Giving viewers a quick sense of context and history is important in any story, but especially in the Israel/Palestine conflict. Doing a bad job of it is perhaps worse than not doing it at all.
Gaza after Operation Cast Lead—a war that CBS believes is not worth mentioning. (Photo: Physicians for Human Rights)
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley gave this summary on November 19:
We wanted to remind you tonight of what Gaza is and how it came to be. The Gaza Strip was laid out in 1949 after the war that created Israel. It’s home to Palestinians displaced in that war and to the generations that followed. Only 25 miles long, roughly ten miles wide, Gaza’s population is 1.7 million, most of them living in poverty. Israel captured Gaza in 1967 and occupied it until 2005. One year later, the Hamas political party won the election there. The U.S. says the Hamas military wing is a terrorist organization.
Rocket attacks from Gaza have been frequent for years. Israel says the goal of this military operation is to destroy those rockets, missiles, and their launchers.
To summarize: Gaza is a poor place run by terrorists who frequently fire rockets at Israel.
The following night, nearly the same story (11/20/12):
Now, we want to remind you what Gaza is and how it came to be. The Gaza Strip was laid out in 1949 after the war that created Israel. It’s home to Palestinians displaced in that war. 25 miles long and roughly ten miles wide, Gaza’s population is 1.7 million. Israel occupied it until 2005. A year later the Hamas political party won the election there. The U.S. says the Hamas military wing is a terrorist organization.
All of this started when Israel retaliated after weeks of rocket attacks from Gaza.
So basically the same again, only this time we’re told Israel’s attack is in retaliation for weeks of rockets. (This is, to put it mildly, misleading.)
What’s missing from both these brief histories? The previous Israeli military attack on Gaza, 2008–09’s Operation Cast Lead, which killed about 1,400 Palestinians, including 344 children, and did extensive damage to the Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The assault was the subject of widespread international condemnation.
Most people in Gaza living under the current Israeli bombardment are probably thinking about Cast Lead, wondering if this round of violence will be as bad. But to CBS Evening News, when they tell viewers they want to “remind you what Gaza is,” this history is not worth mentioning.
This is textbook Hart, condemning others for that of which he is egregiously guilty. In short, Hart never makes the slightest effort to provide a proper context to the Israel/Arab conflict.
For example, he rants about Operation Cast Lead without bothering to point out that it was launched in response to the indiscriminate shelling of Israel in blatant violation of international law. He also neglects to mention that Hamas began its attack on Israeli civilians after Israel pulled out of Gaza. So much for “land for peace.”
Hart also squawks about “widespread international condemnation” of Operation Cast Lead. Setting aside the fact that there is always international condemnation of anything Israel does, Hart leaves out Goldstone’s ultimate assessment of his own report, which concluded that Israel did not target civilians; on the other hand, Hamas’ shelling of Israel was intentional – “its rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets.”
There are myriad other ways in which Hart fails to provide context. For example, he does nothing to educate his readers about the true nature of Hamas, a terrorist militia who took power over Gaza in a bloody coup.
For example, we never hear the following about Hamas’ charter from Hart:
–It states that “so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement….There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.” (So much for a partner for peace.)
–It states, “Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” (This is not animism at its best.)
–It references the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (Huh?)
Of course, if Hart were to provide genuine context to the Israel/Arab conflict, he’d have to acknowledge that the only obstacle to peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors is their steadfast and bloody refusal to accept a Jewish state.
But honesty wouldn’t serve Hart’s anti-Zionist agenda, and so honesty goes out the window.
“William”, who is afraid to give his own name, is wrong. Hamas won internationally supervised elections in 2006. Before and during that election, Israel and the US fomented civil unrest by backing Fatah, arming it, encouraging its violence, and financing and advising its campaign. When Hamas won, Israel initiated the embrago, the blockade, and the seizure of trade receipts, all acts of war under any code. They began doing this before Hamas leaders took office. Thus, we and Israel conspired to nullify and punish a democratic choice by engaging in acts of war against a territory, whose leaders we so hated that we gave them no chance to set forth and govern from an agenda under normal circumstances. In other words, Israel had already committed acts of war against Gazans, who responded with weak missile attacks. There was a ceasefire, which Israel broke in December 2008 by launching a Pearl Harbor type air attack on market day, when civilains were most likely to be in the public square. The Israelis have admitted to using depleted uranium and white phosphorous in their attacks, and for about a month, did what the IDF does best,and that is to kill Arab peoples with weapons gifted the IDF by US taxpayers. The attacks killed whole families at a time, including three daughters of a doctor who had publicly protested the strikes. Farms and UN buildings were destroyed. Even the Israeli peace party writhed in blood lust, as the runner-up to Netanyahu, said it was time for the IDF “to go wild” and teach Gazans a lesson. That, the IDF did, with the help of US taxpayers and Slavic soldiers imported from the poorer countries of Europe, many of whom received bounties to emigrate to Israel and fight to take away the ancestral lands of Palestinians and divvy them up to Slavic settlers, who now serve tjhe IDF in numbers disproportionate to its population. “William” The Coward knows all this, but he’s afraid to come out from under his protective pen name and tell us who he is. He prefers to hide both himself and the truth.
