Posted on 08/05/2006 5:52:25 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
August 5, 2006 - 08:33
The moral relativism never ends at CNN. In the wake of shootings by a Muslim at a Seattle Jewish center that left one person dead and others injured, CNN somehow managed to equate the fears of American Jews that there could be other such incidents . . . with the fears of American supporters of Hezbollah.
The focus of 'Safe at Home?' segment narrated by CNN's Kelli Arena on today's Saturday Morning show was indeed the aftermath of that Seattle shooting, and how Jewish groups around the country are expressing fears and taking precautions.
But you could almost hear the CNN producer's gears grinding: "Wait! We can't have a segment that focuses exclusively on Jewish fears. Quick: get me some balance!" What CNN came up with was an interview with Rami Nuseir, an Arab-American activist.
CNN's Arena claimed that the FBI's program of reaching out to Arab-American leaders for help in identifying potential threats has 'backfired': "Arab-Americans feel as though they are constantly under suspicion."
Nuseir seconded the notion: "The burden has proof has shifted onto the community. We have to be pro-active and go to law-enforcement authorities and convince them that there is nothing on our end."
Arena: "Especially under scrutiny - Hezbollah sypmathizers. FBI officials say they are carefully monitoring individuals in the US with known connections to the group."
Continued Arena: "The State Department classifies Hezboallah as a terrorist organization, but many Arab-Americans disagree."
Back to Nuseir: "Certainly a lot of people look at Hezbollah as a social service agency that provides a lot of help to the Lebanese people, and that's where the sympathy comes from."
Concluded Arena, in a crescendo of moral relativism: "So despite all the efforts to provide security, both Arab and Jewish Americans are feeling targeted, and that only intensifies the potential for violence."
So the concerns of members of a group that recently suffered a murder at the hands of a Hezbollah sympathizer are equated with the concerns . . . of Hezbollah sympathizers! And CNN implies that there is an equal 'potential for violence' within both groups.
Right.
CNN/NewsBusters moral-relativism ping to Today show list.
The media gets sicker with each passing day.
"Arab-Americans feel as though they are constantly under suspicion."
Gee, ya think?
Sure. Uh huh. These people are amazing!
What are they "arab-Americans, a cub scout group?
Thanks very much for your work covering the co-conspirators of terror, the moral relativists. Thanks for all that you do, Mark. This one is outstanding! BTTT!
...they just hired Castro's daughter!!?? They'd hire Tokyo Rose if they could.
Moral relativism is a euphemism, a PC term, for evil.
American Jews and their support of the Democrat "Traitor/Treason" Party are voluntarily marching to their own doom of beheadings, rapes, and the visible murder of their children right in front of their own eyes, right here in the USA. What a stupid bunch of idiots. The handwriting is on the wall, and they are too dumb to see it. Shucks, the Jews have done this before. Remember Adolf Hitler!!!
Many thanks, PG. Stumbling on this was pure serendipity. I was using the clumsy on-screen clicker on my computer to change channels in the software that lets me view TV via the computer and do my screen captures. I was headed for another channel, but by coincidence landed on CNN. Somehow I took it as a sign, and decided to watch. And wouldn't you know it, this was the very first segment to unfold!
I'm thinking we'll have to spark up the Salvation Army.
With hi-tech tambourines, kettles, and RPGs, we'll have the champeen kick-ass social service agency of the world!
Sure. Uh huh. These people are amazing!
What? Isn't murdering Jews a social service?
Mark
/sar, in case you couldn't figure it out!
But even more revealing is that high summer at the CaNnabis Network finds most of the 7-figure heads having retreated to Fire Island, or P-town, or Maddog's Vineyard, thus permitting a Justice Dept. c-level beat reporter to ascend for one glorious moment on a Sat. morning when no one is watching, and commit a vain, illogical (anti-semitism = semitism) bit of sophistry to celluloid history.
Isn't his daughter opposed to his regime?
I watched the following interview yesterday on CNN. Wolf Blitzer did a pretty good job of interviewing this attractive Lebanese analyst, short of calling her a moronic idiot. My question, why would CNN even give this pretty fool airtime?
"BLITZER: Roula Talj is a former adviser to Lebanon's government, a Lebanese political analyst. She is joining us once again from Beirut.
Roula, on this day, you have released an open letter that you have written to the former President of the United States Bill Clinton. I want to get to that in a moment.
But why did you write to Bill Clinton, as opposed to President George Bush?
ROULA TALJ, LEBANESE POLITICAL ANALYST: Because President Bill Clinton, I believe, was the last president of the United States that was legitimately accepted and liked in the Middle East, in both Arab countries and in Israel.
And I'm urging him and people like him, peace lovers, to do something in order to save the people of the Middle East from the crusade war of George W. Bush.
BLITZER: Here's what you write in your open letter to President Clinton.
"I urge you, Mr. President, to do something now. I beg you to stop President Bush from leading the world towards another world war. Your compassion and understanding of the sensitivities in this area are the only remedy against the Bush administration's madness."
We haven't heard a lot from President Bill Clinton since the start of this war, but I assume he's taking a line pretty much in support of Israel.
