February 18, 2009, - 2:02 pm
Dubai Tennis Judenrein Update: WSJ Dumps Sponsorship, Most Others Don’t; Williams Sisters Participate in Anti-Semitism; TIME Mag Blames Israel, Israeli Elections’ “Extremism”
By Debbie Schlussel
The good thing about the current, sudden, selective outrage over Dubai’s anti-Semitic visa policy–because it barred player Shahar Pe’er from playing in the Dubai Tennis Classic–is that we learn who stands for what.
The Wall Street Journal dumped its sponsorship of the tournament. But, as I’ve repeatedly noted, this isn’t the first time Pe’er was excluded from the country for the annual Dubai tourney, nor is it a new concept that Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates boycott Israel and Jewish Israelis. Where was the Wall Street Journal all of those other years? Why, it was promoting Dubai as a travel and vacation destination, even recommending to readers that they participate in marathons there.
Glad the Journal finally “discovered America” and the real Dubai. Congrats for that. But what took so long? Still there are many other companies that won’t do a thing and continue to sponsor this Judenrein Tennis Tournament:
The Journal Europe also plans to pull a special tennis-themed advertising section scheduled for Monday and is withdrawing its sponsorship of a related men’s tennis tournament beginning next week in Dubai.
The newspaper — which like the U.S. Journal is published by News Corp. — is among more than a dozen sponsors of the annual Dubai event, which started Sunday, including Barclays PLC, Rolex, Sony Ericsson and Washington Post Co.’s Newsweek.
Sony Ericsson, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Sweden’s Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, said it stood by the women’s tennis organizing body, the WTA Tour, of which it is the title sponsor. The WTA Tour said it is “deeply disappointed” in the decision and warned that it may not continue to hold the tournament in Dubai. Newsweek declined to comment, and Rolex didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Barclays, the Dubai tournament’s title sponsor, said the bank’s sponsorship deal “does not allow us to interfere with any actions or decisions that have to do with the tournament itself, or the players, or the regulations of the host country.” . . .
The Tennis Channel, which owns the U.S. broadcast rights to the tournament, said it won’t televise the event.
Then, there are the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Can you imagine if a country hosting a tennis tournment wouldn’t grant visas to Black players? Can you imagine if the country would grant visas to a select few Black players for the purpose of a tennis tournament, but wouldn’t allow any other Blacks into the country?
The tournament would have been canceled long ago. And no players–including the Williams sisters–would be playing.
But, instead, the Women’s Tennis Association, allowed the tournament to go on, and Venus and Serena Williams both played and advanced. This is nothing new since tennis players continue to play in these Gulf state tournaments year in and year out, regardless of the host countries’ Judenrein policies.
Remember 1988–when the U.N. put tennis pro Boris Becker on a list of boycotted athletes because he once played in South Africa and despite the fact the said he’d never play there again?
No such anger and outrage when it’s the Jews. To paraphrase Martin Niemoller:
First, they boycotted the Jewish Israelis. But I wasn’t a Jewish Israeli Tennis Player.
And finally, there’s the media coverage. Do you wonder why SLIME, er . . . TIME Magazine is almost outta biz? I don’t. It’s not just the internet. It’s that people are tired of the same stale, old left-wing and anti-Israel garbage. That’s what TIME (and Newsweek–a sponsor of the Dubai tournament) are.
TIME’s “coverage” of the Dubai-Shahar Peer matter should be labeled “commentary.” It blames this decades old Arab state boycott of Israel–which has been in place and enforced since Israel became an officially-recognized country in 1948–on Israelis choosing “right wing extremists” in the recent Israeli elections and the brief Gaza War. TIME calls it:
Really? Name the war in which Israel attacked Dubai . . . or any of the Gulf states. For which action–which “tat”–is Dubai responding? Funny, I don’t recall the Six-Minute War when Israel handily defeated surrounding armies of fat sheikhs and their inbred Emirati families from the nations of the U.A.E.
