War is not sexy, but neither are people hell-bent on your destruction. That dope just ain't cool.
Welcome to this week’s feature of “Really?? Seriously??” brought to you by yours truly. This week we explore the way in which news on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas is being broadcast by a few major news channels.
The following is not an epiphany.
It occurred to me this morning that the same media centers who fault Israel for not engaging in a peaceful 2-way dialogue with Hamas are not exactly innocent of presenting their audiences with an entirely objective, impartial view on the conflict and that in fact their view lends itself to continuing resentment and animosity towards Israelis, perpetuating the cycle of war. Is the news to blame for what’s going on? Most likely, not. However, their interpretation of critical events contributes to the collective consciousness of the mass public.
Case-in-point: When my sister watched the local news this past week as they broadcast Palestinians protesting war crimes, you wouldn’t know that across the street (and had the cameraman panned the camera or the clip not gotten cut in production), there were Jewish protesters also reacting to what’s going on. The same type of occurrence happened on my local news and I happen to know that there was a Jewish protest because my sister-in-law was there.
The point is is that the story that’s getting portrayed on the news is one that paints a classic good vs. evil picture of what’s going on in the Middle East. There’s no attempt at digging deeper – just a reinforcement of the superficial platitudes that seem to speak to people because as long as someone else is force-feeding them a line like, “60 Palestinians for every 1 Israeli” which everyone from my hairdresser to my husband got fed this week, then why strain our brains?
Don’t worry about this post ending on too much of a didactic note. I’m getting to the headlines that speak volumes to substantiate the concerns I’ve outlined above. I’ll let you decide after the jump if these headlines aren’t without their loaded, emotional persuasion.
More after the jump…I grabbed these headlines from a Google News search using keyword of “Israel.”
- Escalation Feared as Israel, Continuing Bombing, Lets Foreigners Leave Gaza (“NY Times,” 1/2/09) Translation: How kind of Israel to let the parents of the very children they are bombing leave Gaza.
- Israel Says World Understands Its Actions in Gaza (“AFP,” Paris, 1/4/09)
Translation: Everyone thinks you’re crazy and we hate the Jews anyways so we’re laughing ourselves all the way to McDoos where we can pick up some freedom fries. - Israeli PM: ‘Hamas Needs A Lesson’ (“Sky News,” UK, 1/4/09)
Translation: Warmongering Israelis are always out for a little blood. Oh, and btw, we’re British and we also hate the Jews. We are nation after all that spawned “The Guardian” and embrace Annie Lennox even though she’s meshuganah (and technically, Scottish) - Israeli Troops Push Deep Into Gaza (“The Guardian, UK, 1/4/09)
Translation: They’ll f*ck us all before this damn war is over! - Israeli Forces Cut Gaza Strip in Half: 500 Palestinians killed in just over a week; Hamas rockets slay 4 Israelis (“MSNBC,” 1/4/09)
- Translation: MSNBC’s statisticians need some more formal training. First it’s a half. Now it’s 500. What next? 4.5 Israelis?
For now, I guess Israel is left with the ephemeral musings of a Waltz w/Bashir. Too bad the movie and its title just perpetuates the stereotype splashed across every news headline worldwide and gives more ammunition to those calling for the obliteration of the state of Israel.
- Ilana Donna & Kabbalah - 1/20/2010
- Brittany Murphy Dead at 32 (& Her Husband is a Whack Job) - 12/20/2009
- Just Seen & Heard on FOX: A Majorly Anti-Semitic Seth MacFarlane - 11/8/2009
“I’ll let you decide after the jump if these headlines aren’t without their loaded, emotional persuasion.”
I’m confused. There’s no loaded emotional persuasion in those headlines.
Was this some kind of a joke?
Can we get this guy to post on this site? He’s Jewish, right?
Ron said,”No one is calling for the obliteration of Israel.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Read the Hamas charter.
