March 4, 2003

Publishing letters to the editor sometimes results in a magazine or newspaper publishing statements that are just not true. Honest Reporting points out that the Knight Ridder Newspaper the Mercury News did this recently. On February 23 a letter writer stated: "Made in Israel,'' he states, "this is the same model the Israeli Ministry of Defense has distributed free to every adult resident of that beleaguered country.'' That is false. The gas masks are in fact not distributed to the 20 percent of Israeli citizens who made the mistake of being born Arab Israelis. This is a very serious charge, that Israel is choosing to give its citizens proper protection based on religion. However in another of its web publications the same company had an article that stated: Gasoline pump attendant Mohammed Rifai, 28, said he was likewise not worrying, but he hadn't gotten a gas mask either. He brought his Jordanian passport to the post office Thursday but didn't realize he needed a 200-shekel down payment. "Maybe after the first of the month," when he gets his next salary from the government-owned Egged bus company. His wife, an Israeli Arab, already got masks for free, for herself and their two daughters, aged 6 months and 18 months. Meantime, she had started preparing a sealed room - like other Israelis - stockpiling it with canned tuna and bottled water, in case the Home Front Command declares a chemical or biological weapons alert in a U.S. war with Iraq. Somebody is wrong and I betting it’s the letter writer and not the person actually living in Israel. Did the Mercury News check before publishing the letter? 9:55:11 PM