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.
