Segacs’s World I Know

…with the re-launch of Al Jazeera’s English site.

A quick scan shows stories talking about how “rational”, “pragmatic”, and “moderate” Hamas is, stories on Israel’s policy of assassinating terrorists being the stumbling block to peace (with no mention of terror attacks against Israelis), and a poll in which 44% of people believe that the US attacked Iraq to gain control of its oil. And that’s only the front page.

Call me crazy, but this looks an awful lot like most other news sites out there. Which probably speaks more to their bias than to Al-Jazeera’s “objectivity”.

The Or Commission Report was released yesterday. Key among its findings was that the Israeli police used excessive force in reaction to the October 2000 riots by Israeli Arabs:

In a landmark report on the country’s treatment of the Arab minority, a commission of inquiry has found police used excessive force in stopping Arab riots three years and that the country’s leaders badly underestimated the community’s anger after decades of systematic discrimination.

Thirteen Israeli Arabs were killed in the October 2000 protests, in which thousands threw stones and blocked streets in a show of support with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A Jewish motorist was killed by a rock at the time.

After hearing 377 witnesses in nearly three years, the Or Commission released its report of several hundred pages. It was only the fourth probe of such a scope in the country’s history. The others were a 1974 investigation into reasons why the government failed to predict the Yom Kippur War, the 1983 commission into massacres of Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon and an investigation into the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The commission’s recommendations are not legally binding, but carry strong weight. The 1983 findings forced Ariel Sharon to resign from his post as defense minister.

The reaction to this has been instantaneous, on all sides. And as usual, I feel the need to weigh in with my two cents.

On the one hand, it’s fair to say that the excessive use of force should be strongly condemned. If, as the report’s findings suggest, rubber and then live bullets were used too readily, and the situation escalated too quickly, then those responsible ought to be taken to task. In addition, the report brought the very important problem of discrimination against Israeli Arabs – often swept under the rug – to light. While it is illegal to institutionalize racism in Israel, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. The problem exists, like in most democratic societies, and in Israel it is compounded by the decades of hostility and all-out war by what too many generalize as “the Arabs”. Understandable, maybe, but not excusable.

On the other hand, the commission of inquiry system speaks to the relative transparency of the Israeli system. And what I find frustrating is the knowledge that this will be used to paint Israel as the sole villain by the Palestinians, who would never dream of mounting a similar commission of inquiry for any wrongdoing on their side. The very transparency that makes Israel what it is, in a sense, is also its weakness. Israel is shining a self-reflecting light on its own shortcomings, knowing full well that the Palestinians would never do the same. And the Or Commission report will become nothing but another propaganda tool. I mean, could you ever conceive of a Commission of Inquiry held by the Palestinians in their eventual state, finding that police used “excessive force” against a Jewish minority? Palestinian security force members who kill Jews don’t get reprimands; they get hero’s welcomes.

It also makes me uneasy to read things like this:

The report put the blame for the riots squarely on the shoulders of the Israeli establishment, saying a major cause was systematic government neglect of the Arab minority.

“The state and all its governments failed consistently in dealing with the problems raised by the existence of a large Arab minority within a Jewish state,” it said.

That sounds suspiciously like a “root cause” argument.

Now, for the record, I’m not denying the existence of “root causes”. I think they are important in the long-term in working to alleviate tensions and solve problems. But in the immediate term, the blame for an action has to be on the person causing the action, not on those reacting.

Israel holds itself to a higher standard than the rest of the Middle East. And a cornerstone of democracy is the ability to self-examine and self-criticize. For those reasons, the findings of the Or Commission are important.

But instead of self-criticism or a long hard look in the mirror, the rest of the Middle East prefers to use such admissions of wrongdoing as additional propaganda against Israel. Because it’s easier to point the finger outwards than inwards.

Update: Imshin gives her personal take on the events.

Labour day today – the day with the least labour of the year, just about. And we all know what that means: Tomorrow is the day with the most traffic of the year.

After the euphoria caused by last week’s clean sweep of the Phillies, the Expos were on the receiving end of a sweep by Florida that puts us three games out of the wildcard spot, and relegates baseball to the back of the sports section where it belongs.

I think Don MacPherson had a point when he said that last week was a blip:

If there’s a word beginning with the letter ”f” that describes the phenomenon at the Olympic Stadium this week, it’s not “fever”; it’s “festivalitis.”

Montreal is known for its summer festivals, when its citizens are encouraged to dabble briefly in activities they ignore the rest of the year. The Phillies series was the baseball festival, and it leaves Montreal as much a baseball town as it is a year-round jazz hot spot.

The chances of the team being back this year are looking slim.

Something’s gotta be wrong with the world when the highest-paid male and female actors in Hollywood are, respectively, Adam Sandler and Cameron Diaz.

A mosque bombing in Iraq left 75 dead and dozens more wounded:

A massive car bomb exploded at the Imam Ali mosque during Friday prayers in this holy city, killing 75 people, including one of Iraq’s most important Shiite clerics.

Dozens were injured in the blast, which dug a crater more than one metre deep in the street in front of the mosque and destroyed nearby shops, where people pulled the dead and injured from the rubble.

Among the dead was Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who had just delivered a sermon calling for Iraqi unity at the shrine, the holiest in Iraq.

And besides al-Hakim, how many of the victims of the bombing will ever be named by an international media more concerned with analyzing the political implications than with the fact that there are 75 people dead?

There’s been another attack in Israel. Shalom Hamelech was shot and his wife Limor, 7 months pregnant, was wounded and taken to hospital for an emergency C-section, after Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade gunmen opened fire on them.

I don’t know him, or his family. I have no connection to them whatsoever. But reading about his death, it struck me that far too many victims of terror become nameless and faceless to us. Shalom Hamelech was 25 years old. He had a young family, including a 14-month baby and a new baby on the way. He had parents, friends, loved ones, and hopes and dreams. And he was killed because he was hated simply for being Jewish.

The media splashes the bus bombings on front pages, but attacks where only one or two people are killed go largely unnoticed. This leads to a dangerous devaluation of human life, whereupon one dead Jew isn’t enough of a big deal for the large headlines – there’ve got to be ten, or twenty, or a hundred. People react emotionally when there are babies or children killed. The North American press makes a big stink if Americans are killed. Everyone knows the name Marla Bennett. We all remember Shalhevet Pass. But in a month, who – outside his friends and family – will remember the name of Shalom Hamelech?

I’ve posted this link before but I think it bears a repeat post: How quickly the names and lives and faces of the victims of terrorism are forgotten. How easily we relegate them to the status of a number or a statistic.

The Palestinian groups name schools and summer camps after their suicide bombers, and hold parades in their honour. Palestinian parents name their children after terrorists, hoping that they, too, will grow up to aspire to the “lofty” achievement of murdering Jews.

We, on the other hand, know that the victims of terrorism – innocent though they may be – are not martyrs. Some were heroes, like the security guards who wrestled with bombers to prevent them from entering crowded establishments. Others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were ordinary people, living ordinary lives. And that’s exactly the point. To pretend otherwise would be to diminish their memories.

Once in a while, it’s important to see the faces of those lost, to remember what the whole point is in the first place.

A group of Egyptians is launching a lawsuit against the Jews, alleging that in the biblical exodus from ancient Egypt, the Jews stole gold and property (via Eric, Adam):

Dr. Nabil Hilmi, a dean at the University of Al-Zaqaziq, said Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland are mounting a massive lawsuit against “all Jews around the world” that seeks compensation for “tons” of gold they claim was stolen during the Jews’ exodus out of the country.

Hilmi described the suit in an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi.

“Since the Jews make various demands of the Arabs and the world, and claim rights that they base on historical and religious sources, a group of Egyptians in Switzerland has opened the case of the so-called ‘great exodus of the Jews from Pharaonic Egypt.’ At that time, they stole from the Pharaonic Egyptians gold, jewelry, cooking utensils, silver ornaments, clothing, and more, leaving Egypt in the middle of the night with all this wealth, which today is priceless,” Hilmi told the paper, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

[ . . . ]

Hilmi estimates the nominal value of the 300 tons of gold purportedly stolen 5,758 years ago would be astronomically large. He figures the value doubled every 20 years and conservatively tacks on 5 percent interest.

Okay, never mind that the ancient Egyptians aren’t the same people as the modern ones . . . or that the bible isn’t exaclty admissable evidence in a modern court of law. But what I really want to know is, can the Jews counter-sue Egypt for 210 (or 400, depending on the interpretation) years of slavery?

Hamas is upping the ante by launching rockets into the Israeli city of Ashkelon:

The Qassam rocket slammed into an industrial zone in the coastal city of Ashkelon, 5.5 miles from the Gaza Strip, the army said. It was the furthest a Qassam had been fired into Israel since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in 2000.

The rocket attack on the city of 116,000 could mark the crossing of a red line for Israel, which fears similar strikes from the West Bank against the nearby densely populated center of the country.

In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority is making a show of their so-called attempt to rein in the terrorists:

A Palestinian security official in Gaza said Palestinian forces had rushed to the area where a Hamas squad had fired the rocket at Ashkelon, preventing it from launching more rockets.

“There was a chase and a shootout,” the official told Reuters. “Our forces are still searching the area in the northern Gaza Strip.”

[ . . . ]

In an apparent clampdown on Hamas affecting thousands of needy Palestinians, the Palestinian Monetary Authority said it had frozen 39 bank accounts held by 12 Islamic charities, most of which are widely believed to be Hamas-sponsored.

By the straight way that Reuters reported this claim, it’s clear that the media is buying the PA’s act – hook, line, and sinker. It should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about the Middle East that this supposed “clampdown” is just for show, and should be taken about as seriously as Yasser Arafat’s “condemnations” of terror attacks that he bankrolled and ordered in the first place.