Catholic Journalist Killed by Israeli Military
By Michael Hoffman
Shireen Abu Akleh (sometimes spelled Aqleh) was assassinated by an Israeli sniper in Jenin this week (according to Palestinian eyewitnesses). The Israeli government, as they almost always do when caught red-handed murdering Palestinians, are blaming the Palestinians for her death.
Israeli witness testimony cannot be impeached. To do so is “anti-Semitic.” However, it is deemed perfectly permissible, even warranted, for Palestinian eyewitness testimony to be discounted. We believe the Palestinians.
The media are not generally reporting that Shireen was a Catholic born in Jerusalem. The right-wing Neocon tall-tale sold to gullible ignoramuses at Dispensationalist Protestant churches, is that Muslims despise Catholics.
A generalization like that is beneath contempt because it fails to ask the question, which Muslims? The church-banning, Salafist Saudis with their blood-drenched 18th century heretical theology which inspires ISIS (and the one with which Uncle Sam and Donald Trump are allied— Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner sent $2 billion in Saudi money to Israeli companies this week).
The Sunni Islam practiced by a majority of Palestinians views Christians such as Shireen Abu Akleh who did not wear a head-covering and who reported for Al-Jazeera, as their sister.
Say what, Hoffman? Muslims regard a Catholic as their sister?
You read that correctly. She was revered when alive and now too, in death.
Unlike the emigrants from Brooklyn and eastern Europe occupying the land of Palestine, Shireen Abu Akleh was a Jerusalem native.
Beware the Right Wing
In general, with certain exceptions, we appreciate the good work Tucker Carlson is doing on Fox News. However, last night for several minutes he was involved in an exercise in cringe-worthy mediocrity — interviewing a witless clown described as a “comedian.” While he was thus trivially engaged, rival cable news outlet MSNBC, normally not a purveyor of truth, was broadcasting a serious exposé of Israeli lies and deception related to the ongoing Israeli murder of journalists like Shireen. MSNBC basically said the Israelis can’t be trusted to investigate these assassinations and pointed to the fact that almost no Israeli sniper is ever severely punished for killing journalists, or any Palestinian civilian for that matter.
Let us see how many Catholic news outlets report and investigate Shireen’s death. Thus far we have seen no special emphasis or interest. This is in keeping with the track record of Israeli mouthpieces such as Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, and Raymond Arroyo of both Fox News and the EWTN Catholic network.
Yesterday was Minister Louis Farrakhan’s 89th birthday. We recall his intrepid 2019 talk at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago. Minister Farrakhan, though an American Muslim, has had a life-long devotion to Blessed Mary the Mother of God, going so far as to name the central mosque of the Nation of Islam, “Mosque Maryam” (Mosque Mary).
At St. Sabina he passionately defended the holy names of Jesus and Mary against Talmudic defamation, documenting his words with accurate quotes from the Babylonian Talmud. Shortly thereafter, St. Sabina was nearly shut down by Chicago's “Catholic” Cardinal Blase Cupich.
Arroyo and Ingraham obviously did not listen to the video of Minister Farrakhan’s remarks at the Catholic Church. They only regurgitated the ADL press release that was issued through NewsMax and other Israeli lobby assets. They condemned a black man for speaking a Catholic truth which almost no Catholic priest or bishop dares to utter.
This is the state of Right wing media today: usually excellent on domestic issues such as opposition to abortion, integrity of the US border and the 2nd Amendment, and abysmally supine in the face of whatever coverup or whitewash Zionists demand concerning Israeli apartheid racism and state-sponsored terrorism.
You won’t read too many headlines like ours naming this murdered reporter as a Catholic. Your favorite Right wing media fear the wake-up call such a headline would trigger — the awareness that a majority of Muslims in Palestine are allied with Christians of good will.
How do they define good will? Being fair — not turning a blood eye to the relentless theft of Palestinian land and the dispossession and mass murder of the people of Palestine.
Light a candle to the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh who knew she was targeted for death and reported anyway. May we all possess her courage in the cause of what is right and true.
Michael Hoffman
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1 comment:
With respect to the word "anti-Semitic" which appears in this piece, I think it advances the discussion to insist on the distinction between anti-Judaism and anti-Jew (or anti- Judaic.)
Jews are an ethnic group and there are good and bad individuals in each such group. Judaism, of course, is a religion and there are entirely evil religions.
To say all persons of the same ethnicity are bad, or, for that matter, good, is to say too much. But to take a broad view, i.e. to apply tolerance of ethnic difference to religious diversity is to imagine too much. Not even Hollywood promotes a stereotype of a pedophile satanist with a heart of gold.
The word anti-Semitic blurs the distinction between people and their beliefs. It appropriates the tolerance due at least provisionally to the individual to protect the faith from legitimate criticism. 'Anti-Semetism' serves the interests of the rulers of the temple.
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