And I never heard of the Rosh HaShanah War in which Israel dropped grass-killing compounds on the golf courses and cacti of Dubai. I didn’t even know they allowed hijackers to use Israeli banks and fake Israeli IDs so they could fly planes into the Burj Al-Arab Hotel skyscraper to murder 3,000 Dubaians and other Emiratis. Oh, wait–I’m sorry. That was Dubai which helped hijackers fly planes into American buildings. I suppose Israel committed that “tat,” too, for which it deserves this–pardon the double entendre (TIME’s word choice, not mine)–“tit.”
Reality check: Again, the Arab boycott of Israel has existed as long as the modern State of Israel has. It wasn’t a tit in response to a tat. It was Jew-hatred and Judenrein. Period.
Then, there’s TIME’s claim about Israeli elections being the “cause”–and therefore, in TIME’s HAMAS-green eyes–the legitimation of this Jew-boycott from a tennis tourney.
With Israeli politics shifting to the right since the Gaza incursion, the Jewish state may find itself even more isolated within the region. One sign of how badly the peace process has gone off track is the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the far-right party Yisrael Beiteinu (“Israel is Our Home”) who has called for Israeli Arabs to take loyalty oaths or have their citizenship revoked.
And in a country where its Muslim population routinely blows up teen Jewish boys in Bible study, Jews at restaurants, etc., this is a “bad idea” because . . .? Jews can’t even get into Dubai, but Israel is the “extremist” for asking its Muslim citizens to promise to stop the killings? Hello . . .? Have we all forgotten that just a year ago a boy’s yeshiva was attacked by an Israeli Arab worker who shot and killed 10 kids and seriously wounded several others?
If politicians like Lieberman start gaining a larger platform for their extremist views, Israeli passports may become even more radioactive.
Ah. Israel, which has democratic elections–unlike any U.A.E. country, all of which are run by dictatorial royalty which lives most of the time in Switzerland–is the “extremist.” Israel, which allows Arabs–Arab Muslims–to be citizens with full voting rights is the “extremist.” Not the Emirates, none of which (including Dubai) allow any foreigners to ever become citizens and/or vote, and which has a huge population of mostly Muslim slave labor from other countries. And that’s not to mention the Muslim boys from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh the country traffics in sex slaves.
As for Avigdor Lieberman, he ran in a free election and came in third (they’re upset about who came in third?) on legitimate Israeli security concerns of a growing enemy of mass murderers within. In Dubai, they don’t have free elections. Yet they have the real extremists (unlike Lieberman) who rule by dictatorial fiat and would instantly beat to death and/or behead anyone who threatened their population.
That’s in addition to the Holocaust-denying, 9/11 truther speakers that Dubai has been sending around the world and whose books its been publishing. And the fact that Dubai recognized the Taliban even through December 2001, while it blew off FBI 9/11 investigators looking into the help Dubai gave the terrorists.
Yeah, let’s not focus on that piddly stuff about Dubai and attack Israel for its election choices, as an excuse to practice Hitler-esque anti-Semitism.
It’s okay, though. Bad habits are tough to break. And TIME Magazine, which is hemorrhaging readers, has been anti-Israel from time immemorial. If it’s broke, don’t fix it. That’s their attitude. And it’s why in five years or less, it will probably only exist as an also-ran website.
And by the way, TIME’s distorter, er . . . “reporter” is Andrew Lee Butters, who is stationed in Beirut. Yeah, I’m sure he’s real objective.
Time Magazine under the stewardship of the Luce family, has been anti Israel since at least 1953 and probably even before that – and as you wrote, Newsweek is not much better (Life Magazine was also pretty awful on Israel). I last looked at Time in 1996 and do not miss it at all. Ever notice by the way that they never refer to Hamas as right wing which it really is (killing adulterers, homosexuals, and imposing a theocratic state)?
“Hello . . .?” What’s with the Valley Girl talk?
Ripper on February 18, 2009 at 3:29 pm