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Blogging a war

Posted at 11:31 AM on December 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: War

If there was ever a subject for which there's no upside for a news blogger, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is it. People have, naturally, strong beliefs on the issue and will detect sympathy for the other side's cause if things aren't written exactly as they expect.

Israel's attacks on Gaza over the weekend have again sparked the reactions on both sides of the issue that surprise no one and from the safety of the News Cut cubicle, I'm in no position to say what version of the truth is closest to the truth. (Programming note: Talk of the Nation to delve into the issue in today's first hour.)

Instead, I'm reading blogs, trying to get a better feel for what life is like for people in the region.

Mona El-Farra, a Red Crescent physician, for example, wrote a piece on Christmas Eve, on the blog From Gaza, With Love. El-Farra wrote from the UK, where El-Farra's daughter is marooned after leaving to visit the UK and was not allowed to return to Gaza. But even a hopeful Christmas Eve post became a forum for accusations of insults past and present.

Laila El-Haddad, a journalist who writes the blog Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother, is trying to keep in touch with her family back home from her home in North Carolina.

A little later I called my mother, only to hear her crying on the phone. "The planes are overhead" she cried "the planes are overhead". I tried to calm her down- planes overhead mean the "target" is further away. But in such moments of intense fear, there is no room for rationality and logic.

Sameh A. Habeeb, who describes himself as a photojournalist & peace activist, writes the blog, Gaza Strip - The Untold Story. He wrote yesterday that his news updates have been sporadic because of limited access to the Internet. A commenter points out that in all of his writing, Habeeb did not mention rocket attacks on Israel.

David Bogner, author of treppenwitz picks up the theme:

Unlike Hamas, which has been perpetrating ongoing war crimes against Israel by deliberately targeting civilian population centers with kassams, ketyushas and mortars (even as recently as ten minutes ago!), Israel has made an Herculean effort to make sure that only military targets are hit. Heck, we're even taking their wounded over the border and treating them in Israeli hospitals! Try that in the other direction and see if anyone comes back alive!

Chayyei Sarah, described as "an Orthodox Jewish thirty-something is living,playing, writing, and dating in Jerusalem," said it had to be.

Yesterday I was at the home of my friends C and M, and we heard planes overhead. M went to the window and said "looks like we're about to attack somebody. Those were military planes, and they weren't doing training." There was a pause, and C pointed out "you know things are very bad when even Meretz [a far-left political party that is very into making peace with the Palestinians] say that we have to take military action."

The blog Israelicool is live-blogging the war, saying 60 rockets have been fired into Israel today.

All in all, a glance at the blogs reveals what most people already knew -- there's no hope of any solution to the conflict anytime soon.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Comments (5)

I am a little shocked that there are no comments on this news cut. I 'enjoyed', if you will, reading the blogs you've posted. I find the one sidedness to be so hardcore. I have heard that most palistinians and isrealis want peace, are tired of the violence. But there are enough fundamentalists on each side to perpetuate the violence and hatred. The palastinians resort to terrorist tactics due to there being supressed, poor, and disenfranchised. The isrealis use more sophisticated means to perpetuate violence, but do so in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and with u.s. weaponry. And is flying jets low overhead routinely not a form of terrorism? It is state sponsored, and palastine is not officially a state? While i am sometimes proud of my jewish heritage, I am not proud of isreal's gov't. Both sides are to blame, and both blame each other. It is hard to still care, still pay attention, as the story never really seems to change. Maybe that is why no one has commented. It breaks my heart that the cycle cannot be stopped after all these years. I would like to visit the area some day, but....

Posted by Ben | December 30, 2008 6:37 AM

Ben-
with all due respect....you are SOMETIMES proud of your Jewish heritage? As a fellow Jew, I find that a very perplexing and disturbing statement. I also find your inability to spell "Israel" correctly to be a real detriment, personally, to taking your arguments seriously. (Never mind your creatively phonetic method of spelling "Palestinians".)

So, in your view, do all people in the world who are "suppressed, poor, and disenfranchised" have a right to commit suicide attacks against innocent people? Who is the real culprit behind the "suppression" and "disenfranchisement" of the Palestinians? Do you not think it benefits certain Arab powers and Iran to perpetually KEEP the Palestinians in a state of "suppression" and "disenfranchisement" - so that the poor Palestinians can serve as proxy fighters for the war to destroy Israel that has never succeeded?

