The Islamic University in Gaza is destroyed. Few media question this.
The Israeli PR offensive leading up to its calculated assault on the Gaza Strip is paying dividends. The Israeli publicity machine has effectively framed this murderous spree against Palestinians and Hamas in Gaza as a reasoned, defensive measure. Even though it has killed 350 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, and injured one thousand more, Israel is being presented in media as a normal, morally-acting state.
The “shock and awe” tactics that many Americans supposedly grew to regret in Iraq — and then opposed in Israel’s 2006 bombardment of Lebanon — is being deployed again. And all we hear about in the media are about rockets.
Such atrocities in the name of self-defense inspired “humanitarian” intervention against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic by the West. Yet in Israel’s case, it receives diplomatic support and accolades even as it destroys the Strip’s infrastructure, universities, and families’ abilities to provide for themselves (following a crushing embargo during the so-called truce). Western leaders and media turn a blind eye to Israel’s historic crimes, the decades of occupation and the Palestinian refugee population — all in the name of rockets.
The reason given for this blood-letting in Gaza is singular: the rockets Palestinians fire at towns surrounding Gaza. As if such desperate and primitive weaponry comes even close to inflicting one-half of one percent the devastation Palestinians suffered during Israel’s foundation — the total annihilation of 500 Palestinian villages and forced dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians.
This history we hear nothing of.
A Google News search indicates that more than 26,000 articles mentioned “Hamas rockets.” These rockets, the obsession of Israeli talking points — have killed at most 22 people EVER. The far more deadly Israeli missiles and bombs and F16′s elicited 10,000, 11,000, 2000 mentions respectively. They have caused hundreds of Palestinian deaths in the past few days but receive far less attention.
It is too bad that the refugees of Gaza, those who suffer disproportionately, do not have their own PR personnel and echo chambers in the public spheres of western states. All they do is die and live in squalor while the elite of the West wax endlessly about rockets and Hamas, phenomenon tangential to the historic reality of Israel’s theft of Palestine and ongoing oppression of those its founders displaced.
Still, Israel is not committing genocide. They do not seek to eradicate a people as some on the left claim. Israel is more sophisticated, it seeks to eliminate an idea — the notion that a Palestinian people can be anything other than the former residents of the land Israel now possesses. Palestinians can only have no rights and live only as the marginal people Zionism conceives — a people made into a diaspora so that a Jewish state can exist with the proper ethno-religious demographics.
Gaza and the blood flowing in the streets is a reminder of the essential supremacy of the Zionist political vision in the holy land. The only Palestinians — and indeed Arabs — fit to rule are those who can guarantee the security of this vision, regardless of the rights and aspirations of the people they are to represent.
As their superficial and highly framed coverage has shown, mainstream media are part and parcel of this ideological project. The issues central to this conflict are really simple to understand once you get past the smoke and mirrors of PR, talking points, and propaganda. Hamas may be a despicable organization and the rockets it sense desperate and inhumane political ploys, but they pale in comparison to the real issues. And media are missing the story.
[Tarboush tip: QQ]
Related posts:
- The Myth of Israel’s “Targeted” Killing
- Paying Down a Crisis in Gaza
- Media Bulldoze Bulldozer Attack Story, Ignore Gaza’s Water Catastrophe
- Gaza in the News Today
- The Real Existential Threat
Thanks for writing this Will.
Posted by Yasser | December 29, 2008, 9:01 pmHands down one of the best posts I’ve read so far.
Right on the money
Posted by Karim | December 29, 2008, 9:33 pmGood post – I sent it along to the PBS Newshour, whose story tonight did the typical major media dumb-down.
Posted by alfannaan | December 29, 2008, 9:38 pmI think the media is inherently sadistic. It creates people who laugh at suffering and are desensitized to reality, including violent reality. It mimics reality therefore the viewer or watcher “lives” an event without the bodily experience or personal engagement. Therefore, one cannot empathize with other human beings. I think Capitalism distills all human empathy and replaces it with this isolation a.k.a. “freedom.” It is not freedom to do what you want, but “freedom” to conform to the group ideology of Capitalism or be ousted from a life of prosperity.
