Friday, July 30, 2010

Winner of Weekly JG Caesarea Prize for Contributing to Anti-Semitism and Middle East Tension: David Cameron, Roger Cohen or Oliver Stone?

Who is the winner of this week's highly renowned JG Caesarea Prize for Contributing Beyond the Call of Duty to Anti-Semitism and Middle East Tension? This week's contestants, each deserving of this accolade in his own endearing way, are David Cameron, Roger Cohen and Oliver Stone.

David Cameron on a visit to Turkey this week called Gaza a “prison camp,” and declared that “the situation in Gaza has to change.” A prison camp? In order to prove his point, Gazans fired a Grad missile this morning into a residential area of the Israeli city of Ashkelon and two mortar shells into the Eshkol Regional Council in the western Negev. Excuse me, David, but are you aware of any prisons in the U.K. where the inmates are firing missiles and mortar shells into neighboring cities?

Roger Cohen this week wrote a New York Times op-ed entitled "The Forgotten American" in which he lambasted the absence of an investigation into the death of a young Turk, who lived in the U.S. for two years and held an American passport, while participating in the attempt by the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. No mention by Cohen of:

• ongoing rocket and missile fire from Gaza into Israel;
• the links between IHH, which organized the flotilla, and al-Qaeda;
• the desire expressed by Turks participating in the flotilla to be martyred;
• the songs sung by the Muslim flotilla participants calling for the murder of Jews;
• the weapons – clubs, knives and small arms – used by the Turks against the Israeli commandos who boarded the ship;
• the "aid" cargo being brought by the Mavi Marmara, consisting of expired medicines and rags, i.e. the flotilla was organized for purposes of provocation;
• Israel's offer to unload this precious cargo at Ashdod and deliver it to Gaza.

By ignoring all of the above and taking editorial bias beyond the bounds of ethical journalism, Roger Cohen richly deserves his status as a finalist for this week's JG Caesarea Prize.

Oliver Stone? Let's concentrate on his defense this week of Adolph Hitler, his support of Iran's tyrant Ahmadinejad, his claim that Jews dominate the media, and his allegation that Israel has f__ed up United States foreign policy. Although the Anti-Defamation League accepted on Wednesday Stone's second attempt at an apology, with Abraham Foxman saying Stone "now understands the issues and where he was wrong,” I am not as sanguine as Foxman and have decided to keep Ollie in this week's running for the JG Caesarea Prize.

And the winner is . . .

4 comments:

  1. In my opinion,while the world seems to interpret the years of Gazan missiles being fired into Israel as a non-event (or is ignorant of the fact?),Israel is demonstrating remarkable restraint.If I held the reins of power,I would be matching missile for missile.

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  2. My vote is for Oliver Stone, if only because of his hair transplant. Sorry to see that Mel didn't join the finalists this week.

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  3. I vote for Cameron. He went for utmost lengths (to Turkey) and he has highest weight among all these ugly personalities. Cohen and Stone are just not in the same weight category.

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  4. for all the reasons cited by Marina, I would normally agree on Cameron, but, he IS British, and Turkey-Coddling is one of their traditions, along with deep-rooted antisemitism.

    Also, by conflating the Kurdish PKK with Al-Qaeda, Cameron might have done more to destabilize Turkey, thus putting the Kurdish Question into play - which means Turkey, Syria, Iran are a bit distracted away from Israel. Not that Cameron meant for that to happen.

    Cohen and Stone just do not have much influence beyond their lefti-gliterati fans.

    Ok, Cameron wins :)

    (my write-in vote goes to Mahmoud Abbas for failure to return the punt from the Arab League on direct talks)

    K2K

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