Both sides are to blame? OK, I won't deny that Israel has made major mistakes. They are PARTLY to blame. But they have also made overtures for peace, repeatedly. Hamas, on the other hand, has a charter that calls for the destruction of Israel. Israel has no such "charter". So who's "more to blame" here? Sounds to me like the side that won't acknowledge the OTHER SIDE'S RIGHT TO EXIST, no?

Ben, do some reading. You really show your ignorance with this comment.

Posted by Joe | December 30, 2008 1:50 PM

Wow, Joe, sorry to have offended you with my bad spelling and ignorance, but please teach me instead of belittling me. Spelling has always been a weak point for me, but I managed my BS with a decent GPA regardless (thanks largely to spellcheck). I am Jewish on my father's side, but am definitely not a Jew. I do not believe in god. I also cannot condone violence, and violence done in the name of religion I find extremely abhorrant. I never said one side was to blame. I know a well respected diplomat who was often in Lebanon, and he said what Israel did, like flying their jets low overhead, was a form of terrorism, and we all know that the US supports them, which creates more hatred. I did not mean to say that the peoples of these countries or regions are to blame, and in fact was trying to say that the vast majority are not to blame, but are suffering for the extremists. A friend of mine who has worked on a kibbutz a couple of times told me that most of the people he came in contact with wanted to stop the violence and that the minority conservative faction in Israel was mostly to blame on their side for perpetuating it. As much as I am more aligned with Ghandi, MLK, and Thoreau's civil disobedience, I do not know if such political tactics could ever work in the middle east. But I do not understand why, and this is why I need help understading. So help me understand, please, but do not cut me down because my opinions and limited understanding bother you. Innocent people are being killed on both sides of the fence, Joe. Without trying to understand and empathize the other side, no peace will ever come.

Posted by Ben | December 31, 2008 4:53 AM

OK Ben, fair enough. Perhaps I was bit too rough on you about your spelling. I too can't condone violence - in the name of religion or otherwise. But you should know the facts. In 2005, Israel COMPLETELY withdrew every last troop, settler, etc. from Gaza. EVERY SINGLE ONE. That is what the "international community" for years had insisted Israel must to to "achieve peace." End the occupation of Gaza. So that's what they did? And what did they get in return from Hamas? Rockets raining down on their cities, that's what they got. In other words, Israel made a sincere gesture towards peace by ending its occupation of Gaza, and that peace gesture was met with the murder of its innocent citizens by indiscriminate rocket shelling. This is not a "tit for tat" situation. Israel didn't start this war. Yes, Israel has extremists too - and you know what they do with them? Put them in jail. What does Hamas do with their extremists? Put them in charge. Kind of a difference, no? Did you know that Israeli gays have full civil rights while, many times, Palestinians found to be homosexual are stoned to death? Did you know that? Did you know that Israeli Arabs are allowed to vote and be citizens of Israel, while Jews are nonexistent in the Gaza strip?

I hate to tell you, but nonviolence doesn't work in the Middle East, much as I wish it would. Islamic jihadists don't see "negotiation" as a "good-faith gesture," they see it as a sign of weakness. Right now, the entire Israeli public is behind this operation against Hamas. That usual spin of "oh, the Israeli Left opposes this, so we should too" just doesn't work here. Even the far Left in Israel was pushing the Israeli government to act forcefully against Hamas in this case. Hamas TARGETS civilians - the Israelis are targeting terrorists, and the vast majority of the Palestinian "victims" are actually terrorists.

What would you have Israel do? Sit and take endless rocket attacks against innocent civilians? You think they should negotiate? Who with? Hamas, who believes that Israel DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO EXIST? How do you negotiate with somebody who thinks you should be dead? How?

No, you can't. And while this is awful, there is no alternative at this point. Israel, like any sovereign country, must protect its citizens against bloodthirsty murderers who celebrate the death of innocent women and children in the street, passing out candy every time an innocent Israeli is killed. It is a terrible thing that innocent Palestinians are being killed too - unfortunately, that is the inevitable result of a group of terrorists who base their operations in densely populated civilian areas. Israel does everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, that they can to avoid civilian casualties, and yet, they happen....it is awful, but it is not Israel's fault. It is the fault of Hamas, plain and simple.

Posted by Joe | December 31, 2008 12:17 PM

And what other country in the world delivers humanitarian aid to its enemies in the middle of a war?
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2008/Israeli_humanitarian_aid_to_Gaza_31-Dec-2008.htm

Posted by Joe | December 31, 2008 12:37 PM

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