David and Goliath syndrome
Thursday May 08, 2014
If the media is fair, analysts unerring and politicians even-handed, then ‘disproportionate’ is what Israel at war does best. If it must feud with neighbours why be heavy-handed. Tit-for-tat is enough. We’d rather Israel did not engage in ugly cycles of violence, but keep them down. Careful does it. A forty-to-one casualty score is barbarically out of bounds. A Yid with heavy weapons is horrible to behold. One who plays Rambo with them is disgusting beyond words.
Cartoons depicting Israeli acts in the Gaza strip speak to us like this, at times close to those very words. Column writers and news anchors, harping likewise on high tolls, adopt airs only a mite more disguised. Casualty tolls are skewed in favour of a people that deserve worse; considerably worse. Our media as good as utters sentiments of the kind. “The toll is unbalanced. The people of Israel get off too lightly. For justice sake, there should be more of them and fewer Palestinians killed and maimed.” It would seem that Israel critics feel that things are upside down when Jews win wars, big or small, at too low a cost.
The skeptic who may laugh at such infantile nonsense has only to page through cartoons from the time of Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza. Reports and editorials are nearly as explicit. Infantile and ugly connotations attend the word “disproportionate”. Take for example three media men, heavyweight and acclaimed. One is a filmmaker, the second an editor, the third a correspondent and Middle East expert. Two of them have won awards.
czytaj wiecej … David and Goliath syndrome
