[Peace-discuss] He Gets It, But He Still Doesn't Get It: Reading Ethan Bronner in Athens
"E. Wayne Johnson 朱稳森"
ewj at pigs.ag
Sat Jul 9 09:46:10 CDT 2011
I have always wondered if the
Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil was a
binary or a fractal tree.
On 07/09/11 21:23, David Green wrote:
> Bob, I greatly appreciate this reaction. The only thing I don't agree
> with is the Exodus analogy--the flotilla deserves better than to be
> compared to Ben Gurion's stunt and the historical propaganda that
> emanated from it.
> David
>
> *From:* Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> *To:* Peace-discuss List <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> *Sent:* Friday, July 8, 2011 10:16 AM
> *Subject:* [Peace-discuss] He Gets It, But He Still Doesn't Get
> It: Reading Ethan Bronner in Athens
>
> http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/08-6
>
> Published on Friday, July 8, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
> <http://www.commondreams.org/>
>
>
> He Gets It, But He Still Doesn't Get It: Reading Ethan Bronner
> in Athens
>
> by Robert Naiman <http://www.commondreams.org/robert-naiman>
> If you share in the project of reforming U.S. foreign policy so
> that it reflects the values and interests of the majority of
> Americans, then you care about the /New York Times/. Because of
> its role in influencing the coverage of other corporate media, the
> /Times/ is a key gatekeeper shaping not only what the broad
> majority of the American public know about what our government is
> doing in the world, but also in determining to what perspectives
> about these policies the broad American public is exposed.
> As a corollary, if you care about reforming U.S. policy towards
> the Palestinians' quest for self-determination, then you care
> about Ethan Bronner, because Bronner is the /Times/' Jerusalem
> bureau chief.
> It was thus with keen interest that, as a passenger waiting in
> Athens earlier this week to board the U.S. boat to Gaza, /The
> Audacity of Hope <http://ustogaza.org/>/, I read Ethan Bronner's
> "news analysis" Sunday of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, "Setting Sail
> on Gaza's Sea of Spin
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/sunday-review/03flotilla.html>."
> Bronner's job as a "news analyst" is, of course, not merely to put
> forward his own personal prejudices. As an individual human being,
> he is certainly entitled to his views. But as a news analyst, in
> addition to offering his own perspective, he has a responsibility
> to give a fair and coherent account of the views of different
> actors, rather than construct a caricature of one of the actors so
> that he can then dismiss them. Unfortunately, it's the latter that
> Bronner's piece ultimately does.
> Bronner's piece is a tragic performance in the gap between the
> understanding that it grasps and the understanding that it manages
> to hold. It is one thing to be innocently ignorant. It is quite
> another to march right up to the Tree of Knowledge, pull down a
> ripe fruit, chew it thoughtfully and then spit it out because you
> don't like the taste. But this, sadly, is what Bronner's piece
> ultimately does.
> Bronner's piece begins with great promise:
>
> Some see a parallel with the Exodus, the ship filled with
> Jewish refugees that tried to break the British blockade of
> Palestine in 1947 and helped sway world opinion toward Zionism.
>
> It's a singularly potent analogy. Arguably, in the entire history
> of Zionism, there is no more sympathetic image than the voyage of
> the Exodus. To be crude, in terms of American public opinion, if
> /The Audacity of Hope/ equals the Exodus, then "we win." Bronner
> recounts:
>
> In July 1947, when Britain ruled Palestine and the number of
> Jews allowed in was severely limited, the ship, with 4,500
> Jewish refugees from Europe, tried to get through. British
> forces boarded it, killed three people, wounded dozens and
> essentially destroyed the ship as it listed in Haifa harbor.
> The British ultimately sent the passengers to Hamburg. The
> sight of thousands of Jewish refugees shipped to Germany soon
> after the Holocaust sparked international outrage and sympathy
> for the Zionist cause, a key goal of the trip.
>
> Bronner then quotes a mainstream American-Israeli historian to
> bring the analogy home:
>
> "The Exodus showed that if the British are callous enough to
> send Jews back to Germany, the only ones who should be in
> charge of the fate of the Jews are the Jews themselves,"
> observed M. M. Silver, an Israeli historian and the author of
> "Our Exodus." "Palestinian forces are trying to make the same
> point through the flotilla, that Israel has no right to
> control the fate of Palestinians."
>
> As a participant in the flotilla, I only have one dispute with
> Professor Silver's characterization of my motivation: the subject
> of the sentence is wrong. The sentence should read: "/Advocates of
> Palestinian freedom/ are trying to make the same point through the
> flotilla, that Israel has no right to control the fate of
> Palestinians." The phrase "advocates of Palestinian freedom"
> correctly describes the organizers and passengers on the flotilla.
> This category certainly includes Palestinians, but it also
> includes, for example, African-American writerAlice Walker
> <http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-21/opinion/alice.walker.gaza_1_muslim-child-gaza-gandhi> (passenger
> on /The Audacity of Hope/) and Israeli-American linguistics
> professorHagit Borer
> <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/26/opinion/la-oe-borer-gaza-blockade-20110626> (passenger
> on /The Audacity of Hope/.)
> Notwithstanding that dispute, it cannot fairly be said that
> Bronner's piece has not exposed its readers to a more or less
> accurate portrayal of the motivations behind the flotilla. Yes,
> absolutely, we are contesting /specific Israeli government
> decisions/ about who and what can go into and come out of Gaza and
> by what means. But, as important as this contest is in its own
> right, it is a corollary to a more fundamental contest: in
> Professor Silver's formulation, we assert that /Israel has no
> right to control the fate of Palestinians/.
