Poster Wars

Two ad campaigns, one in New York City and the other in Portland, Oregon, are causing quite a controversy these days.

The first was created by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the brainchild of Pamela Geller, best known for her blog “Atlas Shrugs.” What the group did was to purchase 30 days’ worth of billboard space in the New York City subway system for a poster that reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad."

Though this would bring in $36,000 in revenue, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not want to agree to the deal, due to what it called the “demeaning language” of the poster. But Geller filed a federal lawsuit citing freedom of speech, and won. So up went the poster, and out came police reinforcements in the MTA. After all, it appears, everyone took the text to be offensive to Muslims — and nobody feels safe when Muslims are mad.

Immediately, Jews began to express outrage along with and on behalf of those Muslims. Articles featuring a photo of a young woman in a headscarf standing next to the poster began to circulate on the Web, making it appear as though the text was explicitly directed at innocent Muslims.

According to the photo caption: “Javerea Khan ... called this advertisement and others like it ‘a slap in the face to all Muslims.’” But in fact the poster doesn’t mention Islam at all. It is an indictment of the “savage” practice of holy war against the Jews. Why, I would like to ask Ms. Khan, is that a “slap in the face to all Muslims"? Is she asserting that all Muslims are jihadists? And if so, why is it that whenever non-Muslims dare to make such a suggestion, they are accused of racism? Shouldn’t she and all the other “millions of moderate Muslims” out there be joining the likes of Geller in the campaign against genocide?

Meanwhile, across the country, Portland’s TriMet buses and trains are now decorated with a poster of three maps, depicting Israel as having been a land thief since its declaration as a state. Next to the maps, there is text that reads: "4.7 million Palestinians are classified by the U.N. as refugees."

This campaign, also scheduled to run for an entire month, was paid for by three pro-Palestinian groups, among them the Jewish Voice for Peace.

As in the MTA case, TriMet did not want to allow the ads, but was given no legal choice in the matter. In 2008, a judicial ruling stipulated that TriMet, as a government agency, must accept all paid advertising. Though TriMet says it is appealing the decision, the posters have been up and running since Sunday.

It will be no surprise to anyone that only a handful of Jewish activists have been complaining about the content of the Portland ads. Not a single Muslim voice has been heard protesting the “offensive” nature of those particular posters. Nor has TriMet considered it necessary to beef up security on or around its trains and buses. This is because it is fully aware that the most violent response from angry Jews and Christians to bald-faced lies about Israel’s establishment and subsequent behavior in relation to the Palestinians will be expressed by the pen, not the sword.