Despite the near unanimity of support for Israel in the American political establishment these days, it is remarkable that some voices are making into the mainstream media to explain the causes of violence and state that while they condemn the Hamas attacks on civilians, they were not “unprovoked.”
For instance, when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on WNYC radio Monday that the attacks were unprovoked, he was criticized sharply by a Jewish caller into the show, for his “ahistorical” view of Palestinians and his support for U.S. funding for Israeli oppression.
There are evidently more such voices on air today than made it into the mainstream media to explain the causes of the 9/11 attack in 2001. The BBC, NPR, and MSNBC have all had reports on the history of Palestinian dispossession. To the point that Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL complained on MSNBC two days ago: “I love this network, but I’ve got to ask who is writing the scripts– Hamas. The people who did this they are not fighters, they are not militants, they are terrorists.”
Greenblatt was likely referencing reports by Ali Velshi, Joy Reid and Ayman Mohyeldin. Velshi hosted Diana Buttu, who said the causes of violence was the “denial of freedom” for 75 years, including the killing of over 250 Palestinians earlier this year. Velshi criticized the press’s blindness: “Palestinians are exclusively the bad guys here…Anybody that wants to help the Palestinians, watch out.”
Mohyeldin explained to Velshi that Hamas had dealt a blow to Israeli hubris by showing that “You cannot ignore the Palestinians” by saying there is peace between Morocco and Israel. And later, Mohyeldin (who is from Egypt and has Palestinian ancestry) two days ago explained to Joy Reid who Gazans are, with compassion:
It is a people who have been besieged and blockaded primarily by Israel but also by Egypt for the better part of 15 years…We’re about to see the fifth operation if you will in the span of 15 years…The amount of mental and post-traumatic stress disorder that a generation of Palestinians have been living through cannot even be fathomed, cannot be described. And that’s the generation that’s 15 years old…We’re not talking about the [earlier] generations of Palestinians who have survived several incursions, air raids, wars, the 1973 war, the 1967 war, the 1948 war–generations of refugees that have been compounded into the Gaza strip.
[Gaza] has no bunkers, it has no early warning systems, the health system has completely been decimated over the years. There is really no place for Palestinians who are in Gaza to go, and the honest truth is that everyone living in Gaza right now is simply being portrayed as a Hamas sympathizer or somehow as a Hamas accomplice and that obviously makes it very difficult for the Palestinians to escape either their realities or the Israeli bombardment.
As the Israeli bombardment proceeded, MSNBC has done reports on the collective punishment of 2 million Gazans.
CNN has also aired thoughtful statements about the Palestinian experience. Mustafa Barghouti was interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN and emphasized Palestinians’ right to resist apartheid and annexation. He wove in history and international law.
I think this situation which has evolved is a direct result of the continuation of the longest occupation in modern history. This is 56 years of occupation that has transformed into a situation of apartheid. A much worse apartheid than what prevailed in South Africa. Yes maybe Hamas did not recognize Israel, but the PLO did. And the Palestinian Authority did. What did they get, nothing.
Barghouti said that the West’s indifference to Israeli PM Netanyahu’s vows to annex the West Bank also fosters violence.
So, of course Palestinians turn to resistance. Because they see that this is the only way for them to get their rights. The question is not about dehumanizing Palestinians and calling them terrorists, it is about asking the question, Why the United States supports Ukraine in fighting what they call occupation while here they support the occupier.
Barghouti condemned all attacks on civilians. But he said that Palestinian attacks on civilians won’t be ended by bombing the Gaza Strip another time.
This does not stop resistance. There is one way to end any violence and that is to stop the occupation…The United States to be fair cannot say that Israel has the right to defend itself and we the Palestinians don’t have the right to defend ourselves. Let me remind you of the case of Shireen Abu Akleh who was not only Palestinian, she was also an American, a very peaceful journalist. She was shot to death by an Israeli sniper. Was anybody indicted? Was anybody taken to court? No. Fift-two other journalists were also killed. Our first aid providers are shot at. Our doctors are shot at.
