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MY MEETING WITH DAN RATHER
Aish.com ^ | April 21, 2002 | Elliot Mathias

Posted on 04/25/2002 3:42:10 PM PDT by Tom Jefferson

My Meeting with Dan Rather by Elliot Mathias Since Arabs view the world differently, who's to say that we're right and they're wrong?

My recent encounter with CBS News anchor Dan Rather and his producer made me realize that much of the anti-Israel coverage in the media -- which treats Israel with a double-standard unparalleled anywhere else in the world -- is attributable to factors other than anti-Semitism.

I met his CBS producer at a building in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter that overlooks the Temple Mount where she wished to film from. We proceeded up to the roof which afforded a masterful view of the centerpiece of the Old City. Sprawled out in front of us was the Temple Mount, the place where the two ancient Jewish Temples stood, and currently the shared location of the Western Wall and the Al-Asqa Mosque. Behind the Temple Mount is the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, with the rugged hills of the Judean Desert in the background.

This is the focal point of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, Palestinians call the current conflict the "Al-Asqa Intifada."

As we stood side-by-side taking in the extraordinary view, the producer turned to me and said in a sort of apologetic tone, "You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but what exactly are we looking at?"

My stomach instantly dropped. Maybe she was unsure of a specific building?

"No, what is this entire area we are looking at?"

"The Temple Mount!!" I wanted to scream. "It's the most important spot in the entire region!"

I controlled myself and began my first history lesson to a national news producer. I explained how the Jewish people built a Temple in this spot 3,000 years ago, and how, after its destruction, a second Temple was built in the exact same location.

I explained how Jesus visited this second Jewish Temple, which stood until the Romans ultimately destroyed it in the first century. I explained how the Muslims came to Jerusalem in the mid-seventh century, soon after the creation of their religion, building the Al-Asqa Mosque and the Golden Dome. I explained to her that the Western Wall is the remaining retaining wall of the second Jewish Temple.

As I went through these historic points, the producer was taking furious notes on her yellow writing pad, trying to record the details of this place so integral to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A few minutes later, Dan Rather arrived. He climbed the stairs to join us on the roof. As he reached the top stair, he looked out at the view that was spread before him. "Oh, I've been here before," he said. Then, looking at his producer, he quietly asked, "What is this that we're looking at?"

My stomach plummeted again. Not Dan Rather, too?! The expert on world events who is watched by 30 million nightly viewers can't identify the Temple Mount? I knew American viewers were in big trouble.

The producer read the notes on her yellow pad, filling Mr. Rather in on all the details of the place in front of them. During the film shoot, Rather held this same yellow pad of paper in his hand, reading from it on air. So much for in-depth research and media accuracy.

A DEBATE ABOUT TRUTH

After Dan Rather left, I spent some time with his producer, discussing her viewpoints of what was currently happening in Israel. After seeing the tone of her news segment, I was concerned. I began to question her about accuracy in reporting.

Her answer was even more shocking than what I had already observed. "The thing is," she told me, "it is impossible to be objective in this situation. The fact is that there is no objective truth -- neither side is right or wrong."

"Wait a minute," I asked her. "When a Palestinian straps on a belt of dynamite lined with nails and walks into a pizza shop, blowing up innocent people, that wouldn't be objectively wrong?"

"Of course I would think that is wrong," she answered me. "But the Palestinians believe this is a legitimate form of warfare. And they would say the Israelis are doing the same to them by killing innocent civilians when they retaliate militarily. Who am I to say what is right or wrong? Who am I to say that the Palestinians are wrong in their beliefs?"

"But don't you think there's a difference between a person blowing himself up in a restaurant, and a military that responds by searching for and killing terrorists. Granted that innocent civilians are killed in both circumstances -- but in one situation the innocents are targeted, and in the other situation they are regrettably caught in the line of fire?"

"Well, that's a very Western way of looking at things. You see I'm Christian and American. I see things the way you do as an Israeli -- we have the same moral framework. But the Arabs view things differently, and who's to say that we're right and they're wrong?"

