NOTE: I will be talking TONIGHT at 7 PM along wirth Greg Palast of the BBC, author of best-selling “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” at the Walker Stage at 58 Walker Street (Below Canal St). The event costs $5. I will be previewing our new Globalvision film about the Flori-duh election, “COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY.” Be there or be square or something like that!

SHARON MEDIA OFFENSIVE

JOURNALISTS AT RISK

PUNDIT IMBALANCE

On this April Fool’s day, I can only recommend a moment of silence for all who are dying in the insanity of the latest chapter of one of the world’s oldest wars. Perhaps we can ask radio and TV stations to replay that anthem by the Who, “Won’t be fooled again.”

Ariel Sharon was trotted out to the major media yesterday in a a media offensive presenting him as newly subdued and thoughtful configuration. He was talking from his “ranch” just the way Dubya does it. Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes was reduced to asking him if he hated Arafat, and, surprise, surprise, he said, no, he didn’t hate anyone. The man half the world thinks of as a war criminal was being treated as a tough only old Rasally Uncle, who was forced to do what he has to do. He easily passied Stath’s probe. After Leslie, he was on the phone with William Saffire of the New York Times, and then “called back” to reaffirm his interest in peaceful outcomes. Arik, considered by some in Israel, as Begin’s successor as “King of The Jews” reassured the hawk of the op-ed page, “All countries seeking peace should pray that the Israeli Defense Forces succeed in their mission….” Let’s dance the hora.

REPORTERS OUT!

If Sharon has his way, we may never know HOW his shiock troops will execute their mission (or the people resisting it.) That’s because journalists in Ramallah are being put on warning that they may be fined for “harboring” Palestinians and thrown out of the new “military zone” along with activists from overseas, mostly Europeans, who are on a solidarity mission and seemed to have been able to stop an IDF military incursion into a local hospital yesterday. ABC News featured that conflict, much to the Israeli governments’ fury. US news agancies have hired journalists for some time, but now the forces of the Israeli occupation are redeing those people as agents of Arafat (”no doubt work for the Palestinian Authority)…The Foreign Press Association is challenging this latest edict which in some ways resembles Pentagon policies of excluding journalists from the battleground. Anthony Shahdid of the Boston Globe was shot yesterday in Ramallah. There seem to be may ways to control the media–and Israel seems willing to use them all.

BREAKING NEWS: As I writeat 9:10 AM EST, I am told that Amy Goodman on Pacifica’s Democracy Now program is taking a call from the West Bank with an eyewitness describing the deliberate shooting of a TV cameraman by Israeli soldiers…Details to come…..

COMPETING NARRATIVES

How we understand this conflict often depends on where we live and what information we are exposed to, or denied. Nation columnist Eric Alterman, writing for MSNBC.com, describes the different narratives that present the conflict: “Stepping back the horrific headlines of the day, it is clear thatthe conflict over Israel/Palestine is all about competing narratives. Bothsides inflict inhuman cruelties on one another. Both sides blame the otherfor forcing them to do so. The Israelis kill far more Palestinians thanvice-versa, with far more deadly and effective weapons; but thePalestinians, unlike the Israelis, deliberately target innocents formurder. The Israelis say the conflict will end when the Palestiniansrenounce their commitment to terrorism and accept Israel‚s “right toexistence.” The Palestinians claim it will end when Israel ends itsillegal occupation of Palestinian lands and compensates the millions ofrefugees it created, either by returning them to their homes or givingthem the funds necessary to build new ones.

“A TALE OF TWO STORIES

” In most of the world, it is the Palestinian narrative of adispossessed people that dominates. In the United States, however, thenarrative that dominates is Israel‚s: a democracy under constant siege.Europeans and other Palestinian partisans point to the fact that theIsrael lobby in America is one of the strongest anywhere, and Jewishindividuals and organizations give millions of dollars to politicalcandidates in order to reward pro-Israel policies and punish those whosupport the Palestinians. Another reason, however, is the near-completedomination by pro-Israel partisans of the punditocracy discourse.

“Some Jewish groups in America like to harass news organizationslike The Washington Post or National Public Radio for what they believe tobe coverage insufficiently sympathetic to Israel‚s plight. But evenYitzhak Shamir and Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to complain aboutthe level of support their actions typically receive from the members ofthe punditocracy.”

