“Preparing to Rejoice” — NY Times

Two articles in the NY Times in the last few days caught my attention. The first:

August 12, 2005
After Decades of Disappointment, Gazans Are Preparing to Rejoice
By GREG MYRE

Already from the headline you get a sense of whose side the NY Times is on.

GAZA, Aug. 11 – In this land of poverty, violence and dashed dreams of statehood, the Palestinians are revving up for the rarest of events in the Gaza Strip: a celebration.

Not all THAT rare. Apparently the NY Times has forgotten how the Palestinians rejoiced when scud missiles fell on Tel Aviv during the First Gulf War, and how ecstatic they were on 9/11.

The Palestinian Authority is planning rallies as if it were the homestretch of an election campaign. Small sewing factories are cranking out thousands of Palestinian flags and street banners, T-shirts and backpacks that proclaim, “Today Gaza, tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem.” That message, intended to give Palestinians hope that Gaza first will not be Gaza last, is not exactly what the Israelis want to hear.

“Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem”

The tone of the piece makes it clear that the NY Times agrees with the Arabs — this is a reasonable and desirable outcome, even if it’s “not what the Israelis want to hear.”

Israel’s planned evacuation of Jewish settlers and soldiers from the strip, an operation set to begin Monday, has generated at least a small streak of optimism among Gazans. For the first time in decades, for example, they may be able to travel abroad without Israeli permission.

You see how the Israelis are painted as cruel jailers? Until now the Gazans (please remember, by “Gazans” they mean Arabs) had NO CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM.

They couldn’t travel without Israeli permission!

(Which makes me wonder why exactly there are so damned many Palestinians in the United States, for heaven’s sake! Who let them out?!)

But now they CAN travel without permission, now they can leave the hell on earth that their own Palestinian Authority created, and they can leave en masse for the United States, so now, at last, there is cause for optimism.

Actually that gives me an idea. The United States should issue 1.3 million green cards to the Gaza Palestinians forthwith. Let’s see just exactly how attached the Arabs are to their beloved stretch of sand. And let’s see how the Americans manage with these guys.

Still, there is a sense of anticipation not felt here in recent years.

NY Times rejoicing with the Arabs.

More than 1.3 million Palestinians, most of them classified as refugees, are packed into a territory about five miles wide and 25 miles long.

Why isn’t this considered a major scandal? These people have been refugees since 1948. By now there are fifth generation refugees. A few thousand refugees have multiplied to a million and a half. Where are all the OTHER refugees from WWII? Why aren’t there fifth generation Jewish refugees in DP camps in Europe? Why aren’t there fifth generation German refugees in American prison camps?

Why are these people packed into an area five miles wide and 25 miles long? There is nothing there but sand–at least, there WAS nothing there but sand until the Israelis got there, and it will all revert to sand in short order.

Have you ever seen on a map how vast is the area belonging to the 22 Arab countries in the world? They couldn’t find a bigger plot of desert to put these people into, somewhere in the Sahara maybe?!

Of course they could — if not for the fact that their own Arab brothers hate them and don’t want them anywhere in any of their countries!

WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE STILL REFUGEES?! Why isn’t that a major human rights scandal?!

Overall, the territory has few jobs, no major industries and no prospect of sustaining itself as an independent economic entity.

That is because it is full of Palestinian “refugees.” If it were full of Jews, there would be jobs and industries. QED.

Palestinians say the Israeli departure will not improve Gazans’ lives if it is not accompanied by freedom of movement. They want to build a seaport, which Israel has agreed to, but which will take two to three years to construct.

They need freedom of movement so that they can……? They need a seaport so they can……?

The Palestinians also insist on reopening an airport that the Israelis closed at the beginning of the uprising; so far the Israelis refuse, citing security concerns.

Weasel words: “citing security concerns.” See how they imply that the Israelis are just making excuses for closing the airport.

Palestinians say that it is essential for people and goods to flow freely between Gaza and the West Bank, and that the Palestinians need to control the border with Egypt.

Well of course it is essential! How else will they get weapons and ammunition in and out? And what other industry have the Gazan Arabs ever had? We would not want to deprive their suicide bombers and terrorists of the tools of their trade, would we?

Israel has not yet agreed to relinquish control on those fronts, but the sides appear to be moving toward a deal that would effectively put the Palestinians in charge of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Hashem yishmor.

That would allow Gazans to travel to the wider world and return without passing through Israeli security, which they have been unable to do since Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

What is the problem, exactly, with Arabs having to pass through Israeli security? What do they want to bring in and out, eh? Why doesn’t the NY Times ask them some obvious questions?

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1 Response

  1. 4jkb4ia says:

    Hi Toby, good Shabbos. I think we all know that if the Times did not publish a story on the Palestinian side, they would be considered by all the readers to be not doing their job.

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