Where is the right slant on the news?

SANDOR SHUCH

Several items in the July 9 issue of the Jewish News seem out of touch with the reality of what is happening to Israel and the dangers facing the Jewish people.

As a privately owned newspaper, Jewish News can support any political candidates it chooses and obviously has chosen to support the Democratic ticket - and so the headline "Observers laud Edwards choice."

The article names a few Jewish people who claim John Edwards is a good choice and interested in the Middle East. It also points out that he would send a high-level official to move the Palestinians and Israelis to peace.

Whom would he send? Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton? Would he reinstate Yasser Arafat as a major statesman? Does he realize that negotiations with the Palestinians have failed because the Palestinians seek the destruction of Israel?

The truth is we don't know anything about what Edwards would do and on whom he would rely for advice.

Another article, "Israeli winemakers thirst for French market," deals with the desire of Israeli wineries to sell their products to the French. Are these the same French whose leader called Israel a "shitty little country" and where Jews cannot walk the streets wearing kippot?

Next is Vicki Cabot's column "In pursuit of justice," telling us that Israel pursues justice and its soul remains intact because the Israeli Supreme Court has altered the path of the fence protecting the Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers. Why didn't she write about the failure of the rest of the world to pursue justice for Israelis and Jews?

Why didn't she discuss the dreadful decision by the World Court ordering Israel to dismantle the fence, despite - or maybe because - it is a highly effective weapon against terror? Why didn't she discuss how little the rest of the world cares about Jewish Israeli lives despite Israel's high moral standards?

Then there is "Jerusalem of old," a piece by Joseph Aaron of the Chicago Jewish News expressing disappoint-ment that Israelis have turned out to be like other people and don't all follow the moral imperatives he wishes they would.

Further, in "Crisis in Sudan," Ruth Messinger writes about the responsi-bility of the Jews to address the current crisis in the Sudan. Why didn't she point out that Sudan's democratic government was overthrown by militant Islam in combination with the Sudanese military and that the genocide being committed against black Sudanese Christians is part of the same Jihad that calls for destruction of the Jewish people, the West and Israel? Why didn't she point that the World Court and the United Nations are too busy bashing Israel to fulfill their responsibility to take on Muslim genocide?

Finally, you published a story about the hardships that the protective fence is causing the Palestinians ("Palestinians rue hardships from fence"). Where are the articles about the death, destruction, dismay and hardship that the terror causes Israelis and/or about the countries that have erected fences and walls to protect against unwanted immigra-tion in contrast to the Israeli fence built to protect against those who murderer and maim its people?

The editors either have a national political agenda that ignores the harsh realities we face as Jews, or just zoned out for the week.

Sandor Shuch is a lawyer and Jewish News reader who resides in Phoenix.

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