To Solomon: Of course if you're going to make up history, ignore reality and clobber the Jews, who am I to stop you? The reality is that what the Palestinians are practicing is a form of infanticide, as in get your children killed so you can use the leftwing western media to portray the aggressor as the victim and secure the sympathy of useful idiots in the West who enjoy all the benefits of democracy that Arafat and his gangsters hate and systematically deny their own people. The fact is that Barak offered the Palestinians 90% of the Middle East pie as a compromise and Arafat responded by launching an assault on the sovereignty of the holiest site for Jews. On the High Holy Days no less. Jews offer to share. Arabs want to possess and exclude and crush and -- obviously to all but the willfully blind -- finish Hitler's project. Nice work Norman supporting progressive agendas like this. radman wrote: > >Media spin remains in sync with Israeli occupation > > > >By Norman Solomon > > > >October 13, 2000 > > > >The formula for American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian > >conflict is simple: Report on the latest developments in the fragile > >"peace process." Depict U.S. officials as honest brokers in the > >negotiations. Emphasize the need for restraint and compromise instead of > >instability and bloodshed. > > > >In the world according to news media, the U.S. government is situated on > >high moral ground -- in contrast to some of the intractable adversaries. > >"The conflict that had been so elaborately dressed in the civilizing cloak > >of a peace effort has been stripped to its barest essence: Jew against > >Arab, Arab against Jew," the New York Times reported from Jerusalem. > > > >Soon afterwards, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright proclaimed: "The > >cycle of violence has to be stopped." Such pronouncements from Washington > >get a lot of respectful media play in our country. > > > >Rarely do American journalists explore the ample reasons to believe that > >the United States is part of the oft-decried cycle of violence. Nor, in > >the first half of October, was there much media analysis of the fact that > >the violence overwhelmingly struck at Palestinian people. > > > >Within a period of days, several dozen Palestinians were killed by heavily > >armed men in uniform -- often described by CNN and other news outlets as > >"Israeli security forces." Under the circumstances, it's a notably > >benign-sounding term for an army that shoots down protesters. > > > >As for the rock-throwing Palestinians, I have never seen or heard a single > >American news account describing them as "pro-democracy demonstrators." > >Yet that would be an appropriate way to refer to people who -- after more > >than three decades of living under occupation -- are in the streets to > >demand self-determination. > > > >While Israeli soldiers and police, with their vastly superior firepower, > >do most of the killing, Israel's public-relations engines keep whirling > >like well-oiled tops. Early this month, tilted by the usual spin, American > >news stories highlighted the specious ultimatums issued by Prime Minister > >Ehud Barak as he demanded that Palestinians end the violence -- while > >uniformed Israelis under his authority continued to kill them. > > > >Beneath the Israeli "peace process" rhetoric echoed by American media, an > >implicit message isn't hard to discern: If only Palestinians would stop > >resisting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, it would no longer be > >necessary for Israeli forces to shoot them. > > > >"Israel Extends Time For Peace," said the lead headline on the Oct. 10 > >front page of USA Today. "Israel early today extended a deadline for > >Palestinians to end rioting," the article began. At this rate, we may > >someday see a headline that reads: "Israel Demands Palestinians Stop > >Attacking Bullets With Their Bodies." > > > >Of course, amid all the nifty Orwellian touches, the proper behavior of > >people whose homeland remains under occupation has never quite been > >spelled out. But U.S. media coverage has reflexively mimicked the themes > >coming out of the White House and State Department. It all makes sense -- > >as long as we set aside basic concepts of human rights -- as long as we > >refuse to acknowledge that without justice there can be no real peace. > > > >For American journalists on mainstream career ladders, it's prudent to > >avoid making a big deal about Israel's human rights violations, which > >persist without letup in tandem with Israel's occupation of land it > >captured in the 1967 war. Many pundits are fond of cloaking the occupiers > >in mantles of righteousness. And we hear few questions raised about the > >fact that the occupiers enjoy the powerful backing of the United States. > > > >The silence is usually deafening, even among journalists who write opinion > >columns on a regular basis. The U.S. government's economic and military > >assistance to Israel adds up to a few billion dollars per year. Among > >media professionals, that aid is widely seen as an untouchable "third > >rail." To challenge U.S. support for Israel is to invite a torrent of > >denunciations -- first and foremost, the accusation of "anti-Semitism." > > > >Occasionally, I've written columns criticizing U.S. media for strong > >pro-Israel bias in news reporting and spectrums of commentary. Every time, > >I can count on a flurry of angry letters that accuse me of being > >anti-Semitic. It's a timeworn, knee-jerk tactic: Whenever someone makes a > >coherent critique of Israel's policies, immediately go on the attack with > >charges of anti-Jewish bigotry. > > > >Numerous American supporters of Israel resort to this tactic. Perhaps the > >difficulties of defending the Israeli occupation on its merits have > >encouraged substitution of the "anti-Semitic" epithet for reasoned debate. > > > >Like quite a few other Jewish Americans, I'm appalled by what Israel is > >doing with U.S. tax dollars. Meanwhile, as journalists go along to get > >along, they diminish the humanity of us all. > > > >"Ask not for whom the bell tolls." > > > > > >Norman Solomon's book "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media" > >won the 1999 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution > >to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, presented by the National > >Council of Teachers of English. > > > >Norman Solomon's archived columns may be found at > ><http://www.fair.org/media-beat/index.html>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 10/16/00 EDT