Report On Gazan War — ABC News With George Stephanopoulos — Was A Shameful Disgrace

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Mike Bock

In the Gazan War, over 500 Palestinians have died, and over one-fourth of the dead are women and children. Many schools, mosques, and homes have been obliterated. The destruction and death in Gaza is horrifying.

But do we understand the Gazan War? It’s hard to know the truth. We are easily overwhelmed by misinformation. Zbigniew Brzenzinski said it well when he appeared on Joe Scarborough’s Fox News program and told Scarborough that his point of view showed “stunningly superficial knowledge.” He told Scarborough that, “it is almost embarrassing to listen to you.”

Our mainstream media contributes to our collective ignorance, our “stunningly superficial knowledge.” Sunday’s ABC News program, “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” gives a good example. Israeli President Shimon Peres started by stating, “Well, clearly, if there is somebody can stop terror with a different strategy, we shall accept it. … Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it.”

Peres advanced the theory that the only way to fight terrorism is by advancing greater terrorism. His point of view on Stephanopoulos’s show was not challenged.

Peres was followed by Senator Dick Durbin who fell all over himself proving how much he agrees with Peres. Then Senator Mitch McConnell appeared and pronounced, “Imagine in this country if somebody from a neighboring country were lobbing shells at our population. We’d do exactly the same thing. I think the Israelis are doing the only thing they can possibly do to defend their population.”

The only thing they can possibly do? This military action is costing at least $100 million every day. So the financial cost of this war will be well over one billion dollars. This is the only way such a huge amount of money could possibly be spent to advance peace? This is crazy thinking. How much would an antimissle shield cost to implement? (Israel has a system called the Iron Dome ready to go.)

George Will, later in the program, echoed McConnell and said “The population of Gaza is about the same as population of Tiguana, Mexico — on the border with San Diago. All Americans understand what we would be doing if rockets were landing from Tiguana to Sandiago.”

We do? We would be killing whole Tiguanan families? Bombing churches and schools? We would be targeting leaders for assassination, via 2000 pound bombs, regardless of “collateral damage”? We would be raining phosphorus on the civilian population? I don’t think so.

But there were no dissenting comments on Stephanopoulos’s program (with the exception of a few oblique remarks from Katrina Vanden Heuvel). All the guests and all of the reports were on message: it’s all the fault of Hamas, it’s all because of the rockets; if the US were similarly attacked, our response would be the same; Israel had no choice but to make war.

The stunning superficiality of Stephanopoulos’s Sunday program was amazing. There was no effort to give any context, no effort to give any historical perspective. There was not a word about Israel’s embargo of Gaza, no word of the suffering of the Palestinians, no analysis of the history of the region.

To allow McConnell’s assertion — “the Israelis are doing the only thing they can possibly do to defend their population” — to go unchallenged was outrageous. To allow George Will to go unchallenged when he made a crazy comparison of Gaza and Israel to Tiguana and San Diago was absurd.

To advance the notion, on a supposed news program, that ham fisted military action is the only answer to Hamas and that the US in some parallel situation would mimic Israel — killing whole families, destroying churches and schools as a means to teach a terrorist group a “lesson” — was ridiculous.

Any reasonable analysis of the Gazan war would examine why Israel is making war at this time — rather than waiting, or rather than working for a cease fire. Stephanoupolous failed to mention how the upcoming elections in Israel might influence the political leaders’ move to war, or how the coming inauguration of Barack Obama might have influenced the Israeli decision for immediate war. Stephanoupolous allowed to stand the notion that there was urgency for war and that war was the only option.

Why in the world would a news program present only one side, one point of view? Simon Peres, George Will, Dick Durban, and Mitch McConnell on Stephanopolus’ program were all singing in harmony — making ridiculous comments and ridiculous claims — “The Israeli’s are doing the only thing possible, we would do the same. The only way to fight terrorism is through terrorism.” If Joe Scarborough would have been there, I’m sure, he would have chimed in loudly. I expect such perfect propaganda from Scarborough and Fox News, but not from George. What a disappointment. Stephanopolus’s Sunday program was a shameful disgrace.


