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Gaza and politically correct terminology
via e-mail | 22 September 2005 | Jack Engelhard

Posted on 09/23/2005 9:40:24 AM PDT by anotherview

Gaza and politically correct terminology

The dictionary defines "looting" as "to rob, steal, pillage." But, in its first reports on Gaza, where Palestinian Arab mobs were, well, looting, the New York Times came up with a nifty twist to avoid the L-word. There was no looting going on, only "looking for usable materials.

Our friends in Print and Broadcasting are having difficulties putting a shine on this Palestinian Arab rampage that's been in progress ever since the Israelis departed. Obviously, we need a new dictionary, or the same dictionary that they're using over there at the Times, the BBC and wherever truth needs to be camouflaged.

CELEBRATION, for example, usually means "to express happiness," but it means something entirely different when describing the total takeover of Gaza by Palestinian Arabs. In this case it means rage and rioting, or, indeed, "looking for usable materials." When the new inhabitants of Gush Katif ransacked the greenhouses left behind by the Israelis, and, like termites, tore down everything that stood, they were celebrating.

HOLY PLACES used to refer to places of worship of all religions. Not so anymore. Holy Places refers only to mosques and other Muslim shrines. Churches, for example, are not Holy Places ever since Arab terrorists invaded the Church of the Nativity (April 2, 2002), used it as a latrine, and hardly anyone complained. They also ripped the place apart, no doubt "looking for usable materials." More recently, like yesterday, the new inhabitants of Total Gaza set fire to about 25 synagogues and this, indeed, is seen by the world as a step toward peace.

Torching synagogues can also be found under TO CELEBRATE.

FIRE. What fire? The BBC only showed the smoke and conceded that things were burning, but were careful not to mention the arsonists. Fire happens.

PAIN. Only Muslim Arabs are entitled to pain. Here, for example, is the BBC's Orla Guerin reporting from Gaza: "Palestinians came streaming to the settlements that caused them so much pain! Israel stole 38-years from them; today, many were ready to take back anything they could." The Israelis who were evicted from their homes felt no pain. Is that clear? Also, thanks to Ms. Guerin and the BBC, we know that "Israel stole 38 years from them."

This sets a new standard for totally objective and thoroughly unbiased journalism.

SUFFERING. In the old days, suffering used to include everyone who was, well, suffering. That's been changed to Palestinian Arabs only.

They have "suffered under Israeli occupation" for so long that they are entitled to grievances beyond the rest of us. Christians, especially Zionist Christians, do not suffer. Hindus do not suffer. Sikhs do not suffer. Jews certainly do not suffer. In the Times, the BBC, and along the remaining network of Print and Broadcast, the word "suffering" is reserved for Muslim (not Christian) Arabs. Christian Arabs, incidentally, are continually harassed and murdered by Muslim Arabs, but since they are Christian, they do not suffer. Such harassment and murder against Christian Arabs takes place in Gaza and in other territories occupied by Muslim Arabs, most recently in Beirut. See OCCUPIED TERRITORY.

OCCUPIED TERRITORY. The above definition is incorrect. Occupied Territory refers only to Jews, or any place a Jewish man or woman sets foot or builds a home. See ARAB LANDS.

ARAB LANDS. Everything. Everywhere.

AL QAEDA. The name for every terrorist attack around the world, but actually a code when we are afraid to mention the real enemy. See TERRORIST.

TERRORIST. There is no such thing.

JIHAD. Some call this a holy war against Western Civilization. This is what it is - "looking for usable materials."

About the Writer: Jack Engelhard is the author of the bestseller "Indecent Proposal," the award-winning "Escape from Mount Moriah," and the novel "The Days of the Bitter End," which is being prepared for movie production.

Jack receives e-mail at viewopinion@aol.com .


