Rafael Medoff wonders why an 84-page State Department report on anti-Semitism (pdf format) omits problems with the Palestinian Authority, particularly its media, controlled by Mahmoud Abbas:
The omission is especially surprising because just a few days ago, the American Jewish Committee released a study showing the PA’s schoolbooks characterize Jews in “hateful” and “derogatory” language, cite the Protocols of Elders of Zion as a legitimate source of historical information, and omit any mention of the Holocaust. (State’s report did contain one vague mention of the fact that in the 1990s, Holocaust denial “became commonplace in popular media in the Middle East, particularly in the Palestinian Authority” — without any acknowledgment that most of that so-called “popular media” is government-controlled).
The State Department’s report defined anti-Semitism as including “allegations about Jews such as . . . Jews controlling the media” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to the Nazis” (pp. 6-7). Yet among the numerous anti-Semitic cartoons that the report reprints, one did not find, for example, the August 13, 2007 cartoon in the official PA newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, of a hook-nosed Jew with prominent side-curls controlling the Arab media, or the March 4 cartoon, titled “Gaza’s Holocaust,” featuring an Israeli attack helicopter with its propeller in the shape of a swastika. (Expanding on that theme, a new Holocaust Exhibit has just opened in Gaza, featuring depictions of Israel throwing Arab babies into crematoria.
Hat tip: Daily Alert
