Stop Blaming the Messenger
By Ari Bussel
Ten days ago, the Los Angeles Times published an Op-Ed by an Israeli Professor from Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The article called for a boycott of Israel. It was neither on the front page nor written by a known anti-Semite, but the community is up in arms.
Suddenly, the local Jewish community in Greater Los Angeles finds the message delivered daily by the Los Angeles Times unpleasant. I say suddenly, but over the past three decades, there have been repeated calls to cancel subscriptions and withdraw advertisement dollars, to very little or no avail. The Los Angeles Times main readership remains Jewish, as are many of its advertisers.
If most readers were enemies of Israel, they would be dancing in the streets " like the Palestinians and other Arabs on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Their wholehearted support of the publication and general euphoria would have drowned out any opposing views. The uproar indicates the readership remains predominantly Jewish.
The morning of the article, I received a call from an outraged major donor to Israeli causes asking what to do. I took it in stride, suggesting the only effective way to fight is to withhold funding. It took him just a few minutes to call me back. He is a member of a very influential circle of friends whose names every person would recognize. Only one of these is a major BGU donor and half the University is named for his and his wife's contributions.
Many were outraged and an Israeli advocacy group on campus called for a demonstration against the professor who authored the piece. The local Israeli paper ran full-page interviews with both the local Israeli Consul General and the President of the University. The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles financially benefited from the Op-Ed when the American Associates of BGU bought a full-page ad. The Executive VP of the American Associates suggested he would "be happy to help [Dr. Gordon] pack if he chooses "a home that more closely identifies with [his] values and beliefs.
This was just the tip of the iceberg: today, Prof. Rivka Carmi, the President of BGU was allowed an equal platform and her main argument was, "like it or not, Gordon cannot be readily dismissed. What a field day for the Los Angeles Times. Last week at an Anti-Defamation League function, I listened to a disgruntled person who had already contacted the Op-Ed editor four times. But suddenly, I found myself in the peculiar position of defending the newspaper.
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