The basic problem progressive -- or liberal, or Democratic, or whatever they're calling themselves this week -- reporters, newspapers editors, and other members of the establishment have is that the fight between Israel and Hamas is a different front in the same battle between civilization and barbarism as Iraq and Vietnam. People can construct all sorts of intellectual distinctions between the cases, but the end result remains that if Israel is right to fight Hamas, then the United States and its Vietnamese allies were right to defend South Vietnam from North Vietnam and its Viet Cong proxies. The same applies to defending to our work defending Iraq from Al Qaeda, Iranian, and Sadrist psychopaths. Two generations have grown up defining their self-images by their opposition to our country's work in these wars. Try telling the senior news editors in the mainstream media that the moral cause they congratulated themselves on for 50 years is evil. In their minds Israel can't be justified, because that means they've spent their entire lives as moral failures. For the younger generation, the parallels to Iraq are closer, so the trauma to their egos of supporting Israel and accepting that they are moral failures is even more pronounced.
Hillary Clinton's rhetorical support for Israel appears to be a welcome counterexample to this argument. However, recall that she was not the most anti- anti- Saddam activist to begin with, which is why she lost the 2008 nomination, and I doubt she'll maintain her enthusiasm for the Jewish state if U.S. troops get involved and things get messy, which may easily happen given our recent battles with Iran in Syria.
I ended my subscription to the NY Times well over a decade ago for this very reason, it's egregiously false coverage of Israel long before the current situation brought the disgusting bias to a critical boil. I never subscribed to the Post and never will. I will never read either dirt rag again. Of course it's not just these two grotesqueries. Virtually the entire world media outside of Fox is inexplicably and remarkably unfair to Israel. Basically the entire Western mainstream media has become the propaganda arm of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera is more reliable. Now we are finding that Nazis employed by these outlets as stringers actually accompanied Hamas on its demon rampage and offered no warning. I dont know how bad it has to get but it seems to me, Israel aside for the moment, that Western Civilization is being assaulted on every front, media, education, entrenched permanent government. It's actually much worse in Europe than here. The only question remaining is will the kettle boil over. Will Westerners here and Europe push back? If they do it might get violent. One thing I know is that Israel will survive with or without the blessing of the West. It has no choice.
The basic problem progressive -- or liberal, or Democratic, or whatever they're calling themselves this week -- reporters, newspapers editors, and other members of the establishment have is that the fight between Israel and Hamas is a different front in the same battle between civilization and barbarism as Iraq and Vietnam. People can construct all sorts of intellectual distinctions between the cases, but the end result remains that if Israel is right to fight Hamas, then the United States and its Vietnamese allies were right to defend South Vietnam from North Vietnam and its Viet Cong proxies. The same applies to defending to our work defending Iraq from Al Qaeda, Iranian, and Sadrist psychopaths. Two generations have grown up defining their self-images by their opposition to our country's work in these wars. Try telling the senior news editors in the mainstream media that the moral cause they congratulated themselves on for 50 years is evil. In their minds Israel can't be justified, because that means they've spent their entire lives as moral failures. For the younger generation, the parallels to Iraq are closer, so the trauma to their egos of supporting Israel and accepting that they are moral failures is even more pronounced.
Hillary Clinton's rhetorical support for Israel appears to be a welcome counterexample to this argument. However, recall that she was not the most anti- anti- Saddam activist to begin with, which is why she lost the 2008 nomination, and I doubt she'll maintain her enthusiasm for the Jewish state if U.S. troops get involved and things get messy, which may easily happen given our recent battles with Iran in Syria.
Will Jeff Bezos move to Gaza City ?
I ended my subscription to the NY Times well over a decade ago for this very reason, it's egregiously false coverage of Israel long before the current situation brought the disgusting bias to a critical boil. I never subscribed to the Post and never will. I will never read either dirt rag again. Of course it's not just these two grotesqueries. Virtually the entire world media outside of Fox is inexplicably and remarkably unfair to Israel. Basically the entire Western mainstream media has become the propaganda arm of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Jazeera is more reliable. Now we are finding that Nazis employed by these outlets as stringers actually accompanied Hamas on its demon rampage and offered no warning. I dont know how bad it has to get but it seems to me, Israel aside for the moment, that Western Civilization is being assaulted on every front, media, education, entrenched permanent government. It's actually much worse in Europe than here. The only question remaining is will the kettle boil over. Will Westerners here and Europe push back? If they do it might get violent. One thing I know is that Israel will survive with or without the blessing of the West. It has no choice.
You also have broadcaster son MSNBC repeating Hamas press release content as if it were a news source: "Spokesmen for Hamas report..."
Great post. One of the many reasons I'm a former WAPO subscriber is that an article's headline often magnifies lies in the article. Jim Dueholm
Sigh
Perhaps the new Editor can put his hand on the rudder a bit?