Thursday, January 1, 2009

Comment & Analysis: Media Give False Impression of Events in the Gaza Strip

The Waterbury Republican-American started the new year by publishing a highly biased, extremely misleading letter under the ironic title "Media Give False Impression of Events in the Gaza Strip."

PRIMER sent out an alert, including this Comment & Analysis, consisting of "Comments" (quotes from the letter), each followed by an "Analysis" of the misleading or false information in the letter.

Letters pointing out the assininity of the letter may be sent to The Waterbury Republican-American opinion@rep-am.com.



Comment:
Media Give False Impression of Events in the Gaza Strip

Analysis:
Ironically, this is true. By publishing biased, misleading letters such as this, the media does give a false impression of events.



Comment:
During the recent presidential election, the news media reported two issues Americans are most concerned about are the U.S. economy and the Middle East conflicts. In deed, U.S. universities have seen a great increase of interest in Middle Eastern studies. Therefore, it is imperative truthful, scholarly information be available.

Analysis:
Again, true. Unfortunately, one won't find "truthful, scholarly information" in Hajjar's letter.



Comment:
For example, Israel's recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza combined with Israel's decades-old propaganda spin is causing a seriously dishonest impression of what is really happening.

Analysis:
There is no "massacre" of Palestinian Arabs, although Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian Arab terror groups do constantly try to massacre Israelis and Jews.

At this point, according to the United Nations, there have been between 320 and 390 deaths in Gaza, with just a quarter of those being civilians. Given that terrorists masquerade as civilians, the United Nations estimate is almost certainly an overestimate. (These figures are available from the New York Times at .)



Comment:
To begin with, Gaza has been home to the Palestinians for thousands of years.

Analysis:
There wasn't even a place called Palestine thousands of years ago. It wasn't until after the Romans put down the final Jewish revolt in the second century of the common era that Hadran renamed the Judea and Samaria, calling it Philistia, which has since morphed into Palestine.

Most if not all of the people who currently call themselves Palestinians have no connection to the people who lived in Judea and Samaria at that time, as nomads constantly moved across the Middle East. It is only very recently that the Arabs living in the area decided to call themselves Palestinians; at the time Israel was re-established, the term Palestinian was generally understood to refer to the Jews.



Comment:
It is Israel that invaded Gaza, Israel that killed thousands of Palestinians over the years and destroyed all forms of Palestinian livelihood.

Analysis:
Egypt occupied Gaza from 1948 until 1967, when Israel temporarily found itself occupying Gaza at the end of the Six Day War. Israel immediately offered to return Gaza to Egypt in return for peace, but was completely rebuffed.

During its occupation, Egypt had completely neglected Gaza. In contrast, conditions improved dramatically under Israeli administration. Israel built roads, hospitals and schools. Life expectancy increased tremendously.

This progress came to a halt in the late 1980's with the outbreak of the first intifada and things have gotten progressively worse since 1994, when the Palestinian Authority took over most of Gaza.

Israel completely left Gaza in 2005, only to have the Palestinian Arabs use Gaza as a launching pad for Kassam and Grad missiles aimed first at Sderot, then Ashkelon, and now Ashdod and Beersheva.



Comment:
Some Israelis are protesting the attacks, but they do not have the political power to stop them.

Analysis:
Every country contains some extremists. It's a tribute to Israeli's democratic character that fringe elements are able to protest against their own state while it's being attacked.

More telling is that before the start of Operation Cast Lead, even Meretz was publicly saying the Israeli government had to respond to Hamas' bombardment of Sderot and Askelon.



Comment:
The Israeli media, but few other media worldwide, reported the Palestinians of Gaza broke a truce recently and Israel had no choice but to retaliate with bombs dropped from U.S.-donated jets.

Analysis:
As the title of the writer's letter says, the media gives a false impression of the events, in this case by generally omitting the context of the bombardment of Israeli civilians by Hamas, both before the end of the so-called cease-fire and after Hamas unilaterally decided to not renew the cease fire.



Comment:
Among rational analysts, it was Israel that decided to break the truce several times last month.

Analysis:
During the so-called truce, Palestinian Arabs still bombarded Sderot and other areas with hundreds of Kassams and Grads. At one point, Israel found some terrorists in the midst of preparations for an attack and acted to prevent that attack. By Hajjar's "rational analysis," Israel's acting to prevent one of hundreds of cease-fire violations amounts to "breaking the truce."



Comment:
With President Bush, a panderer to Israel, now a lame duck, Israel knew there would be little or no U.S. pressure to stop its attacks. During Israel's decades-old destruction of Gaza, there has been outcry by the international community, but Israel always ignored this because it had the support of U.S. politicians and government.

Analysis:
As explained above, it was only during Israel's administration of Gaza that conditions improved.



Comment:
For years, Israel has shut off Gaza's food, water, electricity and medical supplies. How would we like it if our most bitter enemy, al-Qaida, could do the same to us? That is what Israel, the Palestinians' worst enemy, does.

