Making the Extreme Mainstream

"Letters: The Plight of the Israelis, or Palestinians, Both"
A18, Friday 1/3/09

Multiple letters to the editor address different pieces published on December 30 with regards to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

While the first of the three letters is excellent, defending Israel's inalienable right to self-defense (as Obama has supported), the other two make assertions that should be beyond the pale of reasoned discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the third letter, a former U.S. ambassador in the Middle East accuses Israel of "aggressive colonization of the West Bank and Greater Jerusalem under every government since 1967," unfairly tainting Israel as a colonial entity that has no rights in the disputed territories.

The second letter though, is the clincher, in which Christopher Stone, an associate professor of Arabic at Hunter College, makes some choice quotes:

Gaza is a virtual prison, and the West Bank is on its way to being chopped up into apartheid-like cantons. Palestinians inside of Israel do not enjoy full citizenship and are sitting ducks for attacks by Israelis that go unprosecuted.

Does not Israel’s denial of its own state terrorism underscore its irrationality?

Accusing Israel of being a terrorist state that is guilty of apartheid in the West Bank, 'ghettoizing' the Gaza Strip, and denying full rights to its Israeli-Arabs citizens is extremist rhetoric that does not accord with reality. Such callous propaganda is clearly unfit to print.

How has such extremist discourse become available in the mainstream American press? As a well-respected news outlet, the New York Times must bear some responsibility for this development.