Not All Op-Eds Are Equal in the New York Times
May 24, 2012 13:57 by Simon Plosker
Could the New York Times possibly publish an opinion piece that didn’t paint Israel in the worst possible light? Seemingly not as column inches are given over to Yousef Munayyer in a piece damningly titled “Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal”.
Sitting from his office in Washington DC, Munayyer begins:
I’m a Palestinian who was born in the Israeli town of Lod, and thus I am an Israeli citizen. My wife is not; she is a Palestinian from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. …
Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport is on the outskirts of Lod (Lydda in Arabic), but because my wife has a Palestinian ID, she cannot fly there; she is relegated to flying to Amman, Jordan. If we plan a trip together — an enjoyable task for most couples — we must prepare for a logistical nightmare that reminds us of our profound inequality before the law at every turn.
Even if we fly together to Amman, we are forced to take different bridges, two hours apart, and endure often humiliating waiting and questioning just to cross into Israel and the West Bank. The laws conspire to separate us.
If the point of Munayyer’s article is to promote a view where Israel’s Arab citizens are treated unequally, then he has failed. The very fact that he takes a different bridge shows that Israeli Jews and Arabs are treated equally. The border crossing for Israeli citizens is just that. It defines Munayyer as an Israeli without prejudice as to whether he is Arab or Jewish.
Related content: The Australian’s Apartheid Cloud
As for the fact that Munayyer’s wife is Palestinian and does not have the same rights as her husband to live with him in Israel: We’ve heard the same charge only a few weeks ago in The Australian, which attempted to portray Israel as an apartheid state based on its citizenship laws. At that time, HonestReporting pointed out that any Israeli Jewish citizen would have the same problems marrying a resident of the Palestinian territories as an Israeli Arab.
In a very selective reading of history, Munayyer paints Israel as responsible for the Palestinian refugee problem and subsequent alleged discrimination, including an attack on the rights of Jews to immigrate to Israel. More revealing than what he says is what Munayyer omits. For example:
Len
4:49 pm
May 24, 2012
I have yet to hear of any Israeli Arab deciding to leave Israel and go to live in any of the freedom-
loving Arab states.
They love to rewrite history. They left Israel to fight against Israel and having lost many times
they decide to “return”. They were not then or now “refuges” .
If their own leaders had not stolen the UN monies from them they would be well off today.
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m
5:13 pm
May 24, 2012
“I have yet to hear of any Israeli Arab deciding to leave Israel and go to live in any of the freedom-
loving Arab states.”
Precisely … lol.
The danger is for Israel and in particular the Jewish population. These palis fortunate to be born in the only democracy in the ME, continue to import their cousins from islamic shit holes, to marry them! More trash in Israel. God help them ( the Jews).
Not to mention that once one obtains an Israeli passport hey are free to fly anywhere in the Western world.
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Ester
4:55 pm
May 24, 2012
Munayyer needs to move with his wife to that bastion of democracy, Jordan. Why not give up his despised Israeli citizenship since he finds it so offensive? This is just one more example of Israel bashing by the NY Times, that biased source of Pro-Palestinian anti-Israel reporting.
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Barry
5:51 pm
May 24, 2012
yes how true! people never take into account the fact that their words never seem to jive with their actions. where has the flocking from Israel to the Palestinian controlled territories been? or even to any other bastion of freedom in the middle east? yet the complaints keep coming! and the lies keep growing.
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Tom
5:23 pm
May 24, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Stanley Tee
7:51 pm
May 24, 2012
As another ex South Africa, Tom, I can tell you that your entire post is based on a huge error. The demographics are simply not what you think they are. The Palestinians have vastly overstated their numbers, in an obvious – and unfortunately, highly successful – attempt to terrify the Israelis. Real demographic studies have shown that that there are far fewer Palestinians than claimed. At the same time, the Israeli birth rate is trending higher than the Arab birth rate, so even looking to the future, the demographic “threat” simply does not exist.
Of course there’s something else you ignore. It takes two to make peace, and Israel has made all the concessions she can realistically make. It’s Abbas who refuses to come to the table and who continues to make completely unrealistic demands, like the bogus Palestinian “right of return”.
As for whether or not Netanyahu can delineate borders for Israel, you can bet that he isn’t going to do anything that even closely resembles the Gaza pull out. We all know how that turned out.
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Spongwoggler
8:29 pm
May 24, 2012
I am a South African living in South Africa. I believe that G-d has already deliniated the borders of Israel. There will not be a “One state solution”. Nor will there be a Two state solution. There will be Israel. Of course I’m another one of those religious nutters who just believes everything. Even promises from G-d.
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jlmsika
11:01 pm
May 24, 2012
Tom,
If a “palestinian” state is created anytime soon, with the total removal of Israeli forces, while the Arabs keep teaching hatred of the jews to their kids, this 22nd arab state will become immediately a launching ground for rockets against Tel Aviv, Natanya, Ben Gurion airport, etc…just like what happened in Gaza after the Israelis left…
The Israelis would have to strike back and there would be a blood bath on both sides..