THERE IS A LARGER CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

I will return to Eric’s evidence in a minute, but want to add another perspective first from the Progressive Sociologists Network. Lauren explains that our views are shaped not just by the news covdrage, but the cultural environment from which it emanates. In other words, media bias has to be seen in a larger cultural framework. “Coincidence, I write with a little TV next to my computer to catch relevant news, WWF spectacles and Star Trek. As it happens, I am writing some stuff on hegemony right now and the control of media. At the same time, 10 Commandments is on, greatest piece of shlock ever made by a NRA prez. Ok, …..I would suggest, in our media age, very few are exposed to anything but tv news clips/sight and sound bites. In a society where about 40 % of young voters get political info from Leno or Letterman, the control of images leads to the control of minds. In other words, unconditional support for Israel and its rejection of UN-242 have been defined as the “way things are”, “common sense”. And if any questions that, as AK 47 Heston puts its, “behold the will of God”. 10 Commanments, great B movie, really bad basis for foreign policy.”

NEWS SKEWS

Also, we need to recognize that news organizations in other nations have also santiized the coverage pf the Palestinian issue. Ismail Lagardien writes, “In 1987/1988 i worked as a sub-editor (copy-editor to those in the US) on a newspaper in Johannesburg; we received a notice from Reuters at the time which instructed that all references to Israelis having “killed” Palestinians would be changed to (a number of Palestinian terrorists) “died” in clashes. Reuters wanted to keep their correspondents in Israel and had to abide by the military set media regulations.

“The same tactics were used by the apartheid regime successive states of emergency in the 1980s. We weren’t allowed to write “South African Defence Force Troops killed black youths”. It had to be changed to, something like “ANC terrorists died in clashes with the security forces”. Or “ANC terrorists died when the defective Soviet munitions they carried exploded” etc etc… much of what is happening in Palestine is SO similar to the apartheid regime’s machinery it is - i actually have no words. what the heck; it’s not even worth discussing this. the Israelis are like the Americans; they’re always innocent (apologies for the generalizations).”

DIVISIONS AMONG JEWS UNREPORTED

Unreported in most media accounts I the debate that is raging within the Jewish Community about this in Israel and overseas. Typical example. Stephen Block writes on a website I monitor: “I gotta say this. I am Jewish, nominally. I have lots of relatives in Israel (whom I hardly know. My best friend lives there now. I cringe every time phrases like “the Jewish community” are used in the media. Representing the most reactionary elements in this “community”, as THE community, is itself a form of racism, except inverted to make these people look good rather than evil, if you get my drift.

“Anyway, my main point is that the people I know and love in Israel are appalled and have been appalled by the right, since before the assassination of Rabin (which went essentially unpunished and, dare I say, unavenged. The ideal of a secular socialist-Zionist state is of course deader than a doornail. Meanwhile the triumph of religious Zionists, who still believe that Abraham still lives in Hebron with his goats, asses, wives and children, are about to bring us WW111.

“So I think it is more than time for people who are Jewish (by birth only is more than sufficient) to point out the fact that Sharon does not represent their view in any way, nor do the religious zealots.

This debate is also raging inside Israel. Here is the flavor of an exchange in one chat room. The first position is enunciated by Danny Shapiro, who had considered himself a “liberal” and critical of the government. “you will not find me going to any Peace Now demonstrations calling for us to withdraw, unilaterally or otherwise,from anywhere. No, no, no. I cannot take the risk that my running away from the territories unilaterally will not be interpreted by the Palestinians in particular, and the Arab world in general, in the same way our withdrawal from Lebanon was (according to Bernard Lewis and many others): additional proof that Israel is weak, and applying constant terrorist pressure will cause us to fold up and run away.Because then it will never end.

” No, no, I cannot take that chance. It is far too likely that this interpretation is true. We took a big risk with Oslo, and this hasfailed. Now there is much more on the line. Anyone who makes light of the existential risks of the current situation is deluding himself dangerously.”

Hillel Shenker responds: “Okay, I’ll take up Danny’s gauntlet (if we’re using military terminology).Yes, the seder bombing was a terrible abomination, a reflection of totaldisregard for life or even the religious principles which the Hamasperpetrators profess to believe in. And it was a clear challenge toArafat’s authority, as he tried to declare a unilateral cease-fire to helppromote the Zinni mission. At the grassroots level, the Palestinians seemto have concluded that suicide bombing is the only military tool they havewhich can offset Israel’s overwhelming military power. It’s a terribleconclusion, but if the only game in town is military, than there is acertain warped logic to that thinking.

