Recapping the Twilight Zone Media

I have to admit, I’ve lost touch with the Israeli mainstream media. I’ve found so many alternative medias online that there really isn’t any point to turning on the telly, or buying a newspaper. But one must travel into the alternate universe known as Israel every so often. So I put on my goggles and nose plug and sink my hands deep into Ha’aretz’s front page, knowing this is as left as the mainstream media gets down here. What does the Israeli mind preoccupy itself with while the international boycott movement is growing and Israeli citizens are turned refugees right under its upturned nose?

USA Support
The number one obsession in Israel is US support, or rather the eating-our-cake-and-having-it-too notion of what we can get away with and still have US support.

That would explain all the talk I’ve missed during the past few weeks about settlements. The Israeli midget has managed to twist the American giant’s hand from:

“He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions…”

To:

“American Middle East envoy George Mitchell has asked Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak for a “deposit,” an advance commitment of a one-year freeze on construction in West Bank settlements.

Mitchell raised the idea in his talks with Netanyahu and Barak in Israel last week. He argued that the Arab states will not make gestures toward normalization with Israel without a guarantee of an end to building in the settlements. Mitchell said an Israeli agreement to temporarily freeze construction would facilitate concessions from the Arab states.

A senior source in Jerusalem noted that while Netanyahu and Barak did not reject the request, they disagree with the Americans over some of the details.

Mitchell asked for a construction freeze of at least a year, but Israel has agreed to suspend building on the settlements for six months, at most. ”

In uncanny collaboration, the Israeli government, American senators, and Obama, all reinforce the Zionist myth:

“A future agreement is also expected to include a renewed Israeli pledge to evacuate 23 illegal outposts built after March 2001. However, Jerusalem wants to link fulfillment of this promise to moves toward normalization by Arab states.”

“A bipartisan group comprising 71 U.S. senators is urging President Barack Obama to lean on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel.

‘Over the past few months Israel has taken concrete measures to reaffirm its commitment to advancing the peace process… Notably, Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly expressed support for the two-state solution and called for the immediate resumption of peace negotiations… We have also been encouraged by Israeli efforts to improve the daily lives of Palestinians, through measures such as removing roadblocks, assisting with economic development in the West Bank, and supporting the training of professional Palestinian Authority security personnel… These actions have demonstrated that Israel is willing to back up its words with concrete actions, even in the face of continuing threats to its security… We encourage Arab leaders to take similar tangible steps to demonstrate their commitment to the peace process… Such steps could include ending the Arab League boycott of Israel, meeting openly with Israeli officials, establishing open trade relations with Israel, issuing visas to Israeli citizens, and inviting Israelis to participate in academic and professional conferences and sporting events…’”

“In light of the difficulties it has encountered in advancing the diplomatic process in the Middle East, the Obama administration plans on launching a public relations blitz in Israel and the Arab states.

The New York Times reported on Monday that President Barack Obama plans to grant a number of interviews to Israeli and Arab television stations as part of his campaign to sway public opinion in the region in favor of his vision for peace.

Obama’s special envoy to the region, George Mitchell, told the newspaper that a misconception has taken hold according to which the U.S. is leaning solely on Israel to halt construction in West Bank settlements.

‘It is completely inaccurate to portray this as, ‘We’re only asking the Israelis to do things’,’ Mitchell told the Times. ‘We are asking everybody to do things.’ ”

Reinforcing the Zionist Myth: Scare Tactics, Hate-Mongering and Reaffirming anti-Semitism

No Zionist propaganda would be complete without the fear factor. So along with shaky analyses of international relations, we must have a few stories that juggle heroism and victimhood, or just plain scare the shit out of you:

Israel tells nationals: Leave Sinai immediately – As in every holiday season, the Counterterrorism Unite terrorizes Sinai vacationers with threats of Hezbollah striking at Israelis. Kidnappings are apparently the idea “with the emphasis on businessmen, in particular ones working in Arab and Muslim countries… Colombia, Kenya, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen.”

Bar mitzvah boy gives Sderot $40,000 playground – The heart warming tale of a 13-year-old New Yorker, whose good heart has been so heavily brainwashed by Zionism that he decided to donate tens of thousands of dollars of his parents’ money to build a playground in war-stricken Sderot.

Ex-Nazi commander gets life for killing 10 Italians in 1944 – Gotta have the word Nazi in there somewhere, even if it’s an ex-Nazi. Because humanizing comments like “Judiths’” “Life imprisonment at 91, It that the best they could have done?” [#1] just bring the Israeli public to tears of self righteous deprivation. I’m surprised nobody is indignant about the fact that the ex-Nazi was trialed for killing Italians and not Jews. But hey, the article is young.

Terrorists who fought U.S. in Iraq make way to Gaza – “The flow of foreign terrorists to Gaza will gradually increase, defense officials forecast” [bolds by moi]. Classic scare piece, great for light reading… I’d just like to note the words “Islamic terrorists” and “Worldwide Jihad”, all stuffed, nice and tight, in the first paragraph.

Murdered Yemeni Jew’s sons move to Israel – Just letting all the Jews reading Ha’aretz know that Yemen is anti-Semitic and it’s time to pack up and leave and become cheap labor in Israel.

Why must Holocaust survivors tell their stories? – An article encouraging (the Eastern European) holocaust survivors to speak out. I wonder why there’s never an article exploring the merits of war criminals speaking out, or- God forbid- Palestinians.

Study: Zionism helps with accent in Hebrew – Israelis contributing to science: We covered the merits of speaking-out holocaust survivors, now let’s stop being coy and straight-out talk about the merits of Zionism! And while we’re at it, let’s reissue the Citizenship (a.k.a. “Loyalty”) Law!

“The Arab World”

Seeing as the word ‘Arab’, in itself, scares Israelis into senseless aggression, I think it deserves its own title, separate from scare tactics. It seems that it doesn’t belong in the ‘international relations’ category either, seeing as “The Arab World” is a single entity (up to no good, of course). Lebanon is big news today, but you can’t have a report about one country, populated mostly by Arabs, without bringing up the whole of the middle east:

“If Hezbollah joins the Lebanese government as an official entity, let it be clear that the Lebanese government, as far as we are concerned, is responsible for any attack – any attack – from its area on the state of Israel” [Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister]

“Hezbollah is a terror organization that has become a semi-army. Basically, it is a branch of Iran on our northern border, with Syria’s consent and with Lebanon’s consent.” [Dan Meridor, Deputy Prime Minister]

The good ole’ lapdog of democracy – though he lays out many facts, throughout the article, that could render his own analyses detached and meaningless – joins in the fun:

Assumed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, Israel has questioned the efficacy of U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy. Iran denies seeking the bomb but has stoked regional jitters with virulently anti-Israel statements and support for Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist militants similarly arrayed against the Jewish state.

Commercial Break

No survey of a capitalistic media is complete without a look at the banners and ads it dares to adorn itself with. So here are today’s samples: