Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has delivered a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that calls for a resumption of peace negotiations.
Look at the image the Washington Post (4/18/12) used to accompany its story about this :
I will admit that a letter might not lend itself to an interesting graphic, but it sure seems odd to use a fiery Molotov cocktail instead.
American mainstream media have always been more pro-Israel than some of Israeli media. Take for example, Akiva Eldar’s, Op-Ed, published in Israeli daily Ha’aretz on April 16, 2012.
“After some discussion, US President Barack Obama accedes to the position of Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and he urges them to attack Iran. Netanyahu and Barak exchange frightened glances and plead with Obama to stop them (attacking Iran)”Â……
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/netanyahu-please-stop-us-attacking-iran/
Could it possibly get more obvious that the media is bending over backwards and firing emergency flares to tell us that the Palestinians cannot do or say anything that isn’t a direct threat to Israel? Even a desperate request for lifting of a blockade of antibiotics and alcohol pads and so forth is a threat to Israel. Why? Is it those needles? It’s just ridiculous.
Rehmat includes a somewhat bewildering “quote” in his post together with a link which suggests that Netanyahu is being forced to attack Iran my Barack Obama. However, he neglects to mention that said “quote” was from a SKIT on the sketch comedy “Eretz Nehederet”.
The actual facts should suffice without ginning them up with BS fake quotes.
Imagine the outrage if this article had been accompanied by a photo of Israelis involved in acts of violence…
Fred – the Jewish skid was based on the Jewish army’s pathetic performance during its 34-day war on Lebanon in 2006. Lebanon has no airforce or navy or even tanks. Even with those odds – the Jewish army laced with $3 billion annual military aid suffered the greatest loses in soldiers and military hardware. So much so that Moshe Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress , beg world powers told world powers that Israel needs NATO protection from its neighbors…..
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/israel-needs-nato-membership-for-its-survival/
Part of the reason why Palestinians are still suffering is because they chose to use violence in their resistance. Using violence against an occupying force with awesome power and the support of the world’s greatest superpower who BTW has the best propaganda machine in history (otherwise know as “public relations”) is foolish.
Not only did they choose to use violence, they used its most despicable kind at that (i.e. terrorism). Terrorism whether committed by an individual, a group, or a state is immoral because it often involves killing innocent people. Violence in general is the tactic used by rageful, impatient and uncreative people.
The propagandistic use of the picture in the article discussed here is a good example of what I’m trying to say. Palestinians should renounce violence in order to stop giving the colonists the excuse to use disproportionate force in return (as in the Massacre in Gaza), and fuel for their propaganda.
I can never defend Palestinians among ordinary people because I find terrorism untenable. This is too bad.
So when the Palestinians do it, it’s terrorism, but when the Israelis do it’s… what?
Yeah the Palestinian throwing the fire bomb was an important story….but not really the SAME story as the hand penned letter.They should of bumped that(the pic).I don’t think it was a particularly nefarious action though.
I firmly believe the longer the two sides engage in wanton acts of peaceful negotiation ….the better are the chances for peace.The better are the chances that the firebrands will loose traction and power.The wheel begins to creek back the other way.
Andy, when the Israelis do it it’s… “state terrorism”. I am not defending Israel. Israel is untenable. My problem is with Palestinians’ tactics. It is stupid, period. The majority around the world have been bombarded with propaganda in the form of omissions, lies, framing, and emotionally manipulative movies (Schindler’s List, Life Is Beautiful, etc.). In the racist imperialist western world and with the disproportionate ownership and influence of Jews in the media and the government, terrorism gives the propagandists more ammunition to cast the Arab (and Muslim) as a savage un-person.
When it comes to the question of Palestine, I absolutely agree that a grave injustice was committed which continues. I personally believe that Jews who collectively suffered from PTSD have been displacing their (rightful) anger at Germans on the Palestinians. But what does sending rockets into Israel accomplish? It’s a passive-aggressive immoral act that an impatient, uncreative, rigid, macho, angry, ego-driven adolescent would commit!
Terrorism disarms people like me from being able to speak fully and freely on behalf of Palestinians when I’m talking to people who have only been allowed to see one side of the moon!
