Yotam,
What can I say, I am not a Jew, Israeli, Hebrew, Zionist or Semite, but I do possess somewhat of an ability to have empathy for others.
I feel for your plight and I also feel for the plight of the Palestinians, who have no voice in the media, whereas Zionist/Israeli/Jews have these people to put their biased opinion across ad nauseum (scroll below, to bottom of post).
You say that Jews have no disproportionate media influence compared to their population numbers, but of course this is not true and it’s disingenuous of you to suggest that they don’t: (Two links follow) http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
The proportion of Palestinians who have media access would be miniscule compared to Zionists/Israeli/Jews. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that we are getting skewed reporting from the Middle East. In the same way that Capitalist Americans don’t give balanced reporting about Russia, it’s just the way it is and I’m sure Palestinian media would also have a bias, but they don’t have the same amount of fingers in the Gefilte-Fish barrel, brainwashing billions of Westerners.
If it wasn’t for Palestine, I would be more than happy to have Jews having so much media influence, because they are very adept at running entertainment and publishing companies, maybe even brilliant would be more apt, but when I watch the 6 O’Clock news and open a newspaper, I want my news to be reasonably accurate and not biased by the editors, even if only indirectly because of the people they will only employ, that they know will toe the political line.
What I think would help you, is to write this same article, but while writing, imagine that you are a Palestinian mother or father. This will help you have more insight into how the rest of the world sees the apartheid state of Palestine and their Isreali/Zionist prison warders, and please don’t deny it, Zionists have even built a Berlin-style wall to stop people from visiting the land they had taken from them at gunpoint and the places where their trees were bulldozed, while the media withheld the truth about Israel for decades, until Venessa Redgrave — one of histories greatest actresses — had the guts to spill the beans at the Academy Awards, and of course she was then shunned by Hollywood and ridiculed by the press.
The problem I have with writing this reply, is that I’ve known at least two handfuls of Jews in my life on much more than just a first name basis, including two lovely Jewish girlfriends, one of whom was pressurised into discarding this gentile, but to be honest with you, I get along very well with Jewish people, and in some ways admire and feel envious of Jewish close-knit families, even if many of my Jewish friends feel the closeness is too close for comfort sometimes. They also have such a great sense of humour, that I suppose is a release valve from adversity. But one thing most of them have in common, is that they have been totally brainwashed in Jewish schools about the history of Palestine, and especially in Isreali schools.
Hey, I know all about brainwashing, I was brought up a Catholic, and boy oh boy, the Manchurian Candidate brainwashers had nothing on them. But I’ve managed to see through their indocrination, and that hurt, in fact it almost drove me crazy for many years, because when I realized that there is no man with a pitchfork in fantasy-hell and their is no man in the sky controlling everything and there was no virgin birth or resurrection, I was very, very confused, because no one wants to admit that people they trusted lied to them, but of course the liars were also lied to, all down the generations.
For a much more plausible explanation, start this at 4 min 30 secs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTbIu8Zeqp0
I recently had a very indepth conversation with a Jewish friend of mine, a young man of 28, who has studied and thought quite deeply about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and one part of him feels ashamed and another part feels victimized by history. But what really stood out about him, for me, was that after all his learning and thoughts on the matter, his conclusion was that “blame won’t solve anything”. I know this sounds overly-simplistic, but when I thought about it later, I could see that he was right.
I haven’t met as many Palestinians as I have met Jews/Isrealis/Zionists, but the ones I have met have been some of the warmest, most intelligent people I’ve ever had the pleasure of acquainting myself with.
I really don’t think anyone wants to be anti Israel, but when Vanessa Redgrave pointed out what the media hadn’t said until that point, we all — in the West — felt betrayed and when someone is betrayed they lose trust and that trust is very hard to win back, especially when the people the West had sympathy for, then inflict pain on other people.
You know and I know that if there was no oil in the Middle East, the USA and it’s Western allies wouldn’t even know where Palestine or Isreal was on the map, accept maybe, ironically, the Christians who would go to see Jerusalem.
Israel exists because they are allies of the people who need to keep the Western/Christian world safe from escalating oil prices by Muslim Arabs. It’s the old story of divide and conquer. And that is the only reason why the USA defends and financially/militarally supports Zionists, there is no other reason. The oil crises in the 70’s brought about by OPEC, was the worst decision the Arabs ever made, because they forced the hand of the western super-powers to give them a deal they couldn’t refuse. We need the oil and the petro dollars just to survive and also build a worldwide military. So in a way, we are complicit in the plight of the Palestinians, because we want/need Israel to create the division in the Middle East, so that we can come in from behind and conquer, which we have done, so maybe we Western gentiles should praise Israelis, but there is always that thorn in our side, the Palestinian Question.
