Al Jazeera From Gaza (UPDATED)
If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'
Shambollocks! continues to make every attempt to tell you the story of Gaza without the interference of the Israeli propaganda machine. Al Jazeera English has two correspondents in Gaza delivering gripping reports you won’t hear anywhere else. Of course, what cable company would place Al Jazeera English on one its 500 channels, what with our insufferable prejudice against Arabs? Thanks to the internet, you can catch these reports on their YouTube channel.
Yes Mulder, the truth is out there. It just takes some seeking sometimes.
- Sunday’s Boston Globe contained a great piece by Eric Calderwood, a Harvard University PhD student living in Damascus, on exactly why Al-Jazeera, despite all the Western criticism, is so successful.
But in a larger sense, Al-Jazeera’s graphic response to CNN-style “bloodless war journalism” is a stinging rebuke to the way we now see and talk about war in the United States. It suggests that bloodless coverage of war is the privilege of a country far from conflict. Al-Jazeera’s brand of news – you could call it “blood journalism” – takes war for what it is: a brutal loss of human life. The images they show put you in visceral contact with the violence of war in a way statistics never could.
For an American, to watch Al-Jazeera’s coverage of Gaza is to realize that you’ve become alienated not just from war, but even from the representation of war as a real thing. As Americans, we’re used to hearing the sound of heavy artillery, machine guns, and bombs in action films and video games. Yet here on the news, they seem strangely out of place. You could argue that Al-Jazeera uses images of civilian violence to foment public outrage against Israel. This might well be true. At the same time, these images acknowledge human suffering and civilian death and stand strongly against them – and in doing so, foment outrage against war itself.
When K and I were on our honeymoon, I watched Al-Jazeera English for the first time. I found myself as impressed as Eric was. Their broadcasts are heavily influenced by today’s documentaries. Al-Jazeera does not give you straight news, like the BBC. No, they are shaping a larger narrative. While in the Middle East, I was able to watch some of their coverage of our presidential campaign. The Al-Jazeera narrative was how were we going to elect a minority candidate with such an exotic background. They interviewed normal Obama supporters, and held them very much in awe. They couldn’t believe we could possibly elect someone like this. It reflected how truly bereft of experience the Arab world is with democracy. The idea of a real choice amazes them. It also gave me faith in our democracy. No matter how cynical all of us are, the idea of America means so much to the developing world.
In short, do not condemn Al-Jazeera until you actually spend some time watching it. All it does is show us the messy muddle of Arab civic life, a muddle America has done very little to settle. 
Proof Of Israel’s Propaganda Campaign (UPDATED)
Hate. In living color.
This evening, we continue our coverage of Israel’s Gaza campaign. The Guardian’s Richard Silverstein published an email a reader of his blog received from Israel’s propaganda team:
Dear friends,
We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it’s a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment.
I was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to arrange a network of volunteers, who are willing to contribute to this effort. If you’re up to it you will receive a daily messages & media package as well as targets.
If you wish to participate, please respond to this email.
When the reader responded to this email, s/he received an official communique from Israel’s foreign ministry giving links to websites they wished to have seeded with pro-Israel comments. Ask yourself, why are Americans killed in Iraq over what Israel does to Palestinians?
Israel, the intelligent world is on to your game. Stop Operaration Cast Lead and pull out of Gaza. The truth is, they will continue to step up their assault until Inaugration Day.
- This just in from the Shambollocks! We Told You So Department- Israel announced a cease-fire late yesterday evening and Hamas joined. Israel’s Gazan operation appears to be over- right before inaugration. Now, Israel will follow Obama’s lead and appear at the outset like a perfectly domesticated ally. Sickening.
Final body count of Israel’s operation- At least 1,300 Palestinians killed (one-third of them children). Only 3 Israeli civilians died. This is Israel’s idea of justice.
My father over the weekend brought up the common example given by Israel supporters-”What would we do if Canada and Mexico started firing rockets at us?” OK, let’s get hypothetical. First, we don’t have the background of a constant state of war with either neighbor, so if they fired at us out of the blue I’m sure we would respond appropriately at military targets. I don’t believe we would invade either country. Second, just to be fair, what if we’re enforcing a resource embargo on, say, Toronto. We didn’t give their citizens access to water or electricity, let alone goods. Wouldn’t Toronto begin to resent this treatment? Couldn’t you see them firing rockets at us? That’s the problem with Israel’s argument. It needs to be taken out of the broader context of their Gazan strategy over the last eighteen months. And that’s just not possible. This campaign is part of a larger campaign making Israel’s expansive borders a fact on the ground and placing the future of an independent Palestine in question. The trouble is, that campaign will ultimately lead to the elimination of Palestinians from the land. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is ethnic-cleansing, pure and simple.
Israel’s Gaza Spin (UPDATED)
One of the three dead Al-samoni siblings lying in Gazan mortuary.
We at Shambollocks! have stated before that Israel needs to end their year-and-a-half siege of Gaza. Unfortunately, two days ago they escalated their actions with the launch of a Gazan ground offensive. For a month now, Israel’s diplomatic and military message has been clear: the 20 Israeli lives lost from rocket attacks since Hamas won power are much more valuable than the 1,700 Palestinians killed in Israeli retribution. Israel continues to keep Gaza closed off to the international media, and the message is eerily similar to 2003 George Bush. You are either with us or you’re against us.
