Колумнист критикует Джеффа Роббинса за двойные стандарты в освещении конфликта на Ближнем Востоке

To the editor: Jeff Robbins is a good writer, but whenever I read his column, I'm waiting for him to veer off into his usual pro-Israel, anti-Arab zealotry. I usually don't have to wait long. His recent column started out describing the disgraceful treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci by Senate Republicans. ("Americans embrace the politics of decapitation," Eagle, Aug. 3.) So far, so good. But then Robbins manages to pivot to an attack on a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. The connection between the two? I don't know, but I'm sure Robbins can come up with something. No surprise, however, about the attack on the candidate, Abdul El-Sayed. That's because El-Sayed is a harsh critic of Israel, especially its brutal, over-the-top response to the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas. Robbins is apparently flabbergasted that people all around the world blame reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble and killing thousands of women and children on the people who actually dropped the bombs, rather than Hamas. Imagine that. Although Robbins isn't capable of criticizing Israel, a recent column by a Jewish, Zionist, pro-Israel columnist in The New York Times bluntly called out the violent West Bank settlers as terrorists. ("Jewish terrorism is also a threat to Zionism," Eagle, July 30.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses them as a few stray "juvenile delinquents." No big deal if they violently attack farmers who have been there for generations in an effort to drive them from their land. Don't expect a column from Robbins on a topic like that anytime soon. A great many writers, including many extremely influential and thoughtful Jews, have grappled with the Palestinian quagmire for decades. Those writers recognize that to portray that conflict in such simplistic black-and-white terms, as people like Robbins (as well as many Arabs) do, is not only useless, it's morally bankrupt. Arne Waldstein, Housatonic