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January 15, 2009 Who said it? Bill Moyers or David Duke?By Edward Olshaker
While some viewers of "Bill Moyers Journal" recently went on the show's web page to congratulate Moyers on his January 9 commentary alleging that Israel targets civilians, others, including longtime fans, were surprised and saddened. If they were surprised, they haven't been paying close attention in recent years. They might have missed Moyers' friendly softball interview last year with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, one of the black community's most notorious racists and anti-Semites; as well as Moyers' recommendation to viewers of his earlier program "Now" that they go to the PBS website to read a worshipful interview with "esteemed intellectual" Noam Chomsky, who, weeks earlier, had visited and encouraged Hezbollah terrorists shortly before they launched their killing spree in Israel. (Similarly, Chomsky has praised notorious Holocaust denier Robert Faurison-who claims the Jews caused World War II, and mocks Holocaust survivors as liars-for the quality of his "extensive historical research.") This is US tax money at work-yours, mine, and that of the loved ones of the courageous Navy diver Robert Stethem, who was tortured and murdered by Chomsky's Hezbollah buddies in 1985. When did Moyers forget that real progressives are supposed to oppose fascists, totalitarians, and terrorists, not promote and empower them and their supporters? The following remarks are from commentaries on the Israel-Hamas war by Moyers and by the world's best-known Nazi/Klansman, David Duke. Can you tell which is which? (The answers appear at the end.)
(Answers: Bill Moyers: 2,3,5,7,9,11,12,14,15; David Duke: 1,4,6,8,10,13) How did you do? If it was difficult to tell the difference, we might have found PBS a replacement for Moyers when he retires. A viewer who began her message to Moyers by saying, "Bill, you are someone who I had admired and respected for a long time..." asked, "Did you really say that violence is inherent in Jews?" It appears that he did, in the final quote cited. He reinforced this storyline by neglecting to mention that Hamas bases its terrorist operations among civilians, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and that Israel warns civilians to leave battle zones. He further bolsters the stereotype by telling his audience that "Israel misses no opportunity to humiliate the Palestinians with checkpoints, concrete walls, routine insults, and the onslaught in Gaza," as if defensive measures were acts of gratuitous meanness, failing to mention that there were no checkpoints, walls, or military responses until years of Palestinian terrorism necessitated them. Moyers has every right to imply that a uniquely murderous proclivity is genetically hard-wired into Jewish DNA, and to back up his claim by inaccurately stating that Israel is "killing indiscriminately -- the elderly, kids, entire families by destroying schools and hospitals --...exactly what terrorists do," after remaining silent for the past 7 years through 11,000 rocket and mortars attacks on Israeli civilians. The question is whether our tax dollars should continue sponsoring his inflammatory distortions and falsehoods. Edward Olshaker is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in History News Network, The Jewish Press, FrontPage Magazine, and other publications.
on "Who said it? Bill Moyers or David Duke?"
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