The only way to stop it is to tell Israel you have to respect international law, you have to end this illegal occupation and accept Palestinians as equal human beings.
Brian Lehrer of WNYC, who is highly supportive of Israel, was careful to include the “Palestinian perspective” on his radio show, even as he hosted two pro-Israel Congressmen, Hakeem Jeffries and Dan Goldman.
“Many Palestinians say that an underlying issue is still Israel’s ever-tightening and lengthening occupation in the West Bank and control over Gaza, and not to condone terrorism in any way, but that these as underlying conditions should at least be addressed by officials like you,” Lehrer said to Jeffries.
Lehrer’s first caller echoed that view. Identifying herself as Jewish, “Deborah” said,
“Hakeem Jeffries, I ask you to not look at this in an ahistorical way. This attack by Hamas which I do not support in any way did not come out of nowhere. It came from decades of oppression of the Palestinian people. And Israel has been at war with the Palestinian people. The 2 million people in Gaza have been living in a prison-like environment — electricity for four hours a day, limits on their movements, inability to get health care, attacks. [And Israel is] now being led unprecedentedly by an extremist right-wing leader who has escalated the attacks…
“Israel could not continue this without U.S. funding. The only way to peace is by stopping US funding, allowing peace by stopping the oppression of the Palestinian people. I beg Hakeem Jeffries and the U.S. Congress to look at this.”
Jeffries responded that while there may be “disagreements” between the U.S. and Israel, this was not the time to consider cutting aid. “Our close ally… has been attacked in an unprovoked, unprecedented, and unconscionable way. It’s important to make clear that our commitment to the safety and security of Israel is ironclad.”
Echoing that caller to Jeffries is Jack Mirkinson, an editor at the Nation, who described the underlying causes for the Hamas attack in a post at discourseblog, and said that all that will end the violence is Israel ending “the apartheid state” and “commit to building a truly equal society.”
The violence is the direct result of some very basic realities — namely, that Israel has been occupying Palestine for 75 years, has been killing and oppressing Palestinians for just as long, and has created the world’s most enduring apartheid state. And the only thing that will really put a stop to the violence is if those conditions are ended.
That’s really all there is to it. You can go through all of the twists and turns since 1948, but if you don’t come back to that fundamental truth, there’s no real conversation to have…
It is totally acceptable and humane to lament the violence that has broken out over the past few days and to plead for an end to the killing of civilians. But anyone trying to say that this violence sprang from nowhere; or that it is not rooted in the decisions that Israel has made over the last 75 years; or that Palestinians have not been dying every day for generations; or that they bear the most responsibility for what happens next, is lying to you.
Mirkinson, Velshi, Mohyeldin, and Lehrer all appear to be aware of the rising sympathy for Palestinians in the Democratic base, surpassing sympathy for Israelis (per Gallup last spring).
Let’s hope that this leads to more sympathetic coverage. It pleased me to hear Lehrer reporting leftwing criticisms of the U.S. policy of normalizing relations between Israel and Arab monarchies, from Biden to Trump, saying the process has fostered “greater frustration” among Palestinians, by dismissing their concerns.
Today on Public Radio International’s program The World, they talked with Rabbi Susan Silverman in Jerusalem. An obvious attempt to present a sympathetic image of a Jewish Israeli who calls herself a “lefty” and a “peacenik”:
https://theworld.org/media/2023-10-11/rabbi-laments-impossible-situation
But if you listen to the segment beginning at 1:30, she says this:
With the tenses of her verbs, it’s clear that she’s talking about her son’s ongoing experience as a border guard, and not about the past few days only. But she won’t admit that if the people on the other side of the fence are indeed screaming “death to the Jews“, it’s because these people were put there by the force of the state of the Jews, simply because these people are not Jews. What do you expect when people get thrown off their lands and locked up behind a fence in the name of “the Jews“?
And then she says her son says that these people trapped on the other side of the fence “want to come and murder and kidnap people on the kibbutzim“. Well, that’s reading their minds, but maybe he’s right. But because they have that desire, that means it is right to shoot them from the other side of the fence? That is exactly what this “peacenik” rabbi says.
