Robert Fisk:"US Coming Around To the Truth"-IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT ISRAEL

[Nothing Without Hope]

This is a superb editorial that covers a lot of ground. Although the central point is the need for honesty - at last! - about Israel's politics and actions, it takes a tour through the evolving state of US journalism that should not be missed. He points out that even with the new resistance to BushCo's relentless lies, the US media still almost universally (he cites Amy Goodman as an brave exception) shy away from any mention of Israel's role in world politics and conflicts. As long as we continue to whistle past the impact of Israel's politics on the rest of the world, we will have at best only part of the truth and incomplete plans to improve the situation. And we will be ignoring bias and injustice as well as the efforts of people within Israel and around the world to address this issue positively and fairly.

I highly recommend the whole article.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1207-26.htm
Published on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

U.S. Coming Around To The Truth

by Robert Fisk

(snip)

In New York and Los Angeles, my condemnation of the U.S. presidency and Israel's continued settlement-building in the West Bank was originally treated with the disdain all great papers reserve for those who dare to question proud and democratic projects of state. In The New York Times, that ancient luminary Ethan Bronner chided me for attacking American journalists who -- he quoted my own words -- "report in so craven a fashion from the Middle East -- so fearful of Israeli criticism that they turn Israeli murder into 'targeted attacks' and illegal settlements into 'Jewish neighborhoods.' "

(snip)

Still they avoid the "Israel" question. The Arab princes in {George Clooney's movie} Syriana -- who in real life would be obsessed with the occupation of the West Bank -- do not murmur a word about Israel. The Arab al-Qaida operative who persuades the young Pakistani to attack an oil tanker makes no reference to Israel -- as every one of Osama bin Laden's acolytes assuredly would. It was instructive that Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" did not mention Israel once.

So one key issue of the Middle East remains to be confronted. Amy Goodman, whom I used to enrage by claiming that her leftist Democracy Now program had only three listeners (one of whom was Amy Goodman), is bravely raising this unmentionable subject. Partly as a result, her "alternative" radio and television station is slowly moving into the mainstream.

Americans are ready to discuss the United States' relationship with Israel. And the United States' injustices toward the Arabs. As usual, ordinary Americans are way out in front of their largely tamed press and television reporters. Now we have to wait and see if the media boys and girls will catch up with their own people.

Fisk is most definitely right. It is time - PAST time - to stop censorship on the subject of the role played by Israel's government in world and Mid-East politics. And if you think there has not been censorship and bias on this subject, I ask you to think again. Even here at DU this sensitive subject has too often been hidden away - threads about the role of Israeli politics in US and world affairs banished to the Israel/Palestine forum (which does not allow Greatest Page votes) and often quickly locked or riddled with deletions. This needs to change.

I have posted a brief "headsup cross-post" about this thread in the Editorials Forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x178157
but I wanted the wider visibility of General Discussion for the main thread on this important article. I hope that it is not banished to the Israel/Palestine forum.