The Guardian Left, and “respectable” hate

Adam Levick
CiF Watch
06 March '11

In late January, during the height of the “Palestine Papers”, the Guardian went through their inbox of letter submissions and decided to publish one by Ted Honderich which morally sanctioned acts of terrorism by Palestinians against innocent Israeli men, women, and children.

Thus, the Guardian’s vast audience (over 30 million unique visitors per month) was implicitly informed – by their decision to post that particular brief polemic over the countless others which were submitted – that such acts of murder could, at the very least, reasonably be justified from a respectable liberal perspective.

The key words here are “respectable” and “liberal”, as the Guardian represents, in the view of the UK opinion elite and those who are influenced by, and abide by, such judgments, the gatekeepers of the liberal left journalistic establishment and, therefore, what their editors chose to publish (and not to publish) carries an enormous amount of influence and ideological weight.

This is the context by which today’s letter published in the Guardian (which Akus adeptly replied to earlier) by W. Williamson must be viewed.

Williamson – in responding to Nick Cohen’s essay “Our absurd obsession with Israel is laid bare” – posited the following:

[Israel] denies human rights and democratic choices in Gaza

To even have to fisk this charge gives it more credibility than it deserves, but since the Guardian deemed it worthy of such credibility, it must be noted how utterly fantastical such a sentence actually is. It evidently really does need reminding that Hamas is the governing authority in Gaza, that they are the power which denies Palestinians within their territory basic human rights, that they brutally expelled the only real opposition (Fatah) in a coup in 2007, and they – not Israel – has made the decision not to hold elections since.

(Read full "The Guardian Left, and “respectable” hate")

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