The use of politically correct speech has been used to change minds, but never geography. At least that used to be the case until HarperCollins came along with a new atlas specifically developed for schools in the Middle East.
The publishing giant has been selling the atlas for months now, with the goal of providing students “in-depth coverage of the region and its issues.” The goals of this new atlas include: helping kids understand the “relationship between the social and physical environment, the region’s challenges (and) its socio-economic development.”
Sounds noble, until you notice their decision to wipe Israel off the map. They included Syria. They included Jordan. They included Gaza. They even included the West Bank, which for those of you in Rio Linda—shameless Rush Limbaugh reference—is occupied by Palestinians and is a part of Israel.
How did this happen? Blame politically-correct anti-Semitism intended to appease Muslims and Islamic nations in the region. Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins that specializes in maps, said essentially those very words. In their response to inquiries about the omission, they said that it would have been “unacceptable” to include Israel in atlases intended for the Middle East. They CHOSE to delete Israel to satisfy “local preferences.”
They didn’t leave it out because they thought it was geographically incorrect. They left it out because it was politically-incorrect. They chose to publish a map with obvious errors in order to avoid offending Islamic nations who have declared their intention to literally do to Israel what HarperCollins symbolically did to Israel in their atlas… wipe them off the map.
A British bishop named Declan Lang, who chaired a committee that first highlighted the omission, stated the obvious when he said:
The publication of this atlas will confirm Israel’s belief that there exists hostility toward their country from parts of the Arab world.”
HarperCollins expressed their “regrets” for the omission of the name of Israel from the atlas. And they have been “removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped.” They went on to offer their “sincere” apologies for the omission and “for any offense it caused.”
Talk about pathetic.
Islam is on the rise in the United Kingdom, where Collins Bartholomew is headquartered, and as a result anti-Semitism is out-of-control. It’s on the rise in America too! Under Obama and Kerry, America has made hating Israel and loving Islam official U.S. policy, supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood over Israel’s right to defend herself.
Taken as a whole, this recent episode of political correctness is just another symptom of the despicable disease called anti-Semitism… and we had better find a cure before it’s too late.
