The Daily Grasshopper

Last week, after a particularly brutal suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv, I called a friend of mine, who is Jewish, and talked to him about wanting to write about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. After our discussion, I decided to go ahead and write about it, despite knowing full well that this was definitely not a “safe” place to be venturing. I had been to see the movie “The Pianist” just days before, and had been profoundly struck by what I thought were haunting similarities between the ways the Nazi soldiers treated Warsaw’s Jews and the way Israeli Defense Forces treat today’s Palestinians. I didn’t contrive this for the sake of writing about it – it’s what I felt upon seeing this very disturbing scene. After a few days, I heard from another friend, also Jewish, who wrote:

“I agree with you that it is facile to make broad sweeping general comparisons between the treatment of Jews by Nazis in Germany and the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli military. I guess what I want to say to you, is that it is also difficult both for me personally, and in [working within the Jewish community to build respectful relationships and dialogue about what is going on in Israel/ Palestine for the past few years during this latest intifada], for non-Jews and others to compare specific behaviors of Nazi soldiers to Israeli military forces. I see and recognize many horrible echoes of the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, and the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli military. At the same time, there have been many, many situations and continue to be, of a powerful military government, subjugating and oppression a population in their country or a bordering country (China and Tibet, Russia and Chechnya, US and Native populations, Guatemala and indigenous communities, etc.) and even when similar, horrible tactics are used it is not compared to the Nazis and Germany.

I think it is really important to me, that people like you, who I would think of as someone who wants to be an ally to Jews, recognize the long and complicated history of Anti-Jewish oppression and Anti-Semitism. And as part of that, recognize the difficulty of comparing Israeli military actions to Nazi actions and how that can and does alienate Jews in the US from taking action, in a way that is really necessary right now. And can make it more and more unlikely, the more parallels that are drawn by non-Jews to Nazi Germany.”

Let me just say that I want to be the last person to prevent anyone from taking the necessary action to stop what is happening in Israel and the Occupied Territories today. So, I am taking my friend’s suggestion to heart, and will be more careful in how I approach writing about the Middle East. But, as another friend wrote, I have been aiming at the “comfort zone” in many of these essays, and my conscience compels me to keep doing so. The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is not going to go away until there is an international agreement that gives the Palestinian people the sovereignty that is their human right and provides the Israelis with the security that is their human right. That much is clear. To the extent that Americans can put pressure on our elected officials to work toward this outcome, we need to be well-informed about the situation on the ground. Which brings me to today’s news…

First, there is this op-ed by the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman about the stakes for Israel in the upcoming election (“the conflict is entering a terrible new phase: the beginning of the end of the two-state solution”):

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/opinion/15FRIE.html

I’ve maintained that the Business page is a good place to get information about what’s really happening in the world. The Arts section happens to be another place you can turn to for interesting articles on important news stories. Today’s Boston Globe features a column by media analyst Mark Jurkowitz entitled “NPR is losing war of words on Mideast coverage.” You can read it here:

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/015/living/NPR_is_losing_war_of_words_on_Mideast_coverage+.shtml

The first thing that struck me when reading this was, “How do you have a fair dialogue about the objectivity (or lack thereof) of NPR’s Mideast coverage in a synagogue? Particularly when there’s no one representing the Palestinian side?” These questions are not even raised in Jurkowitz’s column. All he says is that the crowd was made up of “staunch supporters of Israel.” According to the article, the participants were Philadelphia Jewish Exponent executive editor Jonathan Tobin and Boston University journalism department chairman Bob Zelnick, whom Jurkowitz describes as “fiery prosecutors,” and two executives from National Public Radio.

Jurkowitz notes that “The advocacy group CAMERA, or the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, has built a constituency by publishing harsh critiques of NPR’s work.” What he doesn’t mention is that there are also those who feel NPR could be doing even more to provide balanced coverage. It’s no secret that NPR is feeling whipsawed between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups. It’s been commented on. A good source for this information, in my opinion, is the FAIR website. You can read their assessment of NPR’s performance here:

http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-israel-quiet.html
http://www.fair.org/extra/0111/npr-mideast.html

I agree with my friend who wrote that it is essential to “build respectful relationships and dialogue about what is going on in Israel/ Palestine” right now, and I admire anyone who takes this on. Their work is made more difficult, though, when a Media Analyst for the Globe is unwilling to point out that having two high-profile apologists for Israel’s policies dress down two journalists in front of 900 partisan Jews does not exactly make for “a debate on Middle East media coverage.”

At least you can find a little more balance in the New York Times’ Arts section. There you will find a review entitled “Opposing Views, but Shared Agonies in Occupied Territories,” an article about two films that deal with the Middle East conflict. I recommend reading it, if only to get a sense of the kind of reporting you may be missing about the day-to-day life of people, Jews and Palestinians, in the West Bank and Gaza (“Bracha [a Jewish woman] obligingly points out the bullet holes that mark her otherwise immaculate walls” and a picture of “Muhammad Al-Sultan, a Palestinian boy whose legs were amputated after a long delay by Israeli soldiers prevented him from reaching a hospital in time”).

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/movies/15SETT.html

And, finally, there’s this report from the Times’ Business Day section: “War or No, News on Cable Provides the Drama.” The subhead is “Bitter Competition Drives Exuberant Iraq Coverage.” You can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/15/business/media/15TUBE.html

Pretty wild, huh? The war between the networks to get the best ratings will probably be bloodier than the actual war in Iraq (at least the parts we'll get to see back here in the States). You have to love FOX News. According to the article, correspondents Mike Tobin and Laurie Dhue will participate in the network’s strategy “to cover a war in Iraq with the same patriotic glow that it used during the United States campaign in Afghanistan – when, for instance, it made a point of referring to the United States forces as ‘our troops.’” Indeed, truth will be the first casualty of this war. Actually, it already is. How about this little beauty from MSNBC president Erik Sorenson: “I don’t think the public thinks [the war]’s as inevitable as it probably is. Tens of thousands of troops in the area and millions of dollars of equipment probably contribute more to the feeling of inevitability than anything a cable news channel can do.” Um, Erik... aren’t you the one reporting on this buildup with your breathless “Showdown Lowdown” each night? These guys have an onscreen chart counting down the days to the weapons inspection deadline!

What’s really funny is that in the print version of the Times, the story jumps onto page C4 and at the top of the column, where the story picks up, there’s a title for the section: “Advertising.” I’m not kidding.