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bbc; gaza; israel; mediabias; newyorktimes; palestinians; times

1 posted on 09/23/2005 9:40:25 AM PDT by anotherview
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To: anotherview
Here is the link to ChronWatch, where this piece appeared.
2 posted on 09/23/2005 9:54:15 AM PDT by ExitPurgamentum
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To: anotherview
Here is the link to ChronWatch, where this piece appeared.
3 posted on 09/23/2005 9:54:29 AM PDT by ExitPurgamentum
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To: ExitPurgamentum

Thanks for the link. I guess it didn't make Google yet :(


4 posted on 09/23/2005 9:56:19 AM PDT by anotherview ("Ignorance is the choice not to know" -Klaus Schulze)
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To: anotherview

These are not looters, they are "persons of opportunity."


5 posted on 09/23/2005 9:56:58 AM PDT by talleyman (Moose lips sink ships.)
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To: talleyman

Scavengers for Peace


6 posted on 09/23/2005 10:03:27 AM PDT by Sabramerican (Islam is to Peace as Rape is to Love)
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To: anotherview

Jihad--A force to take something that's not yours (what the Bible calls stealing) by hook or crook.


7 posted on 09/23/2005 10:04:43 AM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: anotherview; SJackson; Alouette
Another link to relevant info regarding "stealing" by Israel:

Who Ruined Gaza?

September 22, 2005

I never miss, and always learn from the blog at History News Network by Judith Klinghoffer, scholar at Rutgers.

She just excerpted from an article by Ephraim Karsh, head of Mediterranean Studies at Kings College, University of London. The excerpt is below. The entire article contains much more and can be found here, copied from Vancouver, Canada’s National Post. Karsh’s book, Arafat’s War (Grove, 2004) is a must read as well, at least if one wants to really know “Who Ruined Gaza?”, the title of the article from which the below excerpt comes.

"Under Israeli rule, the Palestinians also made vast progress in social welfare. Life expectancy rose from 48 in 1967 to 72 in 2000 (compared with an average of 68 years for all the countries of the Middle East and North Africa). Israeli medical programs reduced the infant-mortality rate of 60 per 1,000 live births in 1968 to 15 per 1,000 in 2000. (In Saddam(’s) Iraq, by comparison, the rate was 64, in Egypt 40, in Jordan 23…). And under a systematic program of inoculation, childhood diseases such as polio, whooping cough, tetanus and measles were eradicated. No less remarkable were advances in the Palestinians’ standard of living. By 1986, 93% of the population in the West Bank and Gaza had electricity around the clock, as compared with 21% in 1967; 85% had running water in dwellings, as compared to 16% in 1967; 84% had electric or gas ranges for cooking, as compared to 4% in 1967; and so on for refrigerators, televisions and cars. . . ."

Then came Arafat:

"This combination of corruption and terrorism proved catastrophic… (W)ithin six months of Arafat’s arrival in Gaza, the standard of living in the strip fell by 25%, and more than half of the area’s residents claimed to have been happier under Israel. Things got much worse in 2000… Arafat’s terror war… eradicat(ed) the fragile fabric of civil society that had been developing in the territories during the decades prior to his arrival. Unemployment increased from 10% to an average of 41% during 2002, and the proportion of the population that was poor rose from 20% to over 50%…"
| Sep. 22, 2005 | 11:26 PM

Bnksd1@aol.com Thursday, September 22, 2005 | GO TO WEBLOG

8 posted on 09/23/2005 10:06:07 AM PDT by ExitPurgamentum
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To: anotherview

9 posted on 09/23/2005 10:48:52 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: anotherview
Image hosted by TinyPic.com
10 posted on 09/23/2005 10:57:11 AM PDT by Old Seadog (Birthdays start out being fun. But too many of them will kill you..)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

..................

11 posted on 09/23/2005 10:58:07 AM PDT by SJackson (we are forced to live in a democracy... the process is frustratingly slow, HRH Gov Blagojevich)
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To: 1st-P-In-The-Pod; A Jovial Cad; A_Conservative_in_Cambridge; adam_az; af_vet_rr; agrace; ahayes; ...
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

12 posted on 09/23/2005 11:19:59 AM PDT by Alouette (Militant Neocon Pundit)
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