The present Israeli government is right to demand that the “palestinians” stop their hateful anti-jewish incitment as a very first step to anything. He is protecting the Israelis and the Palestinians by the same token.
That is what really matters and not the generous offers made years ago by Barak and whoever else, and hatefully rejected by the Arabs.
Do you understand that?
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Daniel
5:38 pm
May 24, 2012
Israel is technically at war with Syria with whom no peace treaty was signed. Iran has stated that Israel should be wiped of the map. The Palestinian autonomous Gaza has voted by an overwhelming majority for the party whose sole written and published objective is the destruction of Israel and the murder specifically of its Jewish inhabitants. That is in the Official Hamas Charter: Muslim citizens of Israel are to be spared this fate.
Mrs.Munayyer, of Lod, is to be spared the fate intended for her Jewish neighbors if the wishes of the majority of Arabs in the area are carried out she will be allowed to live. Be happy Mrs. Munayyer.
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jlmsika
5:40 pm
May 24, 2012
How stupid for the NYT to constantly criticize Israël (the only democracy in the Middle-East and one of the very few real democracies in the World…) and therefore reinforce Arab antagonism, intransigency and maximalism, so as to remove any possibility for Peace!
As Tony Blair said, Israël should be a model for the whole Middle-East, which is presently engulfed in (Arab…) violence, racism, fanaticism, backwardness and hatred.
The NYT has it 100% wrong! This paper is arrogant and shameful!
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Barry
6:14 pm
May 24, 2012
Its fascinating to me to hear the Arab prevarications, accusations and attempts to rewrite history from their own warped and fantastic (and often fanatic) perspectives. These very same people are offered nowhere near the same freedoms, benefits or rights anywhere else in the Middle East, as they receive in Israel. Not in any of the multitude of freedom loving and enlightened Arab lands.Yet they constantly cry that they are under an awful apartheid regime, in the only country in the Middle East that allows for their full freedoms of worship as well as equal rights of citizenship.
Only kilometers away, under “their own” regime, non-Muslims, and their holy sites, are routinely deprived of their most basic rights and persecuted or driven out…holy sites vandalized or destroyed. Can one imagine the outcry if the shoe were on the other foot?
In fact, is it not inconceivable that under their own administration, the act of an Arab selling a property to a Jew is punishable by death. Where is amnesty international on that matter? You won’t hear a word from them or from any other bleeding heart unless an Arab is sited for J-walking under his Israeli “oppressors”. Can one imagine the outcry if the roles were reversed? If a Jew selling land to an Arab was to be put to death? Or even ticketed for it?
It has become so typical of Muslims to take the “do as I say, not as I do” approach to politics…and even more amazing than that is that the world accepts it…and rewards it!
Israel is racist because it doesn’t allow for Arabs to terrorize people by stoning them, killing them or kidnapping them, and there-by depriving them of their rights to freedom of expression!!! Israel is racist because it doesn’t allow for Muslims to destroy the holy sites of other religions or to persecute people of other faiths (as is routine under Muslim rule). Israel is racist because it doesn’t allow for the Muslim faith to deprive others of their own rights (as is now being seen more and more in the west due to unabated political correctness to the point of nausea). Israel is apartheid because they take security measures to protect its citizens, both Arab as well as Jew, from acts of terror and those who perpetrate them. Israel is horrible because they institute the same laws as all other civilized societies in our world and doesn’t pander to ridiculous Muslim “sensitivities” as much as they would like it to (and they even do that…try muttering a prayer on the temple mount and see how swift justice is!).
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Barbara Stone
6:20 pm
May 24, 2012
For heaven’s sake, this is the hypocritcally pious NYT we’re talking about – the self-appointed ‘paper of record’ (what record?…a cracked 78?) – whose veneer of respectability and sage opinion is worn so thin any reader with half a brain can see right through to the anti-Semitic, anti-democratic agenda even in sunglasses on a moonless night. Balanced opinion and accurate reporting went out with the dodo – just look at the garbage the Grey Lady’s new Jerusalem correspondent, Jodi Roduren is spewing out…and she’s only been in the Mid East for, figuratively speaking, five minutes. American Jews, with a kernel of understanding for Israel’s plight, ought to vote with their pocketbooks and read a newspaper that doesn’t fall like an love-lorn teenager for every trick a Palestinian plays on them. Ditto those other notorious Zion haters/baiter in the UK, The Guardian,Independent and the holier-than-thou BBC. There’s a whole host of honest, unbiased, balanced opinion out there, so why allow yourself to be spat in the eye by the NYT or any of its camp-followers. Get real and BDS them.
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steve mann
6:20 pm
May 24, 2012
We are not told why this couple are separated- However If and for what ever reason the Israeli authorities will not let her join him in Israel. Then surely LOVE and family being a greater bond than nationality- Why does he not move to her home and take renounce his Israeli citizenship-
I know I would.
