Proposed bus ads respond to 'Israeli war crimes' ad

Amid a furor over an upcoming Metro bus ad alleging "Israeli war crimes," two groups said Tuesday they intend to run their own ads that portray Israel as a victim of terrorism.

Conservative writer David Horowitz said his Los Angeles-based David Horowitz Freedom Center has submitted an ad to Metro Transit that shows a burning Israeli bus next to the words "Palestinian war crimes — your tax dollars at work."

The ad is a response to Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign's ad criticizing Israel with a similar format that is scheduled to go up as early as Monday on the sides of 12 Metro buses.

"The issue here is very simple. If they want to run their ads we're going to run ours," Horowitz said in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

Horowitz said his group's ad has been submitted to Metro's ad agency and Metro staff for review. He has asked to put the message on 25 buses.

Also announcing its intention Tuesday to place an ad on Seattle buses was Stop Islamization of America, a group that fought a proposal to locate an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York, the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

According to a news release, that group's proposed ad reads, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Islamic Jihad."

Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke said several offices of Metro's national ad agency have been approached about possible ads to counter the "Israeli war crimes" ad, but none has yet been accepted.

She said she wasn't familiar with the two proposed ads.

Metro received 2,000 e-mail messages commenting on the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign ad through Tuesday, most of them from outside King County and most objecting to the ad, Thielke said.

Metro officials and aides to King County Executive Dow Constantine are scheduled to meet Wednesday with representatives of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and possibly other Jewish organizations to discuss those groups' concerns about the "Israeli war crimes" ad.

"What we're going to see, if we can't find some way of getting this ad withdrawn, is a battle of increasingly aggressive political ads that point fingers at each other and do nothing to create peace," said Rob Jacobs, Northwest regional director of StandWithUs. "It's going to antagonize and divide the Seattle community and it's destructive."

Jacobs said he also intended to ask Horowitz to withdraw his proposed ad — an idea Horowitz rejected. "I don't ask permission of other organizations. It's a free country," he said.

Ed Mast, spokesman for the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, questioned whether the competing ads are consistent with Metro guidelines.

"I think that we followed the rules," he said. "We have been scrupulous in following the rules and avoiding hate speech and not showing photos of violence and carnage in action, in having things approved, in telling the unspoken side of the truth."

Of Stop Islamization of America's reference to "the civilized man and the savage," Mast said, "If that's not hate speech then I'm living in the wrong planet."

Thielke said Metro was advised by lawyers it couldn't refuse to accept the "Israeli war crimes" ad under current agency guidelines, which Constantine has asked Metro to review.

Under those guidelines, Metro will not accept bus ads "so insulting, degrading or offensive as to be reasonably foreseeable that it will incite or produce imminent lawless action ... ."

Christine Lange, spokeswoman for Constantine, said the potentially dueling ads reinforce the executive's concern that relatively inexpensive ad buys by political groups give them lots of publicity while costing Metro more money than it takes in. "It all is a distraction from the mission of delivering bus service. That's why we're reviewing our policy," she said.

Horowitz said the "Israeli war crimes" ad was "regrettable. ... You can't make peace with people who chant, 'Death to Israel,' or say there can't be a Jewish state. It's the only Jewish state in the world. There are plenty of Arab states."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com