West of Delancey: Deafening Silence

Jerusalem Post ^ | May 9, 2007 | Rabbi Marvin Hier

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

West of Delancey: Deafening silence on evil By RABBI MARVIN HIER

Deafening silence

Recently, on his MSNBC syndicated radio program, Don Imus made bigoted and disgusting remarks about members of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Even though Imus had a contract from NBC which specifically stated that his show was to be irreverent and controversial, nonetheless, that could not save him from the outrage of the American public and the advertisers that demanded that he be immediately fired, which is precisely what the network eventually did.

The subject of Imus's firing was front page news in every magazine, newspaper and on every television show. And so it should have been.

Contrast this with the deafening silence of the international community to the words of the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Sheik Ahmad Bahr. He went to the Sudan, but rather than use his visit to plead for an end to the horrific genocide against the people of Darfur, which has claimed almost one quarter of a million lives, instead he used the occasion to deliver a sermon: "Oh Allah," he said, "vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one…America and Israel will be annihilated ...." [Translation courtesy MEMRI]

Now you would think that, given the reaction to a talk show host who crossed the line, there would be universal condemnation to the remarks made by a speaker of a parliament who calls for the extermination of a people. But that is not what happened......