The Daily Signal - ’No Jews, No News’? Victor Davis Hanson Debunks Van Jones’ CNN Comments

Starting point is 00:00:00 We've seen since October 7th of 2003 a new overt anti-Semitism, a new candor about prejudice against those of the Jewish faith. Israel in particular. Recently, the CNN host and commentary Van Jones said something I found quite astounding. He was asked about the news and he said that we are ignoring a genocide in Nigeria. That's a legitimate criticism to make over 120,000 Nigerians have been slaughtered. by Islamic terrorism, but he says that's not being covered because they're not Jewish. In fact, he coined a phrase, I found quite disturbing. No Jews, no news. Mr. Jones, let me correct you. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. We've seen since October 7th of

Starting point is 00:01:00 2003, a new overt anti-Semitism, a new candor about prejudice against those of the Jewish faith, and Israel in particular. Recently, the CNN host and commentary Van Jones said something I found quite astounding. He was asked about the news, and he said that we are ignoring a many genocide or maybe a regular genocide in Nigeria. and that is because we have emphasis on other areas. And I mean, that's a legitimate criticism to make over 120,000 Nigerians have been slaughtered by Islamic terrorism. But he says that's not being covered because they're not Jewish. In fact, he coined a phrase, I found quite disturbing.

Starting point is 00:01:51 No Jews, no news. Mr. Jones, let me correct you. There are a lot of wars around the world that we're not covering. 130,000 Armenians were just ethnically cleansed last two years from Abrabejong in disputed territory, but they had been there for hundreds of years. No one covered it. In the second and third Chechnyan wars, Russia went in to Chechnya, and they leveled the city of Grozni. They wiped it out.

Starting point is 00:02:27 No one really knew anything about it. It was not covered. As I am speaking, India and Pakistan exchange missiles with each other. They're both nuclear powers. Nobody's talked about it. It was prompted by a mass terrorist attack against India. So there's all sorts of conflicts all over the world that are not being reported on besides the Nigerian genocide. Second, the Middle East is a special place.

Starting point is 00:02:58 It is the nexus, the historical nexus of three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is the home for the three major religions of the world, or at least three of the most important, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It has been a historical cauldron of great empires, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic. kingdoms, the Roman Empire, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the British Empire. This is a crossroads where power and war intersect. We almost had a nuclear confrontation in 1973 between the Soviet Union and the United States during the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. So there are a lot of reasons why we privilege the Middle East news, especially the worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon or Middle East terrorism. Where have ISIS been from? Where did al-Qaeda come from? Where did

Starting point is 00:04:05 Hezbollah come from? Where did Hamas come from? Where did the Palestinian liberation organization? Where do they all come from? They came from the Middle East. Every time there is any development in the Middle East, Europe is terrified because of their large 10 to 15%, 16% Islamic populations that are not assimilated fully or integrated. And they're afraid, if anybody sneezes in the Middle East, then they get a major terrorist attack. So, Mr. Jones, the Middle East is a special place not because of Jews alone. And that's not why we cover the Middle East in a way we don't Africa or we don't check. or we don't the Indian-Pakistan border.

Starting point is 00:04:54 It is true that constituencies in the United States can influence the emphasis on events abroad. We don't talk about the Turkish invasion and illegal occupation of Cyprus in a way that we should because the Greek lobby has been assimilated, integrated, and intermarried, and it does not have the clout that it used to. We are talking about the Middle East more about Gaza than we are October 7th, and that is because the population from people from the Middle East in the United States has soared. And we have hundreds of thousands of students from the Middle East, illiberal regimes that are either Arab or Islamic or both. And they put a high premium on coverage of that area. If we want to give the Nigerian genocide its proper emphasis, and I think we should, then we need to inform black America as a natural constituency and say, why don't you lobby and influence the left and the mainstream media to cover this disaster?

Starting point is 00:06:06 The only time we've covered major problems in Africa were during the apartheid regime when it was white on black violence. Now that there's more black on white violence in South Africa, and it's one of the most dangerous places in the world in the post-Mundela era, we don't talk about it. But why don't we talk about Nigeria and why doesn't the black community get energized in a way that you would like them to? I don't know. I think there's something to the fact that it doesn't have a sensationalism. For example, there are 12,000 black Americans tragically killed every year. We don't talk about them. But we do talk about Trayvon Martin and George Floyd and Michael Brown because it was white on black.

Starting point is 00:06:55 And that creates a new sensationalism that we don't, I guess we, in our callousness, we don't talk about on a Saturday night in Chicago when 20 people are killed. There's another final thing to remember Mr. Jones. The people who are killing innocent Nigerian Christians, perhaps 130 over the last 15 years, are black Islamic terrorists, terrorist, Boko Haram. And in the hierarchy of DEI, the left does not criticize groups that they feel are on the oppressed or victimized side of this Marxist binary. So in their way of thinking, you do not criticize black Islamists, even when they kill black Christians, to the same degree you would if they were other Christians or they were white settler colonials, as the left calls them. So getting back to the original problem, it's not no Jews, no news. It's the fact that the Middle East is a special place historically, currently.

Starting point is 00:08:07 it's full of global dangers, whether the Suez Canal, the Straits of Hormuz, the Bosphorus, it's a unique place. And the reason that we do not talk about the Nigerian Holocaust is not the color of someone's skin. We learned that from Chechnya, as I pointed out, and we've learned that from India and Pakistan. We've learned that from the current violence with Kosovo and Serbia. it's because it does not have the same geostrategic resonance that the Middle East does. If we want to, what, reboot interest in that terrible catastrophe, then let's get the African-American community energized as other ethnic communities like the Arab Islamic community who puts such emphasis on Gaza. Let's do this with Africa. And let's not care about who the people are who are killing innocent.

Starting point is 00:09:02 black Christians in the sense that we give them a pass. They are black Islamic terrorists, and they're not part of any non-white coalition. They're horrific people and they're doing horrific things. And it's past time the United States should draw all of our attention to these poor victims in Africa that are being slaughtered by a radical religious creed. Thank you very much, Victor Davis Hansen, for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - ’No Jews, No News’? Victor Davis Hanson Debunks Van Jones’ CNN Comments

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