Oh bullshit, FreeSpirit. Try explaining to those ” . . . people who have only been allowed to see one side of the moon!” that they’ve only seen one side of the moon, instead of reflexively throwing up your hands and complaining that terrorism is bad. The Palestinians use the only thing they’ve got, and it’s often very ugly. But so is the massive use of violence on the part of the Israelis, and us. It’s easy for us over here to condemn the use of violence, and insist that Palestinians lay down their arms and just Take It. They know that the US is in bed with the Israelis, and I’m guessing that pleas like yours are often met with icy contempt. For the record (and it’s been reported here), there are plenty of Palestinians (and Israelis and Americans) who are using peaceful means to protest their condition. They are in a very difficult situation over there–try to factor that in instead of getting flummoxed every time some dummy who doesn’t know shit bitches about their terrorism, and ignores ours (which has produced thousands more times corpses).
TimN: And terrorism has worked so well for Palestinians so far! The only justification the US and Israel have for violence, the apartheid wall, and mistreatment of Palestinians is terrorism. You take that away and they would be hard-pressed to commit acts of atrocity. I firmly believe that this is why the world has been so silent vis-Ã-vis Israel’s occupation and apartheid.
Also, if innocent lives are so worthless to you that you are willing to casually toss them away, are you prepared to meet face to face with an Israeli mother whose child was blown to pieces by a suicide bomber and explain to her why that terrorist act was justified?
Thanks, FreeSpirit, for your explanation. I completely agree. Anyone who believes terrorism is “the only thing they’ve got” needs to learn about how Ghandi kicked the British out of India–perhaps the most successful revolution in history.
TimN, you ought to take a deep breath and count to ten before you leave another comment.
“I can never defend Palestinians among ordinary people because I find terrorism untenable. This is too bad.”
FreeSpirit, this is beneath you. Because some Palestinians have resorted to terrorism, you can’t defend the Palestinian cause at all? How fair is that? Do they lose their rights because some are terrorists? For that matter, would they lose their rights if they were *all* terrorists?
How can you justify ignoring, like our media, the huge outpouring of nonviolent protest?
“The only justification the US and Israel have for violence, the apartheid wall, and mistreatment of Palestinians is terrorism. You take that away and they would be hard-pressed to commit acts of atrocity.”
This is nonsense too. Israel and the US don’t *need* a justification. Israel never had much trouble justifying itself to itself and committing atrocities, and the US has never had trouble backing violence or committing it. When the violence pauses, they justify themselves with past violence, or “redeeming the land,” or plain lies.
When the Qassams are stopped, the media outlook is the same as when they are going: Palestinians are all terrorists, unpeople without rights. And when you let the US and Israel get away with that characterization, you buy into it.
Save the Oocytes
No one is saying every Palestinian is a terrorist.Even if led by what many in Israel consider to be a terrorist leadership.No Jew in WW2 said every German was a genocidal maniac.That acceptance did the jews in German held territory- little good.In the end you must deal with the authorities that speak for the people you are in negotiations with.Read the frustration Carter spoke of in dealing with Arafat.Read of Clinton exploding in anger over dealing with Palestinian negotiators.Bush…Reagan….Bush Jr and yes now Obama.All have banged heads with that wall.The idea seems to be that Israel itself is illegal.Historically ,morally,ethically,and legallyBeyond that …her appropriation of buffer zone lands ,used to launch attacks on her numerous times- are considered doubly so.Beyond that …any attempt by Israelis to assert sovereignty by conducting her own internal affairs is seen as wrong.It seems the only” right” thing Israel could do, is turn the governance of her small country over to her enemies.I would say thanks for that advise.Thank you for the tea.I can find my way out.
Save the Oocytes, First of all, I’m not saying that the Palestinians lose their rights because some commit violence (especially terrorism). I’m merely saying that I have a hard time FULLY AND UNABASHEDLY defending them EVERYWHERE. I have defended them and criticized Israel here repeatedly. I seldom hear Palestinians denounce violence, let alone terrorism. Whether they have the right to use violence or not is irrelevant. It’s how they are perceived by the rest of the world. Palestinians need to distance themselves from those who for instance assassinate Olympians if they want the rest of the world to have sympathy for their cause. To do otherwise is foolish. The same goes with Iranians. They need to muzzle Ahmadinejad’s big mouth. His incendiary comments (about the Holocaust and gays, etc.) are not helping the crisis that country is in.