the fire next time
By Liberal Librarian
Something feels different about this Israeli war. Previous incursions have gone without much import, the IDF killing hundreds of Palestinians, Palestinians making the diplomatic rounds excoriating Israel, and then everything settling back down into a dull stalemate. Even with US media bias, it’s gotten through the media filter that Israel’s war against Gaza is both disproportionate and horrific. When you trap a population in a Mediterranean gulag, and then pummel it, even the most jaundiced see that it’s morally reprehensible. No, Hamas shouldn’t launch rockets at Israel. But Israel has a rather effective missile defense system. Gaza has AK-47s. It is not an equal contest.
Perhaps it’s the prevalence of social media. During Israel’s previous incursion into Gaza, Twitter was in its infancy. Now with over a billion users, real time pictures from the killing zone are scrolling across millions of Twitter feeds. News organizations won’t show photographs of the dead and maimed; Twitter users will. Smoke plumes, flattened buildings, and screaming children are just a few of the images completely and effectively circumventing the media filter.
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As militarily the conflict is not an equal one, neither is it equal morally. With every dead child, Israel loses more of its moral position. Hamas, a “terrorist organization”, is seen as the victim in the conflict. Perhaps that’s a bit too far; Hamas certainly has enough black marks against it. But every dead child, every destroyed hospital costs Israel valuable standing, standing which is passed on to the Palestinians, leaving the international community less willing to listen to Israel’s prerequisites for an end to the conflict. As Amira Hass writes in Haaretz:
These victories add up to our moral implosion, the ethical defeat of a society that now engages in no self-inspection, that wallows in self pity over postponed airline flights and burnishes itself with the pride of the enlightened.This is a society that mourns, naturally, its more than 40 soldiers who were killed, but at the same time hardens its heart and mind in the face of all the suffering and moral courage and heroism of the people we are attacking. A society that does not understand the extent to which the balance of forces is against it.
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/07/28/the-fire-next-time/
More Here: http://theobamadiary.com/2014/07/28/the-fire-next-time/
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Liberal Librarian is always spot on in their editorials.
