Eric Lee Responds to biased Gaza op article

Progressive labor activist Eric Lee responds to yet another "Israel is always wrong" article that appeared at Engage....

Eric Lee's response to Jonathan Freedland on Gaza
January 4, 2009

This response by Eric Lee is to this piece by Jonathan Freedland.

 

The worst thing about Jonathan Freedland's article is not the lyrics but the melody.

 

The article is song-like in its constant repetition of a refrain of "Palestinians say this" followed by "Israelis says that", paragraph after paragraph, an unending rhythm, beautiful in its simplicity.

 

But Freedland describes symmetry where there is no symmetry. He equates that which cannot be equated.

 

Writing from the safety of chilly England, Freedland looks down upon the hot-tempered fools in the Middle East who can't see things as clearly as he does. He can't understand why the residents of Ashkelon, Beersheba and Sderot – and today, all Israelis – are cheering on the IDF. They must all be mad.

 

It's perfectly obvious to Freedland that both sides are responsible for this mess, that neither side is right, and neither side is wrong.

 

Despite the attempt at an oh-so-English even-handedness, the article bristles with contempt for Israel – and not for this or that Israeli politician, but for the whole country. Israel, he writes, is "dazzled by its own military might" and believes "that force is almost always the answer".

 

Freedland believes that in this case, force is not the answer. The answer to the incessant Hamas rocket barrage – which consisted of some 6,000 attacks on Israel – should have been … opening Gaza's borders. Hug your enemies and turn the other cheek. That obviously would have worked. I wonder why Israel didn't try that.

 

Freedland's carefully-chosen language betrays his own bias. He speaks of "supporters of the Palestinians" — but Israel's "cheerleaders". He asks if what Israel is doing makes any sense – but he doesn't ask the question of Hamas. He is neutral on the issue of who broke the cease-fire, but ignores the broader issue of what Hamas is (a fascist movement with genocidal intentions) and what it has done to Gaza since Israeli unilaterally withdrew its settlements and troops.

 

Freedland is convinced that if Israel does anything at all to defend itself it will only make things worse. He says that when Israel acts in self-defence, "Gazans blame Israel - and close ranks with Hamas". He quotes approvingly a Palestinian who says "anything which doesn't kill Hamas makes them stronger."

 

What utter nonsense. Wars end when the losing side becomes convinced that the enemy cannot be beaten, and that the use of force is counter-productive. That lesson was clearly learned by the Germans and Japanese in 1945. Killing lots of Germans may well have enraged them and caused them to "close ranks" and so on. But in the end, that's how wars are won.

 

Jonathan Freedland is no enemy of Israel and certainly no fool. Yet he buys into the idiotic argument that Israel dare not defend itself for fear of angering its enemies. He's equating the fire-fighters with the arsonists and is doing precisely what he accuses Israel of doing: avoiding the tough questions.