Far right, or extreme right might be a more apt description for the US-Israeli policy of stoking civil war in Palestine, a policy that Linda Gradstein euphemistically describes as an Israeli government decision "to strengthen Abbas as he moves to challenge the ruling Hamas movement." It is frightening to hear how blandly Gradstein notes that Israel is funneling weapons (2000 AK-47s and 2,000,000 rounds of ammunition) to Fatah, and then has the gall to conclude that the talks between Olmert and Abbas that produced this lethal Christmas present "is just part of a flurry of diplomatic activity that raised hopes for renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks." Raised whose hopes? The hopes of the compromised and antidemocratic Abbas? Where is any evidence of Palestinian hopes?This sadly truncated reporting is nothing new and not surprising from the ethically compromised Gradstein. It also fits with NPR's pattern of focusing on extremism of Palestinians (such as Hamas' anti-Semitic charter), while ignoring the brutality of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory and the extremism of Israeli leaders (such as Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman) and parties (e.g. Kadima's platform declaring that "the Jewish people have a national and historic right to the Land of Israel in its entirety " or Likud's which states, "The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river" i.e. the West Bank!)
From NPR's coverage, listeners get a lopsided impression that Israel is the legitimate, moderate, restrained, and ready to compromise "partner for peace" that is faced with intransigence and extremism from the Palestinian side. If NPR's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict were more fair and thorough listeners would be shocked at how provocative and one-sided the US position is in the conflict and how the continual claim by the US and Israel that you can't negotiate with extremists is clearly hypocritical and false--of course you can. It is through negotiations, compromise, verification mechanisms, third party mediation, and concrete actions that extremists (on all sides) will modify their positions.
2 comments:
Great piece! Gradstein always annoyed me with her stenographer-to-the-Israelis act, but I had no idea she was this compromised.
No wonder Richard Perle & Co. agree to appear at their convenience on NPR. There's always such a support system waiting for them!
But of course, we're all rabid anti-Semites for even mentioning these facts. Yeah, right!
No less of a media mogul than Mort Zuckerman once said, with sincerity, 'I think you can criticize Israel and not be an anti-Semite.'
Post a Comment