At this point we both realized we weren't going to get any further in the conversation, and we politely thanked each other and parted ways.

CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

This experience gave me new insight into why so much of the media seems biased against Israel. Not only, as I saw with my own eyes, was even the top echelon some of the media unprepared and lacking knowledge of the basic history and make-up of the conflict, but they also possess an extremely dangerous philosophy -- a belief that there is no objective right and wrong.

The world today is being shaped into two conflicting civilizations. This has been happening minimally for decades, but more probably for centuries, and has now become most evident since September 11. One civilization, led by Judeo-Christian ethics, values life with the utmost sanctity. Individual rights and freedoms, equality of the sexes, and peace amongst nations are pillars upon which this half of the world stands.

The other civilization holds very different ideals: the glorification of death and war, totalitarian control of the masses, and oppression of women. The latter civilization sees the former as a direct threat to its way of life and is willing to sacrifice its own children to destroy the other.

This clash of civilizations is being fought on many fronts, including the battlefield. But for most of us non-soldier-types, the war is being fought in the recesses of our own conscience.

Many world leaders, like President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon, have identified this clearly as a fight against evil. But there are others, many of whom are influential in the media, who don't believe that the values of the Western world are "objectively good." Reuters news service refused to call the September 11 attacks "terrorism," finding that even too much of a moral stretch.

This clash calls upon us all to must make a clear choice. Are we confident in our own values and morals? Do we know that they are objectively good and thus worth defending and fighting for?

Unless we can answer these questions with full determination and conviction, we will remain deeply threatened by those who seek to destroy us. Because one thing is certain: The other side has the determination and conviction to carry on their crusade.

Author Biography: Elliot Mathias is the Director of Hasbara Fellowships, a program co-sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jerusalem Fellowships of Aish HaTorah, which educates and trains university students to be pro-Israel activists on their campuses. For more information about the program, visit www.goisrael.org. Elliot graduated from Northwestern University and is originally from Buffalo Grove, Il.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: culture; danrather; history; israel; moralequivalence; news; press
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To: Tom Jefferson
Makes it a lot easier for me to see how Rather thinks x42 is an honest man.
Neither one has anything resembling a moral center.
21 posted on 04/25/2002 4:27:33 PM PDT by leadpenny
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To: Tom Jefferson
BTTT
22 posted on 04/25/2002 4:40:13 PM PDT by Tom Jefferson
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To: Tom Jefferson
"Who am I to say what is right or wrong? Who am I to say that the Palestinians are wrong in their beliefs?"

If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

-PJ

23 posted on 04/25/2002 4:47:51 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too
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To: Tom Jefferson
Not Dan Rather, too?! The expert on world events who is watched by 30 million nightly viewers can't identify the Temple Mount?

EVEN for psycho-sweaterman Dan "courage" Rather (that description may reveal how long it has been since I've watched him) this is un-freaking-believable.

24 posted on 04/25/2002 4:54:47 PM PDT by Stultis
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To: Tom Jefferson
even worse-such moral relativism is basically an excuse to avoid having to do the right thing when its inconvenient or uncomfortable.
25 posted on 04/25/2002 4:56:21 PM PDT by mo
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To: Tom Jefferson
Since Arabs view the world differently, who's to say that we're right and they're wrong?

You know, if you think about it, this sort of thinking (i.e. liberal) equates arabs with animals: They're saying, "it's their nature, like a predatory animal, and they can't change it. It's just a part of nature."

In a situation like this, maybe they need to have it explained in another way... Let's say that there's a bear on the loose in your neighborhood, and it's begun killing people. Would you say, "who's to say if the bear is right or wrong in killing people?" Well, maybe a lot of liberals would, but once a few of them have come out of the south end of a north bound bear, I'd bet that their friends might start thinking about getting rid of that bear.

Mark

26 posted on 04/25/2002 4:59:37 PM PDT by MarkL
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To: Tom Jefferson
"Wait a minute," I asked her. "When a Palestinian straps on a belt of dynamite lined with nails and walks into a pizza shop, blowing up innocent people, that wouldn't be objectively wrong?"

