Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A student from UC, Berkeley (who wants to remain anonymous although I know who she/he is) sent me this: "Tonight, Stand With Us and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies brought self-described Israeli Arab Khaled Abu Toameh to UC Berkeley. He is the senior correspondent of Palestinian affairs for the Jerusalem Post, and the Palestinian affairs producer for NBC News. He was brought to hail free speech in Israel, and to condemn the lack of a free press in Palestine. He had this insight to offer: "The Arab people are emotional people. We dance in the streets for everything and we don't even think about it. We are experts in shooting ourselves in the foot." One of the audience members asked him if he also wrote in Arabic or appeared on television in the hopes that his words would reach the Arab masses. He circled around the question and praised his own humility for one of the reasons that he doesn't appear on any other media: "I just want to be a little reporter, I don't even want to be senior editor of the Jerusalem Post" he said. But then he added: "the reason Al Jazeera would not invite me (and I've never tried to go on) is that if I did come on, I would also have to tell them that I hate the Jews and that everything is the Jews' fault. So I cannot go on to citicize the Palestinians only." But if you want to know the real reason why he is appreciated by right-wing Israeli press, it's not because they love freedom of speech. It's because he had this to say about the occupation. "The wall that Israel is building," he said, "and the checkpoints, should all have the following written on them: Made By Yasser Arafat and Hamas." He also said that "if it were up to me, I wouldn't pull out from the West Bank either under the current circumstances." He also stated that Hamas and Fatah should not be dealt with diplomatically until they proved they were "moderate" by recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing violence, and accepting Oslo."