TALJ: There is no problem, Wolf, to support Israel. I understood, when I lived in Washington, that every politician of the United States support Israel. And that's fine. It's legitimate. It's one way to support Israel's interest through peace, a comprehensive peace, with -- with the neighboring countries, and another thing to support Israel crush the neighboring countries through wars and violence and destruction.
And, to be honest with you, I do not believe this is the way to secure Israel. It's the only way -- as I said in my letter, it's our way -- it's our ticket to hell to all of us, Israelis and Arabs.
BLITZER: So, what specifically, Roula, would you like Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, to do right now?
TALJ: I think campaigning to the public opinion, explaining to the Jewish-Americans that this is not the way to secure Israel.
This is not the way, because I think President Bush is trying to play on the midterm elections in November. I think he's trying to tell the Jewish-Americans: Here. I gave you everything you need in order to secure Israel. And nobody ever gave you that, you know, the opportunity to launch a war, so disastrous war, against your neighbors.
And what Bill Clinton needs to do, President Clinton needs to speak out and loud, out of his own experience in the Middle East, that this is the only -- this war will only lead to more extremism and more terrorism and more hatred, that will eventually drive the people of Israel out of it.
BLITZER: What about the Hezbollah rockets that keep coming into Israel, going further and further to the south today, reaching Hadera, the most southern point so far in this three-week war? Are the Lebanese people getting ready to stand up to Hezbollah, Roula, and demand that they stop these rocket attacks on Israeli civilians?
TALJ: If Israel withdraw its troops from all Lebanon, you know, from Shebaa Farms and the occupied land of Lebanon, yes, we will stand up and tell Hezbollah to stop the launching of rockets, and we will demand not only a cease-fire, but a peace treaty with Israel. But they have to respect the border line.
BLITZER: But you know the Israelis are not going to withdraw or stop their own actions until the rockets stop, or at least until there's some sort of international stabilization force that can come into south Lebanon and prevent these rockets from terrorizing Israeli civilians in the north.
TALJ: I think, from previous experience, Hassan Nasrallah proved to be serious about the threats. And he's a man of his word, whether we like him or not.
And, so far, he addressed the Israeli people yesterday, and he told them, you know, you withdraw from Lebanon, and you stop throwing bombs on our heads and destroying our bridges and infrastructure, and we will stop shelling bombs.
I don't think it's his hobby to threaten Israelis. I truly don't believe it. It's not out of religious extremism or any religious agenda. It's a political agenda.
BLITZER: But you know, they have to respect the borderline.
You know the Israelis won't withdraw or stop their actions until the rockets stop or at least until there's some sort of international stabilization force that can come into south Lebanon and prevent the rockets from terrorizing Israeli civilians in the north.
I think from previous experience Nasrallah proved to be serious about threats, and he's a man of his word. Whether we like him or not. So, far he addressed the Israeli people yesterday, and he told them, you know, you withdraw from Lebanon, and you stop throwing bombs on our heads and destroying our bridges and infrastructure, and we will stop shelling bombs. I don't think it's his hobby to threaten Israelis. I don't believe it. It's not out of religious extremism or any religious agenda. It's a political agenda.
But you know, Roula...
TALJ: I'm pretty sure if they would...
BLITZER: You know, Roula, that his ideology is such that he doesn't want to see Israel in existence at all.
TALJ: I truly don't believe -- I don't believe that. I truly believe -- I still believe that Hassan Nasrallah has a political agenda, and not an ideological one, like bin Laden and his friends. These are two separate ideologies and agendas.
BLITZER: But don't you see him...
TALJ: And we need to be very...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Roula, let me interrupt.
Don't you see him almost fully aligned with the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, another Shiite, who makes it clear he wants to see Israel wiped off the face of the Earth?
TALJ: That's another thing.
I think, if Israel is threatened by Ahmadinejad, they need to go and cure the problem at its core. I think, as Hassan Nasrallah -- and I have to believe him. When he came on television and addressed the nation yesterday, he made it clear that his fight is for the Lebanese people, and not to the Iranians.
And the minute we feel that he's fighting for the interests of the Iranians, believe me, even the Shia of Lebanon will be against him.
But, so far, we have to believe him, and by his actions. And his actions prove so far to be only against the Israeli presence in Lebanon, and, you know, the ongoing conflict that never stops. BLITZER: Well...
TALJ: And, Wolf, I wanted to tell you -- yes, hello?
BLITZER: We're out of time, Roula, but...
TALJ: I wanted to tell you...
BLITZER: Yes, go ahead, very quickly.
TALJ: OK.
BLITZER: Make your final point.
TALJ: No, I said, any international force that would have to use force in order -- will not be able to keep the peace.
So, what we need here, we need, is a broker, a peace broker, to talk to the Israelis and to the Lebanese, get the Israelis to withdraw from Shebaa Farms and the rest of the southern Lebanon. And, then, a peace negotiation must lead to a peace deal.
BLITZER: And, presumably, you would like Bill Clinton...
TALJ: And that will be the solution, the only solution.
BLITZER: You would like Bill Clinton, the former president, to get involved and try to achieve that.
Roula, we got to leave it right there, but we will continue this conversation down the road -- Roula Talj joining us from Beirut."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.