Could I write a similar article from a Jewish viewpoint, probably not, I just don’t have enough will to want to, because of that Wall and all it stands for.
Solar power, other renewable energies and electric cars are the real threat Israel faces. When we don’t need to keep the oilfields open, no one in the West will give the Middle East a second thought, anymore than they would think about Outer Mongolia, unless they are sand-merchants.
Please tell me which one of these brilliant people (below) is a Christian gentile, or a Palestinian Muslim. (scroll to end)
They might even be the most wonderful family-people on earth, but the point is, are we being dished up biased opinion by them.
In my way of thinking, Israel has become the Jew’s biggest threat.
Here’s a tip, Jesus, if he actually existed, says in the New Christian Testament: “do not be like the people who go to the synagogue to pray to make a show of their ‘faith’, and wear special clothes to make a show of their ‘faith’, but pray secretly and humbly in your room and then your prayers will be answered”.
As much as I like your attempt to make some sense of the situation, please, don’t treat gentiles like total morons and suggest that Zionist/Israeli/Jewish advocates aren’t over-represented in USA and Western-world media. That is really just too rich. Or are you actually that naive?
Imagine for a moment if Palestinians controlled this much media, do you really want me to believe that you wouldn’t be the first one to say that they are pushing a biased viewpoint.
Don’t take gentiles innocence and hospitality for stupidity, because when they finally wake up to understand they have been hoodwinked and betrayed by the people they supported, they can get mighty nasty, if you don’t believe me, three words, Saddam, Gaddafi and Osama. And no one wants to see that, except for maybe 0.0000000001% of the population who are total imbeciles and are given way too much media publicity ;o) Good luck to the Jews and Palestinians of the world and may you eventually live in peace together.
CBS:
Sumner Redstone — chairman of board and CEO of CBS and Viacom, “world’s biggest media giant” (Economist, 11–23–02). Viacom owns Viacom Cable, CBS, and MTV all over the world, Blockbuster Video Rentals, and Black Entertainment TV
Mel Karmazin — CBS corporation president and CEO
Leslie Moonves (great-nephew of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion) — president of CBS Television
David Poltrack — executive vice-president, Research and Planning
Jeff Fager — executive director of “60 Minutes II.”
DON HEWITT, Exec. Director, 60 Minutes, CBS
DAVID POLTRACK, Executive Vice-President, Research and Planning, CBS
NBC:
Jeff Zucker — president of NBC Entertainment
Neil Shapiro — president of NBC News
Jeff Gaspin — executive vice-president, programming NBC
Max Mutchnik and David Kohan — co-exec. producers of NBC’s “Good Morning, Miami”
Lloyd Braun — chair of NBC Entertainment.
ABC:
Michael Eisner — major owner of Walt Disney, Capital Cities, and ABC
David Westin — president of ABC News.
LLOYD BRAUN, Chair, ABC Entertainment
FOX:
Rupert Murdoch (Jewish mother, hence culturally Jewish) — owner of FOX TV, New York Post, London Times, and News of the World
Sandy Grushow — chair, FOX Entertainment
Peter Chernin — second in command at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., owner of FOX TV
Gail Berman — president of FOX Entertainment.
CNN:
Wolf Blitzer — host of CNN’s Late Edition.
Hollywood Movie Studios:
Ted Pike’s comment: The prestigious Encyclopedia Judaica, in its article “Motion Pictures,” pg. 449, says: “Thus all the large Hollywood companies, with the exception of United Artists…were founded and controlled by Jews.”
Sony Corporation of America: Howard Stringer — chief
Columbia Pictures: Amy Pascal — chair
Warner Bros.: Barry Meyer — chair;
JONATHAN MILLER, chair and CEO of AOL division of AOL-Time-Warner
Jordan Levin — pres. of Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Miramax Films: Harvey Weinstein — CEO
Paramount: Sherry Lansing — president of Paramount Communications and chair of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group.
DreamWorks:
Stephen Spielberg,
David Geffen,
Jeffrey Katzenberg (owners)
MTV Entertainment: Brian Graden — president
Turner Entertainment: Brad Siegal — president
Universal Entertainment BARRY DILLER, chair of USA Interactive, former owner of
Radio:
Clear Channel Communications: Robert Sillerman — founder
PBS: Ben Wattenberg — moderator, PBS ThinkTank
MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN, owner of NY Daily News, US News & World Report and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, one of the largest pro-Israel lobbying groups.
MARTY PERETZ, owner and publisher of the New Republic, which openly identifies itself as pro-Israel. Al Gore credits Marty with being his “mentor.”
