The American Spectator

It’s a few days old, but via Power Line, I see this video from Hamas television in which a puppet child stabs President Bush to death, and tells him that the White House has been turned into a mosque.

Whenever analysts point to such videos as examples of the incitement that is typical in the Palestinian territories, Palestinian apologists here in the U.S. attempt to argue that it’s just cherry picking by the pro-Israel community. However, while I have seen countless clips of Palestinians indoctrinating their children to kill Jews and hate America, I have yet to see one counter-example of similar incitement on Israeli children’s programming.

It is quite easy to understand how Americans who are exposed to this sort of thing would sympathize with Israelis in the Middle East conflict and see Israelis as having the morally superior case. Despite this, anti-Israel voices such as Obama adviser Merrill “Tony” McPeak (as well as his defender Daniel Larison) continue to argue that rich Jews in New York City and Miami are a major impediment to peace.

When polls show Israel has the overwhelming support of Americans, we’re led to believe by its critics that public opinion is controlled by the media, which silences any dissenting voices who are critical of Israel. Interestingly, such charges closely echo the charges of previous generations of anti-Semites who groused that Jews control the media. But whenever Jews such as myself are offended by such contemporary conspiracy mongering, we’re attacked. The fact that we’re offended is cited as yet another example of how all critics of Israel are accused of being anti-Semites and how there cannot be any honest and open public discussion on the issue.

Critics of Israel argue that there is nothing anti-Israel about calling for an “even handed” approach to the Middle East conflict. But only those who start off with a bias against Israel could advocate an approach to the conflict that puts Israel on an equal moral footing with the peddlers of this sick propaganda.