Have you read the recent LATimes article entitled “How Jewish Is Hollywood?” No one really cares how Jewish it is, but to flaunt it pridefully is an unapologetic part of the problem: the Jewish people will never cease to think of themselves as the underdogs even when they have it all– including a majority influence over the lives of Arab Americans as a minority group in the U.S. I think they’ll never cease to be thuggish in order to protect Judaism, too, despite the fact that no one in America really cares who the heck they are. They always have to remind people of who they are. Whatever. The owner of the LATIMES is a Zionist himself.
The phrase, “an eye for an eye” should be rephrased in the case of Gaza to really say “an eye for a leg and a tooth for an arm.”
Posted by Anonymous | December 29, 2008, 9:39 pmHow the mainstream news is treating this issue is providing the perfect real-time case study on why there will be no peace. And on why we are complicit.
And you will also see why so many of us have had all that we’re going to take.
ENOUGH.
If you haven’t already watched it, right now is the time see “Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land”. It is a documentary, available for free on Google, about precisely this. Here is the link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=-6604775898578139565
After that, turn on CNN again. Turn on MSNBC, and turn on Fox News. Read the New York Times. Read the Huffington Post.
And you’ll see why holocausts are allowed to happen. You’ll see how scores of people are murdered in droves while the world stands by and does nothing.
Posted by QuiQui | December 29, 2008, 9:57 pmshukran ya qui qui – I had somehow missed that film. why are we not surprised the Israelis had this targeted pr campaign? and it is always a pleasure to listen to the elegant Hanan Ashrawi.
Posted by alfannaan | December 29, 2008, 11:33 pm“the Jewish people will never cease to think of themselves as the underdogs even when they have it all”
but even more it’s considering themselves ‘chosen’ that I think a bit of a problem, an underlying premise of self-importance and entitlement that is just fine in one’s religious beliefs but has no place in international law.
Posted by alfannaan | December 29, 2008, 11:44 pmI think Capitalism distills all human empathy and replaces it with this isolation a.k.a. “freedom.” It is not freedom to do what you want, but “freedom” to conform to the group ideology of Capitalism or be ousted from a life of prosperity.
those who cannot legitimately help themselves, would be helped by charity
Posted by Mo | December 30, 2008, 12:11 amTHis is stage setting and preparation for 3rd world war, be aware of this. This is deliberate killings of muslims to up rise them against western agression and create a situation where east and west will go in to 3rd world war. These Zionist murderers have done so in WW1 and WW2 i.e wars for profit. They want to create wars and destroy the entire world so they can be exhausted and finally kneel to them and they will burry them under debts to make them their slaves.
I have one request to US people, STAND AGAINST IT.
Understand them.
They are taking your TAX MONEY and using it against you.
You are getting bankcrupts and they are bailing out on YOUR TAX MONEY
What does an american make out of these wars? A foreclosed home, burrying under more credit card debts, getting out of JOBS?
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS. This is time to wake up, or its too late.
ONLY PEOPLE IN US CAN HELP THE WORLD
Posted by Anonymous | December 30, 2008, 1:33 amthank you for this blog, I think that its every Hume beings obligation to support the people in Gaza and there cause, I think that we all must make a new phenomenon in an effort to overlay the Israeli terrorist propaganda against the innocent Palestinian people, we should all protest on line, to raise awareness and to carry the message of Gaza people.. That Palestinian must be freed and the war and the siege on Gaza must stop .
Posted by mirage | December 30, 2008, 1:33 amYou are so funny.
The media biased against Israel? The media shows part of the truth. Your opinion has nothing to do with the truth, therefore you are upset.
The media in America is fine, but the European and world media only shows the suffering of the Palestinians. You can call it massacres and atrocities, but in fact it is war, and there is no war without casualties. No country faced Israel’s challenge’s and killed less people.
