Anti-Israel letters to Berkeley newspaper draw ire

Should it be any surprise that the Daily Planet takes an aggressive anti-Israeli line bordering on Antisemitism? The general policy of “progressives” was always that Israel can do no right and Palestinians can do no wrong. Terrorist attacks killing civilians, rockets and mortar bombing of Israel are legitimate “freedom fighter” acts. Fences built to protect terrorists are “apartheid walls”. When the Hamas tortures and kills Fatah members, not a whisper is raised in indignation. Continuous abuse against Israel is freedom of speech, but if somebody dares to attack them, it becomes an attack on freedom and an attempt to stifle their liberty.
I applaud Mr. Sinkinson and wish him success.

The letters condemning Jews and Israel in the Daily Planet are a frightening example of the hatred the far left has of Israel. That Israel is singled out as a target of hatred and criticism like no other country in the world by those who are misinformed, uneducated or just plain wrong, speaks volumes about their true beliefs. Telling Jews to “get over it” and accusing us of conjuring up anti Semitism when none exists, excuse me? Why would that be necessary when we only have to look in our own backyard to see it. Truly disgusting. Thanks Jim Sinkinson for standing up for what’s right and exposing what’s wrong.

Thanks for the piece on Jim Sinkinson’s commendable efforts to make advertisers aware of the overt anti-Semitism of the Daily Planet.

As a journalist of longstanding, I am a fierce supporter of First Amendment rights. But freedom of speech also means that advertisers may be made aware of manifest bias in the publication for which they are contributing ad revenues. Accordingly, for helping promulgate an awareness of the incessant Israel-bashing in the Daily Planet, the Jewish community owes Mr. Sinkinson much appreciation.
I was surprised that the piece in “J” didn’t also note the extraordinary resource that much of Sinkinson’s letters to advertisers draw from, the web site DPWatchDog.com. The site was created by John Gertz, whose meticulous research and writing skills provide ample evidence for anyone who is skeptical of the Daily Planet’s anti-Semitism, yet wishes to know the truth.
One other corrective note: the Daily Planet emphatically does NOT publish all letters. Indeed, both John Gertz and I who regularly used to contribute commentary have been banned from doing so by owner/editor Becky O’Malley. Indeed, we are hardly the only supporters of Israel whose letters the paper has refused to print.
Long term readers of the paper know that what the DP does in its letters column is to run innumerable letters either demonizing Israel or unduly bashing those support it. Of course, in attempting to demonstrate the paper’s alleged “fairness” O’Malley will sometimes print one or two letters supportive of the Israel, but the disproportion of letters con and pro is exponential.
While O’Malley has regularly stated that she receives relatively few pro-Israel letters, nothing could be further from the truth.
In sum, make no mistake about it: in issue after issue, week after week, via editorials, op-eds, and letters there is so much demonization of Israel that one might wonder if this was not a local paper but rather, “The Daily Palestinian.” It’s crystalline that
the O’Malleys are utterly obsessed with their need to condemn Israel in their paper.
Because most advertisers don’t examine the content of the paper,  we have Jim Gertz and Jim Sinkinson to thank for helping them decide whether they wish their enterprises to be associated with a publication of such continuous unmitigated hatred…

The Daily Planet does a lot more than publish letters. Years back it published a half-page hate screed under the byline “Marcus Aurelius” stating that Jews “were not impeccable in the death of Jesus”. That was then you may say. This month, it published a half-page rant by a woman whose initials are JG, a frequent Israel-basher, who wrote that “Israel has no citizens,” “Israel has no borders”, and Israel “is not quite a real country”. would the Planet publish such non-factual insults against any OTHER member nation of the United Nations?...hasn’t happened yet.

O’Malley certainly has the right to print anything she wants, short of overt incitement to violence (though I wonder when she will stoop to that level). However, those who are concerned about the biases expressed in her newspaper also have freedom of speech—to expose those biases to the general public and to those who might advertise in the DP.

One can certainly wonder why letters about Israel merit so much space in what is essentially a community newspaper.  But the over-the-top nature of the hate speech against Jews and Israe that she chooses to print, especially contrasted with her refusal to print items that might offend Muslim sensivities, gives the public a good idea of what the answer might be.

Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, and plenty of criticism of the government circulates freely in Israel.  But it doesn’t devolve to the level of the hate speech that O’Malley feels is worthy of publication.

