[Mb-civic] Reverse the Picture

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

This article is a couple of weeks old but still enlightening...


http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud10042004.html

CounterPunch October 4, 2004

Reverse the Picture

Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage

By Ramzy Baroud

One can only imagine the utter outrage that would engage world leaders and
media if a series of Palestinian bombings rocked an Israeli town,
spontaneously, and in less than four days killed 60 people and wounded
hundreds, mostly innocent civilians.

Not even the most open-minded of media pundits could dare justify the
crime; not even the most lucid of government officials could rationalize
the orgy of flesh and blood made of mingled bodies, some so beyond repair,
that you wish them death for their own sake.

How repulsive, albeit insensitive if Fox News decided to inundate its
hapless viewers with self-congratulating 'terrorism experts' describing
the 'surgical procedure' followed by the Palestinian bombers whose intent
was merely to target a few unidentified Israeli army officers accused of
threatening the life of Palestinian civilians.

Picture the horror on the dusty faces as firefighters amassing in a small
Tel Aviv street to quell an inferno of homes, shops and roofless buses
while medics, too busy to tend to the blown up bodies, are frantically
hoping to revive the surviving few.

Who would dare step up in a moment like this and attempt on contextualize
the massacre: "Palestinians were retaliating to Israel's use of Israeli
air strikes that killed two Hamas militants a day earlier."

And while Israelis are fighting their tears and mounting fury, fixing
their eyes to a very bloody spectacle on their TV screens, they learn that
the White House refused to condemn the atrocity. Equally outrageous, isn't
it? In turn, a State Department spokesperson agrees with the Hamas
fighters' basic premise, but urges them to "take every measure to ensure
that only proportional force is used to counter the threat that it faces."

To offset the inhumanity and callousness of America's officials, they
switch to another channel where UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's
statement on the massacre is read. Yet Annan merely asks the bombers, who
remain incessant on blowing up more Israelis, to do all they can to avoid
civilian causalities, reminding them of the risks their act may have on
the 'peace process'.

Even Israel's traditional friends in the West, seem not to care. Instead,
their media sounds overly sympathetic to Hamas, reasoning, lending air
time to its officials as they spread propaganda and disseminate further
warning messages to hapless Israelis: "If you don't repent, there is more
where this came from."

In fact, Hamas inconsiderately chooses to name its Tel Aviv massacre,
"Days of Penitence." Western media parrots the codename of Hamas's
'operation' with unmistakable approval.

And when two Israelis infiltrate the border into Gaza, in a shabby
operation to distract Hamas' attention from the unfolding massacre, it
ends up being a golden opportunity for media allies in the United States
to justify Hamas' carnage in retrospect: "This is exactly the kind of
Israeli threats that Hamas is trying to counter," some 'state-terrorism
expert' boasts in a self-vindicating tone.

To ensure that an average American does not question its moral standing on
why its blowing up Israelis, Palestinians stretch their apologists and
lobbyists throughout Washington DC, heaping yet more pressure on US
government officials who are eagerly complying. In fact, they compel the
US president himself to acknowledge 'Hamas' right to defend itself.'
Rumors immediately circulate that the president defies his conscience
often these days for the fear of losing 'Hamas money' in the coming
election.

Instead of immediately seeking to halt the Hamas aggression, the
Palestinian Authority in fact decides to take advantage of the mayhem,
approving a plan during one of its cabinet meetings to push Gaza's border
9 miles deep into Israel to create a buffer zone.

And what if the Hamas bombers and hundreds like them are never tried for
war crimes and simply carry on with their lives and jobs without being
held accountable, without being reprimanded, even if verbally? Hardly
that, what if they are now more qualified than ever to receive medals of
honor for their 'heroic' conduct in Tel Aviv?

None of this, of course, has occurred. However, its exact antithesis has.
In a small refugee camp called Jabaliya, where 106,000 people live the
most impoverished life in an utterly crowded slum, the mighty Israeli army
unleashed one of its worst war crimes during the Palestinian uprising with
the hope to expand its border a few miles to the south, pushing Gaza's one
million inhabitants into a virtual prison-ghetto, fenced and blocked from
all fronts.

But just imagine if the picture was reversed. Would our humanity permit us
to be equally outraged, to demand and expect justice? Yet, that is for you
to worry about. As for me, I am a Palestinian; I grew up in the Gaza
ghetto and need not reverse the picture to understand. Outrage is now part
of my anatomy.


Ramzy Baroud is a veteran Arab-American journalist. A regular columnist in
many English and Arabic publications, he is editor-in-chief of
PalestineChronicle.com and head of Research & Studies Department at
Aljazeera.net English. He may be reached at: editor at palestinechronicle.com

***

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