By Barry Rubin
Here is a small sign of the insanity let loose on the world. NRC Handelsblad is Holland's most prestigious newspaper. On the frontpage of its March 17 edition it carries an article that claims the "Israel lobby" is threatening to defeat President Barack Obama's health plan because of his tensions with Israel. The old "Jews control everything" libel. Of course, the very passionate battle over the health bill has nothing to do with the Middle East. And what is the source of this article? A posting by a single left-wing blogger with no special source of information. Supposedly, good judgment and knowledge block the descent of the responsible mass media to nonsense, conspiracy-mongering, and slander. But when--as was shown in the Swedish case and every day in the British media--Israel or the Jews are involved, responsibility, even sanity, all too often vanishes.
There are scores, hundreds, of such incidents around the world daily, the great majority of which we never even hear about.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His new edited books include Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict and Crisis; Guide to Islamist Movements; Conflict and Insurgency in the Middle East; and The Muslim Brotherhood. To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books. To see or subscribe to his blog, Rubin Reports.
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