Barry : I didn’t say Hamas must not be stopped before they launch rockets. All I’m saying is, yes the terrorists must be hiding rockets in houses where civilians live, but such storage sites should be just unscrupulously bombed before knowing the nature of the civilian situation.
Sure, no problem, the maximum possible range of Hamas’ rockets is about 45 km, so since all you have to do is have about 400 000 Israelis on a 24/7 evacuation notice.
If the exact locations of the rockets and their launching sites were as well known as you assume, don’t you think it’d be easier to, I don’t know, do something about the rockets BEFORE they’re launched (i.e. what Israel is actually doing), instead of carrying out evacuations of hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians? Just a thought.
Is it too difficult to know rocket launching sites, calculate their possible ranges and then order the possible corresponding target in Israel to be evacuated so no one gets hurt?
What is he talking about?
“Sheer asymmetry of the numbers speak for itself.”
No it doesn’t, Ron. You were doing better with the previous comment. It just speaks to the inefficiency of Hamas’ acts of mass murder – which may paradoxically make them more efficient at instilling terror within a population. But I thought we were talking about the goals of Israel’s ground invation. Pardon me for assuming you still had a point to make.
The longer-range missiles can and will be used sooner rather than later if Israel doesn’t incapacitate Hamas now as Egypt and Saudi Arabia sagely want them to do.
You may now say that Israel has to act quick because Hamas terrorists are shooting rockets in Israel. To this I will say… Israel boasts that it has one of the best military intelligence in the world. Is it too difficult to know rocket launching sites, calculate their possible ranges and then order the possible corresponding target in Israel to be evacuated so no one gets hurt? We have 500 Palestinians dead, and 4 Israelis killed. Sheer asymmetry of the numbers speak for itself.
No one is calling for the obliteration of Israel. That is the work of some stupid people. Look, you got to ask yourself – who is the underdog? Who has more to lose in this conflict? Who is poorer, has less resources, has virtually every dignifiable human rights taken from them, has homeless children wandering the streets not knowing right from wrong? When you have the answer, ask yourself if unscruplously dropping bombs on them with the story that “oh sorry, terrorists are using civilians as shields so we have no choice” is the right choice to show military might. Yes, its unfortunate terrorists are using innocents as shields, but thats the nature of the beast and you have to tailor your tactics in a suitable way, not drop bombs everywhere you see. We all have seen several documentaries broadcasted by the British media in the past, documenting in explicit detail how Israel blatantly kill innocents and then either tell us it was a ‘technical error’, or some other excuse that the innocent was a terrorist. This is a poor show. Im not a supporter of either sides of the conflict but in this case, I believe Israel is the one who has to be patient. If they want to wage war, they can, but show patience instead of obliterating buildings and homes from the sky when the casualties could be so many. Which is why I welcome this ground insertion, because I really hope the IDF can put snipers in specific locations to hunt for certain criminals instead of shooting, and maiming innocents.
As always, happy to oblige on the “epiphany” reference.
(btw, kudos for the Epiphany reference– today being the Feast thereof in the Latin liturgical calendar.)
How are headlines that cite Israel’s characterizations of its own actions, anti-Israel? Doesn’t Israel want its leaders and spokesmen quoted?
What are the headlines supposed to say? “Fighting Continues in Middle East; Best Leave It At That”? “Israel Did Some Stuff, So Did Hamas, But Not Necessarily In That Order”? “Israel Killed More Palestinians Today Than Hamas Killed Israelis, But This Has No Moral Significance, Objectively Speaking”?
I think you’re wrong that the issue is a ‘good versus evil’ mindset. Israel hasn’t gotten the role of good guy– that much is true. But I don’t think it’s cast as the bad guy, either, at least not by mainstream Western media. Now, if you reject the media’s cycle-of-violence moral equivalency– that may be ground for complaint.
Remind me what George Carlin has to do with screaming mothers in Gaza? 😉
And what do we see from Gaza? They scream about the bombing of women and children and the response?
A call for their sons to blow themselves up in Israel.
Where is George Carlin?