|
CounterPunch
November
14, 2002
The Mad World
of A.M. Rosenthal
by WILLIAM HUGHES
On September 14, 2001, three days after the 9/11
tragedy, A. M. Rosenthal swung virulently into action. Writing
for Morton Zuckerman's rag, the New York Daily News, he demanded
the U.S. deliver an ultimatum to at least six countries- - Afghanistan,
Libya, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Sudan- - giving them three days
to hand over documents and information relating to weapons of
mass destruction and terrorist organizations.
Rosenthal warned that "in the three
days the terrorists were considering the American ultimatum,
the residents of the countries would be urged 24 hours a day
by the U.S. to flee the capital and major cities, because they
would be bombed to the ground beginning the fourth day"
(Source, FAIR, 09/21/01). Bombing civilian populations is a war
crime, and a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. If actually
carried out, Rosenthal's proposal would have resulted in civilian
deaths totaling millions of innocent souls, and would have created
even more enemies among the survivors and in the Islamic World
at large, for America.
How can anybody that writes this kind
of warmongering nonsense be considered a journalist "with
a passion for the truth" and "a source you can trust
to give you the realities behind the news?" Well, that is
what they said about Rosenthal, when he was awarded the "Presidential
Medal of Freedom" on July 9, 2002. What dubious hogwash!
Incidentally, Zuckerman, who owns the
Daily News, is a big honcho, too, with the Conference of Presidents
of the Major American Jewish Organizations. Can you imagine anyone
at his tabloid criticizing Israel and still keeping their jobs?
I can't! Rosenthal has been hanging his hat at the Daily News,
in their Op Ed department, since he left the Executive Director
desk at the New York Times, in 1999, after putting in 55 years
at that paper.
After he left the NYT, he was praised
by his fellow Zionists for never shying "away from Jewish
topics, like the Holocaust or Israel" (Jonathan Tobin, Jewish
World Review, 12/12/99). Rosenthal, Tobin added, gave "a
clear pro-Israel point of view," when he was pontificating
at the paper. He also called him one of the "guardians of
our national conscience." Guardian of our national conscience,
my foot!
I was up in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,
over the weekend. I walked on that hallowed ground where the
magnificent General George Washington, and the remnants of his
gallant Continental Army, spent that horrific winter of 1777
(See, "The Spirit of Seventy-Six," ed. by H.S. Commager
and R.B. Morris). And when I think of someone being a "guardian
of our national conscience," the Israeli boot licking Rosenthal
doesn't come to my mind. Tom Paine was such a man in his time.
As for our present age, anyone with a conscience can't get a
job with the controlled media.
And, what is so "national"
about Rosenthal? He spent WWII, like so many other chicken hawks,
safe at home. He's a Jew, originally from Canada. His main connection
to America is that he got a darn good free public education growing
up in New York City. His first love, as indicated in so much
of his biased commentaries, is Israel! Besides, no one with a
"conscience" would ever suggest bombing six Arab countries,
if they didn't comply to demands that smack of a fascist rant.
Only the Ariel "The Butcher" Sharon types think in
those kinds of state terrorism terms.
When pundit Pat Buchanan dared to suggest,
before Gulf War I, in 1990, that there were only two groups "beating
the drums" for war against Iraq, (one being Israel and the
other its "Amen Chorus," in the U.S.), Rosenthal denounced
him as "an anti-Semite." Buchanan was right, of course,
but the truth is no defense with the Rosenthals of this world.
Recently, in his syndicated column, Rosenthal
was again lambasting Saddam Hussein as the "Serial killer
of Baghdad," and urging President George W. Bush Jr. on
to Gulf War II. He said with respect to the off year election
results, that "in state after state voters were not trembling
at the possibility of a war with Iraq" (Washington Times,
11/11/02).
If Rosenthal really has a "passion
for the truth," then maybe he can come clean with the pubic
about the disgraceful Marc Rich presidential pardon scandal;
Israel's murderous attack on the USS Liberty, that killed 34
Americans, in 1967; and, too, give us the Who, What, Why, Where
and How, of the scummy Zionist Jonathan Pollard spying-for-Israel
crime.
Like that mouthy Elie Wiesel, (Can you
believe that he won a Nobel Prize for Humanitarianism?), Rosenthal
has an egregious double standard in his moral judgments. Never
once in all of his career has he ever criticized Israel; nor,
as a journalist, or in any of his public statements, has he ever
shed one tear, even symbolically, for the massive suffering of
the Palestinian people, under the Israeli yoke. Not one single
tear! Ever!
A. M. Rosenthal's world is cold, hard
and mad. It is a world devoid of any of the values and principles
of the American Republic. He could never be our "national
conscience." And, the next time that he speaks the truth
about the Middle East, it will be for the very first time!
William Hughes
is the author of "Baltimore Iconoclast" (Writer's Showcase),
which is available online. He can be reached at liamhughes@mindspring.com.
(C) William Hughes 2002
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Totem
Thieves
Patrick Cockburn
America's
Saddam Obsession
Anthony Gancarski
Defending
MOM
Rick Giombetti
Wellstone
Assasinated?
The Onus is on the Conspiracy Theorists
Linda Heard
Horseman
Without a Horse
Debate Rages Over an Egyptian TV Series
Ben Roberts
Is It Possible to Underestimate Bush's Intelligence?
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- The Shafts of Death: Bush, Coal Mines, and Death
in the Tunnels;
- Speak Memory!: Carter and the Draft;
- Daniel Pipes' World: Smearing Pro-Arab Academics;
- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
- Iraq 1987: When the Going Was Good;
- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
Sharon's
Appendix
M. Shahid
Alam
Political Geography
Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
Michael Neumann
Demonstrating a Genteel Reticence
Rosemary &
Walter Brasch
Personal Possession:
War and Iraq, a Recollection
Ralph Nader
The Mid-term Elections
Mark J. Palmer
Bring Back the Grizzly
Robert Fisk
Bush's "Clean Shot"
Dave Marsh
And the Beat(ing) Goes On
Adam Engel
No Blood for Marijuana in Iraq
Josh Frank
Sleater-Kinney
Rocks
Our Protest Songs Are Here
Clifford Lyle Marshall
Give the Trinity Back to the Salmon
Zeynep Toufe
Turn These Children into Stone
Philip Farruggio
In Name Only
Charles Sullivan
Mountain Party Rising!
Bernard, Krieger, Alam
Poets'Basement
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|