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Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director
Feb. 22, 2011
Open Letter to the Editor
The press has been suspiciously quiet about the Jewish component in the heinous attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Cairo, Egypt. The NY Post, which did describe the brutal beating and sexual assault she sustained by a "mob of men," neglected to mention, until today’s report, the fact that while she was being attacked, she was called, “Jew, Jew” and accused of being a spy for Israel. The Post's Ashleigh Banfield made reference to the “violent death of Daniel Pearl,” in an article about Logan on Feb. 17, but failed to mention that one of the reasons for his beheading was that he was a Jew.
President Obama and the State Department ignored the anti-Semitic nature of the attack and simply called for the “accountability” of the “thugs” and “anyone involved in violence during the demonstrations.” In their down-playing of the horror, one would think there was a street fight of some kind and some hoodlums lost control of themselves. This is a dangerous deception.
The group that attacked Lara Logan so brutally is not some fringe group of “animals.” They reflect the rantings of the Egyptian press which has been the most virulently anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American in the Arab world. If Egypt is to be considered an American ally, and if we are to bemoan the loss of the cold peace that Israel had with Egypt, let us consider just a few quotes from the Egyptian press:
“I advise the U.S., do not forget what happened to the Marines in Lebanon, nor the bombing of the USS Cole Destroyer in Yemen.” Columnist Bahjat Ibrahim in Al Akhbar, June 1, 2001. “The issue no longer concerns the Israeli-Arab conflict. The real issue is the Arab-American conflict – Arabs must understand that the US is not ‘the American friend’ – Columnist Mahmoud Abd Al-Mun’im Murad in Al-Akhbar, August 26, 2001. “At the WTC, thousands of Jews worked in finance and the stock market, but none of them were there on the day of the incident. Out of 6,000 killed, of 65 nationalities from 60 countries, not one was a Jew!!” Dr. Gamal ‘Ali Zahran, chair of the political science faculty at Suez Canal University, in Al Ahram, October 7, 2001.
American lives are put at risk if the U.S government and media fail to tell the truth about the hatred and lies existing in the world of America’s so-called Arab “allies”. Let the facts- and the words - speak for themselves.
Helen Freedman
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