Liberal opinion

An editorial in the Observer today squarely confronts the current explosion of violence in the Israel/Palestine conflict. That is, it squarely lays the blame equally on the leadership of Israel, the Palestinian ‘Authority’ and Hamas. The paper proclaims “Let’s be honest. In the end, issues of religion, ethnicity, race and even land are not the main problem. The problem is that, politically speaking, both Israelis and Palestinians are shockingly badly led.” This is like saying colonial conquest is not the main problem, it’s just down to bad leadership, including that of the oppressed. This is just one way in which voicing the Palestinian cause can be muted, by pretending that if they could just have a decent leader, their problems could magically be whisked away. And there is no evidence on the Israeli side that they too might get a ‘decent’ leader—Netanyahu’s recent challenger Benny Gantz is just as savage in his attitude to Palestinian freedom and rights.

Back here in the UK I read on the Skwawkbox website that a school has excluded a pupil for shouting ‘Free Palestine’ in class, on the grounds that it was ‘racist.’ That epitomises the ‘balance’ the mainstream media seeks—they haven’t reported it.