August 22, 2003 - The Los Angeles Times: On Hamas’ Side?
Most of those who read my rantings know a little bit about me. When the issue of Israel comes up, I am deeply divided – I think there are villains and victims on both the Palestinian and Israel side of the issue, and no progress in peace will come while Palestinians point to Israelis and say “it is all their fault” while Israeli’s point at Palestinians and say ”it is all their fault.” In my mind, both sides are at fault for the mess that currently encompasses Israel and the Palestinians. Truth be told, the one’s truly at fault are the Arab states that refused the two-state solution proposed by the UN back in 1948 – if they had acknowledged Israel’s right to exist at the time, and accepted a second state for a Palestinian homeland, we all might be in a very different world. But, this truth does not matter now in the current crises facing Israel and the Palestinians.
The focus of my rant, instead, is the media, the Los Angeles Times in particular, and how it feeds into the cycle of violence and hate, usually painting pictures with very broad brushes that always make one side (usually Israel) the villain, and the other side (usually the Palestinians) the victims. As the Israelis and Palestinians try to implement the United State's sponsored "Roadmap to Peace" how each side acts and reacts to events must be reported fairly and evenly. There has been a truce of sorts in place, with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Prime Minister, talking with Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades all being asked to refrain from attacking Israel and its citizens. To date, there had been no move to disarm any of these groups because Abbas did not have the power to do so. Nevertheless, until events of this past week, this truce had pretty much held. Now, that this truce seems to be a figment of everyone's imagination, the LA Times is spreading the blame exactly where it always does - at Israel. Apparently, the LA Times treats the words "Fair and Balanced" with as much deference as Fox News.
As we all know by now, last Tuesday, another suicide/homicide bombing took place in Israel. This bombing again targeted Israel’s civilian population – even more despicable, it targeted families returning home from evening prayers at the wailing/western wall in Jerusalem – one of the holiest sites in the Jewish faith. The bomber, a 30 year old Palestinian exploded himself on a bus filled with children, mothers, fathers, brothers, and friends. Among the dead were a number of children. The world's and the LA Times' reaction: This is horrible, this is terrible, but this is just some dead folk, some who happen to be children, let's not overreact. Oh, and let us not forget about the two suicide bombings the week before that killed a couple more Israelis. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad take responsibility for the bombing. So, we have three separate suicide bombings targeting civilians during this “truce.”
Israel, for its part, had also be making raids into Palestinian territories to try and disarm and deter those Palestinians who would do harm to Israeli civilians. (While this was the job of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Prime Minister, he has been unable to disarm the militant groups because he is little more than a figurehead – the power still lies with Arafat and his ilk). So, we have a Palestinian Authority with no authority or mandate from the Palestinian people, Palestinian militant groups still working to develop, deploy and detonate human bombs (or as I like to call it, the “Triple D”) and Israel sending its army into the Palestinian territories trying to prevent the Triple D from happening. Then, the bus goes Boom.
How does Israel respond to this action – the only way it knows how, and a way that will surely have short term consequences that only ratchets up the violence once again: it assassinates a top political leader of Hamas, including his two bodyguards. Hamas, if you remember, along with Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for bus bombing that killed 21 Israeli civilians. And, the cycle of violence is off and running again. Sounds kind of complicated doesn’t it – something that requires thought and a little bit of introspection before you judge the villain and the victims, if you can even discern villain from victim in this whole mess.
Enter the Los Angeles Times.
The headline for the times on Friday, August 22, 2003 reads as follows: “Truce Ended After Israeli Airstrike.” Ummm, excuse me, didn’t the truce actually end with the Triple D bus bomb? Why is Israel painted as the sole villain here – I guess 21 dead Israeli civilians does not warrant an end to a truce, but the death of a Hamas leader does? Sounds a little biased if you asked me. Perhaps Israel should have merely reacted tit for tat, and bombed a bus of families leaving their evening prayers, killing around 20 or so . . . would that be OK? I can only imagine what would happen if the Israeli government had acted so - everyone, including me, would have condemned Israel. Just imagine how such actions would have played in the LA Times editorial meetings . . .
Similarly, Saturday, August 23, 2003's headline reads “Anger Fills Hamas Funeral” – You know, I am sure that is true. But I am also quite sure that similar anger is fueling the 21 funerals being held in Israel for their dead. The Los Angeles Times should be ashamed of itself for taking a complicated problem and reducing it to nothing more than a photo op for the Palestinian cause and Islamic extremism, compliment by two color photos of the victimized:
“Shouts of ‘Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!’ rose into the steamy air as tens of thousands of Palestinians, many waving the green flag of Hamas, marched Friday in a tumultuous funeral process for the radical Islamic group’s most senior leader to be killed by Israel during nearly three years of violence”
The Israeli perspective buried later in the article, without a photo in sight:
“Israelis ushered in a solemn Sabbath, the first since the bombing, still reeling from the sights of the past days: tiny coffins being lowered into stony ground, front-page newspaper photographs of maimed children reunited with wounded parents . . . "
Now maybe I am being too sensitive, but does this seem proportional? Are the deaths of the Israeli civilians just not that big a deal – or, as I suspect, is the Los Angeles Times showing its anti-Israel bias, and acting as an advocate for Hamas? There is death on both sides, and suffering on both sides, and responsibility on both sides, yet the Palestinian perspective seems to make better copy: somehow they are the only victims, and Israel the only villain. All I can say to the LA Times is: Shame, Shame Shame. You have a responsibility to do better than that. The problems facing the Middle East, and specifically, Israel and the Palestinians are decades, if not centuries in the making. There are plenty of victims and villains on both side of this fight. Nothing about this situation is easy. The LA Times, by abandoning any form of objectivity, is only making it more difficult for rational, thoughtful people to try and find a way to work through a problem that is literally biblical in nature.