A commentary by an Israeli journalist
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
An Israeli left wing journalist ( Yaron London)written today a short commentary in one of the Israeli newspapers which i think every one who judges the Israeli- Lebanese situation from a safe distance should read so i translated it:
"Two days before the first Lebanese citizen was killed from the bombardment of the IDF, 42 Sunnis were slaughtered in Baghdad by Shi'ite militia forces. The murderers built road blocks and sorted the civilians according to their religion: Shi'ite were allowed to pass, Sunnis were shot on the spot. Of the ones who were slaughtered, no one carried weapons. Following the massacre the Sunnis repaid the Shi'ite by killing a few of them in a mosque. The Arab press did not protest. The Arab cities plazas did not fill with crowds of protesters and in the western cities no signs with the words "Stop the killings" were raised. The Arab world minimized the dealings with those who were killed, exactly like he did with the 15,000 Iraqi civilians who were murdered since the beginning of 2005. The anger about mass massacres was pointed upon the U.S.
The act of killing Arabs by Arabs has become so obvious, that the Arab and worldwide press does not contribute more then a few words to it. Just 2 days ago 20 Iraqi civilians were murdered, and that item of news was squeezed to the last pages of the biggest newspapers in the world and wasn’t covered at all by the world's news networks. Their reporters do not come to Baghdad, also because its dangerous, but mainly because most of their efforts are invested on covering the destruction in Lebanon.
The killing by mistake of Lebanese civilians during the course of a war, which started by premeditated violence against Israel, is a sensational story. Destruction of infrastructure is wounding the Europeans hearts. Two thirds of the British citizens, according to a survey which conducted two days ago, are thinking that the response of Israel is "un-proportional". Of course that the British did not conduct a survey which asked if the firing of 2,000 rockets on the Israeli population and the exile of thousands of Israeli citizens from their homes is judged proportional by the minds of the British. The position of the ones who conduct the survey is reflected by their questions.
In past years, before Israelis became accustomed to the difference in which Europe is judging Israel and the ones who wants the hurt her, we had a tendency to resent them but we were explained that we actually need to be flattered by it: the ones who live in the "enlightened" side of the world thinks that Israel is one of their own, and so they expect us to act by their own values. "The others" are not expected to behave properly and therefore are not branded. Israelis , we are often explained, are criticized even more then the other "civilized" nations because we are Jewish and Jewish people are supposed to know and remember what is oppression and the killing of innocents.
One could take pleasure by those explanations if not for the forgiveness of those nations for their own. The Russians, for example, who desolated to the ground the city of Groznyy in their efforts to exterminate the Chechen rebellion, or the Americans who wrapped Afghanistan with a carpet of bombs, or Nato forces which devastated Yugoslavia after three months of constant shelling.
What derives the discriminatory attitude towards Israel by Europe? I suspect that one reason is a 5,000 years old reason (anti-Semitism) but it is surely not the main reason. The main reason comes from the romantic attitude of the Europeans to the poor man's rebellion. It’s a complex story which involves exalted feelings and guilt of the European Great Nations towards the nations who were enslaved by them for hundred of years. In my point of view, these feelings are concealed in one of the expressions which is interwoven most frequently by their reporters in their reports: "The Israeli war machine". Its an image of an automat, a killer machine, with no consciousness, a monster who crushes poor and defenseless human beings. Its an image which express the superiority of the technology of the western people, which is abused to trample the exploited.
"they don’t have a fighting chance" says to himself the average European, and by that he means that a just war needs to be fought bare handed. That it doesn’t really matter who attacked who and why. The weak side is always the right side and needs to be defended against the strong side. Of course that this logic is preserved as long as it's not their war…"
"Two days before the first Lebanese citizen was killed from the bombardment of the IDF, 42 Sunnis were slaughtered in Baghdad by Shi'ite militia forces. The murderers built road blocks and sorted the civilians according to their religion: Shi'ite were allowed to pass, Sunnis were shot on the spot. Of the ones who were slaughtered, no one carried weapons. Following the massacre the Sunnis repaid the Shi'ite by killing a few of them in a mosque. The Arab press did not protest. The Arab cities plazas did not fill with crowds of protesters and in the western cities no signs with the words "Stop the killings" were raised. The Arab world minimized the dealings with those who were killed, exactly like he did with the 15,000 Iraqi civilians who were murdered since the beginning of 2005. The anger about mass massacres was pointed upon the U.S.
The act of killing Arabs by Arabs has become so obvious, that the Arab and worldwide press does not contribute more then a few words to it. Just 2 days ago 20 Iraqi civilians were murdered, and that item of news was squeezed to the last pages of the biggest newspapers in the world and wasn’t covered at all by the world's news networks. Their reporters do not come to Baghdad, also because its dangerous, but mainly because most of their efforts are invested on covering the destruction in Lebanon.
The killing by mistake of Lebanese civilians during the course of a war, which started by premeditated violence against Israel, is a sensational story. Destruction of infrastructure is wounding the Europeans hearts. Two thirds of the British citizens, according to a survey which conducted two days ago, are thinking that the response of Israel is "un-proportional". Of course that the British did not conduct a survey which asked if the firing of 2,000 rockets on the Israeli population and the exile of thousands of Israeli citizens from their homes is judged proportional by the minds of the British. The position of the ones who conduct the survey is reflected by their questions.
In past years, before Israelis became accustomed to the difference in which Europe is judging Israel and the ones who wants the hurt her, we had a tendency to resent them but we were explained that we actually need to be flattered by it: the ones who live in the "enlightened" side of the world thinks that Israel is one of their own, and so they expect us to act by their own values. "The others" are not expected to behave properly and therefore are not branded. Israelis , we are often explained, are criticized even more then the other "civilized" nations because we are Jewish and Jewish people are supposed to know and remember what is oppression and the killing of innocents.
One could take pleasure by those explanations if not for the forgiveness of those nations for their own. The Russians, for example, who desolated to the ground the city of Groznyy in their efforts to exterminate the Chechen rebellion, or the Americans who wrapped Afghanistan with a carpet of bombs, or Nato forces which devastated Yugoslavia after three months of constant shelling.
What derives the discriminatory attitude towards Israel by Europe? I suspect that one reason is a 5,000 years old reason (anti-Semitism) but it is surely not the main reason. The main reason comes from the romantic attitude of the Europeans to the poor man's rebellion. It’s a complex story which involves exalted feelings and guilt of the European Great Nations towards the nations who were enslaved by them for hundred of years. In my point of view, these feelings are concealed in one of the expressions which is interwoven most frequently by their reporters in their reports: "The Israeli war machine". Its an image of an automat, a killer machine, with no consciousness, a monster who crushes poor and defenseless human beings. Its an image which express the superiority of the technology of the western people, which is abused to trample the exploited.
"they don’t have a fighting chance" says to himself the average European, and by that he means that a just war needs to be fought bare handed. That it doesn’t really matter who attacked who and why. The weak side is always the right side and needs to be defended against the strong side. Of course that this logic is preserved as long as it's not their war…"