Friday, August 19, 2005
Gaza: Just Leave Already!
When you think it can't get worse, western journalists never fail to deliver. "Settlers Expelled From Gaza Begin New Lives," is the headline at Yahoo's main page on Friday night. I just couldn't bring myself to listen to NPR's Linda Gradstein's "One Family's Story; Leaving Gaza." It's close to midnight in Germany, and Germany has "quiet" laws, which my cursing would break. Why are war criminals subjects of bathos-ridden feature stories? Of course, the average American doesn't know that Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the occupier from transferring its people to the occupied territory. They're probably packing care packages and shipping off old clothes to the ex-Lords of Gaza as I write.
In the public radio realm, NPR has no peer when it comes to putting a spin on the war criminals. The teaser for "Caught in the Middle in Gaza": "Eldad Gal-Ed's role in the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza: make sure soldiers avoid excessive force. His own family was evicted. Gal-Ed tells Steve Inskeep the process left emotional wounds." I'm sure he'll get over his wounds as soon as he rakes in his half a million in compensation for violating international law.
At least the Palestinians have the lovely warrior Diana Buttu, which I'm sure just drives the Israelis crazy. She's intelligent, well spoken and beautiful and I'm sure she'll prompt those Hasbara babes to work overtime to convince the public that she's not really a Palestinian: "This has been the greatest theatrical event I have seen in modern history, where each one of the actors has been paid more that $100,000 to appear in this media segment," Buttu said.
Diana just needs to watch more CNN so that she can adequately feel the colonists' pain. Even war criminals get the blues. We learn from "Evacuated Gaza Settlers in Shock," that the religious sociopaths who are upset with their "fleabag" hotels just can't wait to get on the road again.
"The former residents of Shirat Hayam, who had barricaded themselves in their beachfront settlement Thursday, were so disgusted with the mouse-ridden hotel they were sent to in the southern city of Beersheva that they decided to leave en masse. The 20 families chartered a bus Friday afternoon to take them to the West Bank settlement of Kedumim."
And I just want to give a shout out that Amy Teibel isn't among the three or four Middle East based journalists writing on behalf of Palestinians:
"Bikes were parked outside houses in Gaza's largest settlement Friday, but no one will ride them again through its streets. Homes were locked, but their owners won't ever unlock them."
For those who find abandoned bikes never to be ridden again by junior colonists as painful and gut-wrenching as Amy's prose, muster your courage for help is imminent for any manner of "psychological traumas" faced by the little sabras and sabrettes. IOF Spokesperson Hartman, acknowledging the painful effects of having "an 18-year old soldier clear out a 17-year-old girl who he might know from school or from childhood," assures sympathetic Westerners "we do have psychologists who are going to be there for them."
In the public radio realm, NPR has no peer when it comes to putting a spin on the war criminals. The teaser for "Caught in the Middle in Gaza": "Eldad Gal-Ed's role in the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza: make sure soldiers avoid excessive force. His own family was evicted. Gal-Ed tells Steve Inskeep the process left emotional wounds." I'm sure he'll get over his wounds as soon as he rakes in his half a million in compensation for violating international law.
At least the Palestinians have the lovely warrior Diana Buttu, which I'm sure just drives the Israelis crazy. She's intelligent, well spoken and beautiful and I'm sure she'll prompt those Hasbara babes to work overtime to convince the public that she's not really a Palestinian: "This has been the greatest theatrical event I have seen in modern history, where each one of the actors has been paid more that $100,000 to appear in this media segment," Buttu said.
Diana just needs to watch more CNN so that she can adequately feel the colonists' pain. Even war criminals get the blues. We learn from "Evacuated Gaza Settlers in Shock," that the religious sociopaths who are upset with their "fleabag" hotels just can't wait to get on the road again.
"The former residents of Shirat Hayam, who had barricaded themselves in their beachfront settlement Thursday, were so disgusted with the mouse-ridden hotel they were sent to in the southern city of Beersheva that they decided to leave en masse. The 20 families chartered a bus Friday afternoon to take them to the West Bank settlement of Kedumim."
And I just want to give a shout out that Amy Teibel isn't among the three or four Middle East based journalists writing on behalf of Palestinians:
"Bikes were parked outside houses in Gaza's largest settlement Friday, but no one will ride them again through its streets. Homes were locked, but their owners won't ever unlock them."
For those who find abandoned bikes never to be ridden again by junior colonists as painful and gut-wrenching as Amy's prose, muster your courage for help is imminent for any manner of "psychological traumas" faced by the little sabras and sabrettes. IOF Spokesperson Hartman, acknowledging the painful effects of having "an 18-year old soldier clear out a 17-year-old girl who he might know from school or from childhood," assures sympathetic Westerners "we do have psychologists who are going to be there for them."