ARTHUR O. SULZBERGER, JR., publisher of the NY Times, the Boston Globe and other publications.
WILLIAM SAFIRE, syndicated columnist for the NYT.
TOM FRIEDMAN, syndicated columnist for the NYT.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. Honored by Honest Reporting.com, website monitoring “anti-Israel media.”
RICHARD COHEN, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post
JEFF JACOBY, syndicated columnist for the Boston Globe
NORMAN ORNSTEIN, American Enterprise Inst., regular columnist for USA Today, news analyst for CBS
ARIE FLEISCHER, Dubya’s press secretary.
STEPHEN EMERSON, every media outlet’s first choice as an expert on domestic terrorism.
DAVID SCHNEIDERMAN, owner of the Village Voice and the New Times network of “alternative weeklies.”
DENNIS LEIBOWITZ, head of Act II Partners, a media hedge fund
KENNETH POLLACK, for CIA analysts, director of Saban Center for Middle East Policy, writes op-eds in NY Times, New Yorker
RICHARD LEIBNER, runs the N.S. Bienstock talent agency, which represents 600 news personalities such as Dan Rather, Dianne Sawyer and Bill O’Reilly.
TERRY SEMEL, CEO, Yahoo, former chair, Warner Bros.
MARK GOLIN, VP and Creative Director, AOL
WARREN LIEBERFORD, Pres., Warner Bros. Home Video Div. of AOL- TimeWarner
JEFFREY ZUCKER, President of NBC Entertainment
JACK MYERS, NBC, chief.NYT 5.14.2
MAX MUTCHNICK, co-executive producer of NBC’s “Good Morning Miami”
DAVID KOHAN, co-executive producer of NBC’s “Good Morning Miami”
HOWARD STRINGER, chief of Sony Corp. of America
AMY PASCAL, chair of Columbia Pictures
JOEL KLEIN, chair and CEO of Bertelsmann’s American operations
ROBERT SILLERMAN, founder of Clear Channel Communications
BRIAN GRADEN, president of MTV entertainment
IVAN SEIDENBERG, CEO of Verizon Communications
LARRY KING, host of Larry King Live
TED KOPPEL, host of ABC’s Nightline
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN Reporter
PAULA ZAHN, CNN Host
MIKE WALLACE, Host of CBS, 60 Minutes
BARBARA WALTERS, Host, ABC’s 20–20
MICHAEL LEDEEN, editor of National Review
BRUCE NUSSBAUM, editorial page editor, Business Week
DONALD GRAHAM, Chair and CEO of Newsweek and Washington Post, son of
CATHERINE GRAHAM MEYER, former owner of the Washington Post
HOWARD FINEMAN, Chief Political Columnist, Newsweek
WILLIAM KRISTOL, Editor, Weekly Standard, Exec. Director
Project for a New American Century (PNAC)
RON ROSENTHAL, Managing Editor, San Francisco Chronicle
PHIL BRONSTEIN, Executive Editor, San Francisco Chronicle,
RON OWENS, Talk Show Host, KGO (ABC-Capitol Cities, San Francisco)
JOHN ROTHMAN, Talk Show Host, KGO (ABC-Capitol Cities, San Francisco)
MICHAEL SAVAGE, Talk Show Host, KFSO (ABC-Capitol Cities, San Francisco) Syndicated in 100 markets
MICHAEL MEDVED, Talk Show Host, on 124 AM stations
DENNIS PRAGER, Talk Show Host, nationally syndicated from LA. Has Israeli flag on his home page.
BEN WATTENBERG, Moderator, PBS Think Tank.
ANDREW LACK, president of NBC
DANIEL MENAKER, Executive Director, Harper Collins
DAVID REMNICK, Editor, The New Yorker
NICHOLAS LEHMANN, writer, the New York
HENRICK HERTZBERG, Talk of the Town editor, The New Yorker
SAMUEL NEWHOUSE JR, and DONALD NEWHOUSE own Newhouse Publications, includes 26 newspapers in 22 cities; the Conde Nast magazine group, includes The New Yorker; Parade, the Sunday newspaper supplement; American City Business Journals, business newspapers published in more than 30 major cities in America; and interests in cable television programming and cable systems serving 1 million homes.
DONALD NEWHOUSE, chairman of the board of directors, Associated Press.
PETER R KANN, CEO, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s
RALPH J. & BRIAN ROBERTS, Owners, Comcast-ATT Cable TV.
LAWRENCE KIRSHBAUM, CEO, AOL-Time Warner Book Group
I hope one day these people don’t feel compelled to support an apartheid state and they can just get on with doing what they are brilliant at, and they can just relax and blend it. That’s it, “Just Blend In”.