May 14, 2014: Pedestrians wait for cabs across the street from The New York Times in New York. (AP)
After all these years, the Gray Lady still doesn’t know the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist.
An op-ed in the New York Times written by Marwan Barghouti identified him as “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian.”
Which is true, except he is also a murderer, convicted in 2004 of being involved in terror attacks that killed five Israeli civilians, including an attack on a seafood market and a car bomb blast in Jerusalem. A leader of the bloodthirsty Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Barghouti was acquitted on charges involving an additional 21 murders.
The Times’ public editor, Liz Spayd, deserves credit for using reader complaints to get a more complete author identification attached online.
But neither she nor anybody else is objecting to the idea of publishing a terrorist’s rantings in the first place. The op-ed was penned from jail, where Barghouti is leading a hunger strike over conditions, and he mouthed the usual Palestinian platitudes about Israeli occupation.
What did we expect him to say? And why should we care that a homicidal maniac isn’t happy behind bars?
The Times should save its sympathy for his victims.
Click here, to continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post.
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