Analysis:
Even though Gaza also borders on Egypt, Israel has continued to supply food, water, electricity and medical supplies to Gaza even while terrorists from Gaza have constantly been attacking Israel, although it has occasionally briefly stopped deliveries immediately after attacks.

The Palestinian Authority itself has pointed out there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and no shortage of fuel, at the same times Hamas shut down power generators claiming there was a shortage.

Israel has actually shown far more concern for the welfare of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza than Hamas has shown.



Comment:
Don't be fooled by Israeli propaganda and our politicians' cowardice.

Analysis:
Don't be fooled by Hajjar's propaganda.



Comment:
Gaza, smaller than Rhode Island, is the most populous piece of land on earth per capita.

Analysis:
Hajjar actually means Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth. That is frequently asserted, but false. As noted by The Spectator , Gaza's population density of 3,823 people per square kilometer is far less than that of Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which contain more than 6,000 people per square kilometer, and is even less than that of Tel Aviv, which has a density of more than 5,000 people per square kilometer.



Comment:
It is also, directly be cause of Israel, the poorest area on earth.

Analysis:
The assertion that Gaza is the poorest area on earth is highly questionable. In any case, as explained above, its poverty is the result of Egypt's neglect and the maladministration of the Palestinian Authority, not of Israel.



Comment:
The Gazans have no tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, navy or helicopters.

Analysis:
The lack of sophisticated weapons is not an excuse for terror.



Comment:
Israel has all of the most deadly weapons on earth and has used them against civilians.

Analysis:
As is typical of Israel-haters, Hajjar accuses Israel of that which the Palestinian Arabs are guilty.

Israel has taken great care to avoid harming civilians. Given the high population density of Gaza (exaggerated by Hajjar but still considerable) and the fact that Hamas deliberately operates out of residential areas, it is a tribute to Israel that so few Arab civilians have been injured or killed during the current round of hostilities.

Israel's care is in sharp contrast to that of Hamas, which deliberately targets civilians.



Comment:
So why would impoverished, outgunned Gazans start a war with Israel? It did not. Israel did and will now proceed to massacre hundreds of civilians.

Analysis:
It certainly doesn't make rational sense for Hamas to start a war with Israel, but Israel's enemies have always operated using a value system alien to those of us in the West.

Hamas, not Israel, started this "war." Hamas and other Arab terror groups in Gaza kept attacking Israel during the so-called cease-fire, refused to renew the cease-fire, and kept attacking Israel after refusing to renew the cease-fire. Israel's finally responding to being attacked does not constitute "starting a war." It merely constitutes self-defense.

There is certainly no "massacre" in Gaza and even the United Nations'k inflated count of civilian casualties in Gaza is in the neighborhood of just sixty, far from "hundreds."



Comment:
George Hajjar Jr.
Waterbury
The writer is a social worker and university professor who performed doctoral research in the Middle East for more than six years.

Analysis:
One hopes that his doctoral research is nothing like his error-filled letter.



The following is the full text of the letter.

Media Give False Impression of Events in the Gaza Strip


During the recent presidential election, the news media reported two issues Americans are most concerned about are the U.S. economy and the Middle East conflicts. In deed, U.S. universities have seen a great increase of interest in Middle Eastern studies. Therefore, it is imperative truthful, scholarly information be available.

For example, Israel's recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza combined with Israel's decades-old propaganda spin is causing a seriously dishonest impression of what is really happening.

To begin with, Gaza has been home to the Palestinians for thousands of years. It is Israel that invaded Gaza, Israel that killed thousands of Palestinians over the years and destroyed all forms of Palestinian livelihood.

Some Israelis are protesting the attacks, but they do not have the political power to stop them.

The Israeli media, but few other media worldwide, reported the Palestinians of Gaza broke a truce recently and Israel had no choice but to retaliate with bombs dropped from U.S.-donated jets. Among rational analysts, it was Israel that decided to break the truce several times last month. With President Bush, a panderer to Israel, now a lame duck, Israel knew there would be little or no U.S. pressure to stop its attacks. During Israel's decades-old destruction of Gaza, there has been outcry by the international community, but Israel always ignored this because it had the support of U.S. politicians and government.

For years, Israel has shut off Gaza's food, water, electricity and medical supplies. How would we like it if our most bitter enemy, al-Qaida, could do the same to us? That is what Israel, the Palestinians' worst enemy, does.

Don't be fooled by Israeli propaganda and our politicians' cowardice.

Gaza, smaller than Rhode Island, is the most populous piece of land on earth per capita. It is also, directly be cause of Israel, the poorest area on earth. The Gazans have no tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, navy or helicopters. Israel has all of the most deadly weapons on earth and has used them against civilians. So why would impoverished, outgunned Gazans start a war with Israel? It did not. Israel did and will now proceed to massacre hundreds of civilians.

George Hajjar Jr.
Waterbury
The writer is a social worker and university professor who performed doctoral research in the Middle East for more than six years.

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