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Congressman Kucinich Condemns Israeli Attack On Gaza As Violating Geneva Conventions

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Mike Bock

Congressman Dennis Kucinich today released a statement condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed over 300 Palestinians, including many women and children, as violating the Geneva Conventions. Kucinich wrote: “The Israeli leaders know better.”

The text of Kucinich’s statement:

“Today I sent a letter to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging the United Nations to establish an independent inquiry of Israel’s war against Gaza. The attacks on civilians represent collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better. The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel’s right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation.”

“Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah. Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel’s actions.”

“According to published news reports, since the commencement of aerial strikes, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1,400 have been wounded. The dead include 20 children under the age of 16–nearly half of them killed while on a school bus, according to the United Nations–and 9 women. The attack aggravated a humanitarian crisis wrought by the Israeli-imposed blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies. With a population of 1.5 million people, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated territories in the world.”

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Ohio’s Overcrowded Prisons Have Record Number Of Inmates, Yet Face Budget Cuts

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Mike Bock

The Warren Tribune Chronicle reports, “State Prisons Face Budget Cuts,” that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is facing budget cuts at a time when Ohio has more prisoners than ever, holding 33 percent more inmates than its facilities were intended to hold, and when the whole system is facing budget cuts in the next biennium.

Excerpts from the article:

  • Ohio’s prison system is at its highest inmate level ever, with 51,000 inmates being housed across the state in prisons that had been designed to hold 38,300. Warren’s state prison, Trumbull Correctional Institution, is at 148 percent of capacity, holding 1,340 inmates. The Leavittsburg-area prison was designed to hold 902.
  • Adding to a bleak situation, earlier this month, Strickland released a state budget ”worst-case scenario,” pointing out that the state is facing a $7.3 billion deficit in the next two years based on current tax revenue projections, which are heading downward as all major economics indicators have plummeted.
  • Without Washington’s help, state agencies would need to cut 25 percent off their current funding levels if the state wants to preserve Medicaid, a tax reduction and continue making debt payments, Strickland said.
  • ”We are facing historic times with the state of Ohio,” Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Director, Terry J. Collins said. ”We have made no decisions on anything at this particular point in time. I have talked to legislators about various potential changes. It comes down to a pretty simple theory.” That theory includes looking at other forms of punishment, including alternate sentencing programs, GPS tracking with ankle bracelets, halfway houses and simply accepting the fact that not everyone has to be in prison to be punished, Collins said.
  • ”There’s only so much you can cut,” state Rep. Tom Letson, D-Warren, said. ”But revenue is down, and we’re trying to cut without increasing any taxes.” ”It’s almost impossible to close any (prison) without setting people free,” state Sen. Robert Hagan said.
  • The two officials are stuck in the middle of the bleak budget scenario that already has given way to threats of closing state parks and raising college tuition. ”We won’t get the budget until February, and I heard 5 to 7.5 billion has to be cut,” Letson said.
  • Hagan said across-the-board cuts from 10 to 25 percent certainly would mean a long, hard look to the prison system, where inmates require between $26,000 to $52,000 a year to remain behind bars.
  • Some officials have called for the elimination of 5,237 positions at the state prisons department, including corrections and parole officers. Ohio also would close six institutions at a time when prisons already are crowded. Many treatment and job programs for inmates would be cut. And the trickle-down effect also could mean cuts for alternative sentencing programs such as Northeast Ohio Community Alternative Program (NEOCAP), located in Warren.
  • Hagan said it’s more likely officials in the prison system, which includes 32 institutions and two privately run prisons, will make the call on who gets laid off and who gets released. The system also includes Trumbull Correctional Institution, one of the more modern prisons in the state. ”You risk the chance of more or increased violence in the prisons if they’re overcrowded,” Hagan said.
  • He said the state most likely will depend on major increases in the area of house arrest and electronic monitoring of inmates removed from prisons.”And those inmates have to be first-time and nonviolent offenders,” he said.
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