Can We At Least Acknowledge the Propaganda?
By Larry Johnson on January 2, 2009 at 8:50 AM in Current Affairs
(bumped up from the evening of January 1st by Susan)
The role of the U.S. media in enabling Israel is truly stunning. When a friend is doing something truly stupid, you don’t help them by praising their stupidity. Believe it or not I do consider myself a friend of Israel. Forty years of killing Palestinians of all shapes and ideology has not made Israel more secure. Yet in the United States there is enormous political cost for anyone who suggests that Israel’s current approach–e.g., Gaza–is counter productive. Instead we get a constant drumbeat of pro-Israeli information. Consider today’s Washington Post’s Opinion section. These two pieces were published side by side:
Why Israel Is Bombing Gaza
By Ephraim Sneh
Thursday, January 1, 2009; Page A13
When demands are made of Israel to halt its military activities in Gaza, a brief historical reminder is in order.In September 2005, Israel vacated Gaza, dismantled all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and did not leave a shred of a presence there.
In January 2006, rule over Gaza passed to the Hamas government under Ismail Haniyeh. Instead of bringing investors to Gaza, the Hamas government brought the guerrilla-warfare trainers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Instead of launching economic projects, this government launched rockets every day at Israeli towns and villages across the border. They smuggled in vast amounts of explosives, weapons and rockets; they prepared themselves for battle.
Hard Truths About the Conflict
By Robert J. Lieber
Thursday, January 1, 2009; Page A13
After Israel’s dramatic airstrikes, the world’s media are filled with images of suffering Palestinian women and children, innocent victims in what is being referred to as a renewed cycle of violence. Predictably, both sides are being urged to call a halt, though in much of the Middle East and parts of Europe these demands, and the blame, fall especially heavily upon the Israelis. In America, there is relatively greater understanding and sympathy for Israel, but here, too, concern is growing about the violence.While the details of the conflict often appear complex, the fundamentals — hard truths about Gaza, its Hamas rulers and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict — are straightforward. First, despite the tragic deaths of civilians, Israeli’s airstrikes have been precisely aimed at Hamas fighters, installations and rocket launchers. Inevitably, the use of force causes injury and death to innocents, but from initial figures announced by U.N. personnel, it appears that more than 80 percent of those killed were Hamas security personnel or other militants — a ratio that might compare favorably with the use of force by U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. In view of Hamas’s practice of deliberately placing missile launchers and other weapons in the midst of densely populated areas, the precision is remarkable. It also reflects the fact that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seek to minimize civilian deaths, while Hamas deliberately targets civilians.
Second, what we are witnessing is not a “cycle” of violence. The IDF airstrikes are a reaction to the unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks against the Jewish state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in the hope that the Palestinians would use the opportunity to prepare for an eventual agreement and a two-state solution in which they would live side by side in peace with Israel. Since then, there have been more than 3,500 such attacks aimed at areas of southern Israel, including over 200 launches since Dec. 19, after Hamas chose not to extend a six-month truce. The expanding range of these missiles now covers an area populated by as many as 700,000 Israelis.
And who can do without Fox News when one is searching for objective reporting:
The inconsistency in the Israeli position is truly breathtaking. On the one hand, they justify their attacks on Gaza because of the “thousands” of missiles Hamas is firing on Israel. That is a true statement but also misleading. Most of the Hamas rockets are not carrying high explosives and, despite shooting THOUSANDS OF MISSILES there has been little damage. The Hamas rockets are generally wildly inaccurate and highly ineffective. More people have died in Israel of traffic accidents in the last two days then have died from the rocket/missile strikes. In fact, only four Israelis have been killed so far by these strikes. For the families who have lost a loved one I realize it does not matter whether one million have died. They have lost someone they loved and there is no value an outside observer can assign that will be seen as satisfactory or appropriate.
So what do you say to the mothers and fathers of more than 40 Palestinian children who have died in the Israeli air strikes? More than 400 Palestinians are now dead while Israel has lost four people. Pretending that these are somehow comparable is silly. It is pure bullshit that the Israelis are targeting only “military” targets. Israel declares without a scintilla of proof that they are destroying weapons depots, explosive labs, and rocket storage sites. Yet the rockets keep coming and remain for the most part, largely ineffective.
And I will repeat again (hopefully this point will eventually sink in) that Israel can deal with the rocket/missile threat without hitting the civilian targets. But they refuse to use a concentrated counter battery capability. Israel is pursuing other objectives. They want to weaken and would prefer to destroy Hamas. But the Israeli actions appear to be having the opposite effect in among the Palestinians and much of the rest of the world–rather than being discredited Hamas appears to be winning sympathy and lip service support. The reality is that Israel cannot destroy Hamas, even with its current tactics and approach.
Do you remember back in September 2002 what happened when Israel laid seige to the residence of Yasir Arafat:
Israeli forces took up positions in buildings near Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah today, two days after they complied with American demands and lifted a 10-day siege there.
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said the new arrangement was intended to enable Israel to ”put its hands on all those inside who are suspects if they try to come out.”
Palestinian officials said the Israelis had not ended the siege, which began after a suicide bomber killed six Israelis in Tel Aviv on Sept. 19.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an adviser to Mr. Arafat, said it remained dangerous for the Palestinian leader and others to leave or enter the compound. ”They are deceiving the Americans,” he said of the Israelis.
Did that operation end the terrorism against Israel? Did that operation make Israel safer? Did that operation push the Palestinians to embrace more moderate leaders? Answer those questions and you will have the answer to the likely consequences of the latest Israeli retaliation. Targeted killing of killers is fine. Hitting hospitals, mosques, and schools is a bad thing and will not make Israel safer. The best thing we can do is have a frank dialogue with Israel, our friend.
by Ronald Scott
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