Israel’s diplomatic standing in the world has sunk so low that its government has undertaken the monumental task of salvaging its political interests through YouTube.
Earlier today, the Prime Minister’s office released a video of Benjamin Netanyahu speaking Chinese and wishing the Chinese people a blessed new year. The message is, for the most part, intensely hopeful, almost as if asking China to kindly ignore Israel’s flagrant violations of human rights, civil rights, and international law and help Israel carry on with its economic ventures.
Among Netanyahu’s closing remarks is his enthused assertion that “we [the Israelis and the Chinese] are two ancient peoples whose values and traditions have left an indelible mark on humanity”. But I’m certain any Chinese viewer will recognize that the “mark on humanity” he’s referring to is the collection of craters left throughout the Gaza Strip after Israel pounded the coastal territory for twenty-two days and nights.
Here’s my question, though. Is he planning on sending to every country but Palestine a personalized greeting? Oooooh, my feelings are so hurt.
Ohio State’s Triple Helix tags Islam as “Nazism in the Middle East” [Resolved]
Update: The Triple Helix has confirmed that the tag has been removed. The publication uses an automatic tag-generator and this tag was regrettably and accidentally overlooked. According to the Triple Helix, “we do not endorse the view implied by the tagging”. I commend the Triple Helix for remedying the mistake in a timely and respectful fashion.
Editor’s note: The author of this Triple Helix article has indicated to me that he was not behind the offensive tag (see comment below). Rather, the tag was chosen by the publication. The author has also indicated that he will be contacting the publishers to have the tag removed. The contents of this article have been edited to reflect this information.
Every once in a while, if I’m lucky (or unlucky), I happen to stumble across something so offensive that I begin to question society’s ethical standards. In fact, this happens far too often and most of my day is spent wondering why people do the things they do or why they say the things they say.
In a post dated back to July 8, 2011, the Triple Helix at Ohio State University equated the Muslim Brotherhood and Islam to Nazism based in the Middle East. Something is very wrong with this picture.
I should provide you with some background. The Triple Helix is an international student-run publication that “addresses interdisciplinary issues in modern science”. The organization boasts at least twenty-eight chapters, many of which are based in the nation’s most elite universities. Seeking new writers and editors, the chapter hosted at my university sent out an email linking to the organization’s website. Naturally, I found the “Politics” tab to the left and, hoping to find insightful articles on the intersection between global health and public policy, clicked it. The second listed article commanded my attention with its bold title: “Muslim Brotherhood: A Different Breed of Islamists”. It was written anonymously by student writers at the Triple Helix at Ohio State.
Ignoring the condescending title (which refers to Muslims as ‘breeds’), the article’s content isn’t the most disagreeable. It blasts the United States’ intentional misunderstanding and mislabeling of the Muslim Brotherhood as a fundamentalist and illegitimate political group working in conjunction with Al Qaeda. The author goes so far as to identify the Muslim Brotherhood as a strategic ally for America, a moderate religious group, one that “’lures thousands of young Muslim men into lines for elections … instead of into the lines of jihad’”.* [Read more...]