I'm giving up writing commentary on TRNN's coverage of Israel. To continually point out how they distort reality is tiring. I'm for human rights and for the rights of the Palestinians; and yet, the more I read and watch, the more I get tired of the delusions of the left.
If you were to pay attention to the leftist press you would believe that the one and only cause of Palestinian misery is Israel...and 100% of Israelis are actively oppressing Palestinians (never mind that 20% of the population IS Palestinian Arab...why let reality get in the way of fashionable political stances?). In reality the list of those screwing up the lives of Palestinians is very long it includes the PA and Hamas to the governments of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Syria to even the US regime...doesn't it seem odd that 100% of the attention and blame for this travesty is focused on one state when so many are playing a part? Honestly if we were to try to weight who has caused the most misery for the Palestinians, I'm not sure their own leadership class wouldn't come out as number one; although this in no way justifies anyone else's cruelty and bad policies.
But let's examine some of these policies...let's compare some details of Lebanon and Israel's treatment of Palestinian '48 refugees and their descendants. In Lebanon these refugees usually do not get citizenship (unless they were upper middle class Christians and/or married locals generally), don't even get work permits (although there seem to be plenty of work permits around for foreign workers from Africa and Asia) and are legally barred from prestigious professions. They can not register property they may own. And in a most disgusting affront to human rights, they can be barred from Hospitals...don't take my word for it...go read the Palestinian and Arab press. Palestinians who fled to Lebanon have been subject to everything from day to day discrimination to out and out bombing. So much for Arab solidarity. The world turns a blind eye to these problems not just in Lebanon but all over the Levant, except for one single country. All over the Levant the '1948 displaced Arabs have suffered; and continue to suffer. Ironically Israel is one of the few countries some of such people can receive medical treatment in or from...if they can pay off the correct bribes to the Hamas or PA officials holding them hostage that is. There are UNRWA and Hamas and PA supported medical facilities, but when it comes to tertiary level care or specific care for certain diseases, Israel is probably the best hope some of these people have...but together with a budget large enough to put a doctor in every village UNRWA, the PA and Hamas have taken on a sometimes conflicted but often symbiotic corruption scheme gauranteed to fail the healthcare needs of actual normal people- but enhance the conflict causing some of those very needs.
A question I often ask pro-Palestinian activists from the US, is why Israel ONLY? If you want to target the biggest cause of armed conflict- target the USA. Most weapons in the world roll right out of or are at least sold by the USA. If you want to stop injustice, why not start at home? And if you really cared about the human rights of Palestinian people wouldn't the first target be Hamas? It's a much more defensible position to say we must fight injustice everywhere than we must fight injustice only if it's related to Jewish nationalism, and everyone everywhere else gets a pass. That attitude is precisely why plenty of otherwise reasonable Jews have just decided the world hates us, and let's just not bother explaining our side of the story. A quite reasonable line of thinking might go: If it's unjust that Palestians were displaced from The Galil or Jaffa, then how is it less unjust that Jews were displaced from Baghdad or Cairo? Why does one side get all the love of leftists?
Having known some Iraqui Jewish families, I've noticed their stories vary just like those of the Palestinians. Some may have moved somewhat "willfully"- but how much does will play a part in a time of war and chaos? One of my good female friend's families only fled after her grandfather was shot in the head. That kind of violence blurs the line between willful and forced relocation. The deeper you go into the actual personal accounts the of history of the Levant from any side, the more confusing the issue becomes in some ways. Not every story conforms to any simple narrative.
But simple narratives are precisely what the news seems to think people want. Therefore stories from co-existence cities like Haifa, which defy well worked out narratives, will never air in the Anglo world. If we sit back we will be brainwashed into the same tired narratives: ones which conveniently remove all responsibility from most people for the misery of anyone. Viewers can happily say 'I'm just an American or Brit--- I didn't do anything..it's all because of Israel, or Jews, or whoever the scapegoat is today' ( but in most cases the age-old scapegoats will do just fine. )
Ironically, almost no one seems focused on the most salient question of all: what can we do to make things better right now? How can we alleviate the unjust suffering and misery? What programs have actually been successful; why and how? One thing is for certain the world's program- mostly the sum total of UNRWA + governments in the Levant + US and UK actions- of keeping Palestinians mired in misery perhaps with the hope that the deeper this misery, the more likely it will cause a dramatic solution, has failed. Misery has only led to more misery, and some misery on top of that...so let's all try and think about how we can realistically fix this now...
I for one, in solidarity with all people like myself living under the threat of rockets (it's been only two days since Israel was last bombed...and the rate never seems to hit zero); am for boycotting the USA. At very least the world's biggest arms exporter should not be sitting on the UN security council...and anyone who can't see that is probably not living in reality...or living in a reality where they and their relatives have nothing to fear but a fall in their asset portfolios presumably well lined with arms manufacturers.
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