LETTER TO THE EDITOR: On recent opinion column discussing portrayal of Israel-Hamas war in media
The Israel-Palestine conflict has horrified the world. The atrocities committed by Hamas against civilian Jews and Israel's disproportionate response against innocent Palestinians deserve our reflection and attention. What also deserves attention, though, is the clever lying, lazy reasoning and outright anti-semitism my "progressive" peers have demonstrated over the past few days. On Monday, The Daily Targum published a column that nearly checks all three.
It is not the column's stunning claim that the Palestinian plight is "barely given even a second of airtime on mainstream media" that is the most concerning. Perhaps the columnist missed the media coverage of the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, also covered by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Maybe they also missed the coverage of the IDF using rubber bullets and stun grenades when storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was also covered by The New York Times and BBC News. And maybe they forgot about the escalation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, something that has been happening for years. I did not, because it was also covered by The New York Times, Reuters, The Associated Press, Vox and NPR.
If the point of the column is to say that the lack of sympathy for Palestine from the American people and its government is frustrating, fine. I agree. The U.S. government has never given Israel the ultimatum it needs in order to treat Palestinians humanely and has, at times, even supported such wretched behavior. But pretending Western media is ignoring such atrocities is willful ignorance at best. Things do not cease to exist just because you do not see them. We are not children. We have object permanence.
More concerning than the column's breathtaking lack of media literacy is the contradiction and obfuscation in many of its claims. Some of these obfuscations fall under the language many Conservatives in the U.S. use.
The column claims that "the continuous demonization of Palestinians in the mainstream media" is sickening, equating the Palestinian people with Hamas, the Islamic fundamentalist group that currently governs the Gaza Strip.
Mainstream media outlets, from AP News to Fox News to CNN that the column ignores, have been very careful in making this distinction. The New York Times even calls it the "Israel-Hamas War" because, of course, Palestinian civilians are not responsible for Hamas' actions.
And some of these comparisons fall apart under the tiniest scrutiny. The column states it is "disgusting to see the way the U.S. gives nothing but unequivocal support for Ukrainians, the occupied, while providing the same unequivocal support for the occupier, Israel."
Forget the fact that this is not actually true. The columnist does not care, and neither do I, frankly, because the comparison is ridiculous. If Ukraine was running into Russian-occupied territory and kidnapping and raping women and children, do you think American support would be unequivocal? Would yours?
But the most objectionable part of the column is symbolic of a problem with the broader progressive movement in this country: maybe some people’s support is unequivocal.
The cover photo the column uses is from a supposedly pro-Palestine rally in Times Square last weekend. The event, which was promoted in part by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), featured speakers who gleefully cheered that Hamas terrorists "came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters" from a music festival.
Approximately 260 civilians attending this event were killed.
The event was so callous that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a longtime member of the DSA, denounced it. Similarly, vitriolic protests across the country, also sponsored by the DSA, caused Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich) to resign from the organization.
The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter alluded to the paragliders when it made a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in support of Hamas. The post has since been deleted.
Several student organizations from colleges across the country are either silent on the Jewish civilian murders or explicitly endorse them.
The message became explicit at a protest in Australia when a pro-Palestine rally devolved into demonstrators reportedly chanting, "Gas the Jews."
The Anti-Defamation League published a list of these rallies around the U.S. where protesters seemed fine, if not pleased, with the murder of innocent Jews. Slogans at these events included "From the river to the sea," a slogan that advocated for the removal of all Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
This same chant for ethnic cleansing was reportedly heard at a vigil in New Brunswick when a protester interrupted Rutgers' Jewish community members praying for the civilian victims and their families. And even though I believe most of Thursday's pro-Palestine rally was highly defensible, its protesters echoed the same words.
What is the column's response to 1,300 civilians, including families in their homes, being kidnapped and murdered? Being stripped naked, spat on and paraded around town on a truck?
When responding to a story of an Israeli woman being kidnapped, the column states, "To justify whether this action is right or wrong is not the point." This is objectionable in its own right, but not as much when Hamas' actions are justified just five paragraphs later: "Israel is an oppressor, and Palestinians are the oppressed, so no, there is no battle within the region because that would entail that there are two sides to an equal fight."
My stance has remained unchanged since before Hamas' pogrom: I support the cause for Palestinian freedom. I oppose the Right-wing Israeli government. And I am horrified at the murders of civilians, regardless of their demographics.
But for too many progressives, that third stance is optional if the demographic is "Jew."
Nobel Avellino is a School of Arts and Sciences junior.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 900 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