You think that the fact that the Palestinian rockets killed “only” 22 people means Israel’s attack is wrong, but the issue is not the death count. The issue is that the rockets paralyze southern Israel, and therefore action against them must take place. If Hamas don’t want the war, they are welcome to stop firing their rockets.
Posted by avvv | December 30, 2008, 2:34 amYou’re missing the “why”. The USA is a fundementally religious country that fears the Apocalypse, which will begin when Israel falls. Our religious elite turn a blind eye to the murders as if to stop the return of Jesus Christ. The “why” is that easy, and that completely ludicrous.
Posted by JasonUSA | December 30, 2008, 2:59 amI think what we’re seeing at present is a ‘statement’, aimed directly at Obama – a demand that resolution of the issue is at the centre of his new Presidency.
Inde-Politics
Posted by anthonynorth | December 30, 2008, 3:07 amHey, quick question. What exactly do you expect Israel to do when they’re being shot at everyday for the last months. Sderot, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat are being attacked daily, are they supposed to just sit and take it?
Posted by Nir | December 30, 2008, 3:28 amAlthough I do believe Israel could and should be more cautious in their efforts to eliminate the source (Hamas) causing missiles to be launched into Israeli cities, at the same time, at some point one has to realize its either going to be us or them. What I mean is, if Israeli forces did not counter act, it would be their innocent civilians being murdered. Unfortunately, since both sides are killing, nobody is right and nobody is wrong. And as far as media coverage is concerned,its a battle between the country of Israel and a terrorist organization, of course Israel is going to be able to have resources necessary for receiving more media coverage.
Posted by Adam | December 30, 2008, 4:15 amThe conspiracy theorizing here is really precious.
Posted by Roy | December 30, 2008, 8:23 amAs if such desperate and primitive weaponry comes even close to inflicting one-half of one percent the devastation Palestinians suffered during Israel’s foundation
What does this mean, Will? What policy does it suggest?
And what is the intent by those who fire rockets?
Do you recognize that it’s a war crime? Do you recognize that it’s deadly conduct? Do you recognize that it’s terrorism? Or is it all cool, because you hate Israel?
Posted by Roy | December 30, 2008, 8:52 amRoy, as has been stated a million times.
The rockets are a response to the illegal blockade that Israel has imposed on the strip. A blockade so intense that bread was virtually absent from the strip a few days before the air strikes began.
They are also a response to the countless air strikes an incursions into the strip.
Posted by Super Sayyin | December 30, 2008, 10:54 amThe rockets are a response to the illegal blockade that Israel has imposed on the strip.
They are not a valid response. They are not aimed at anyone responsible for enforcing the blockade. Also they are not being sent into Egypt, which is also blockading. So your explanation doesn’t pass the smell test.
They are also a response to the countless air strikes an incursions into the strip.
Just so we’re clear: you believe it is justified to attack anybody you feel like, as long as you have a grievance?
How can any attack be unjustified, then? I can rape your mother if the cops bust me for speeding.
Posted by Roy | December 30, 2008, 11:12 amHow can any attack be unjustified, then? I can rape your mother if the cops bust me for speeding.
Israel rapes Gaza for electing Hamas, so to use Ziothink, it is okay to rape someone’s mother over a speeding ticket, or whatever else you wish to use as an excuse for barbaric behavior. Even better, if the mother refuses to recognize the right of the rapist to rape her.
Posted by Sean | December 30, 2008, 12:16 pmThat’s not “Ziothink”, Sean, that’s “Super Sayyinthink”.
Do you believe the rocket attacks are legitimate?
Posted by Roy | December 30, 2008, 12:38 pmI think you are being charitable when you say that the media in the US is “biased” towards Israel. That implies the media’s uncritical rehashing of Israeli propaganda is the result of some prejudice on the part of reporters, misinformation, or the human tendency to pick sides in a conflict. It is none of these things.
The US media has gone beyond mere “bias” and it actively complicit in promoting and covering up Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. They are as culpable and involved as Goebbal’s ministry of propaganda, or the psychopaths who got on the radio in Rwanda to tell people to go out and kill the Tutsis. They are far, far more sophisticated and slick than that, but at the end of the day, the message they are conveying is the same.