“So does this mean that, as Danny says he is near concluding, thatthebest of all our terrible choices is “for us to go into the territorieswithmassive force, destroy as much military and terrorist infrastructure aspossible, arrest and kill if necessary large numbers of terroristactivists:and end the Arafat-Dachlan-Bargutti etc. regime. Destroy the PalestineAuthority; take over the territories again”?

” My answer is no. This is not a “milchemet ein breira” (war of noalternatives). There are other alternatives…”

DENOUNCING THE “JEWISH TALIBAN?”

In America when Jews do challenge the policies of the Israeli government, they are denouced by some as traitors or worse. Andrea Peyser who has never met a dissenter she liked devotes her New York Post column today to denouncing Adam Shapiro of Brooklyn, an international humanitarian worker who went to Arafat’s compound to help treat the wonded. She, of all people, calls him a “self-hating Jew” and compares him to John Walker Lindh: “The Jewish Taliban.” The ignorance in this column needs no further disussion but it does smell like a plant from one or another of the oranizations which make up the Israeli lobby. Michael Massing, a free lance writer has a long takeout on the lobby in American Prospect magazine arguing that policy and the media debate is influenced by the organizations collectively known as the “israeli Lobby:”

“Jews remain one of the most liberal groups in American society. And although concern about Israel’s security has pushed some of them to the right, the majority have supported the peace process, including the efforts of President Clinton late in his term to bring about an agreement with the Palestinians. During and since those years, however, the two Jewish organizations with the most influence on foreign policy have had leaders who are far more conservative and hard-line than are most American Jews. …

“This is sensitive territory. On the streets of Cairo, Beirut, and Tehran, vendors hawk anti-Semitic pamphlets claiming that a small cabal of Zionists runs the world. Among Arab elites, it’s an article of faith that the “Jewish lobby” dictates U.S. policy toward the Middle East. In fact, that policy reflects an array of factors, including America’s dependence on foreign oil, its fight against Islamic terrorism, its efforts to contain Iraq and Iran, and the fact that Israel is the one and only democracy in the region. What’s more, American Jews, in seeking to influence U.S. policy in the area, are simply exercising their rights as American citizens to organize politically and press their interests. Unfortunately, those who are most adept at this do not necessarily represent the broad range of Jewish views on the subject. At a time when Palestinian terror bombings grow more horrific daily and Israeli military action in the occupied territories grows steadily harsher, the bias in political representation has complicated negotiations and reduced the likelihood that the United States will be able to mediate the conflict successfully.

He notes that two groups AIPAC and the organization of Presidents of Jewish organization have, despite public opinion polls which show that a majority of American Jews want to US to play a more active role brokering peace, they are pushing the Bush Administration to remain disengaged: “With Israelis and Palestinians killing one another in an ever escalating cycle of revenge and retaliation, only strong intervention by the United States seems capable of stopping it. But as long as groups like AIPAC and the Presidents Conference continue to be controlled by a small, unrepresentative core, such a role for Washington seems out of the question.”

ON THE GROUND ACCOUNTS

As for the activists, the Indymedia site in Israel is carrying first person accounts of their experience. Here is one: “Jordan Flaherty, from Brooklyn, NY Last night the IsraeliMilitary tried to kill me.

“I’m staying in the al azzeh refugee camp, in Bethlehem, along with abouttwenty other international civilians. We’re here to act as human shields,because we’ve heard an Israeli invasion is imminent. It’s 1:30pm rightnow, on Easter Sunday, and some are expecting the invasion within the nexttwo hours.

“On the hill above the camp is an Israeli miltary snipers post. The mainstreet that runs down the village is in plain sight of the snipers post.To get where we were staying in the village, most of us had to cross thisstreet. It was a quick, low, dash across the street. As I ran, the sniperfired. I heard at least six shots fired in the short distance I ran,exposed. The shots began as I came into view, and stopped shortly after Imade it to the other side. They were clearly aimed at me. And, by thesound of them, they were close. All night long, there was the sound of gunshots, as the military shot into our village. We stayed clear of thewindows. Some of the windows”

OTHER PALESTINIAN LEADERS: ASWARI….