How could CBS misinform its audiences to such an extent?
Two nights running CBS refers to “the war that created Israel”. No war created Israel. Israel was created by the United Nations, and then Arab armies waged war to undo that creation. Hamas today is still trying to achieve Israel’s destruction–and in a very real sense is engaged in an ongoing war against the United Nations.
Mr. Wassermann to know that in 1948, Israel killed UN peacemaker Count Folke Bernadotte because he opposed their land grabbing. That happened in September of 1948 and has been erased from history books everywhere. They killed the mediator and next slaughtered Palestians whenever and wherever they could, like at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948. They, the Israelis, used both Soviet and US weapons to “conquer the natives”, who have been called cockroaches and crocodiles by various Israeli PM’s. At least Ben Gurion had the clarity and honesty to call it, the 1948 war, a war of aggression and Palestinian disposssession. Time for reparations and repatriation.
Peter Hart needs to get it thru his head that “self-defense” is when Isreal attacks. What they do to cause the rockets is irrelevant and not worthy of mention and, of course, definitely not self-defense. Only ISreal has the right to that. That the Palestinians are occupied, oppressed, repressed, ethnically cleansed, kept in the world’s largest open-air prison and slowly starved is not worthy of mention. Heck, it’s not even happening. After all, Isreal withdrew from Gaza, right? End of story. If by any chance has a blockade on them, so what? It’s all their fault for not laying down and allow Isreal to kill them. See, it’s all the Palestinians fault, ingrates that they are.
@ Norman Wasserman:
At least you agreed that ISreal was created instead of claiming that the god of real estate gave it to you in his will and even if you don’t say how. But let’s be thankful for small miracles, shall we?
As for the reason why the Arabs (it wasn’t the Arabs but it was a number of nations populated by Arabs), it was simply because upon its “creation” the jews brutally cleansed the area of Palestinians, massacring many and the ones that left, were kicked out of their land. Hamas is doing what it was elected to do by the people: defend and protect them (not that such is going well). If you knew anything, you would know that Isreal was formed through the acts of terrorism of terrorist organizations such as the Stern Gang, Lehi and the Irgun. These terrorists bombed, slaughtered, hijacked planes, stole and terrorized the ME for decades. The leaders were wanted worldwide and hiding at the creation of Isreal when they came out and proceeded to occupy posts in the government and military in Isreal. And that, it and by itself, ought to explain why Isreal is a terrorist nation today, because it was formed by terrorists.
CBS needs history lesson about Palestine.
“Textbook Hart”? That’s one bad cliche, dude.
CBS like most of the other mainstream media is willingly complicit in israel’s depredations as in america’s crimes against the world’s peoples. Let’s just call a spade a spade. they have sold out to the devil as has obama, or they themselves ARE the devil.(doers of evil)
William ignores this history: The Jewish Virtual Library states, “ Israel’s best option was to strike first. On June 5, 1967, the order was given to attack Egypt.” BBC News stated, “ Israeli forces have launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt and destroyed nearly 400 Egypt-based military aircraft.” Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin acknowledged in a speech in 1982 that, “In June 1967 we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” Pre-emptive strikes are illegal under the Geneva Conventions and the principles of the United Nations.
William also omits the fact that the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 emphasizes the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security.” This just and lasting peace was to include the application of the following principle: “ (i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;” Israel is still in violation of this principle 45 years later through it occupation of the Palestinian territories.
What William dares not admit is that Israel has violated far more UN Security Council Resolutions than any other country. It would be even more because most attempts to pass UN Security Council Resolutions regarding Israel are defeated by a US veto. Nor would he tell us that The International Court of Justice has ruled that all Israeli colonial outposts in the West Bank are illegal.
