I get to cry for great Jews on this site. This morning's tears are for Jonathan Ben-Artzi, a conscientious-objecting nephew of Benjamin Netanyahu, interviewed here on Al-Jazeera, speaking of an unjust war against 1.5 million people denied the rights of "human beings." He quotes Hermann Goering on the ability of any regime to whip its people into a warlike frenzy. Asked about his uncle's position, Ben-Artzi demurs with grace. Though in doing so, he addresses the war within Jewish families around the world. "It's happening everywhere." Yes, Jewish families are divided. Let them divide! Let the good Jews find the good Muslims…
The first 5 minutes of this video are also exemplary. In it a smooth Oxonian Al-Jazeera journalist interviews Jeremy Issacharoff of the Israeli diplomatic mission defending Gaza. It is a great example for the American press. The Al-Jazeera guy is polite and respectful–and so to his credit is Issacharoff–but he gives it to Issacharoff at every turn. Let's not be ahistorical, he says. The illegal occupation, the blockade of Gaza, the absence of control over Gazan borders, the lack of sovereignty of the people of Gaza. As to Hamas's charter, he shrugs that off. In conflicts around the world, we see this; it is typical for a resistance movement to say it wants to eliminate the state. Fatah signed that resolution away and got nothing for it. Hamas leaders have many times indicated their willingness to accept Israel's existence within the '67 borders.
Also: 5 or 6 times you have struck ambulances. I don't know about that, Issacharoff says.
This journalist–I told you I'm lousy with Arab names–is a model to American journalists. Rick Sanchez is following that path: he is asking important questions with a true feeling for the moral horror unfolding on the screens behind his back.