There has been a lot of talk of there being no other Palestinian leaders but Arafat. This is not true, and never has been. Years ago, I met one of them, the brilliant and dynamic Dr. Hannan Ashrawi whose daughter I filmed as one of the Seeds of Peace campers trying to call for more communication and peace with Israelis. Many Palestinians are part of a robust civil society which also goes undreported for the most part. She has joined other top Palestinian intellectuals in call on people of good will to speak out: “Now is the time for immediate and direct action, as the pattern ofescalating oppression and brutality that we have experienced over thepast 18 months moves inexorably towards a disaster whose consequenceswe can only begin to imagine. In this dark hour of suffering anddetermined resistance, we are sure that the worst is yet to come, butwe are equally sure that, with the support of global civil society atthis crucial time, peace and justice will prevail.”

AND SAID….

Palestinian intellectuals like Edward Said say the real reason that most American are NOT responding to this type of an appeal is because their image of Israel is outdated, and romantic”The word “Israel” has a quite unusual resonance in English, especially inthe United States. To hear politicians repeat the familiar mantra aboutsupporting Israel and keeping it strong is to realize that an actual countryor state is not at issue, but rather an idea or talisman of some sort, onethat far transcends the status of every other state or country in the world.

“…Newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post are filled withcolumnists such as William Safire and Charles Krauthammer who in any othercontext would seem completely crazy. Both have taken to crowing overSharon’s tenure as head of Israel’s government, not because he has shown apropensity to brute force and, on the whole, stupidly destructive actions,but because they argue with a completely straight face that he is the onlyfigure capable of showing Palestinians the kind of disciplinary reasoningthat will set them straight….

“Israel has therefore been internalized as the private personal fantasy ofevery American supporter, or so the appearances seem to suggest. Yet,American Jews have a special relationship that entitles them to perhaps agreater degree of involvement in telling Israel what it should be, inparticular and this is the most amazing feature of what I am discussing onmatters of security. No one bothers to note that Israeli citizens are theones doing the fighting and planning, not long-distance diaspora Jews.

“It is therefore little short of miraculous that despite its years ofmilitary occupation, Israel is not ever identified with colonialism orcolonial practices. That seems to me the greatest failing of all, both ofPalestinian information and discourse and even of Israeli dissent, when theyundertake to be critical of Israeli government policy. There is an excellentanalysis of “How Far Will Sharon Go?” in the current New York Review ofBooks (dated May 17, 2001) by Avishai Margalit, professor of philosophy atthe Hebrew University, which is totally unlike American analyses of thesituation in that: a) it minces no words about Israeli collective punishmentagainst Palestinians; and, b) it doesn’t attempt to dress up the situationwith any fancy language about Israeli security, an appalling habit ofintellectuals who feel the need to talk as if they are generals in order totake themselves seriously.

WHO’S WHO IN THE MEDIA DEBATE?

Back now to Eric Alterman because he has compiled some that show the media imbalance on this issue in the US. Your thoughts on these lists would be welcome:

“For reasons of religion, politics, history and genuine convictionthe punditocracy debate of the Middle East in America is dominated bypeople who cannot imagine criticizing Israel. The value of this legion tothe Jewish state is, for better or worse, literally incalculable,particularly when push ˜ as it inevitably does in the Middle East ˜ comesto shove. Here‚s a list I made in trying to measure the immeasurable.

COLUMNISTS AND COMMENTATORS WHO CAN BE COUNTED UPON TO SUPPORT ISRAELREFLEXIVELY AND WITHOUT QUALIFICATION:

George Will, The Washington Post, Newsweek and ABC News

William Safire, The New York Times

A.M. Rosenthal, The New York Daily News, formerly Executive Editor of andlater columnist for, The New York Times,

Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, PBS, Time, and The WeeklyStandard, formerly of the New Republic.

Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, NationalJournal, and MSNBC.com, formerly of The New Republic and The New Yorker.

Lally Weymouth, The Washington Post and Newsweek

Martin Peretz, The New Republic,

Daniel Pipes, The New York Post

Andrea Peyser, The New York Post

Dick Morris, The New York Post

Lawrence Kaplan, The New Republic

William Bennett, CNN

William Kristol, The Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, Fox News,formerly of ABC News

Robert Kagan, The Washington Post and The Weekly Standard,

Mortimer Zuckerman, US News and World Report (Zuckerman is also Chairmanof Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations ).

