THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: Breitbart Buried the Lead Home

Breitbart Buried the Lead

Home - by BigFurHat - July 13, 2012 - 15:40 America/New_York - 3 Comments

I was heartened to see a Breitbart story that called out the anti-Israel group, Committee For Peace in Israel and Palestine, for producing a demonstrably false ad that is appearing on the walls and billboards of the NYC Metro System. But that emotion lasted only a moment, because Breitbart, as well as most of the leading trafficked right-leaning blogs and news sites, continues to miss the real story.

While NYC METRO gladly approves these false ads, they continually harass, harangue and block The American Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America from running any counter ads.

William Bigelow of Breitbart writes -

Although the Jewish community has protested the ads, the MTA will not remove them — even though they are factually inaccurate.

Don’t stop there Mr. Bigelow. Please tell the full story. This ad, and various iterations (after many tweaks and changes decreed by NYC METRO) was turned down for being inflammatory.

Here is the statement of Henry Clifford, talking about his own anti-Israel ad that was approved by NYC METRO -

“If the facts are inflammatory, then they are inflammatory.”

The story here is not that METRO ran an anti-Israel ad. It’s that the government is operating on an un-level playing field and picking and choosing ads based on, what appears to be, their own political leanings.

PLEASE REPOST THIS STORY ON YOUR OWN BLOGS AND THEN TWEET IT

More from the great American Oriana Fallaci - Pamela Geller:

ANOTHER ANTI-ISRAEL AD CAMPAIGN HITS NY TRAIN STATIONS, BUT NYC COURT FAILS TO RULE ON PRO-ISRAEL AD REJECTION

Another anti-Israel ad, demeaning to the Jewish state, demeaning to the Jewish people, is running in NY transit stations. This is second anti-Israel campaign to hit the NY transit system.

Back in 2011, AFDI/SIOA submitted pro-Israel ads to run on New York's subway platform to counter an anti-Israel ad campaign that was running in NYC's subway stations. They were summarily rejected. Our pro-Israel ad was the only ad ever rejected by the NYC Transit authority in the past 15 years.

We filed a lawsuit back in September of 2011. On April 3rd, we went to court to fight for our first amendment rights. Judge Paul Engelmayer still has not issued his ruling. But the anti-Israel ads go up without interference.

I have contacted CBS Outdoor to run our pro-Israel ads on Metro-North. I have not heard back as of yet.

Ad Campaign Showing Dwindling Palestinian Territory Deemed ‘Anti-Israel’ By Jewish Leaders

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A seemingly endless debate over politics, religion and territory is coming to a train station near you

An explosive ad about Israel is now igniting a firestorm of controversy.

The display shows shrinking Palestinian territory in Israel over the years and refers to 4.7 million Palestinians there as refugees.

The ads are appearing in 50 Metro-North stations.

At the train station in White Plains, the politically-charged ad was raising eyebrows.

“That’s quite amazing if you ask me,” one man told CBS 2′s Scott Rapoport.

Some Jewish leaders said they were concerned.

“I think the ad is very offensive, it’s certainly offensive to Jews,” said Dovid Efune, the the editor of the Jewish newspaper “The Algemeiner.”

Efune said the ad is anti-Semitic.
“It paints Jews as aggressors, as imperialists, as people that are stealing or taking land from others,” Efune said.

Henry Clifford, the chairman of a group called the Committee for Peace in Israel and Palestine, spent $25,000 of his own money on the ads.

“The Palestinian people have lost most of their homeland and the map shows exactly what is happened to them,” Clifford said.

When asked what he hopes to get out of the ad campaign, Clifford responded by saying he wants to “educate people.”

“Simply to open their eyes and let them see what has happened on the map,” he said.

The advertisements have caught the eye of commuters in White Plains as well.

“I thought it was all settled back in the 1970s with the 6 Day War,” one man responded.

“My reaction is why is there an anti-Israel ad sitting here at the train station?” asked Cliff Argintar, of Hoboken, N.J.

Efune is calling for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to take the ads down. However, the MTA said it doesn’t restrict ads on the basis of viewpoint and while it doesn’t endorse the ad, the posters will remain up.