Why Isn't This News? U.S. Rabbis Call for Gaza Cease-Fire

Today on page 17 of the NY Times, a group of prominent liberal rabbis and other religious and cultural leaders called for a cease-fire in Gaza. They were backed by over 2,800 American citizens. Because they could not get their opinion presented in the major media they had to buy this full page ad. Haaretz considered it news. So far no U.S. media have considered it news. Why not? This is a great puzzle to me. I hope you will consider it news and will pass the ad around, sign it, even contribute if you can so it can be put in more places.

This is a story about Gaza but also about the way that liberal Jewish voices (shared by many other interfaith and secular people) are being shut out of the US media. No American rabbi has a longer or more substantial track record as a liberal on Israel/Palestine than Rabbi Michael Lerner, who convened the group and raised the money for the ad from 1200 people, mostly in small donations (he started Tikkun magazine 23 years ago as a counter to Commentary and the Jewish right), but he could not get his views into any oped pages of major newspapers despite valiant efforts since the Gaza invasion. He did however have this in the Times of London.

The text of the ad as it appeared in the NY Times can be read here in a downloadable pdf. Our press release is below. Haaretz reported the ad's appearance here, though strange to say half the article has gone missing (AIPAC-friendly saboteur on the Haaretz website?) but we haven't seen any mention yet in the US press. You can sign it here.

Press Release:

Rabbis and other religious, cultural and community leaders, heading an interfaith list of 2800 people, will call for an immediate Cease-Fire in Gaza and an international conference to provide international pressure to facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties, in the New York Times, Wednesday, January 14, 2009.

"We have had to buy space in the New York Times to make this call because the major national newspapers will not give room for this perspective," says Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor of Tikkun magazine, who convened the group. He is joined by Sister Joan Chittister, and Professor Cornel West, Co-chairs with Lerner of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP), and over 2,800 others, including Rabbi Brian Walt (North American Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights), Rabbi Arthur Waskow (chair of the Shalom Center), Rabbi David Shneyer (past president of the Rabbinic organization Ohalah), Rabbi Mordecai Leibling and other rabbis, writers such as Ariel Dorfman, Annie Lamott, Deepak Chopra and Fritjof Capra, movie director Jonathan Demme, Richard Falk (the UN representative on Human Rights in Palestine), Christian ministers, academics and activists.

"The essential difference between our point of view, which is widespread but underreported, and the opinions being presented in the mainstream media," said Rabbi Lerner, "is that we believe it is unrealistic to expect violent and hardline tactics, however well justified by the other side's violence, to build the psychological grounds for peace. Each side has to learn empathy for the wounds suffered by the other side, and has to practice generosity in promoting peace, the basic conditions for which are already known and are laid out in our statement. We are appealing to president-elect Obama to lead the international community in applying significant pressure to both sides to accept a mutually generous approach, whether each side feels that generosity yet or not. We spell out the terms of a lasting settlement in the New York Times ad. Given the political clout of the Israel Lobby in the U.S., as manifested in the one-sided coverage that has made invisible Jewish opposition in Israel and the U.S. to Israel's war in Gaza, it is unlikely that President Obama would be able to muster significant pressure on Israel to accept a settlement that would be just to the Palestinian people (and hence would last). For that reason, we are urging him to convene an International Conference in which other countries could play an important role in pushing both sides to make significant compromises for peace."

Comments

[cobraxus]

the people who own and operate the media aren't liberal far from it.they're old wealthy well-connected(to the past)and leaning toward the conservati­ve(because it protects them from the world we live in).

[Jezreel]

Thank you Dave for pointing out this important bit of information. I signed the petition. I hope others will do so as well.

[papapj]

The real travesty is the inability of US media to accurately report the events. The disproportionate body count is always glossed over. Attacks on Israeli settlements are phrased as attacks upon 'neighbourhoods'. Weakly armed Gazans, often vainly trying to defend their properties being indiscriminately bombed by the IDF are often labelled as 'militants' and the whole reportage is bereft of the salient point that the settlements being attacked are built on land owned by Palestinians whose properties have been razed to make way for them.

The truth can only be withheld for so long, and Americans are wising up to what the rest of the world sees daily on their newsbroadcasts.

Thank heavens for the internet

[johnnyjust]

Liberals always favor surrender. What's new?

[Agathena]

Why so few liberal US blogs writing this story on their front pages. Editors of liberal blogs (including this one) that I read have refused to comment. What are they afraid of?

The polls taken that reveal that a majority of Americans are for a status quo in the Middle East conflict are old, they were taken at the beginning of the Gaza offensive. Another question, why so few polls?

People will remember the silence of the media and the blogs on this issue.

[Grubstreet]

Thanks for posting this, Dave. I had been hugely puzzled that I could hear the voices of so few people like these. That they are being muffled by supposedly free media is very disconcerting.

[Karma7]

You can access many many many voices of Jewish people like these online at

http://www.doublestandards.org/pales.html#voices

http://www.doublestandards.org/jaz1.html

[Karma7]

You can access many many many voices of Jewish people like these online at

http://www.doublestandards.org/pales.html#voices

http://www.doublestandards.org/jaz1.html

[Rockwell]

It would appears that Jews have the same problem in America as Christians. Namely that the right wings of their religions have taken upon themselves the mantle of spokesperson for the entire faith. And the lazy MSM goes along with it.

If a catholic bishop or an ultra-conservative mega church pastor makes a statement headlines scream "Christian Leaders Say. .. ." If a moderate or liberal christian leader makes a statement it's dismissed by the MSM.

Same thing with American Judiasm. The conservative warmongering leaders have the ear of the press and the government. Moderate voices are ignored.

Its laziness of the part of a largely secular media, IMHO.

[ESerafina42]

Thanks, Rockwell - you said it for me.

[111]

"So far no U.S. media have considered it news. "

So here's the thing - U.S. media does not report news it spreads propaganda and sells stuff.
The corporations that control our government also control our MSM "news" programs.

Thank you for posting here.

[aemathisphd]

The reason why Rabbi Lerner's attempts have not received media attention lies in two problems: (1) He is not a rabbi within the three (or some would say four) mainstream denominations of Judaism in the U.S., so his voice is small comparatively speaking to, say, the Reform or Conservative movements. Furthermore, very few rabbis within the major denominations (with a few exceptions, mainly among Orthodox Jews who oppose Zionism on religious grounds) will openly oppose Israel's actions, even if they believe they are wrong. They may -- sometimes -- speak from the pulpit on the topic, but not to the general public. (2) This is another example of a corporate media that loves "if it bleeds, it leads" journalism because it sustains their bottom line. Add to that the conservative bent in the media that undoubtedly exists (e.g., Fox News, and ask yourself how many major news outlets ran stories against invading Iraq), and you have the ideal conditions to blind the general public to the pro-peace efforts of the Jewish left.

[zell]

This was a wonderful piece. I thank God for Rabbi Lerner and all the others who support him in this quest for peace in the Middle East. One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is where Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." Rabbi Lerner is definitely a child of God. Representative Kucinich once called for a department of peace in our government. I think it is time to resurrect that thought and create a Department of Peace. We certainly need it.

[singforpeace]

Excellent piece. We are fortunate to have a robust internet source like Huffington Post to spread the real news. Thank you.

[Paladine]

Good question. ..