The Israeli Election And The Paralysis Of Time Magazine

In Israel Election: Politics of Paralysis, all the usual tired cliches are recycled one more time by Time Magazine.

The very thought that a government might be formed that will no longer continue to make unilateral concessions to Abbas gives Time Magazine the sweats, pining away for the good old days:

In the past, Israel had leaders with vision and the fortitude to implement it. Ben-Gurion succeeded in establishing the Jewish state in 1948. Golda Meir scored an incalculable strategic victory by defeating Arab armies and occupying Arab territories in the 1967 war. Menachem Begin made peace with Egypt in 1979. Yitzhak Rabin signed a deal with the PLO before his assassination in 1995.

Some points:

1. Golda Meir did not 'defeat the Arab armies' in 1967, neither single-handedly nor as Prime Minister. Levi Eshkol was the Israeli Prime Minister at the time.

2. How could Israel have occupied Egyptian and Jordanian land when they themselves had been illegally occupying since 1948?

3. If indeed Begin made peace with Egypt, it is an extremely cold one, considering how the government run newspapers still disparage Israel and there have been no real ties between the two countries to speak of.

Time is fixated on a narrative that seems to put the entire onus for peace on Israel, and faults any act of self-defense:

Today's Israeli leaders have fuzzy vision and lack the means to implement much of anything. Kadima founder Ariel Sharon, and his successors as party leader Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, realized that political realities and Palestinian demographics meant Israel could no longer occupy the West Bank and Gaza forever. Yet, none of them has put forth a sensible plan for peace with the Palestinians or shown the will to reach a final comprehensive settlement. Although Olmert-Livni resumed Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, their three-year terms in office as PM and foreign minister will be remembered for two senseless wars - massive assaults on Lebanon and Gaza that seem to have only strengthened the militant Islamist factions that were targeted in the attacks. Israel's international standing, meanwhile, has been significantly eroded by those wars as well as its halting commitment to peace. Meanwhile, Barak, erstwhile peacemaker but defense minister during the latest war, prefers to campaign as a military man.

Israel has no plan--an odd claim considering it has agreed with the Road Map. Furthermore, to claim that the two wars--with Hamas and Hizbollah--is senseless is to ignore the horrendous situation that Israel has been expected to endure for years. The simplistic formulation that Time gives is pitiful. To say that Israel's standing has been eroded without noting that the protests are of a clear Anti-Semitic nature is to be oblivious to what is actually going on and why.

Finally, at the end, there is mention of the Palestinians--not so that they can share responsibility, but rather to make excuses, and blame Israel once again:

Certainly the Palestinian groups, Hamas in particular, have done their share to push Israel's political fragmentation along. Israeli voters are understandably wary of politicians who negotiate with Palestinians and get suicide bombings and rocket attacks in return. Hamas's pathetic failure to run Gaza as a model state following Israel's pullout four years ago did nothing to bolster Israel's sagging peace camp.

Of course, the truth is that it is not an issue of how Gaza is run; it is an issue of the thousands of Kassam rockets that have been fired at Israel over the last number of years. Not unexpectedly, Time again misses ignores this point. But to talk about Hamas's "pathetic failure to run Gaza as a model state" is an attrocious evasion of the facts:

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Hamas of waging a campaign to kill or maim scores of Palestinian opponents in the Gaza Strip since the end of December.

The human rights group said in a report that at least two dozen men have been shot dead by gunmen from the Palestinian militia that governs the Gaza Strip since December 27.

"Scores of others have been shot in the legs, knee-capped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause severe disability, subjected to severe beatings ... or otherwise tortured or ill-treated," it added.

"Hamas forces and militias in the Gaza Strip have engaged in a campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of 'collaborating' with Israel, as well as opponents and critics," the report said.

This has nothing to do with not running a model state. This is about what happens when terrorists are put in charge. But it is easier to blame Israel:

But part of the problem is that politics have badly fragmented on the Palestinian side, too. Israel's failure to seriously negotiate on the creation of a viable independent Palestinian state has severely undermined the authority of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and boosted the rise of the militants of Hamas.

Rather than deal with the obvious weakness of Abbas and the corruption of the PA, it is easier to once again blame Israel. Abbas himself has refused to recognize Israel and has rejected terrorism only because it does not work. To Time magazine, this is a moderate?

Time Magazine's paralysis prevents it from making any useful contribution to the discussion--but that's OK: it joins a long list of other left-wing publications that are similarly shrinking in significance and financial viability.

See Memeorandum for more on Amnesty International's report.

Technorati Tag: Israeli Elections and Media Bias.