Moshe Dayan, no rabbi he, showed much greater understanding at the same border back in 1956:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moshe-dayan-s-eulogy-for-roi-rutenberg-april-19-1956
While it is great that some facts about Israel’s illegal and immoral activities over the last 75 is making it onto the mainstream, along with extreme outrage and horror about crimes committed by Hamas. There is David Ignatius and Joe Scarborough referring to Israeli’s as “brothers and sisters.” Discussions about “whole families being killed in their beds”…”Israeli’s being drug out of their houses onto the streets” ..”the man who was executed at point blank behind his car”
While all of the horror should be shown to all of us, did we ever see this kind of coverage, mention, video’s of Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in 2009? Palestinian families crushed under rubble, Israeli solders evicting Palestinian families from their homes and drug out onto streets. Palestinian’s drug from their homes in the middle of the night…that Palestinian man executed in the street, many executed in the streets by Israeli military over the years. Have we watched any of this covered in our main stream media? I have never seen it.
Joe Scarborough and David Ignatius were especially cold hearted and hard headed on the Oct 10th Morning Joe. Again, I believe all of the horrible gore (for reality checks) should be shown to Americans and the world about what Hamas has done, however, I believe over the decades the crimes Israel has committed need to be shown.
Lots of talk between Joe Scarborough and Ignatius about whether Iran was involved. Joe poking Ignatius when he said “the U.S. and Israel are stressing they do not see direct involvement” Joe then verbally challenges Ignatius “do you really believe that?” Ignatius and Joe go on to discuss why Israel and the U.S. not going there. Then Joe, Willie, Ignatius talk about “what should be done” if it is round Iran was involved. Did we ever hear any of these media characters talk about “what should be done when it is verified Saudi Arabia had much to do with supporting the 9/11 attacks” Nothing. Clearly there is going to be a push by Israel for an overt war with Iran. Israel and the I lobby have been pushing this for over two decades.
Lots of intelligence failure talk.
Bush Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neil said that early cabinet meetings were dominated by talk involving Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld etc about how to invade Iraq. O’Neil expressing that intelligence fixed around the desire to attack Iraq and 9/11 eventually providing the opportunity to do so by claiming Iraq was involved with 9/11. Did Netanyahu ignore the warnings hoping to use this horrendous attack to go after Iran full throttle? Not beyond a possibility
Also on Oct 10th Ari Melber and Israel war crimes enabler Anne Applebaum were on talking about her latest piece “There are No Rules.” They talked about the “decline of the rules based world order.” Bringing up the Geneva Conventions, Declaration of Human Rights, other UN human rights agreements. Applebaum and Ari jumped right over Israel’s human rights violations, breaking of UN resolutions. Nothing about Israel’s apartheid status reports by Amnesty, the UN, Human Rights Watch, Btselem. Nothing. Nothing about Israel being very much involved with being in violation of human rights standards etc. Nothing about Israel being very much a country who has helped with the decline of a human rights rules based order. How the U.S. is also very much part of that decline.
Look what Hamas has done is heinous, they need to be held accountable. So does Israel and the U.S. The segment with Ari and Anne Applebaum was so full of massive contradictions it was nauseating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iFseaHfyMc
Ever hear the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2009 and how many Palestinians were killed compared to 9/11. The amount of Palestinians killed in that attack in proportion to their population compared to how many Americans were killed on 9/11? This is happening all over the U.S. media
‘Jeffries responded that while there may be “disagreements” between the U.S. and Israel, this was not the time to consider cutting aid.’ Just as it’s never the right time to talk about gun control.
Israel and America lost the moral high-ground in this debate about the Israel/Palestinian conflict decades ago. I think American supporters of human rights for the Palestinians need to become single-issue voters in the next election. Any establishment democrat unwilling to be an active voice in ending this decades-long injustice against the Palestinian people doesn’t deserve our vote.
This is what zionist activists like Haim Saban (on the other side) state publicly.
Otherwise, this endless massacre of innocents will never stop. America is the key to stopping apartheid in Palestine/Israel.