The Media and Israel/Hamas/Gaza

Rather than outright lie, the media lies by omission.

This is a good article about the conflict in Israel with Hamas by the Revolutionary Communist Party and (I suspect) written by Bob Avakian. I agree that the media lies by omission. It jumps in and shows the conflict when Hamas starts to gain the upper hand, but covers up decades of Israeli brutality towards Palestinians. I also agree that Hamas has its own internal problems. It is true that Palestinians are victims of the entire situation, but their leadership is still reactionary.

It is difficult to be neutral on the conflict because both sides represent outmoded strata, but in different ways. One side is an enforcer for US imperialism and Western imperialism (and ethnic chauvinism) and the other side represents religious fundamentalism.

Bob Avakian: What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these “outmodeds,” you end up strengthening both.

While this is a very important formulation and is crucial to understanding much of the dynamics driving things in the world in this period, at the same time we do have to be clear about which of these “historically outmodeds” has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists...

It is interesting, I recently heard about a comment that someone made relating to this, which I do think is correct and getting at something important. In relation to these “two historically outmodeds,” they made the point: “You could say that the Islamic fundamentalist forces in the world would be largely dormant if it weren’t for what the U.S. and its allies have done and are doing in the world—but you cannot say the opposite.” There is profound truth captured in that statement.

This is why the media omits the beginning of the conflict to show only the brutality on one side. It is because Israel is enforcing US imperialism. In return for enforcing US imperialism, Israel gets military support to sustain an apartheid system in an area where multiple people contest the land. The Jewish people must turn their backs on US imperialism to cause less antisemitism and gain respect. If there is a Jewish State, it must be free from American influence but it would collapse quickly without American aid. Therefore, the only solution is to share the land because both peoples want it. Thus relocating the Zionist project elsewhere.

It remains to be seen how Israel’s “retaliation” is covered, but do not expect it to be covered nearly like the Hamas excesses were covered.

edit: See this tweet:

It's disrespectful to the intelligence of the audience to pretend that Israel isn't an apartheid state and was attacked because it's a Democracy. It's like pretending that Professional Wrestling is real.