PrintJanuary 9, 2007
Strange NYT preview of PBS documentary on anti-Semitism
Does anyone else have have a problem with this paragraph found in Alessandra Stanley's story?
The film does not mention that Mr. Lewis is one of the leading scholars that Vice President Dick Cheney consulted to formulate the administration's rationale for toppling Saddam Hussein. The documentary makes very little mention of the American occupation of Iraq - which is odd, given how often the Arab media paint the war as a sinister conspiracy cooked up by Israel and its supporters in Washington.
Is it my imagination but does this seem incongruous and rather jarring? Stanley seems to make the case for anti-Semites. Bernard Lewis helped lead America's decision-makers into toppling Saddam Hussein and he is Jewish; ipso facto America invaded Iraq at the behest of American Jews in order to protect Israel.
Or was this just a weird gratuitous attack? While faulting the producers for not pointing out that Lewis was one of the experts Cheney consulted, she does not mention that he is also a renowned worldwide expert that even Islamists respect.