David Gelertner, The Weekly Standard

John Podhoretz, The New York Post and The Weekly Standard

Mona Charen, The Washington Times

Morton Kondracke, Roll Call, Fox News formerly of The McLaughlin Group,The New Republic and PBS

Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard, Fox News, formerly of The New Republic,The McLaughlin Group, and The Baltimore Sun

Yossi Klein Halevi The New Republic,

Sidney Zion, The New York Post, formerly of The New York Daily News

Norman Podhoretz, Commentary,

Jonah Goldberg, National Review and CNN

Laura Ingraham, CNN, formerly of MSNBC and CBS News

Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe

Rich Lowry, National Review

Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic

Seth Lipsky, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Sun, formerly ofthe Jewish Forward

Irving Kristol, The Public Interest, The National Interest and The WallStreet Journal Editorial Page

Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Allan Keyes, MSNBC, WorldNetDaily.com

Brit Hume, Fox News

John Leo, US News and World Report

Robert Bartley, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page

John Fund, The Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal, formerly of The WallStreet Journal Editorial Page

Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page,

Ben Wattenberg, The Washington Times, PBS

Tony Snow, Washington Times and Fox News

Lawrence Kudlow, National Review and CNBC

Alan Dershowitz, Boston Herald, Washington Times

David Horowitz, Frontpage.com

Jacob Heilbrun, The Los Angeles Times

Thomas Sowell, Washington Times

Frank Gaffney Jr, Washington Times

Emmett Tyrell, American Spectator and New York Sun

Cal Thomas, Washington Times

Oliver North, Washington Times and Fox News, formerly of MSNBC

Michael Ledeen, Jewish World Review

William F. Buckley, National Review

Bill O‚Reilly, Fox News

Paul Greenberg, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,

L. Brent Bozell, Washington Times

Todd Lindberg, Washington Times

Michael Barone, US News and World Report and The McLaughlin Group

Ann Coulter, Human Events,

Linda Chavez, Creators Syndicate

Cathy Young, Reason Magazine

Uri Dan, New York Post

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, morality maven

Rush Limbaugh, radio host

PUBLICATIONS THAT, FOR REASONS OF OWNER OR EDITORSHIP CAN BE COUNTED UPONTO SUPPORT ISRAEL REFLEXIVELY AND WITHOUT QUALIFICATION:

The New Republic (Martin Peretz, Michael Steinhardt, Roger Hertog,Owners)

Commentary (American Jewish Committee, Owner)

US News and World Report (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)

The New York Daily News (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)

The New York Post (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)

The Weekly Standard (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page (Peter Kann, Editor)

The Atlantic Monthly (Michael Kelly, Editor)

COLUMNISTS LIKELY TO CRITICIZE BOTH ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS, BUT VIEWTHEMSELVES TO BE CRITICALLY SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL, AND ULTIMATELY, WOULDSUPPORT ISRAELI SECURITY OVER PALESTINIAN RIGHTS:

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times,

Richard Cohen, The Washington Post and New York Daily News

Avishai Margolit, The New York Review of Books

David Remnick, The New Yorker

Eric Alterman, The Nation and MSNBC.com

The New York Times Editorial Board

The Washington Post Editorial Board

COLUMNISTS LIKELY TO BE REFLEXIVELY ANTI-ISRAEL AND/OR PRO-PALESTINIANREGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE:

Robert Novak, The Washington Post

Pat Buchanan, WorldNetDaily.com, formerly of The Washington Times, TheWashington Times and CNN.

Alexander Cockburn, The Nation and New York Press

Christopher Hitchens, The Nation and Vanity Fair

Edward Said, The Nation

LAST THOUGHTS

Ok, I know I am running over, a real sin these days because as the New York Times notes today, many magazines are slashing their use of words and replacing the with pictures. Here’s an E-mail that came in yesterday:

“Dear Dissector:

“Regarding today’s entry; I think you should havewritten some kind of announcement/disclaimer at thetop of the page to the effect of:

“The current dismal state of our world is occuringwith the direct complicity and support of anadministration that the American people didn’t elect”.

“I also think they should send Danny Rather tonegotiate with the IDF and secure Arafat’s saferelease from “isolation”, since he’s so ready to lineup–whenever and wherever the pRESIDENT wants him to.

Fayshon Patrice Brown”

SEE ANNOUNCEMENT ABOVE

Whew. I did get carried away today, but there is so much to comment on, and so many perspectives often missing in the media morass. Let me know if I should ease up. I know that there is no way to be totally balanced in coverage of these issues. Just remember: one can be outraged by, and denounce suicide bombings which I do, while at the same time question the wisdom of the Israeli war. With that said, once again, I bid adieu and await your response at dissector@mediachannel.org