The evidence is overwhelming that during the 22 day invasion of Gaza the Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure – hospitals, clinics, schools, a UN food warehouse, mosques, water and electrical facilities, private homes, etc. – and this in the most densely populated place on Earth, where the Palestinians were locked in and not allowed to leave. Targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure are violations of international humanitarian law, specifically the First Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, and constitute war crimes. Collective punishment of the civilian population is also a violation of international law, specifically Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime.
I note that William ignores the fact that the Arab League has offered to recognize Israel and safeguard its borders if it will withdraw behind the 1967 borders–an offer which Israel has rejected. So much for Israel’s “willingness to make peace.”
What else is missing from this “historical” stories of Gaza is that Hamas won the Palestinian-wide election is — What year was it?
The competing party refused to relinquish power. Hamas seized the power they were entitled to in Gaza where they had the base to pull it off. Israel then instituted a siege against Gaza which was the first strike. Hamas has made it clear that the rockets would stop if Israel would take down the blockade. And also left out was that the Cast Lead war was begun when Israel broke the ceasefire, which Hamas had observed for some time, by attacking the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt which are Gaza’s lifeline.
Couldn’t even read past the bile of Pelley’s opening lies and propaganda. Not to have to suffer choking on the vomit longer, I’ll just note the war Goebbels refers to was fought subsequent to the illegal UN partition that created Isreal in 1947. Snake is too good a word for Pelley.
William — on the facts — Hart is accurate. The civil war (what you call a coup) came after the elections in 2006. Cast Lead was said by US elites and if I recall Israel as well to be punishment for those elections, which is terrorism. Hamas’s military wing also practices terrorism. Hart could include this but it’s already well known. However, missing from both Hart’s essay and yours is the context for terrorism on both sides is political uncertainty being solved by social status within the country, not against the other country. Netanyahu’s Likud and Islamic Jihad are not that different, and are both somewhat hated by their respective populations. Terrorism is a way of gaining support and giving a release valve for anger that could otherwise be directed at themselves.
It’s in that context I question the helpfulness of your comment. Suppose it’s all true. Suppose Hamas started the fight and the Israeli military really just wants to be left alone and recognized as a state. How does bombing them get the world any closer? Further, someone who is trying to tell the truth does not deserve belittlement. That’s a political means of controlling the emotional perspective, called “flak.” It’s one of the reasons Jews the world over get attacked when there’s problems in Israel/Palestine. Because cherry picked data in a rant of hysterical outrage causes the same kind of uncertainty. I would be happy to see that tool put away from your propagandist box, especially considering your dislike of it when “textbook Hart” uses it.
Why do they Keeo going on about how “the baby boomers are going to crush us”…a large number of boomers have retired and are collecting Social Security. More will retire but, many die every day..this is “situation norma”l not “situation red alert fiscal cliff defcon one mayday! mayday! boomer bomb incoming”…they talk that way to scare people into doing what they (CEO crudballs) want done..they drag the generational thing in to divide us against each other…the american overclass is one of the worst, morally inverted, ethically deformed gang of criminal liars and thieves who ever lived.
Israel will continue to strike to protect her people.Period!She will respond when hit twice as hard.There is no ambiguity at all.That is the history. Going forward…….when she sees people loading rockets in Gaza into a warehouse by the thousands, in the dark of night that have come from Iran or where ever…..She may hit those stockpiles at any time.And yes that will cause innocent loss of life.Israel is under no illusions anymore(if she ever was)how those missiles will be used.They aint doorstops people.Lets simplify…..A guy on your street fires his rifle a couple thousand times at your family, but has missed you so far.You hear he is getting a whole slew of new guns and ammo.How do YOU handle that?
Hart makes a valid point. Operation Cast Lead was launched only 4 years ago, you would think that it would be mentioned in a “brief summary” of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. These brief summaries should be designed to bring uninformed people up to date with the conflict. Not mentioning an important part of recent history of this magnitude could be looked at as being as beneficial as lying straight up. You cant argue that the omission of the operation which resulted in the deadliest one-day death toll in the last 60 years of conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians can be looked at as “fair reporting”. You can’t just omit facts because they paint Israel in a negative light while highlighting only facts that portray Palestine in a negative light and call yourself an unbiased news source. The news should not be tailored to suit your opinions it should be about the facts. Bias in the media helps fuel hate on both sides of any argument.
When are we going to get the truth on stories reported on CoBS. We are sick of your biased news. You don’t report the news………you interject your thoughts, your emotions. Why didn’t someone report on the 400 missing missiles in Beghazi. Americans want to hear the real news We are sick of the stuff you people put out as news. You are tiresome and a joke.