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The New York Times and Birthright

(Algemeiner) Jerold Auerbach - A New York Times front-page story by reporter Farah Stockman about Risa Nagel, who abandoned her Birthright tour in Israel in protest, highlighted (yet again) the imagined deficiencies of the Jewish state. Birthright has brought nearly 700,000 young Jews (including my daughter) to Israel. Among the reasons cited for skepticism regarding Birthright's impartiality is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "routinely addresses Birthright events" and even "urges participants to support Israel" once they return home. Stockman writes that Nagel visited Hebron, "a populous West Bank city divided between [200,000] Palestinians and a few hundred Israeli settlers" who "occupy" (i.e., inhabit) a tiny neighborhood under heavy military protection. She does not indicate why it is tiny - because for decades the Israeli government has prevented attempts to expand the community beyond its current limit of 600 Jewish residents. The nearby towering Herodian structure of the Cave of Machpelah, burial site of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people, eludes her notice. Nagel was offended to see the Star of David painted on the walls of shops once owned by Arabs on streets that for security reasons Palestinians may not use. There is no mention of Palestinian Hebron, a commercial hub of the West Bank inhabited by 200,000 residents with access to shopping malls and high-rise apartment buildings. No Jews may enter. Nor does she reveal why there is "heavy military protection" - it is against repeated acts of murderous Palestinian violence against Hebron Jews dating back to 1929 when the centuries-old Jewish community was destroyed. The writer is the author of Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, 1896-2016.
2019-06-14 00:00:00
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