Anti-Israel pieces in the Berkeley Daily Planet are legion, while pro-Israel pieces are few. 

Becky O’Malley used to claim that, being a free speech absolutist, she publishes everything she receives.  The lack of pro-Israel pieces merely reflected the fact that she received very few.  This was a flatly false statement at the time she was making it, since we have seen quite a number of pro-Israel pieces, which were sent to O’Malley but which she declined to publish.

Then she changed her story.  She called some pro-Israel pieces “Islamophobic,” and she refused to run them for that reason.  She also claimed that pro-Israel articles would “bore” her readers, and this then became her reason to limit their publication.  Apparently, anti-Israel articles and letters do no bore her readers. When she does publish pro-Israel letters, she has been known to edit their most important sections out.  All of this is thoroughly documented elsewhere on this website.

Finally, in the October 15, 2009 issue O’Malley has published a pro-Israel letter, and even given it prominence as a Commentary.   Here are a couple of passages so that you can see what we mean:

If Fouda tells us they are freedom fighters, come on. Ask him to visit doctor-psychiatrist ASAP. Why Fouda is not saying a word about who and why used women and kids as human shield which is real reason for them to be killed?

Arabs don’t want piece, they don’t need state, actually they have it—it’s Jordan. “Palestinian nation” is creation of the Soviet KGB, nothing more. There were no such nation.

A little research revealed that the author, Janna Sundeyeva, is a recent immigrant from Russia living in San Francisco.   English is a recent second language, and it can be said, at least, that she writes it better than we can write Russian.  That’s her excuse, and it is a very reasonable one. 

But what is Becky O’Malley’s excuse for publishing it unedited, while rejecting many articulate pro-Israel pieces?