The Western media decry the killing of Israelis but are stone silent when Palestinians are massacred, writes Rasha Saad The Israeli massacres in Gaza and the silence of the Western media was the focus of pundits this week. In "The crime of silence on Israeli massacres against Palestinians" Bouthaina Shaaban wrote in the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat that during the Israeli operation in Gaza, dubbed "Warm Winter", "we were painfully watching the carnage of Palestinian infants and children. In the meantime, I was checking the foreign media daily, trying to find any condemnation or even any call to exercise restraint from any Western politician." Shaaban wrote that by 5 March, at least 120 Palestinians were killed, of whom 39 were infants, and 12 were mothers. This horrid carnage of innocent civilians, Shaaban wrote, was not enough for Western "civilised" or international "democratic" authorities to denounce the killing of innocent children by tanks and missiles, made and financed by the USA. "All Western newspapers, news agencies and TV and radio stations contributed in maintaining a discreditable silence on these crimes. This is not surprising because all Western newspapers are being subjected to strict instructions to ignore the war on Arabs," Shaaban contends. A different view, however, was offered by the Western media when Israelis are killed. "Suddenly, statements of condemnation of the 'massacre' and 'terrorism' appeared when Jewish students were shot dead at a school for extremist rabbis in Jerusalem. "Many stories on the rabbinical students were published on the front pages of all Western newspapers with bold headlines such as 'Massacre in the heart of Jerusalem' ( The Independent, 7 March 2008). These newspapers never mentioned anything about the Palestinian infants who were killed by Israeli troops," Shaaban said. In his daily column in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Jihad El-Khazen wrote that the policies pursued by the Israeli government involve a measure of impudence mixed with racism not witnessed since the fall of Nazism. El-Khazen wrote that Ehud Barak's recent statement made no mention of the killing of women and children at the hands of the occupying Israeli army. The Israeli defence minister instead claimed that this army "is operating in areas where the Palestinian Authority is not fulfilling its presumed duty in security". "If we translate these words into understandable language, we find that Barak expects the PA to kill Palestinians, or at least to assist the Israeli army in continuing to occupy Palestinian territories," El-Khazen wrote. Even the United States, El-Khazen maintains, was unable to tolerate such Israeli impudence. It has criticised the policies pursued by the Olmert government in the occupied territories and its failure to implement its part of the roadmap. As for US General Keith Dayton, in charge of coordinating security issues with the Palestinians, he has frankly stated that Israel's security institution has become an obstacle hindering the PA's efforts to ensure security in the cities of the West Bank. Although unable to tolerate Israel's obstruction of the peace process, the State Department, joined by racists from around the word, has led a weeping and wailing campaign over the Israeli religious students who were killed in Jerusalem, El-Khazen wrote. "I would have been willing to accept such a reaction to the killing of these students had the ones weeping over them done the same over Palestinian children killed by the occupying army, or had the tearful racists asked the occupation to stop killing civilians. I had, in this column, and before the present escalation, asked the Palestinian factions to stop firing rockets and stop carrying out suicidal operations. I can weep over Palestinian martyrs with a clear conscience because I had opposed mutual killing. As for those who wept only over the Israelis, they are but racists and partners in crime. "Then I heard that there were Israeli groups who intended to avenge the slain students as if they have not yet learnt that revenge breeds revenge and that killing is followed by killing. They have recently distributed leaflets calling for 'an eye for an eye'. A strange stance coming from the Israelis, as it would mean that the Palestinians should kill thousands of them before they can resume perpetrating their crimes." The Arab summit, to be held in Damascus on 29-30 March, was another focus of writers. In "Dividing the Arabs once again" Mohamed Salah wrote in Al-Hayat that while there was no obstacle in the way of the date and venue of the Arab summit, one major issue involves the fear that the participation of some states will be limited to a mere presence for the sake of protocol or for the sake of form. "This will certainly affect the content of the summit and the nature of inter-Arab relations in the future." This attitude, warns Salah, will divide the Arabs, once again, and cement name-calling and certain labels, thanks to the huge media- machine bias towards this or that side. "Experts in Arab politics and Arab decision- makers are aware that those who will stay away from the summit would like to attend, and that those in solidarity cannot make Arab policies by themselves," Salah wrote. On the other hand, Abdel-Halim Qandil believes that Arab summits hardly have any weight and wonders why leaders insist so much on holding them. In "A summit... God forbid" Qandil wrote in the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, "no one understands the reason behind the insistence of Arab presidents, kings and princes to hold an annual summit when the whole thing has become meaningless. No Arab cares if the summit is held, postponed or even cancelled. The whole thing has become more like an annual funeral or a commemoration of the death of the Arab regime," wrote Qandil.
