Judith Miller is a great and courageous journalist. In the current circumstances, when she is clearly a target for terrorist attack, her candor is truly remarkable. Here’s her terrific interchange with Dana Suyyagh from the al Jazeera cable network on Larry King last night:
“MILLER: Do you call a people who blow themselves up on the West
Bank and in Gaza and in Israel martyrs, because that’s another thing we
have heard about your network?
SUYYAGH: Yes, we do. We do. Only since…
MILLER: And do you think that’s objective or…
SUYYAGH: Yes.
MILLER: And do you think that’s objective reporting? Did you call the
people who blew the Twin Towers up martyrs?
SUYYAGH: No. We never called them martyrs. That is an act of terror.
We go with international opinion on that one, yes.
MILLER: I see…
SUYYAGH: The West Bank is a different issue altogether.
MILLER: So terrorists who kill people, civilians in Israel, are martyrs, and terrorists who kill Americans are terrorists? Is that your news standard?
SUYYAGH: I’m sorry I didn’t hear the last sentence.
MILLER: I said is that your news standard — to distinguish between the
people who kill Americans and people who kill Israelis — one are martyrs
and the other is terrorists?
SUYYAGH: No. We have a standing policy that people who are martyrs
are people who give themselves for a cause.
What happened in New York and Washington, we believe, was causeless.”
The reason I bring this up is because it truly does reflect a hatred of Israel and of Jews in general that is so embedded in the region that we almost don’t notice it. Killing Americans is wrong. Killing Israelis is an act of martyrdom. And this is a moderate voice! Yes, some Arabs and Muslims may object to some Israeli policies in the West Bank. That may give them a cause. But the murder of innocent civilians is not martyrdom, even if the killer dies in the process. It’s mass murder outside of any moral rules of conventional war. If it isn’t terrorism, nothing is. But Larry King will happily give time and space to an individual who celebrates the difference on American cable television. Good for Miller for penetrating through this moral fog.
The Dish 