On Tuesday morning NPR's Renee Montagne talks to Michael Oren, who "served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, in the paratroopers in the first Lebanon War, and as a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an army spokesman in the second Lebanon War Center" (definitely not a militant!) NPR innocuously identifies him as "a senior fellow at the Shalem Center." Montagne lets Oren spread the BuSh with nary a whimper. He states that "Israel faces existential challenges: a threat from a rapidly nuclearizing Iran, from Hizbollah and Hamas terrorists..." and he's not joking! Toward the end Montagne gets deep: "Just a personal question to you...what do you personally hope to see in your lifetime?" Oren responds, laying it on how "Israel is an extraordinary success story; there's really nothing like it...grew out of the ashes of the Holocaust."To "balance" Tuesday's discussion Montagne is back on this morning, Wednesday, to interview Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian columnist and scholar. You know it's going to be an NPR special when it begins with "President Bush arrived in Israel this morning in hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process." After a few modest questions about Kutab's memories of Jerusalem in the 1950s, Montagne closes with this doozy: "Just a last question, and this one is in a sense to the heart. If you can speak for Palestinians, how much sympathy is there for people, the Jews, who lost so many and so much before they found a homeland in 1948? Is there sympathy, or is 60 years of loss for the Palestinians, has that made that sort of something impossible?"
Think of the questions she might have asked:
- "Do Palestinians still have any hopes of achieving peace with a nation that has stolen their land, tortured them, slaughtered them by the thousands, etc.?"
- Or "Does it seem ironic that a nation that uses the Holocaust to justify its existence, treats Palestinians with such violence, brutality and racism?
- Or how about simply "How on earth have Palestinians maintained their humanity in the face of such empty promises of "peace" from the US, Israel, and even its own corrupt leaders?"
10 comments:
Thanks for posting this. It's so hard to critique the coverage of Israel in the American national media (including NPR) because it's so sweeping, diffuse, and systemic.
"Never again!" except when it comes at the expense of The Other...
Why can't people get their heads wrapped around the concept of two wrongs not making a right.
BTW, the local public radio station called me last night asking for a donation since I did not contribute to their fund drive this year. I told them exactly why I am never giving money to their organization again.
What, Palestinians won't forgive and forget someone who stole their home and possessions; raped their mother and sisters and killed their father and brothers?
And continues raping, killing and stealing from the indigenous Palestinians to this day?
Why?? Duh.
10 years or so ago, NPR was a decent source of news.
Not anymore.
i no longer listen to NPR due to their obvious bias in favor of Israel and Zionism.
To me, NPR means: Negative Palestinian Reporting
NEVER AGAIN!
NO MORE AMERICAN BLOOD FOR ISRAEL!!
NEVER AGAIN!!!
NPR - You mean this "network" is real? Surely you jest. They haven't been real since about 1980.
Note: I deleted one comment that talked about "Zionist tentacles" and attacked NPR's chief for being a Jew. Whooaaa... I'm not interested in anti-Semitic speculations. I also dropped another anti-Israel post that had a spam link promoting a book.
Cheers.
Indeed, we don't need to stoop to NPR-ish levels to carry out our frustrations, valid though many of them may be.
I like the statement made by Mort Zuckerman, who is a conservative and very pro-Israel: (paraphrase) 'Of course you can critique Israel without being anti-Semitic.'
Many Israelis are extremely critical of their own country's actions - we just don't hear about it much in this country. From what I've gathered, the average Israeli has been the recipient of BushCorp-like gun-to-the-head tactics practiced by their leadership for many years now.
Organizations like Democracy Now! are much more valid and intelligent sources than waste-of-time-and-energy NPR. (As if we didn't know...)
This NPR tool stated, "Just a last question, and this one is in a sense to the heart. If you can speak for Palestinians, how much sympathy is there for people, the Jews, who lost so many and so much before they found a homeland in 1948?"
Don't you recall? Palestinians AREN'T PEOPLE - I'll remind the readers of the various quotes attributed to Palestinians:
"Not worth one jewish fingernail"
"Crocodiles"
"Roaches"
Remember...two wrongs don't make a right...it takes at least three....
I stopped listen to NPR right after they refused to cover ron paul campaign. I thought they are decent guys now I see it as another fox station... God thanks for the internet!
NPR--"Negative Palestinian Reporting"--now, why didn't I think of that.
That's way better than National Petroleum Radio.
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