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DAVID KAPLAN
6:40 pm
May 24, 2012
By these absurd criteria, that would make the USA an apartheid state and pretty much every country in the West. If that’s what the NYT thinks, I suggest that they are really a fifth column in the service of terrorist organizations hiding under the protection of the First Amendment. They deserve to be treated with contempt. Do not buy this rag and tell their advertisers you will cease doing business with them if they continue to support the NYT.
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Empress Trudy
6:52 pm
May 24, 2012
He should leave Israel and join his wife in Ramallah or Amman. Let them both fly in through Jordan.
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Michael
7:34 pm
May 24, 2012
One has to wonder whether anyone at the NYT, other than Thomas Friedman – with his endless bias against Israel arising from his hatred of Ariel Sharon (read From Beirut to Jerusalem) – has ever even set foot in Israel.
There are many apartheid states in the Middle East but Israel isn’t one of them. Walk the streets of Jerusalem and you’ll see people from all parts of the world who have found refuge in Israel as well as thousands of Muslims enjoying the same freedoms as everyone else.
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MIchael
8:25 pm
May 24, 2012
West Bank is paradise compared to rights of Palestinians in Lebanon,Syria and the Gulf states. (remember Kuwait after the Gulf War?) The address for Paestinian grievances is the Palestinina authority, not Israel
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Aisha2
8:45 pm
May 24, 2012
Cancel your subscription to the Times! Biased news is garbage news!
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David Pinto
8:50 pm
May 24, 2012
Once again, commenters are ignoring the issue — the issue here is a specific op-ed. So the comments of the three South Africans are pointless because they are not talking about the op-ed. Stick to the subject, guys.
Ester refers to pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel reporting. First of all, this is not reporting at all — it is an op-ed article. Six months in Journalism 101 for you. As to pro-Palestinian — well, yes, the author is a Palestinian — what, do you think that he is going to write a pro-Israeli article? Tell you what, Ester, the author will write a pro-Israel article when you write a pro-Palestinian article for Al-Fajr!
Ditto for Barbara Stone and jmsika.
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jlmsika
10:45 pm
May 24, 2012
The problem, David, is that the NYT, the Guardian, etc…will only publish Israël-haters’ opinions.
They always manage to find one, a “palestinian” “victim”(like this Munayyer, etc…), a leftist-utopian-pompous-dogmatic (Friedman & cie..) or a self-hating jew who wants to lecture on morals (Chomsky, Finkelstein & all..).
This is on purpose because they are not practicing journalism at all (i.e. information on the real world and real issues for people’s lives) but instead ideological propaganda according to their prejudiced dogmas.
NYT is a filthy rag which is confusing and distorting issues for the worse!
The New York Post is a more honest paper, by far!
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ps
8:55 pm
May 24, 2012
it is time to publicize and promote the charades of the palistinian causes
and there is one authoratative book printed many years ago-
BattleGround- facts and fantasy in Palestine- by Samuel Katz- (Steimatzky-1985)
the first 40 pages clearly demonstrate how the numbers have been so effectively
fudged and the lies continue to hatch to this day. It is so embarassingly obvious, the entire issue is the big hoax of the last century- perpetuated by the UN and created by the friendly as pitbull brits who created this nightmare from the start.
people can continue to be dopes and dupes or properly informed.
if this book has been out of print, someone should bring it back onto the shelves of civilization.
Stop the palistinian farce and self-imposed tragedy. Israel has to be the first to get out of its
self-imposed leftist inspired guilt trip mode as well.
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fanya vasilevsky
9:45 pm
May 24, 2012
Cancel suvscription of NYT. Better, yet boycott the newspaper!!!
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jimmy
10:52 pm
May 24, 2012
Contrary to what feel-good liberals and post-Zionists believe, the only way that Israel can guarantee that it remains a Jewish country is to make sure that non-Jewish citizens can never outvote Jewish citizens. If that means disenfranchising them when it comes to national elections or limiting them to some kind of quota, so be it.
This is the one absolute maxim that defines Israel.
A pure republic is incompatible with keeping Israel Jewish when secular Jewish Israelis don’t believe in Zionism and the idea of a Jewish homeland.
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sylvia
11:48 pm
May 24, 2012
Curious, who reads the New York Times?
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Eve
12:47 am
May 25, 2012
Does anyone know what The Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center is? They publish the Hamas Charter on their website, with those charming passages about the need to kill all Jews. They also released when Settlers Attack, with its assertion of a mathematically interesting 253% or so rise in settler violence against Palestinians. I couldn’t find actual incidents the figure was based on. That was also written by Munayyer.
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lumiere
1:40 am
May 25, 2012
It’s time to start pinning the blame on the one individual responsible for the NYT editorial page- it’s editor- Andrew Rosenthal.
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