NEW YORK (CNN) — A Muslim man jumped to the aid of three Jewish subway riders after they were attacked by a group of young people who objected to one of the Jews saying “Happy Hanukkah,” a spokeswoman for the three said Wednesday.

 Friday’s altercation on the Q train began when somebody yelled out “Merry Christmas,” to which rider Walter Adler responded, “Happy Hanukkah,” said Toba Hellerstein.

“Almost immediately, you see the look in this guy’s face like I’ve called his mother something,” Adler told CNN affiliate WABC.

Two women who were with a group of 10 rowdy people then began to verbally assault Adler’s companions with anti-Semitic language, Hellerstein said.

One member of the group allegedly yelled, “Oh, Hanukkah. That’s the day that the Jews killed Jesus,” she said.

When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she said.

Another passenger, Hassan Askari — a Muslim student from Bangladesh — came to Adler’s aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him, Hellerstein said.

“A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn’t do anything,” Adler said. Watch Adler describe the altercation »

Adler pulled the emergency brake and the train stopped at DeKalb Avenue station, where police came on board.

The 10 suspects, ages 19 to 20, were taken into custody, said Brooklyn district attorney spokesman Sandy Silverstein.

Askari was first handcuffed alongside them, but he was released when Adler told police he was not an attacker, Hellerstein said.

Alder was treated at Long Island College Hospital for injuries that included a fractured nose and a cut lip that required several stitches, while Askari suffered a black eye, Hellerstein said.

The suspects are to appear in Brooklyn District Court on February 7 on charges that include assault, attempted assault, menacing, harassment, unlawful assembly, riot and disorderly conduct, Silverstein said.

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, and will determine whether the suspects will be charged with hate crimes, Officer Philip Hauser told CNN.

The Honor of Being Human: Why Do You Support?

I offer here the first of several essays that will focus on general questions connecting to a number of earlier articles, as well as to certain upcoming pieces. The initial issue that requires further clarification is one I am addressing in considerable detail: the question of obedience.

Obedience is a central theme in my continuing “Final Descent” series. In part because of my own thinking about this issue, and in part because of some unusually perceptive and provocative emails I have received, I offer the following descriptive definition of what I mean by “obedience.” It may seem to certain readers that I offer this informal definition rather late in the game, since I have been analyzing many issues related to obedience for several years. But in this, I follow a common pattern: it is only after we consider a generally understood phenomenon in many different manifestations that we can begin to isolate the critical underlying features. Even now, I am not entirely satisfied with this description, but it will suffice for the moment. I will undoubtedly have occasion to revisit this description and to refine it, as my own understanding increases.

I describe “obedience” in the following manner for a variety of complicated reasons, which reasons alone would require several lengthy essays to explain. Most importantly for my immediate purposes, I wanted this description to encompass at least three fundamentally different kinds of relationships, but to isolate the dynamics of obedience that are common to all of them. Those three relationships are: parent to child; one adult to another adult; and the adult to the state. Here is the description I’ve come up with:

Obedience is the term used to describe the demand by a person in a superior position (superior psychologically, legally and/or in terms of the power he possesses in some other form) that a person in an inferior position conduct himself in a particular manner. The essence of obedience is the demand without more: a reason may be provided, but a reason is unnecessary. Moreover, the reason may be unconvincing or incoherent, and it may contradict other reasons provided for other demands. Most importantly, the reason need not be one that the person in the inferior position agrees with. Informed, voluntary agreement occurs when a person is presented with a reason(s) to act in a certain manner; he understands and is ultimately convinced of the validity of the reason(s), and therefore acts in the manner suggested.Obedience is the opposite of voluntary, uncoerced agreement: the understanding and agreement of the person in the inferior position are not required, and are often not sought at all. The person in the inferior position may profoundly disagree with the reason(s) offered for the demand, if any. When the person in the inferior position obeys, he does so because of his certain knowledge that if he does not, he will be punished in some form: psychologically, legally, socially, or in some other way. Thus, the primary (although not the sole) motivation that ensures obedience is negative in nature: it is not the promise of a reward (even though certain rewards may be offered), but the assurance that he will not suffer consequences that are painful in varying degrees, i.e., that he will not be punished.

I have discussed the centrality of obedience to the way in which almost all children are raised in my numerous essays based on Alice Miller’s work, as well as in the “Final Descent” series, and also in one of my articles about the high school students who protested the Iraq occupation, “When Awareness Is a Crime, and Other Lessons from Morton West.”

It must be appreciated that the child is in a unique position, one that is uniquely defenseless and dependent. As I often note, the child literally depends on his primary caregiver(s) for everything, including life itself. Because of this dependency inherent in the child’s status (especially that of a very young one), the child has no choice but to obey: if he does not, he fears the withdrawal of the caregiver’s affection and protection, which might ultimately mean the loss of the child’s life. Although the child may not understand this in explicit terms, he feels the certainty of this knowledge very deeply. I will soon be examining in more detail the frequently tragic and destructive results of these factors which place the child at grave risk of abuse, which can be psychological and/or physical in nature.

Palast on PBS’ NOW
‘The Fix is in’ for 2008

Catch Greg Palast on PBS’ top current affairs program.

WATCH THE REPORT HERE

‘NOW’ furthers the story Palast first busted open for Britain’s BBC Newsnight, the scheme to attack voters of color – the ‘Blue’ ones.

For Bill Moyers’ capable successor, David Brancaccio, Palast lays out the latest evidence never before televised.

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FROM R E U T E R S  

By Carl DiOrio

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Hollywood studios have suggested all along that striking writers will be sadly surprised when they discover the high cost of their six-week-old strike.

Now they’re actually helping them calculate that cost.

A Web site operated by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), the bargaining arm of the studios, now boasts a running tally — updated by the second — of income lost by guild members since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) launched its first strike in almost two decades.

By early Wednesday, that tally was running at almost $104 million, according to the site (www.amptp.org)

The Web site flourish was added one day after a spoof of AMPTP.org showed up as AMPTP.com, complete with phony company news releases and executive profiles.

Meanwhile, over on the labor side of the negotiating impasse, picketing continued on both coasts Tuesday.

Sign-bearing strikers walked lines at the usual studio and network locations throughout Los Angeles. And in New York, more than 200 striking writers and others rallied at the West 66th Street site of ABC daytime productions “The View” and “All My Children.”

WGA East reps handed out leaflets to members of the public standing in an audience line for “The View,” whose host Whoopi Goldberg sent out hot chocolate for the striking writers. Among those joining the scribes’ picket line were “Desperate Housewives” actress Dana Delany, and writer-director Nora Ephron.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter