Saturday, March 1, 2008

Same Planet, Different Worlds

Here are two stories about the bombing of Gaza and Ashkelon over the past few days, as reported by the BBC and the NY Times. There are some pretty amazing differences in the perspectives, beginning with the pictures used for each account, the way "shoah" is defined and the intent of its use, the identities of the dead Palestinians, etc.

Dozens die in Israel-Gaza clashes
BBC.com, 1 March 2008

46 Killed in Israeli Strikes on North Gaza

NYTimes.com, March 2, 2008

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yet even as more civilians die in Gaza, the commentary in the arabic press is muted. Why? Could it be that there is limited sympathy for the actions of Hamas; that in this case it is not a 'shoah' against Palestinians, but an anticipated IDF reaction to Hamas? Is Hamas actually trying to draw the Israelis back into direct conflict in order to force support from West Bankers?

Sue said...

Interesting. Seems they both missed that angle.

Unknown said...

Its terrible, because it seems so inevitable. The Israelis don't want to go into Gaza for obvious reasons, but public pressure to do something about the rockets will only increase. Hamas knows this, but will find further legitimacy in violence based on the unequal force that the IDF will bring, particularly on civilians. All of this death and destruction is designed to insure that Hamas is a force to reckon with, and to be bargained with. Should work. And so the cycle continues. Oops, ok, off the box on your blog!

Sue said...

I wonder if it's even that simple. While I DEFINITELY don't support Hamas's tactics (or the IDFs), it is important to keep in mind that - while our government may not like the outcome of the democracy we're supposedly spreading - Hamas was duly elected. And then we cut 'em off, turning Gaza into an even bigger hell-hole than it already was. And so, while we give lip service to trying to fix the Israel/Palestine "problem", indeed we have some serious navel-gazing to do about the current situation.