Well, Israel, count Shambollocks! against you.
The Guardian wrote yesterday about how exactly Israel is skillfully manipulating world opinion. The bitter result? Expect more death and destitution for Palestine. Expect more support for Hamas. What does Israel think? That Gazans who lose loved ones we’ll think to themselves, “Gee, Israel is really looking out for us.” Get real.
[Tzipi] Livni has suggested that Israel’s assault is good for the Palestinians by helping to free them from the grip of Hamas. “She’s basically trying to convince me that they’re doing this for my own good,” said Diana Buttu, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s legal counsel and negotiator with the Israelis over the 2005 pullout from Gaza. “I’ve had some Israeli friends reiterate the same thing: ‘You should be happy that we’re rooting out Hamas. They’re a problem for you, too.’ I don’t need her to tell me what’s good for me and what’s bad for me, and I don’t think carrying out a massacre is good for anybody.”
Like it or not, Hamas won an election forced on Palestine by us. They are the elected representatives. Violent overthrow by their muscular neighbor is not likely to lessen their grip on power.
Of course, unless Israel reveals the ultimate end game of its increasingly belligerent philosophy- the elimination of Palestinians from the occupied territory. That’s Israel’s only real solution to the Hamas problem. If you support Israel, understand this is what you are truly supporting. Don’t believe me? Check out this map from the London Times from a couple of years back.
Uh, Hussein. I don't think the Jews want us here.
Glenn Greenwald reacted to the militant posturing of Jerk of the Day, Michael Goldfarb, in Salon yesterday. Goldfarb wrote in The Weekly Standard:
The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to whether or not they can, in fact, be deterred, because it’s not clear that they are rational, at least not like us. But to wipe out a man’s entire family, it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t give his colleagues at least a moment’s pause. Perhaps it will make the leadership of Hamas rethink the wisdom of sparking an open confrontation with Israel under the current conditions.
Wow. This is why the war on ‘terror’ frightens me. It only justifies the same atrocities to persist. When you fight a word, you validate all of your actions through your definition of the word. The other night, the wife and I watched Children of Men. It only solidified my disgust with the war on ‘terror’. Fanatics exist on both sides of this war. And fanatics will do anything to carry on their struggle. They hate resolution. Which means Israelis will always kill Palestinians, and vice versa. Which means the war on ‘terror’ will never end.
- We at Shambollocks! remain upset with the coverage of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. I don’t know how many Palestinian bodies need to be stacked up at America’s door to get us to say, “Hey, wait. Israel’s gaming us. Why are we allowing them to get away with this?” Don’t think for a second that Israel’s attack wasn’t perfectly timed before Bush left office. They knew they could get away with this.
Israel had refused to allow the Red Cross into Gaza, but they found enough humanity to stop killing for three hours yesterday (such compassion!) to allow the Red Cross to report on the crisis. According to the International Herald-Tribune, this is what the Red Cross found.
The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”
In another house, the statement said, the rescue team “found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks.”
These are facts on the ground, America. We as a nation are complicit in what is clearly ethnic cleansing. I myself feel the need for a shower.
Just read in the Los Angeles Times that rocket fire is hitting Israel from Lebanon. Way to widen the conflict, Israel. I sure hope BO hits the ground running with this crisis. The surviving Gazans deserve nothing less.
Thanks to the best photo site on the web, Big Picture, for the powerful image.
Israel’s Warsaw: Gaza (UPDATED)
Extreme Makeover: Gaza Edition
Ever since Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority in a bloody guerrilla war two years ago, the people of Gaza have found their very survival endangered. Israel, since Hamas has taken power and with the tacit approval of the United States (they don’t sneeze without informing us), strangles Gaza with the grip of economic duress, resource embargoes, and conventional warfare. They do not let the world enter, so the Gazans suffer silently. CommonDreams.org has an eye-opening piece on what Gazan life is like.
“It is an unfolding humanitarian
catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an
unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health,”
Falk said when I reached him by phone in California shortly before he
left for Israel. “This is an increasingly precarious condition. A
recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from
acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with
Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among
children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition
is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75
percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially
among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan
children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live.”Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without
power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals.
There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic
fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel.
Medical equipment, including one of Gaza’s three CT scanners, has been
destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot
control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has
revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized
care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis,
have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because
they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours
at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel.
The statistics gathered on children-half of Gaza’s population is under
the age of 17-are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in
Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18
percent have stunted growth.
Why? Because of where they live. No other reason. Shambollocks! does not take sides on the Israeli-Palestinian debate, other than to say both sides need to make serious concessions. What we will bring to the attention of our readers is true human suffering at the hands of an esteemed member of the international community. This is not Zimbabwe. This is Israel, a people’s whose own history traces an arc of human suffering. Shame on them.
President-elect Obama, you must address this crisis. Do you believe the ignorant, sick children of Gaza will grow up to be democracy-loving entrepeneurs? We need to get real and tell Israel to end the Gazan embargo. Let’s bring a sense of human decency and common sense to our view of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Let’s stop the cynical worldview which allows us be Israeli apologists. Only then can we really ask the Arab world to stop their support of extremists.
- The New York Times reported Thursday that the weak six-month truce between Hamas and Israel is no more. Although the Times believes both sides will renew the truce soon, in the mean time that means the sounds of the season in Gaza will be missiles whistling through the air. Happy holidays!
O'Hare Arpt., IL
