Believe it or not, there’s a heartening editorial in Arab News (via Rana on the Link’s board). Entitled “It’s All Israel’s Fault”, the editorial dares to recognize what nobody would admit for a long time: namely, that the Arab media’s habit of blaming Israel for absolutely everything has been detrimental to the Arab world for a long time:
In the Arab media, it wasn’t so much a question of confusing patriotism with reportage as confusing news with wishful thinking. In a word, what was lacking was objectivity and critical self-analysis.
This, of course, is nothing new. For decades it has been difficult to find anything in the opinion pages of the Arabic language press that did not concern Israel. Every problem faced by Arab societies was blamed, in however obscure or far-fetched a way, on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. The issue served as a sort of lowest common denominator, satisfying many journalists who were not equipped to write about anything else as well as many of those who rule the Arab world and who would prefer Israel — rather than their own shortcomings — to be the subject of heated discussion in the “Arab street.”
[ . . . ]
The days when the Arab world could just scream “Israel”, as if that one word were sufficient answer to every question about every problem that came its way — as though saying that one word could deflect all further inquiry — are over. The time for peaceful coexistence, internal reflection and healthy, progressive thinking has come.
It’s about time somebody wrote this. The scapegoating has been going on for a long time and isn’t likely to just stop because of one editorial. But like everything else, it’s a step.