The shock of October 7 and the war launched against Jewish civilians by Palestinian terror group Hamas has worn off all too quickly among a press corps primed to see Israel as a malign force. The pivot to deceitful Israel-blaming arrived this week at the Orlando Sentinel, one of Florida’s top newspapers.
After three weeks of printing milquetoast reactions to the terrorist assault on the op-ed page, two columns full of repellent lies appeared Sunday, one by Irfan Kovankaya, “Florida politicians should call for a ceasefire in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
After accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing and apartheid” against Palestinians and “75 years of oppression under Israeli rule,” he talked of “alleged violence” by Hamas. Alleged?
This would indicate that American morality does not come from violence or even peace, but rather the actor doing it. Hamas is not in the wrong because of alleged violence against civilians, or even because they disregard international law. Hamas is in the wrong because they are attacking Israelis.
More Hamas massacre denial:
Whether it’s the false idea that the chant “from the river to the sea” is a call for genocide, unsubstantiated claims of beheading children and rape, or Gov. Ron DeSantis’s claims that all Palestinians are antisemitic, the demonization of Palestinians is in the mainstream….
Even PBS has recognized the anti-Semitic nature of the phrase "from the river to the sea." As for the "unsubstantiated claims" of atrocities, there is video taken by the terrorists themselves.
Kovankaya was described as being a former “executive board member for UF’s [University of Florida] Students for Justice in Palestine.” What didn’t make his bio was the young columnist’s already long history of fiery anti-Israel rhetoric, as documented by watchdog Canary Mission.
Directly below was “Funding military assistance is a mistake,” another column full of falsehoods hiding behind a benign headline, written by four Democrats with a Florida connection, stating as truth the dangerously inflammatory lie that Israel conducted an airstrike on a Gaza hospital. Surely it’s wrong to spread -- what’s the word -- such disinformation during wartime, even in a column?
At the heels of the horrific airstrike at Gaza’s Al Ahli Arab hospital, President Joe Biden’s request for $10 billion in weapons to Israel mimics President George W. Bush’s call for a blank check for the War on Terror….
While President Biden expressed sorrow for the Palestinian deaths, he embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and solidified his continued support for Israel’s genocide – bombings, denial of water, food, medicine and fuel – against Palestinians. These aerial assaults and blockades on Gaza undermine any efforts at diplomacy. The Al-Ahli Arab Hospital massacre resulted in an estimated 500 casualties….
Not to be outdone, the editorial page embarrassed itself in Tuesday’s edition with a pompous, amazingly wrongheaded editorial (subscription required): “Silencing anti-Israel student speech is wrong.”
For the thousands of people who thronged downtown Orlando’s streets for the Come Out With Pride event Oct. 21, the end of the triumphant Most Colorful Parade was followed with an unofficial surprise: A group bearing the banner “Queers for Palestine” and chanting pro-Palestine slogans.
The editorial didn’t bite at the ridiculous image of “queers” or any part of the LGBTQ alphabet being welcomed in Gaza, but didn’t miss its chance to take a shot at Republican governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is cracking down on pro-Palestine demonstrations on at least two Florida university campuses, would have benefited from watching that parade. He certainly seems to have forgotten what he was taught in his first-year law school class on constitutional law.
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The governor’s order to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which reportedly has chapters in at least two Florida universities, is wrong on its face. Many believe the anti-Israel students preach hate when they parrot the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But in a free society, the answer to unpopular or dangerous ideas is not censorship. Not true in DeSantis’ Florida, where the first impulse is to quash dissent.
Are the rampaging mobs on college campuses really the victims here?