> Unfortunately, having tasted of the fruit of the Tree of
> Knowledge, Bronner's piece spits it out.
> Bronner hammers the flotilla for transporting "humanitarian aid,"
> which he correctly - but vacuously - says is not what Gaza needs.
> Indeed, Bronner quotes in support of his point the Israeli human
> rights group Gisha, which has campaigned against the closure of Gaza:
>
> "The focus on humanitarian aid by both flotilla organizers and
> the Israeli government is infuriating and misleading," Gisha,
> an Israeli human rights group focused on Gaza, said in a
> statement. "There is no shortage of food in Gaza, but economic
> recovery is blocked by sweeping restrictions."
>
> Gisha went on to say
> <http://www.gisha.org/index.php?intLanguage=2&intItemId=2050&intSiteSN=113>,
> quite rightly:
>
> The continued ban on export, construction materials, and
> travel between Gaza and the West Bank contradicts the 2010
> Israeli government decision to facilitate economic recovery in
> Gaza. *At least 83% of Gaza's factories are either closed or
> working at a capacity of 50% or less, according to the
> Palestinian Federation of Industries.* The manufacturing
> sector cannot recover under the present Israeli ban on export;
> not a single truck has been allowed to leave Gaza since May
> 12. Even during the winter agricultural season, when Israel
> allowed the export of agricultural produce, the quantities
> were economically negligible: an average of two trucks per
> day, compared to the 400 trucks a day agreed upon in the 2005
> Agreement on Movement and Access.
> Israel has banned completely goods destined for Israel and the
> West Bank, even though prior to 2007, 85% of the goods leaving
> Gaza were sold to Israel and the West Bank.
> Sari Bashi, Executive Director of Gisha, says it is
> infuriating that residents of Gaza are being deliberately
> reduced to recipients of humanitarian aid. *"The problem in
> Gaza is not a shortage of food but rather a violation of the
> right to productive, dignified work. There is just one
> solution that will respect the rights of Gaza residents to
> freedom of movement and livelihood while protecting Israel's
> legitimate security interests: Israel must lift the ban on
> construction materials, exit of goods and travel between Gaza
> and the West Bank."* [emphasis in original.]
>
> But in criticizing "flotilla organizers" for a "focus on
> humanitarian aid," Gisha was responding not to the actual flotilla
> organizers as they exist in flesh and blood, but to the flotilla
> organizers as portrayed by others, including Mr. Bronner. Having
> spent the last two weeks with "flotilla organizers," having
> attended many press conferences, having served on the media team
> of /The Audacity of Hope/, I /never saw anyone/ "focus on
> humanitarian aid." (Indeed, /The Audacity of Hope/ carried
> /no/ "humanitarian aid" - it carried letters of solidarity from
> Americans to the people of Gaza.) Rather, I saw flotilla
> organizers and passengers focus on what Professor Silver correctly
> perceived: /Israel has no right to control the fate of
> Palestinians/, an axiom to which opposition to all the Israeli
> government restrictions on the Palestinian civilian population of
> Gaza - on imports and exports, on travel for work, study, and
> medical care, on fishing and farming - is corollary.
> I saw people wearing t-shirts that said, "We sail until Palestine
> is free." I didn't see anyone wearing a t-shirt that said, "We
> sail until Israel allows more humanitarian aid into Gaza."
> However, it may well be the case that correct words are
> insufficient here. Indeed, Ethan Bronner managed to write a "news
> analysis" that slammed the "focus" of "flotilla
> organizers"/without naming or quoting a single one of them/. We go
> to sleep and we awake, and Ethan Bronner is still the Jerusalem
> bureau chief of the /New York Times/, so it is logical to ask:
> could a future flotilla arrange its symbolism in such a way that
> even Ethan Bronner would be incapable of misunderstanding? What
> would such a Dream Flotilla look like?
> Maybe it would look like this: /pushing against every aspect of
> the Israeli blockade of Gaza at once/. Such a flotilla would have
> some ships going in, and /other ships coming out/, carrying
> Palestinian exports. Still other ships would fish 20 nautical
> miles from Gaza's coast, as promised in the Oslo Accords, rather
> than the three nautical miles currently allowed by unilateral
> Israeli restriction. Other "ships" would farm to Gaza's border
> with Israel, defying the unilateral Israeli "buffer zone." Other
> "ships" would carry Palestinians from Gaza needing lifesaving
> medical treatment to Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem, in
> defiance of Israeli restrictions. Other "ships" would carry
> Palestinians from Gaza to study at Palestinian universities in the
> West Bank, in defiance of the restrictions of the Israeli occupation.
> Maybe then, Ethan Bronner would understand. But just to make sure,
> perhaps this Dream Flotilla should set sail in September, when the
> Palestinians are pressing their case at the United Nations for
> recognition of their independent state - a push that has at its
> core a very simple precept: /Israel has no right to control the
> fate of Palestinians/.
> Robert Naiman <http://www.commondreams.org/robert-naiman>
> Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy.
> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/> Naiman has worked as a policy
> analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy
> Research <http://www.cepr.net/> and Public Citizen's Global Trade
> Watch <http://www.citizen.org/trade/>. He has masters degrees in
> economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has
> studied and worked in the Middle East. You can contact him here
> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/about/contact>.
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org>
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org <mailto:naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
>
>
>
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