Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Biased TIME Article and My Response

Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace

I am writing in response to the article in cover story of the September 13, 2010 issue, entitle “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace”. From the photograph on the cover, to the article itself, I have never read a more outrageous piece of journalistic tripe, in my life. The article is merely an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic diatribe that has somehow found legitimacy in what used to be a respected magazine. Most of the article claims that Israelis (the vast majority of whom are Jewish) are concerned only with their creature comforts and making money and are not interested in the peace process, but then ends with the statement that they cannot help but be involved. The ‘author’ of this article has refuted his basic premise and, on his own, has revealed his article to be a waste of four pages, a cover photo and the time of anyone who took the time to read it.

This article also perpetuates the age-old stereotype of the Jew who cares only about money and nothing else. I thought that we had moved past such ugly stereotyping, especially in a mainstream publication, but I was mistaken. For this author, and the editor of Time to believe that Israelis do not care about peace merely because 2 1/2 years have passed since the last terror attack (that is before the 2 attacks this week that killed 4 people and were meant to derail the peace process) is also demeaning. Does he really believe that a population that has sustained terrorist attacks for years, and has suffered so many wars that have killed so many of their sons, fathers and brothers do not care about peace? What type of aliens is he portraying Israelis (and other Jews) to be? Does he truly think that they are less traumatized than the United States is after the terrorist attacks of September 11th?

Karl Vick reveals his profound and complete ignorance of the mind set of Israelis, as well as a deep denial of the facts on the ground. In a nation where not one person has been left untouched by terrorism, where every soldier’s death is felt personally, where military service is mandatory and expected for all young adults and where many older adults remain in the reserves and perform military reserve duty on a regular basis, they all care deeply about peace. This is a country whose entire population mourned when the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev (the two IDF soldiers whose kidnapping by Hezbollah sparked the 2006 Lebanon war) were returned by Hezbollah in July 2008. This is a country whose mothers send their sons off to fight for the country’s very survival and whose fathers fought in previous wars. This is a country that was torn apart when 50,000 of its’ soldiers were mobilized to remove 8,000 of its’ own citizens from their communities and homes in 2005, in the name of peace. Many of these wounds are still open today, five years later, and many of these displaced residents are still suffering today.

Israelis have always squeezed as much pleasure and joy from their daily lives as possible. They go out to cafes, clubs and restaurants during the week, and seek respite at the beach after a day of work. They work hard, create, invest, innovate and yes, even make money. Why have they always done this? Why do Israelis (and Jews, historically) engage in these behaviors that Mr. Vick, in his ignorance, says reveals that they do not care about peace, but are concerned only with making money, sitting in the sun and living their lives as Californians do? It is because they do not know what tomorrow will bring. It is because they have suffered through numerous wars and countless terrorist attacks that they live life with gusto, use their creativity and try to get the most out of life. It is the Israelis’ zest for life that has sustained them for decades that this ‘journalist’ sees as a sign that they do not desire peace.

Does he really think that the Palestinian question is far from Israelis’ minds when they have to go through security examinations every time they enter a mall, or a restaurant, or an office building? Does he truly think that they are unconcerned with Palestinians when thousands of rockets have flown from Gaza after Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005, instead of the Palestinians constructively using the structures and greenhouses that were left intact?

How about a more rational explanation for what he sees as indifference? Perhaps Israelis are tired of the peace process because they have seen very little in return for the significant concessions that Israel has made. No matter what Israel does, she is the object of the world’s disdain. Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza and received rockets in return fired by Hamas and its’ compatriots. Israel left Lebanon in 2000 and Hezbollah established strongholds in Southern Lebanon allowing it to attack and murder Israeli soldiers and kidnap two of them. Israel had to fight another war against Lebanon in 2006 and was again pressured to leave before the job was finished, leaving the relatively useless UN in charge. Hezbollah has since rearmed with more rockets that have a much longer range and again reestablished itself near Israel’s northern border. Even the ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority, the supposed negotiating partner for peace, expresses one view to the Western world, while continuing to perpetuate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment by teaching their children to hate Jews and that all of Israel is occupied land, and by honoring and commemorating Palestinians who have committed terrorist attacks and murdered innocent Israelis.

This biased piece of what Time assumes passes for journalism has prompted me to cancel my subscription to your magazine. I will try to convince as many people as I can to follow suit and cancel their subscriptions to your rag. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

No comments:

Post a Comment