Will the ADL Take The New York Times to Task for Roger Cohen's "Lo, the Mideast Moves"?

In his op-ed yesterday, "Lo, the Mideast Moves", Roger Cohen compared Netanyahu with Khrushchev, who threatened the U.S. with nuclear devastation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and made Obama out to be a latter-day John F. Kennedy. All this occurred on Passover. How obscene, how disgraceful.

Roger Cohen, who suggests in his op-ed that he is not a self-loathing Jew, of course is incapable of perceiving anything amiss in these comparisions, which amount to fodder for anti-Semites. But what about you, Andrew Rosenthal? As editorial page editor of The Times, is this acceptable to you?

Rosenthal knows that after Cohen's "What Iran's Jews Say" (see:
http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2009/06/was-roger-cohens-what-irans-jews-say-in_17.html), I was promised an answer from the public editor of The Times whether Cohen had adhered to the newspaper's ethical guidelines. That answer was never received.

It being Passover yesterday, I have yet to hear back from the ADL. Is the ADL willing to confront The New York Times?

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"

Roger Cohen's "Lo, the Mideast Moves" or "How Low Can The Times Go"?

Do you remember the 1962 Chubby Checker hit song, "Limbo Rock", which asks "How low can you go?" It's now 2010, and I would like to know, how low can the New York Times go? Today, Passover, The Times published a Roger Cohen op-ed entitled "Lo, the Mideast Moves", which compares Netanyahu with Khrushchev, the Soviet dictator who threatened to destroy the U.S. during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. My online response, if The Times deigns to post it (yesterday I was a New York Times "Highlight", but let's see if The Time's "moderators" today decide to "protect the quarterback"):

Do you remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? Cohen begins his op-ed by comparing Netanyahu with Khrushchev, a man who threatened to rain nuclear hell down upon the U.S.

You can oppose Israeli settlement activity (as I do), but how does one possibly compare America's former archenemy, the Soviet Union, with Israel, which votes together with the U.S. in the U.N. more often than any other country in the world?

Cohen claims that Obama is demonstrating his newly found toughness by beating up on Israel. A pity Obama can't show his gumption by discussing human rights with China, or by advocating on behalf of women in Saudi Arabia. A pity Obama cannot hold his own with Putin and protect the interests of U.S. allies Poland and the Czech Republic.

Do you remember how Obama, as a presidential candidate, promised to "recognize the Armenian Genocide"? In the face of Turkish opposition, Obama has forgotten his pledge.

Do you remember how Obama promised throughout the presidential campaign that he "would never take a military option off the table" regarding the threat of a nuclear Iran? Not only has Obama proven unable to enforce any of the deadlines that he has set for Iran, his inability to take the case of Iran's dissidents before the U.N. has ensured that Iran will indeed go nuclear.

Cohen's motivations? I can't even guess what goes on in his head. The man who spent the better part of 2009 telling us that "Iran is not totalitarian", who does not speak Farsi, who - unbeknownst to New York Times readers - conducted interviews in Iran with an Iranian government appointed translator, is again obsessing about Israel. I can't remember the last time Cohen visited Israel, and I find it peculiar that Cohen ordinarily writes op-eds about the countries he is visiting, but denies Israel this "privilege".

Bottom line: You can dislike Netanyahu and you can oppose Israeli settlements, but there is no comparing Netanyahu with Khrushchev. I am shocked that The New York Times would agree to publish this loathsome notion on Passover or any other day.

I sent Andrew Rosenthal, with whom I have corresponded in the past, an e-mail asking how The Times could publish on Passover this op-ed, which amounts to fodder for anti-Semites. Rosenthal has not replied.

Query: Will the ADL, which states on the home page of its website "This Passover you can count on ADL to defend the rights and freedoms of the Jewish people", take action?

[After complaining to various departments at The New York Times, I received an e-mail from their Web Editor stating, "I'll forward this to the editors."]