomoric bigotry of their chief columnists, who make no effort to hide their disdain for Palestinians, was clearly on display last week. The militant Krauthammer, the armchair sissy warrior George Will and his sister Michael Kelly were engaged in a contest to determine who deserves a long ride on Sharon’s lap.
These three warmongers love to dream up new outrages to inflict on the Palestinians. They get off on it. They think the butcher of Sabra and Shatila and Qibya should wield a sharper knife. They have some weird mental disorder that is accepted as normal behavior by the man who runs the madhouse, Donald Graham. I mean, regardless of what you think of their opinions, they are seriously weird dysfunctional characters. If it ain’t one thing, its another. They market the same bitter racist drivel that one would expect from a KKK recruit. These cowards carefully measure the words they use to couch their racist anti-black rhetoric. But when it comes to Arabs, Muslims and especially Palestinians, Donald Graham allows these dogs be as loose as they want to be. He expects no pay back.
So, along comes the Washington Times with an article by a writer of the adult persuasion, Arnaud de Borchgrave. In ‘War process displaces peace process’ (Washington Times, 8/20/01), de Borchgrave gives a well-balanced assessment of the current situation. I certainly don’t share his views and his emphasis on oil, but I can accept his article as legitimate journalism by a real professional (http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010820-34586980.htm). As far as I am concerned, America should side with the cause of Palestinian freedom, not out of concern for oil supplies, but out of concern for the Palestinians.
Now the common wisdom is that the Washington Post is a ‘national’ paper. This perception came about as they allowed themselves to cozy up to government officials and the officials have used their pages to leak government information. Of course, they still operate under the banner of ‘the guys and dolls who did the Watergate and the Pentagon Papers dance.’ Ancient history. But in reality, they have become a lobby to sell agendas, including foreign agendas, especially Israeli agendas, to the government. Their other specialty is marketing these policies, along with their pals at the five networks to the American public. There are so many of these Yiddish supremacist pundits who float from Print to TV, all in a single day. Sometimes watching them talk amongst themselves, I get an eerie feeling I am intruding on some private Yiddish ritual. But then maybe, its because they have all the microphones. They talk for the Likud, they speak for Labor, they are also Democrats and Republicans and some work for NPR, they represent the extreme right wing and the extreme left wing, they have plenty of ‘options’ for Palestinians and every body else on the planet. They know best, having been divinely chosen to glow off the tube in our living rooms and lend us their ‘expert’ advice on every manner of subject under the sun, including how to best go about the business of expelling the Palestinians from their native lands.
One of the policies they are really big on is providing American tax subsidies for land thieving Israeli settlers out to displace more of the native people of the Holy Land. The long and short of it, is that one only has to look at their staffing preferences to realize, that like the New York Times, the Post is a very ethnic paper.
The mass media, a very ethnically dominated industry, portrays the Washington Times as just another municipal paper. Now consider this last week of coverage in both the Washington Post and The Washington Times. Who acts like an adult? Who constructs an argument based on the truth? Who takes into account American interests? Who resorts to disdainful bigotry to make an argument? who wants to find peace and who wants to further ignite the situation? The irrefutable evidence is that the Washington Post has become a racist ethnic lobby for the same crowd that owns and operates the New York Times. Both these ethnic newspapers along with assorted other Jewish Lobby organizations have completely hijacked the making of America’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Our advice is never to read either of these two papers without first checking their advertised price for the Brooklyn Bridge. If you believe them, they can get it for you wholesale.
Now, if you think this talk of the power of the Jewish Lobby is overdone, consider Amir Oren’s article in Haaretz on Aug 22, 2001. He writes that ‘The Republicans have already lost their majority in the U.S. Senate and their clout might further shrink in the 2002 elections, for which both the GOP and the Democrats are already gearing up. Bush would certainly not like to be giving the impression that he is bullying Israel ….’. Similar warnings to Bush regularly appear in the pages of the New York Times. Oren’s article was written in a triumphalist tone after the Israeli’s vetoed an international observer force at the United Nations. It is still not clear whether Tel Aviv was borrowing the American Veto or had by now taken permanent possession. What is clear, is that the Bush administration does not want to get its nose bloodied by the Lobby; so it might not ask for that the Veto be returned.
Many countries now know they can get favorable consideration in Washington via the good offices of the Israeli Lobby. Turkey is almost addicted to that ‘special relationship’. Perhaps it is time to privatize congress and allow all American citizens, not just the Yiddish supremacists, to bid for them in the open pit like we bid for hogs in Chicago. That would lead to more transparent government and it would break the unnatural monopoly of the racist Israeli lobby.
We have a government and a ‘national’ press that are supporting the vicious ethnic repression of the Palestinians. Make no mistake, a publisher like Donald Graham can wake up one day and decide to control the bigots on his staff. But don’t hold your breath. Best to switch to the Washington Times. Better yet, check out the Independent of London and The Guardian. Believe it or not, there is a non-ethnic English language press in the world. Seek and you will find plenty of mass media alternatives. It will make you despise our media barons all the more.
Mr. Ahmed Amr is Editor of NileMedia.com in Seattle and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
