The dangers of the double standard - Rahm Emanuel

The comments of soon to be White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s father are being lightly (and surprisingly) mildly reported in the press today. Benjamin Emanuel when discussing his son’s appointment with the Israeli Press said ..”Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.” Imagine if this has occurred in the opposite persuasion. Suppose an Arab father of a potential White House Chief of Staff had said ‘ ..he will influence the President to be Pro-Palestine. What is he a Jew?”  In the latter case, the press would be crucifying Rahm Emanuel. It would be difficult to believe they would allow his appointment. This is the double standard of debate in the West when it comes to Israel and the Arab world.

The last sentence of Emanuel’ Senior’s quote “..he’s not going to clean the floors of the White House,” is in essence just a purely racial slur. Had Benjamin Emanuel made such a statement in relation to an African-American, the country would have been outraged. However, the fact that he made it in relation to an Arab instead, seems to make it less offensive. We saw how the main stream media treated Obama’s associationwith the radical, William Ayers. Sarah Palin used the infamous quote about Obama ‘…palling around with terrorists.’ However, no such smear has been applied to Benjamin Emanuel. Let us just review a snippet of Emanuel Senior’s history as recorded today in a Time Magazine blog. Benjamin Emanuel worked in the 1940’s with Irgun, the militant Zionist group that committed acts against Palestinian and British targets that have been widely categorized as terrorism. (In 1938, according to the scholar Avi Shlaim, members of the group attempted to ambush an Arab bus, an attack that failed when a grenade did not detonate. In 1946, members of the group bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.) Where is the outrage on this? Where are the accusations of character assassination by association? Why is Emanuel Senior less of a terrorist than others who have used violence for political statement. The press, again. remains silence.

Rahm Emanuel is not his father and has apologized for his father’s remarks. The judgement should not be made against Rahm Emanuel, but his father should be accused.  Benjamin Emanuel has made racist remarks and the fact that they are anti-Arab as opposed to anti-Jewish or anti-Black, does not and should not diminish the offensiveness of them. The mainstream media also needs to be accused. They are applying a convenient double standard of reporting. The blogosphere is increasingly becoming the home of balanced reporting, and that is because it is filling a void that the press will not. Benjamin Emanuel could be accused of a crime of inciting racial hatred, and at the minimum the press should be hounding the story. The use of a double standard is a dangerous first step in validating such racial dialog. The press needs to fulfill its charter or it becomes irrelevant to a thinking society.

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