The first rule of the American media’s Middle East “reporting.”
During her recent interview with Barbara Walters, Sarah Palin said this about the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories:
“I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin told Walters. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”
In other words, if you’re a Palestinian who’s been evicted or whose home has been razed by Israeli bulldozers in violation of international law to make way for some Jewish settlers, too fucking bad for you. The population of Israel is going to grow, and after all, they’re people. Palin’s answer is very disturbing, and its rabid, pro-settler rhetoric goes beyond even the usual Israel-friendly shtick from American conservatives. But while Palin’s rhetoric is unusual in that it seems to give blanket approval to all Israeli settlements, the fact is, her answer basically reflects the actual policy of the United States government on this issue. Unsurprisingly, nobody in the American media has batted an eyelash at this statement, or even reported on it, for that matter.
When it comes to reporting Israel-Palestine issues, the American press is absolutely atrocious. Thus, it is not surprising that most Americans have no substantive understanding of the issues at hand, Sarah Palin included.
For example, a vast majority of Americans have no idea that in its assault on Gaza late last year and early this year, Israel used chemical warfare in the form of white phosphorus bombs. Officially, the conflict was called the Gaza War, but the casualty figures indicate that “war” might not be an appropriate term. The following statistics are from B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group. Their findings were consistent with other organizations such as Amnesty International.
Gaza “War” casualties
Israelis: 13 (3 civilians)
Gazans: 1,387 (773 civilians)
These numbers don’t suggest a war. They indicate a mass slaughter. In this massacre, Israeli soldiers killed almost as many Israeli soldiers (four), as their enemy did (six). The pretext for the Israeli assault was a regular culprit: Hezbollah rocket attacks into Israeli territory. The official story of the American mainstream media outlets was that these were completely unprovoked violations of a ceasefire reached between Hamas and Israel on June 19th 2008, and that Hamas bore responsibility for the subsequent exchange of fire over the next several months. But in fact it was the Israeli Defense Forces who broke the six-month truce on no less than seven occasions back between June 20th and June 26th alone, according to a United Nations report. (CNN also, in a brief moment of actual reporting, confirmed this at the time.) That report was recently condemned by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 344-36, which means that 344 representatives would rather stick their fingers in their ears than hear what an independent commission had to say on the subject. Take a look at what Republican representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who wrote the resolution, said about Israeli actions:
“Even in the fog of war, it is clear that Israel took every reasonable measure to minimize the risk of civilian casualties. It is clear that Israel had every right and duty to defend its citizens from the onslaught of rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas and other militants in Gaza.”
How far is Ros-Lehtinen’s head up her ass that she can look at the official figures and conclude that “it is clear that Israel took every reasonable measure to minimize the risk of civilian casualties”? Let’s just say I think she’s in a pretty good position to give herself a very thorough colonoscopy.
Even if Hamas had in fact violated the ceasefire, would hapless rocket attacks warrant the killing of nearly 800 Palestinian civilians to Israel’s three in response? Israel certainly has a right to defend itself, but holy shit. That’s literally overkill. Sadly, this is par for the course. In any given conflict involving Israel and the Occupied Territories, we can always count on way higher casualty figures on the Palestinian side, guaranteed. And whatever short-term security Israel was able to obtain by the destruction of several Hamas outposts and a few hundred fighters, this will surely be offset by long lasting feelings of animosity by the thousands of Palestinians who were directly affected by actions of the Israeli Defense Forces. Alas, the shit-cycle will continue well into the future.
Of course, you rarely hear anything that even approaches a condemnation of Israeli crimes in the American media. Reports on Palestinian crimes are aplenty, that’s for sure, and with good reason. But to open a newspaper or to turn on cable news for reports about the ongoing conflict, is to be incessantly reminded that the Palestinians are basically a bunch of terrorists hell-bent on destroying the Jewish state, while Israel is unfailingly portrayed as a beacon for democracy in the Middle East simply defending itself against a crazed Palestinian menace. You know, one of the good guys.
Here’s a quick trivia question for you:
Which Middle Eastern country is presently in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, rebuffs any calls for it to disclose the extent of its nuclear program, and outright refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which has been agreed to by 189 countries?
If you guessed Iran, you are wrong. The country described above is Israel.
Iran has been receiving a great deal of media attention for its fledgling nuclear program, which the country’s leadership claims is for civilian energy purposes only. This is undoubtedly a lie, but in terms of disclosure of nuclear activity, Israel’s record on this front is far worse than Iran’s. But again, you’d never know it if you get all of your foreign affairs information from the U.S. corporate media. News story after news story derides Iran for its lack of transparency about its nuclear program, questions whether it’s living up to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, etc. Of course, the concern is warranted because it would not be in the world’s best interests if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons. However, the double standard here is amazing, yet nonetheless routine. Officially, Israel’s position on its alleged nuclear weapons is one of opacity, which means that they might have nukes, and they might not. Well, everyone knows that they do in fact have a couple of hundred nuclear weapons, but the Israeli leadership is not going to acknowledge this fact. As for inspections of suspected nuclear facilities and arsenals in the country, that prospect is not discussed by anyone in the West because it is literally an impossibility. It cannot even be mentioned in the mainstream media.
So not surprisingly, when Sarah Palin or anyone says outrageous things about how Israel should keep building illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, no one in the U.S. media really gives a fuck.
“Yesterday the Jerusalem municipality razed two Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, one in Isawiyah and one in Silwan. In both cases, local residents battled security forces.” (Haaretz, 11/19/09)
Nine hundred more units are planned for the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, which is regarded as illegal by the United Nations, the European Union, basically everyone except Israel and the U.S.
Like Palin said, the population of Israel is going to grow, and it’s becoming clearer by the day that the country is looking for more and more Lebensraum for its people, Arabs be damned. Just about every presidential administration since the 1970s has expressed concern over Israel settlement expansions into Palestinian territory, but none have done a whole lot to stop it. Like his predecessors, Obama has mildly condemned the land-grabs while giving a wink and a nudge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government. Essentially, Obama has continued America’s official Israel/Palestine policy of enablement.
Change we can believe in my ass.
- Max
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