Posted on 08/26/2007 6:19:21 AM PDT by SJackson
West of Delancey: CNN's God's Warriors at war with truth
Posted by Rabbi Marvin Hier | Comments: 4
A day prior to the airing of Christiane Amanpour’s six-hour CNN documentary entitled God’s Warriors, I was one of four clergymen to be a guest on Larry King Live to discuss the issue of fundamentalism in today’s world. The interview on Larry King was pre-recorded in mid-July and none of the participants had seen the six-hour documentary because it was still being edited. Now that I have seen it, I sent the following critique to the producers of God’s Warriors.
1. MORAL EQUIVALENCY - There is no moral equivalency between some 200 Israeli fanatics prone to violence and tens of thousands of Palestinian terrorists whose acts are endorsed by the elected government and a significant portion of the population. The failure of the documentary to clearly make that distinction skews the facts and conveys the false impression allowing people all over the world to conclude that there IS a moral equivalency between the number of Palestinian terrorists and Jewish terrorists - this is a complete distortion. More importantly, the largest terrorist group responsible for much of the unrest in the Middle East, Hamas, got a free pass from CNN in God’s Warriors and is not even mentioned in the documentary’s segment on Islam.
2. JEWISH LOBBY - CNN spends much time describing the strength of the “Jewish Lobby” in Washington. But what do supporters of Israel active on the Hill have to do with a documentary focusing on the power of religion? Indeed, many of those defending Israel on Capital Hill are, in fact, secular Jews. Furthermore, if you are going to talk about powerful lobbies, why not give equal time to the enormous power of the Arab Oil lobby?
3. SECURITY FENCE (Hamas Wall) - The consultants of the documentary make a point of showing the security fence that now separates the Palestinians from the Israelis. Palestinians interviewed explain the hardships they face and call the fence an “apartheid” wall. Nowhere is there a mention of the wide consensus of support for the security fence amongst all Israelis, left and right, including Israel’s Supreme Court, which has sanctioned the fence because, without it, the suicide bombings would continue unabated, something NO society can tolerate. Indeed, the terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the real architects and designers of that fence.
4. FIGHTING TERRORISM - God’s Warrior’s makes mention of the fact that the few Jewish terrorists described in the film were all arrested by the Israeli government and sent to jail for their crimes. Yet, they ignore the fact that Palestinian officials have never convicted Palestinian terrorists. Had they done so, there would be no need for a security fence.
5. SIX DAY WAR - The documentary spends a lot of time on the Six Day War and emphasizes how Israel decided to attack the Old City during the War, which changed the status quo forever. But God’s Warriors fails to explain how or why the Six Day War started. It hides from its audience the fact that Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran (an international waterway), an act of war under international law, denying all shipping to Israel and that the Arab States, including Jordan, which controlled the Old City, brought their armies to the border. Had they not taken those actions, the Six Day War would have been averted. By ignoring all that and instead focusing on Israel’s attack on the Old City, God’s Warriors guides its audience to the conclusion that the purpose of the War was Israel’s intention to grab the Old City of Jerusalem.
6. SHARON - The documentary is critical of Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, which enraged Muslims and allegedly started the Second Intifada. It also mentions his “responsibility” in allowing Lebanese Christians to massacre Muslims at Sabra and Shatila. Yet, it ignores his critical decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in an attempt to jump start the peace process. Nor does it mention the Palestinian response to the withdrawal - the election of Hamas - a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel - as the new Palestinian government.
7. TEMPLE MOUNT - The documentary fails to emphasize that the Muslims, to whom Israel gave the authority to administer the Temple Mount, strongly discourage any Jew from coming there despite the fact that it is the holiest site in all of Judaism (whereas, the holiest sites in Islam are, in fact, Mecca and Medina). On the other hand, the Western Wall, which is under Israeli control, regularly welcomes visitors of all faiths.
8. RELIGIOUS LEADERS - CNN presents the senior Imam in charge of the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, who explains the site’s holiness to Muslims. But rather than interview the Chief Rabbi of Israel to describe the sacredness of the site for Jews, CNN contents itself with allowing an extremist layperson to explain the importance of the Temple Mount to Jews. Where is the fairness?
9. TWO STATE SOLUTION - God’s Warriors ignores the origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict: the Arab refusal to accept the 1947 United Nations Partition of Palestine, which called for both a Jewish state and an Arab State. The Jews accepted the plan – the Arabs rejected it. Had the Arab world accepted the two-state solution then, much of the bloodshed would have been averted. There’s a lot of talk about settlements, but no talk at all of the consistent Arab policy from 1948 until 1978 to make no compromises with Israel.
10. A HUMAN FACE ON TERROR - God’s Warriors keeps mentioning the “despair” that many Arabs feel, as if that is a justification for the insane behavior of honoring people as martyrs because they murdered innocent civilians they never knew. Why patronize terrorists and even humanize them if we are going to allow the conversation to be dominated by their despair? The parents of these terrorists should be confronted with the simple truth that despair has existed throughout time – that billions of people throughout history have felt pain without reverting to mass murder. Following the defeat of Nazism, the Holocaust survivors were also in despair. They lost their families, but they didn’t resort to killing innocent civilians as a way of alleviating their pain. Neither did the 750,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries following the 1948 War – they too, did not become suicide bombers.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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One expected more from CNN? The Rabbi does an excellent, succinct job of debunking their myths. Sadly, it will not get wide play. Appreciate the post.
I think that CNN should put the Rabbi’s excellent rebuttal on their web site, but I won’t hold my breath...
This is a very well written, factual article. But how many people will read it, compared to the number that watch the CNN propaganda piece? When a major news venue throws overboard any objectivity, any regard for facts or truth, where are they going? Of course, the CNN ‘documentary’ is only a little part of a much larger trend, but that trend is very alarming. To hell with the truth, this is all about propaganda.
Rabbi Hier should save his breath.
Thanks for posting it.
IMHO, CNN is missed the boat by not having a Larry King Live segment after each program where representatives of the “religions” could discuss the documentary.
I agree with the author on almost every single thing he said. He did make one mistake, however:
“Following the defeat of Nazism, the Holocaust survivors were also in despair. They lost their families, but they didn’t resort to killing innocent civilians as a way of alleviating their pain.”
Not exactly. Apparently the good rabbi has never heard of Soloman Morel or those like him. I think Poland is still trying to get him out of hiding in Israel! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salomon_Morel
Also, there’s John Sack’s book, An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945. I know many people pooh-pooh the book, but I remember seeing Jews interviewed on TV somewhere where they talked about how the tried to poison thousands of German civilian captives at a time. I don’t remember what program it was. That revenge was wrong, of course, against civilians, most of whom were just women and children, but who can blame the Jews who suffered through the Holocaust for wanting revenge in the first place!
The topic was of interest to me in the ads for ‘God’s Warriors’. But then, because it was CNN I knew that there would be a slant....as it appears from this article that there was.
AND...anything w/ Christine Amanpour is to be avoided. I think there is some kind of special she is doing.
Erase the religious factor and just look at the human behavior factor and you will see who the savages are. Why can’t CNN see this?
Just take a look at the recent info on the Russian provocation during the run up to the 67 war. They wanted war between Israel and the Arabs, but it backfired.
Right now they are busy arming Iran and Syria for the next war.
I guess they will get it.
Here are my thoughts on "God's Warriors" ~ enjoy and I look forward to your comments
Where are God's Christian Warriors?
LOL. Great toon.
As son as I saw her name attached to the show in the commercials I knew it was going to be a steaming pile. No need to go any further.
Even if we accept the “Moral Equivalency” argument, there is still an important question: Which side do you want to win? Somebody will win, after all. Do you want it to be the Muslims? To say “a pox on all your houses” is to hand a victory to the side with the larger number of fanatics — and that would be the Muslims. I don’t want to be a Dhimi in the New Dark Age.
Thank you for posting this article!
I’m sure your right. I can’t see how war will be avoided by Israel. The Israelis are going to be pushed and pushed until they are forced to act to save their people. The Soviets, and now the Russians, have much to answer for in the Middle East and everywhere else.
I wonder how much Arab oil money has infiltrated our MSM.
Actually it's the European/socialist idea that only people who are religious can be destructive. They completely believe that humanity will be free from greediness and hate without religion. (I have to laugh at that...hahaha, humans will be humans)
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