January 1, 2001
Letters to the Editor
Courier-Post
P.O. Box 5300
Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034
Dear Editor,
It has become a recognizable pattern that after every body count in any story related to the latest Intifata against Israel, the phrases “most of them Palestinians,” “virtually all of them Palestinians” and “the vast majority of them Palestinian,” is sure to follow. While any needless death, be it an Israeli or a Palestinian is a tragedy, the constant reminder of how many deaths the Palestinians suffer is becoming a not so subtle, subliminal editorial comment. Your correspondents and those who write the stories used from the wire service, have also bought into the anti-Israeli propaganda by using phrases such as these.
Yet I have never seen any article clearly stating the fact that the reason so many young Palestinians have been killed or injured is because the Palestinians leadership have developed a four tier line of attack that deliberately and cowardly places the most vulnerable in harms way.
In the front line they put children, ten, eleven or twelve throwing stones and these are the first to get shot if bullets start flying. This is done by design so as to garner the maximum anti-Israeli public opinion possible and mobilize world outrage. In the second line, they have place the masked stone throwers, mostly teenagers and in the third line they have the older teenagers, also masked throwing Molotov Cocktails and other explosives. In the back, are the adults with guns and explosives aiming to kill soldiers and settlers.
No one seems to be reporting that the Palestinians are deliberately putting their children in the front lines specifically to get world opinion on their side. The are sacrificing their children and the newspapers make no comment!
Israel is under attack and when the Israelis defend themselves, the world sees children being killed. The Iraqis did the same thing by putting Scud missile equipment next to hospitals and then cried to the world that America was bombing hospitals! It’s the same strategy. It’s a whole different value system that will sacrifice children for world opinion.
When Dr.Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a Muslim religious leader, on October 13th called for Jews to be “butchered and killed...have no mercy on the Jews no matter where they are, in any country...wherever you are, kill them...and those Americans who are like them-and those who stand by them” the New York Times reporter William Orme who was there reported only the lines,“Whether Labor or Likud, Jews are Jews.” Mr. Orme has edited out anything that would be anti-Palestinian. He is not a man the New York Times can point to as one of their best.
You and all newspapers have the responsibility to report the news in an honest and unbiased way and I expect you to do so.
Thank You,
Leonard H. Berman
Letters to the Editor
Courier-Post
P.O. Box 5300
Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034
Dear Editor,
It has become a recognizable pattern that after every body count in any story related to the latest Intifata against Israel, the phrases “most of them Palestinians,” “virtually all of them Palestinians” and “the vast majority of them Palestinian,” is sure to follow. While any needless death, be it an Israeli or a Palestinian is a tragedy, the constant reminder of how many deaths the Palestinians suffer is becoming a not so subtle, subliminal editorial comment. Your correspondents and those who write the stories used from the wire service, have also bought into the anti-Israeli propaganda by using phrases such as these.
Yet I have never seen any article clearly stating the fact that the reason so many young Palestinians have been killed or injured is because the Palestinians leadership have developed a four tier line of attack that deliberately and cowardly places the most vulnerable in harms way.
In the front line they put children, ten, eleven or twelve throwing stones and these are the first to get shot if bullets start flying. This is done by design so as to garner the maximum anti-Israeli public opinion possible and mobilize world outrage. In the second line, they have place the masked stone throwers, mostly teenagers and in the third line they have the older teenagers, also masked throwing Molotov Cocktails and other explosives. In the back, are the adults with guns and explosives aiming to kill soldiers and settlers.
No one seems to be reporting that the Palestinians are deliberately putting their children in the front lines specifically to get world opinion on their side. The are sacrificing their children and the newspapers make no comment!
Israel is under attack and when the Israelis defend themselves, the world sees children being killed. The Iraqis did the same thing by putting Scud missile equipment next to hospitals and then cried to the world that America was bombing hospitals! It’s the same strategy. It’s a whole different value system that will sacrifice children for world opinion.
When Dr.Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a Muslim religious leader, on October 13th called for Jews to be “butchered and killed...have no mercy on the Jews no matter where they are, in any country...wherever you are, kill them...and those Americans who are like them-and those who stand by them” the New York Times reporter William Orme who was there reported only the lines,“Whether Labor or Likud, Jews are Jews.” Mr. Orme has edited out anything that would be anti-Palestinian. He is not a man the New York Times can point to as one of their best.
You and all newspapers have the responsibility to report the news in an honest and unbiased way and I expect you to do so.
Thank You,
Leonard H. Berman