San Francisco Examiner reluctantly comes out for free speech, smears pro-Israel bus ad

It
is good, and rather surprising in today's climate, to see the San
Francisco Examiner, in an unsigned editorial, come out for Pamela Geller's
free speech rights and say that her pro-Israel ads should be allowed to run.
However, the Examiner predictably enough retails Islamic supremacist talking
points in branding the ad "offensive," "bigoted,"
"hateful" and even "repulsive." Even the title of the
editorial itself shows how unhappy and even embarrassed the Examiner’s
editorial writer is to have to be coming out in favor of these ads running: “Hateful
bus ads are free speech."

The
ad in question says: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage,
support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.” The Examiner notes
that “the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an organization so extreme it
has been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, purchased the
ads.” It is no surprise that the Examiner doesn’t bother to tell its luckless readers
that the SPLC is a Leftist organization devoted to demonizing conservative
individuals and groups by branding them as “hate groups” and lumping them in
with the likes of the Ku Klux Klan. It doesn’t specify, of course, what it
thinks is hateful about AFDI’s dedication to the defense of the freedom of speech,
the freedom of conscience, and equality of rights of all people before the law.

The
Examiner also doesn't bother to explain why it thinks the ad is ad
"offensive," "bigoted," "hateful" and even
"repulsive," but objections to the ad have revolved around two
related claims: that it calls everyone who sides with the
"Palestinians" against Israel, or every Muslim or every Arab, a
"savage," and that the people who are opposed to Israel are not
savages. The ad doesn't actually refer to all supporters of the Palestinian
jihad, or all Muslims or all Arabs, but that claim has nevertheless been widely
repeated in the mainstream media. It actually refers to the Palestinian jihadis
who glory in the murders of innocent civilians.

Take,
for example, Ahlam Tamimi, who helped murder 16 Israelis in a pizzeria. She
recently appeared on al-Aqsa TV and recounted
the joy of the "Palestinians" as radio reports on the jihad
attack increased the number of dead: "Two minutes later, they said on the
radio that the number had increased to five. I wanted to hide my smile, but I
just couldn't. Allah be praised, it was great. As the number of dead kept
increasing, the passengers were applauding."

Is
it savage to take pleasure in the mass murder of innocent civilians? Yes, it
is. And it is not actually "hateful," or "bigoted," or
"offensive" or "repulsive" to say so. Glorying in the
murders of innocent human beings is hateful, offensive, and repulsive, and
stems in this case from Islamic bigotry and Jew-hatred. But the Examiner
wouldn't dream of upsetting liberal pieties by noting that.

And
as Pamela
Geller has explained: “The
rush to assure the world that the ‘Palestinian’ jihadists are not savages
amazes me. The war on Israel is a war on innocent civilians. The targeting of
civilians is savage. The relentless 60-year campaign of terror against the
Jewish people is savage. The torture of hostage Gilad Shalit was savage. The
bloody hacking to death of the Fogel family was savage. The Munich Olympic
massacre was savage. The unspeakable torture of Ehud Goldwasser was savage. The
tens of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel (into
schools, homes, etc.) are savage. The vicious Jew-hatred behind this genocide
is savage. The endless demonization of the Jewish people in the Palestinian and
Arab media is savage. The refusal to recognize the state of Israel as a Jewish
state is savage. The list is endless.”

The
San Francisco Examiner is covering itself with shame in its moral equivocation
on this point, and its effectively running interference for these murderers and
their apologists. At very least, as supposedly evenhanded journalists, the
Examiner's editorialists could have noted that some consider the ads hateful,
and presented our side of the story. But that would have interfered with their
propaganda line.

Covering
themselves with shame also are those on the Right who are too cowardly,
pusillanimous, cowed by the Left, or self-serving to speak up in defense of
Pamela Geller, the freedom of speech, and these ads.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad
Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam
(and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His
latest book, Did Muhammad Exist?, is
now available.

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Larry S.

11 years ago

I have to admit I do not hang on every utterance of the SF Examiner- so I’m speaking largely out of my hat here. But I will hazard a guess that these same people who call AFDI’s message “hateful”, “repulsive”, etc. have no comment to make about these American imans who spew forth far more hateful, bellicose, even threatening, messages on a routine basis. If my surmise is correct, the SF Examiner is a sleazy hypocritical rag that ill-serves the cause of civilization but nicely plays into the hands of mass murderers. Pas d’ennemis a gauche?
I am on record here as being one who is not entirely comfortable with the wording of some of AFDI’s advertisements. Not that I consider them wrong- just their tone may be off-putting to many of those to whom the message is addressed (I say this as someone who has supported the ad campaign financially).
Robert is spot on with this comment.

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Waldland

11 years ago

I have to confess that I find this opinion very complete and correct. Can this be put to the Examiner with any hope of it being published? I find the prospect of a debate in print exciting, and who knows it may increase readership?

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JacksonPearson

11 years ago

San Francisco should be cut loose from America. They’ve become a national embarrassment. I’ll never spend a dime in that city again…EVER!

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