West of Delancey: Terrorists, the new op-ed contributors

It is not an every day occurrence when one of the leaders of a terrorist organization can boast that his op-ed piece was printed in the New York Times and in the Washington Post. But that’s exactly what happened on June 20, 2007, when Ahmed Yousef, a senior leader of Hamas, penned a piece explaining Hamas’ unilateral, bloody coup in Gaza.

The Times Public Editor, Clark Hoyt, defended his newspaper’s position stating, “The point of the op-ed page is advocacy and reminding readers op-ed pages are for debate and if you get only one side, that’s not debate.” He quoted Times editors as saying that “...the takeover of Gaza was one of the most important stories of the week – it was our opportunity to hear what Hamas had to say.” 

It is difficult to accept that line of reasoning. I hardly think that if, a week after 9/11, Osama bin Laden, who took responsibility for the murder of almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, would have penned an op-ed piece that either the Times or the Post would have published it. 

There is a world of difference between quoting someone in a news story, be it Hitler or bin Laden, and giving him a byline and conferring legitimacy upon him in the nation’s most respected newspapers.  If the criteria is simply because it was an important story then, I assume, that if the mass murderer at Virginia Tech left behind a diatribe explaining his actions, it also would have been worthy of a byline.

The facts are that Hamas has been responsible for the worst kind of mass murder and maiming deliberately directed against thousands of unsuspecting, innocent civilians – men, women and children - on busses, in shopping malls and in restaurants.  To confer upon their leaders an aura of respectability is obscene and irresponsible. 

Let us not forget that, like Hamas, Hitler also sought election through the democratic process.  But, once he took power, he made it clear that, just like Hamas, his god was the bullet, not the ballot.

Newspapers have every right to inform their readers about what’s happening in the world, including statements by dictators and despots. But what they don’t have the right to do is to allow people like Dr. Joseph Mengele, who experimented on victims at Auschwitz, to write an editorial about his experiences there, even if it could be argued that he had something important to say.

The best way to lower the standards of journalism is to have terrorists as fellow contributors.

For more information on this issue, go to www.wiesenthal.com