The Opinion Pages

Among the many depressing news items in a discouraging week was this one, as headlined in the San Jose Mercury News: -more-

My profound respect and admiration for Executive Editor Becky O’Malley for opening wide a door for so many people to speak up, write letters, discuss important controversial subjects some of which rarely are touched upon, let alone, discussed. She has shown her commitment to the First Amendment of the Constitution and its protection of freedom of speech and the press. -more-

Catching up on my summer reading, I was shocked to read an editorial by Kurosh Arianpour titled “Commentary: Zionist Crimes in Lebanon” in the Aug. 8 edition of the Berkeley Daily Planet. While people of good will can debate vigorously over the conflicts between Israel and her neighbors, there is no place for the sickening level of anti-Semitic discourse in Mr. Arianpour’s writing. The commentary in question is a classic example of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that have left a stain on the conscience of the world and sadly continue to have life today. Mr. Arianpour seeks to pin the blame of the problems of Jewish people on the Jews themselves, calling them not the “Chosen People” but the “Chosen Murderers.” The hateful and theologically and historically mistaken depictions of the Jewish people Mr. Arianpour presents is a classic expression of the most virulent, and destructive brands of anti-Semitic ideology. His claims for a far-reaching, even global, conspiracy in service of Jewish interests are direct descendents of the blueprint for modern anti-Semitism, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Despite having been conclusively identified as a forgery, The Protocols have inspired both popular and state sanctioned violence and murder against Jews in Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany. Sadly, the influence of The Protocols is found in anti-Semitic organizations and publications around the globe, from America to South Africa to Egypt, and apparently even to India, from where Mr. Arianpour hails. Although Mr. Arianpour has the right to express his views, I am deeply distressed that the editors of the Berkeley Daily Planet lacked the common sense to refuse to publish what was a patently anti-Semitic diatribe. I seriously question the decisionmaking skills of the editors and their priorities. -more-

As I live in San Francisco, I rarely read the Daily Planet, but an article in the Chronicle last week sent me scurrying to google your web page and read in the Aug. 8 issue the simplistic idiocies of Kurosh Arianpour in his diatribe against the Jews of all times and places. I wanted to be certain that they are as ill-informed, hateful, and stupid as the critics of the Daily Planet allege—they are—but no more hateful and stupid than the demands that Ms. O’Malley apologize for having published his ignorant nonsense, even as she published theirs. -more-

The more articles I read about Cody’s bookstore on Telegraph in Berkeley closing its doors, with all the usual finger-pointing at panhandlers and street artists as the culprits responsible, the more peculiar the story seems. -more-