By habit, I scrolled down through a news report on Palestinians blowing up the border wall with Egypt at the Rafah area to escape the Israeli siege on Gaza after being cut off from food supplies, fuel and medical supplies.
The top reader's comment read the following:
People these days, don't even know the rules for proper political discourse. Well people, let me teach ya the rules: (1) Israel never does, never has, and never will, do anything that can be remotely construed as, or associated with, concepts such as 'wrong' or 'brutal' or 'genocidal' or 'ethnic cleansing', etc... (2) Any sources and evidence used to prove the above will be hereby be known as "anti-semetic" or "extremist" (3) It's all the Palestinians fault, as usual.
Ever since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in July 2006, I have come across numerous comments that conveyed rage, ignorance and bore the most "cliche" claims on both sides.
However, this one triggered questions that are extremely important to me. Is it possible for media alone to twist generally known facts (by this I mean Israeli media), shape public opinion, highten animosity and most of all impose its "dictating" model on its audience? Interactive media. is it more "democratic"? If so, does it create a space for a rational dialogue about historical partialities promoted by "propagandist" news reporting, or is it just another means to display and express public predjudices and steroetypes?
An earlier CNN report on the Gaza siege, stated last night that the Israeli blockade formed around Gaza was a result of the rocket bombs launched by Hamas on the Israelis. I was reminded of my German colleague who until last year thought that Palestinians were the ones occupying Israeli lands..
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