Remember Natan Sharansky’s 3-D formulation:  criticism of Israel may be anti-Semitic in nature if it meets the criteria of Demonization of Israel, Delegitimation of Israel, and Double standards applied only to Israel.  Too much of what O’Malley decides is worthy of publication falls within this description.  And those who want to explain this to advertisers, who then might choose to pull their ads from the DP, have their own rights of free speech which they can use to hold O’Malley accountable for her choices.

For our local Jewish press, this article about the Berkeley Planet has a strangely neutral, disembodied tone that reads like a “he said/she said” story.  While we appreciate that the J, unlike the Planet, tries to maintain a more neutral, fact oriented and objective tone in its reporting, even a cursory examination of any issue of the Planet will show solid, incontrovertible evidence that it is overflowing with venomous Israel bashing letters, featured commentary and so-called analysis (see the current issue online, for example). The first and most obvious red flag that most of this defamation of Israel is just very thinly veiled anti-Semitism is to consider the basic question of topicality.  The Planet is, after all, a local, free throw away weekly newspaper serving a very limited area.  Israel promotion, Israel bashing, indeed anything about Israel or Zionism at all very rarely has any obvious relevance to a small town newspaper on the West Coast.  A proof of this point is that no other foreign nation and no other national liberation ideology other than Zionism ever comes under any (let alone constant) scorn or attack in the pages of the Planet.  Just in today’s news headlines, we read about the horrific massacre in a mosque in the mountainous region of Pakistan in which at least 48 pious Muslims were slaughtered during prayers.  Rest assured, there will be no mention of this barbaric outrage against Muslims and Islam in the Berkeley Planet.  Not one of the regular Israel bashers who are aghast at Israel’s “crimes” against Muslims will express any outrage, remorse or consternation about this suicide bombing massacre of so many pious, peaceful Muslims.  Why?  Clearly because the real roots of the obsession with Israel bashing in the Planet are not some principled defense of human life, freedom and dignity (as the Israel bashers disingenuously claim), but rather a sick and twisted form of prejudice and bigotry towards Jews in particular.  The reason that the entire organized Jewish community – including critics of Israeli policy—should unite around the importance of challenging the Planet is that we live in a very pluralistic, multicultural society which maintains a thin veneer of civility between many ethnic groups and religions only by explicitly rejecting the public legitimacy of one-sided, distorted attacks on one ethnic group or nation (i.e., hate speech).  The Planet as an open forum for all forms of Israel and Jew bashing increases the real likelihood of violent demonstrations against Jews and Israel in our area, violent attacks against Jews and Zionists in general.  Newspaper have a responsibility to elevate the level of discourse in the communities they serve, not to become forums for demonizing one nation or the minority ethnic group it represents.

Isn’t it time the US introduced an amendment to the First Amendment, distinguishing between “free speech” and “hate speech”? I really don’t think that the Daily Planet would be able to publish such overtly anti-semitic diatribes in Italy or Norway, for instance, where there is legislation that clearly distinguishes between   free speech and hate speech, and it appears to work well.
One of the most unpleasant side-effects of this outpouring of hatred against Israel, and against Jews by implication is that right-wingers can use it as an attack on the left. Without the various branches of socialism, Israel would never have come into existence and its whole infrastructure (sick funds, the Histadrut, Egged, the kibbutzim) is based on socialist and cooperative enterprise. Furthermore, so many of the great thinkers and leaders of workers movements have been Jewish. I deplore this tarring of all socialists with the same brush and am proud to be a Jew, a Zionist, and a Socialist.

When a business is asked to advertise in a paper, the usual questions asked are “How many people will my ad reach?”, “Who reads the paper?”, and “How much will it cost?” Sinkinson has asked the advertisers in the Daily Planet to consider additional questions…“What is the content of the paper? Do I want to be seen as a business that supports that content?” In this case it is the printing of hate-speech and sustained Israel-bashing that is an ongoing theme in the Daily Planet.
He has not threatened the advertisers with a boycott for their advertising. If they are now feeling uncomfortable to be associated with a paper that publishes such material, so be it.  Advertisers are free to make their own choices, as are we all. Thank you Jim, for removing blinders from eyes that need to see.

A few years ago, the Daily Planet published a featured commentary which contained the following: “Also, one can ask why the Jews had problems with the Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans?  The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the ‘Chosen People.’  Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely become anti-Semitic.”  Anybody who would write or publish this statement is anti-Semitic. Such demonization of Jews and the state of Israel appears in virtually every issue of the Daily Planet.  Those who print such anti-Semitic rants are anti-Semitic by definition.  I, for one, will not patronize businesses that advertise in a publication that prints hate.