Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea is troubled by the anti-Semitism he sees in online talkbacks and comments on U.S. newspapers’ Web sites:
Two weeks ago, Henry Kissinger published an article in the Washington Post about America and Iran…
It wasn’t the article that was of interest, but rather, the talkbacks that the newspaper’s website posted below the item. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such an overabundance of Jew hatred. The respondents, all of them using nicknames, charged the Jewish people with conspiring to entangle the United States in a military operation in Iran in order to make profits and promote the State of Israel’s dark interests.
The Jews control the American administration, lamented the respondents in one talkback after another. They control Congress and the media. The Jews are America’s real enemy.
There were always anti-Semites in America. The surprise is that this anti-Semitic garbage is being published by one of the world’s most respected newspapers. The second surprise is that it didn’t prompt much reaction.
The Jewish community in the US has a powerful and effective organization tasked with fighting any anti-Semitic display. It’s called the Anti-Defamation League. The League’s National Director, Abe Foxman, was in Israel last week. I told him about the talkbacks I read and he shook his head sadly. The League employs seven people in monitoring anti-Semitic statements on the Internet. Yet they can’t handle the onslaught.
Note to Mr. Barnea: Comments sections of Web sites are always driven by the most extreme readers — those angry or passionate enough to take the trouble to post their comments. It’s the nature of the beast.
