Think again about journalists on the far left..?

Pilar Rahola

Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist and member of the far left.

Now, personally and normally, I don't have too much in common with either the politically far left or the far right, but if you read the article Pilar has published, below, you too may find a lot in common with her views on Israel, the Arab world, media reporting and especially the position of the political left who were once (not that long ago) close allies and friends on Israel.

Andy

Background

She comes from a republican and anti-fascist family, and several of her relatives have been politicians or writers. She is married and has three children, two of them adopted: one from Barcelona, the other from Siberia.

She studied Spanish and Catalonian Philology at the Universitat de Barcelona and has published several books in Spanish and Catalan, and is a columnist at La Vanguardia in Spain; La Nación in Argentina; and Diario de América in the United States. She appears frequently on television and has taken part in several university lectures.

This is what she writes...

• Why don't we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, and Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?
• Why aren't there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?
• Why aren't there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs?
• Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?
• Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?
• Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?
• Why don't they defend Israel’s right to exist?
• Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defence of Palestinian terrorism?
• And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism, and the left doesn't care.

And then, to the concept of freedom. In every pro Palestinian European forum, I hear the left yelling with fervour: "We want freedom for the people!"

Not true.

They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria, or Yemen, or Iran, or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hamas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.

The international press does major damage when reporting on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. On this topic they don't inform, they propagandize.

When reporting about Israel, the majority of journalists forget the reporter code of ethics. And so, any Israeli act of self-defence becomes a massacre, and any confrontation, genocide. So many stupid things have been written about Israel, that there aren't any accusations left to level against her.

At the same time, this press never discusses Syrian and Iranian interference in propagating violence against Israel; the indoctrination of children and the corruption of the Palestinians. And when reporting about victims, every Palestinian casualty is reported as tragedy and every Israeli victim is camouflaged, hidden or reported about with disdain.

And let me add on the topic of the Spanish left. Many are the examples that illustrate the anti-Americanism and anti-Israeli sentiments that define the Spanish left. For example, one of the leftist parties in Spain has just expelled one of its members for creating a pro-Israel website. I quote from the expulsion document: "Our friends are the people of Iran, Libya and Venezuela, oppressed by imperialism, and not a Nazi state like Israel.”

In another example, the socialist mayor of Campozuelos changed Shoah Day, commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, with Palestinian Nabka Day, which mourns the establishment of the State of Israel, thus showing contempt for the six million European Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

Or in my native city of Barcelona, the city council decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, by having a week of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Thus, they invited Leila Khaled, a noted terrorist from the 70's and current leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization so described by the European Union, which promotes the use of bombs against Israel.

This politically correct way of thinking has even polluted the speeches of president Zapatero. His foreign policy falls within the lunatic left, and on issues of the Middle East, he is unequivocally pro Arab. I can assure you that in private, Zapatero places on Israel the blame for the conflict in the Middle East, and the policies of foreign minister Moratinos reflect this. The fact that Zapatero chose to wear a kafiah in the midst of the Lebanon conflict is no coincidence; it is a symbol.

Spain has suffered the worst terrorist attack in Europe and it is in the crosshairs of every Islamic terrorist organization. As I wrote before, they kill us with cell phones hooked to satellites connected to the Middle Ages.

And yet the Spanish left is the most anti Israeli in the world.

And then it says it is anti Israeli because of solidarity. This is the madness I want to denounce in this conference. 

Conclusion:

I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist.

Why am I not anti-Israeli like my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles.

Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty, I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.