Friday, August 09, 2002

Some Housekeeping Notes As I've learned more about the blogging world, it seems that part of the idea is to read other's writing and comment and link as the mood strikes. This is very democratic--as eventually there is a kind of voting as to what different groups of people find interesting. Last night I was struck by the flash ad Joe Conason mentioned.  When I looked at the site behind it, blah3.com  I liked the style and attitude.  Seemed to be geeks, or a geek with attitude about democratic politics.  Later I got an email from Don Waller- who was kind enough to say he appreciated my writing.  Anyway, I added a link to the site on the left. A couple of other interesting items from today.  CAMERA (the Committee on Accuracy in Middle East Reporting) held a demonstration outside of WBUR in Boston last night--protesting the fact that NPR gave 5 minutes to a story about the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber, and only a 3 minute story about the 13 Israelis killed last weekend.  CAMERA is a sick organization.  They attack journalists whom they consider biased against Israel, and publish a list of names on their web site.  But they seem quite selective--only targeting individual stories here and there--even getting after people like Thomas Friedman, for God's sake!! Although I am no dewy eyed believer in the lions of the press fearlessly tracking facts, I do think that many reporters, especially on complicated issues like Israel, genuinely wrestle with the tragedy of the situation, and the fact that both sides are locked in a deadly embrace that they can't end. CAMERA's approach is no different in my view than any totalitarian effort at thought control.  Only those who claim the right to dictate what other people think, see, or hear could support an organization whose raison d'etre is to prevent Palestinian views from reaching the American public. I have been distressed as over and over I hear, as in the WBUR story above, Jews say there is no moral equivalence between the Jews and the Arabs.  That may have been true in 1948--but that has not been true for the last 25 years.  When I first visited Israel, I went not just to Jerusalem, but to Palestinian refugee camps as well--and all I saw at the time were ordinary people.  Israel has held power over these refugee camps since 1973, and during that time they have made the situation worse and worse. If you believe in the basic rights of democracy, the life of each person is sacred.  When Jewish propagandists try and claim that the lives of Palestinians are not worth as much as lives of Israelis, they give up any claim of moral superiority--and become like any other oppressor acting against a weaker population. One last note--Haaretz said that George's Bush's Front against Iraq is rapidly crumbling-- something that is even being picked up here in the U.S. Also, I have received some email requests about subscribing to this blog.  I will figure out the xml feed and put up some kind of button in the next few days. 5:12:01 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:29:42 PM.