Don’t imagine for a second that there is a reporter anywhere who isn’t aware that it was Israel, and not Hamas, that first violated the ceasefire with an armed incursion with tanks and infantry in which they killed and wounded a number of Palestinians. Yet they report the opposite and claim Israel’s disproportionate attacks against civilian infrastructure are in self-defense.
Don’t imagine that they are not aware of the illegal and immoral siege Israel has laid on the people of Gaza, or the severe suffering and anger it has engendered. Or that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and construction of settlements are illegal and that Israel’s brutal conduct against the Palestinians has been condemned as war crimes by human rights organizations. They are aware of all these things, but continue with the standard, boilerplate, “Israel has a right to defend itself” bullshit to justify aggression and barbarism that is little different in quality from what the Nazis did, whatever the difference in quantity.
Ultimately, we will have to completely overhaul the system in the US and institute a just and progressive government if we are ever to reign in Israel’s abuses. Israel is a powerful, vicious dog, but our government holds the leash, if it would but tug on it a few times.
It is a lot to ask people to rise against their government, and I doubt it will ever happen barring severe, Gaza-like deprivation being visited on the American people by our own overlords.
But we can very easily defeat the propaganda arm of the powers that be. It is very simple. The mass media in this country is a business like any other. They depend on advertising revenue to make a profit which in turn is dependent on getting people to watch and listen to their programming or buy their newspapers and magazines.
All we have to do, as individuals, is make the decision to turn off our televisions and radios, stop buying newspapers and magazines, and boycott any company that advertises on Fox News, CNN or other sources of propaganda and let them know that you are doing it. Don’t visit sites like Huffpo or DailyKos or any other pseudo-leftist online media, or for that matter fascist sites like LGF. The media bullshit peddlers will be starved of revenue and die. Don’t wait for a mass movement, or for MoveOn or other bogus “liberal” outfit to send out an email, just do it. Tell your friends to do it and explain the logic to them. It is something you can do as an individual and there is not a damned thing they can do about it.
Many newspapers in particular are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Let’s push them over and be rid of them for good.
Posted by Sean | December 30, 2008, 1:04 pmSean you are a genius.
Posted by Arayus | December 30, 2008, 4:36 pmMedia Bias on Gaza Crisis Favors Israel
The title alone was worth a laugh or two! Thanks
Posted by programmer craig | December 30, 2008, 4:36 pmUltimately, we will have to completely overhaul the system in the US and institute a just and progressive government if we are ever to reign in Israel’s abuses.
Yeah! That’s the ticket! Maybe…. communism?
It’s mind boggling that people as overtly anti-semitic as the regulars on this blog take themselves so seriously when they discuss bias. What would the mainstream media have to do to convince people like the KABOBfest crowd that they are being sufficiently hard on Israel? Feed their journalists Jewish babies for breakfast, live on television?
I do appreciate the irony of watching bigots squeel when they feel others are treating them badly, though. Hang in there! This is as good as it gets for people as hateful as you! The rest of your lives will be a continuous downhill slide into a bitter and lonely old age, so enjoy the good times for as long as they last! Just think how horrible your lives will be if the crisis in the middle east is ever actually solved? What will people like QuiQui do for fun then? I suppose she could continue shitting on the US but that’s not generally a very productive way for a naturalized US citizen to behave, right? Maybe she can move to Guatemala and crusade against the government’s human rights abuses? No? What’s that you say, QuiQui? You don’t actually want to be disappeared in the country of your birth!? She just want to act like a complete fuck towards your adopted homeland, is it?
Posted by programmer craig | December 30, 2008, 10:05 pmJust a reminder that the islamoid claim on Jerusalem has no validity – Mohammad was never there. He made up his dream story to cover up the fact he was out raping pigs like usual. The only good islamoid is a dead one…end of story.
Posted by The Truth | January 3, 2009, 1:30 pm