By David J. Seidemann, Esq.
Wednesday evening, Oct 28, presented a bit of a dilemma for me. My beloved New York Mets were playing on Fox, and the Republican debate was airing on CNBC. In the old days, before the remote was invented, I would have had to make a choice and just stick with it. Constantly getting up to change the channel by manually turning the dial would have broken the dial and my back. But with the advent of the remote, I was able to feed both of my desires. I caught the lowlights of the Royals drubbing the Mets, and the highlights of the candidates, specifically Ted Cruz, exposing the infantile behavior of the moderators at CNBC.
Seriously, would anyone watch the World Series if the outcome was a foregone conclusion? Would anyone consider it a fair match if the umpires called balls strikes and strikes balls? Would anyone trust the integrity of the game if the managers did not put their best lineup out on the field? Baseball is supposed to be about the players, not the umpires; a debate should be about the candidates, not the moderators. Biased? Of course. But that we knew before the debate started. The real tragedy was that the candidates were not afforded the opportunity to discuss issues of vital concern to our country and instead were forced to wade through a cesspool of journalistic waste.
No one on the right expected it to be different, but the degree to which the moderators shamed themselves was the news of the night. Business cannot continue as usual, and when the media covering the political process or other issues near and dear to us obfuscate, fail to report, or outright misreport, they must be held accountable. Whether CNBC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, the BCC, or the New York Times, we must register our immediate outrage by phone calls, e-mails, letters to the editor, and the like. As a community we must cancel our subscriptions to those newspapers that are blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel, and we must tell them exactly why we are canceling. The same holds true for news outlets that equate victims of terror with terrorists. The next time one of their reporters speaks about proportionate responses, remind them that a terrorist with a knife versus an 80-year-old woman with a pocket book is disproportionate. It seems to me that a much fairer fight is a soldier with a gun versus a knife-wielding man.
The next time some lunatic from the left speaks about the occupation and the occupying force remind them that Arabs can live in Israel proper, but if a Palestinian state is ever established, no Israeli will be able to live there, let alone vote in parliamentary elections or be permitted to run for a seat in their governmental body.
The next time some liberal shouts about the cruelty of the IDF or the Israeli police, and the innocent Palestinians suffering at their hands, you can refer them to the pictures from today of the Israeli policeman bandaging the head of a six-year-old Arab boy who was hit in the head by a rock thrown at Jews by other Arabs. Contrast that with the parades and celebrations, complete with the distribution of sweets as the Palestinians celebrate the stabbing and killing of Jews.
The next time the apologists complain that the Israeli government is not transparent, remind them that Netanyahu agreed immediately to place 24-hour surveillance on the Temple Mount. Israel wants it; Jordan wants it. Who doesn’t want it? Abbas and the Palestinians. Why? Because it would then be clear that Israel is not guilty of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount and that Israelis are not stoking the flames of controversy. The myth will be exposed—the emperor will be without clothes once again.
Why doesn’t Abbas want cameras and responsible journalism on the Temple Mount? Because the truth of what they are smuggling in—weapons—and of what they are destroying—vestiges of Jewish life—will be exposed. Moderators lie. For cameras, it’s a bit more difficult.
The truth will ultimately prevail, but we need to ask ourselves if we are doing enough to expose the fraudsters. Too many of us are just too busy to get involved and set the record straight. But we have no choice. The stakes are too high.
As of this writing, the news reported that Willis Carto, the famed publisher and Holocaust denier, has passed away at the ripe old age of 89. In addition to his anti-Semitic rants, Carto had organized conferences centered around denying that the gas chambers ever existed. In 1978, he offered $50,000 to anyone who could prove that the gas chambers in fact existed. Mel Mermelstein, a Californian, who survived Aushwitz, sent Carto pictures, testimonials, and a canister of Zyklon-B gas used in the gas chambers. Carto persisted in his denials.
Members of the media and press, foreign leaders, and, yes, some who occupy positions of power here in the U.S., are just as blind. We owe it to our brethren in Israel who are under constant attack to help set the record straight. This is one debate, one game, that we cannot afford to sit out.
David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann and Mermelstein and serves as a professor of business law at Touro College. He can be reached at 718-692-1013 or ds@lawofficesm.com.