There was a pair of pictures on the front page of USA Today today (3/20/13), illustrating a story about President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories:
OK, angry Palestinians, happy Israelis–that just reflects the reality that Israelis were more excited about Obama’s visit, right? Well, no. According to the story, “Obama arrives at a time when a recent media poll in Israel found just 10 percent of Israelis view him favorably.”
“Obama arrives at a time when a recent media poll in Israel found just 10 percent of Israelis view him favorably.”
So they took a picture of the 10% who like him, and made it look like they were happy. Just like the did when the Military pulled down the statue of Saddam, and made it look like the population was there cheering it on. This is the Mini-true we all come to love,
The New York Times story today said Obama will be making a stop at a Palestinian site, and the program will include a folk dance by some young girls. A photograph of them practicing would have been the appropriate partner to this one of the Israeli girls rehearsing.
Still, 10 percent favorability rating notwithstanding, if there are not actually Israeli protests like the Palestinian one here, it would be deceptive for the media to pretend there is equivalence.
David G, although I don’t know if there were Israeli protests at Obamas visit (i wouldn’t be very surprised if there were), your point raises another issue. Israeli discontent against their government is often left out of the US media when reporting on the region. Many of the recent “operations” (i.e. bombings and invasions) against Palestine were part of election campaigns by the Likud party to cover over its growing unpopularity among Israelis and distract people with jingoism. Mass protests occurred very recently against conditions in Israel. A recent protest in memorial of a Palestinian who died while imprisoned without trial, shortly after claiming to have been tortured, was attended by both Israelis and Palestinians. The protests that these two groups of people attend together are usually left out of the picture, to prop up the completely false idea that this conflict is simply religious in nature and involves somehow irreconcilable populations of human beings, and to cover over the fact that the conflict is stoked and deliberately pursued in order to distract people from economic and social problems that Israelis and Palestinians have in common.