"Of course I would think that is wrong," she answered me. "But the Palestinians believe this is a legitimate form of warfare. And they would say the Israelis are doing the same to them by killing innocent civilians when they retaliate militarily. Who am I to say what is right or wrong? Who am I to say that the Palestinians are wrong in their beliefs?"

"But don't you think there's a difference between a person blowing himself up in a restaurant, and a military that responds by searching for and killing terrorists. Granted that innocent civilians are killed in both circumstances -- but in one situation the innocents are targeted, and in the other situation they are regrettably caught in the line of fire?"

"Well, that's a very Western way of looking at things. You see I'm Christian and American. I see things the way you do as an Israeli -- we have the same moral framework. But the Arabs view things differently, and who's to say that we're right and they're wrong?"

At this point we both realized we weren't going to get any further in the conversation, and we politely thanked each other and parted ways.

Gee, I could say that the Palestinian suicide HOMICIDE bombers aren't people but are more like wild animals,
but that would be a high insult to animals everywhere...........


Chairman Arafat

Mark Steyn Link Excerpt:

Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................

27 posted on 04/25/2002 5:05:51 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: Tom Jefferson; All
Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.





28 posted on 04/25/2002 5:06:36 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: MarkL


29 posted on 04/25/2002 5:07:21 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: Political Junkie Too


30 posted on 04/25/2002 5:08:09 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: MeeknMing
Yeah, but then he goes out with the pooper-scooper and tries to clean it all up instead of letting everyone suffer the consequences of the filth and stench.

-PJ

31 posted on 04/25/2002 5:11:01 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too
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To: Tom Jefferson
Tom, what a great post! Very telling.

Thanks for the ping.

32 posted on 04/25/2002 5:21:18 PM PDT by TopQuark
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Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: Tom Jefferson
In another context, I referred to this sort of thing as "intellectual pollution." Kind of stomach turning.
34 posted on 04/25/2002 5:37:52 PM PDT by moneyrunner
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To: Tom Jefferson
Has anyone e-maild this to Dapper Dan?
35 posted on 04/25/2002 5:39:59 PM PDT by moneyrunner
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To: Tom Jefferson
Great post.

I agree with the author's conclusions and would add that another reason for the news media's anti-Israel bias is as simple as "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Liberals have a built-in loathing for capitalism and for America's basic conservatism and pioneering spirit. Also, good old fashioned liberal hand-wringing 'guilt' is certainly part of the equation. In any event, if America seems to be siding with Israel and against the Palestinians, then liberals will take exactly the opposite side. America just can't be right, and the liberals in the newsrooms will do what they can to show that.

36 posted on 04/25/2002 5:51:43 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Tom Jefferson
Perfect.

And Al Gore touring Monticello, the home of (who else) Thomas Jefferson, gaped at busts of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, asking, "And who are these people?"

Dan Rather had a privileged private viewing of the Zapruder film in the late 'sixties (before Geraldo Rivera showed it on his program in the 'seventies), and demanded immediate on-air time to tell the American people it showed a forward head snap, proving JFK had been shot from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository by the lone gunman hisself.

A chilling glimpse that the elite of the hatebaiting left is dumb as dirt and proud of it.

We should not be surprised, as their revisionism makes the West the aggressor in the Cold War, makes white European males the focus of evil in the modern world, et cetera, et cetera.

37 posted on 04/25/2002 5:54:39 PM PDT by PhilDragoo
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To: Titus Fikus
Nice one...
38 posted on 04/25/2002 6:00:19 PM PDT by Pharmboy
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To: dutchess
You should also read the following post: A LETTER FROM ISRAEL
39 posted on 04/25/2002 6:07:28 PM PDT by Tom Jefferson
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To: Eva
"The liberals are not so much opposed to Israel as they are opposed to the Jewish religion and capitalism. Islam does not pose the same threat because the religion and the state are one."

An insightful point that I don't think I've seen anywhere else.

40 posted on 04/25/2002 6:08:07 PM PDT by Joe Bonforte
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