American Hummus

It just continues.

Ignored almost entirely by the US media have been significant events concerning the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. An occupation which is never mentioned in any of the reports on the “mouse”.

Israel plans Jerusalem settlement
By Laila El-Haddad in Gaza , Al Jazeera

Israel has announced plans to build 20,000 new settler units on the outskirts of occupied East Jerusalem, prompting condemnation from Palestinians.

World Bank criticises Israel over Palestinian economy
by Mark Tran, Guardian Unlimited

In a harsh report (pdf), the bank criticised Israel for extending legitimate security measures to expand and protect settlement activity and the relatively unhindered movement of settlers and other Israelis in and out of the West Bank.

Shot West Bank woman ‘loses baby’
BBC

A pregnant Palestinian woman lost her baby after being shot by Israeli troops during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian officials said.

The Latest installment from CNN:

Wolf Blitzer opens by describing the mouse as a

“menacing lead character on a kids show in Gaza”

which

“raised eyebrows around the world”

and in one episode

“mimics shooting Israeli’s with AK 47’s”

All of this may be true and the cartoon may be despicable but it is still a far cry from the reality of hate that the children of the West Bank and Gaza experience every day from the Israeli army, Jewish settlers, the US imposed blockade and subsequent starvation etc.

Evidently the Palestinian Minister of Information, Moustafa Barghouti, acted to suspend the show until it could be revised. Hamas responded Friday by continuing the show and adding some context.

They showed the video of the aftermath of a Palestinian family being blown up on a Gaza beach last summer. This is the incident which led ultimately to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

In his usual style of reporting everything from an Israeli perspective, Ben Wederman never mentions the word “occupation” and states that Palestinians blame Israel for the incident on the beach but that Israel denies it.

There were reports by objective third parties which clearly asign blame for the incident to an Israeli artillery shell. Chris Mcrgreal, writing for the Guardian, and Human Rights Watch, investigated the denials of the Israeli army and demonstrated them to be rediculous. Any responsible journalist would have noted this.

However, in US media, once Israel denies something, that is the end of the story. It happened with Rachel Corrie, it happened with Mohammad Dura and it happened with the family of Huda Ghalia.

Mr. McGreal notes the effect of Mohammad Dura on the Gaza Beach incident.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, initially apologised for the killings but the military swiftly realised it was confronting another PR disaster to rival that of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old boy who died in his father’s arms amid a barrage of gunfire six years ago and became the first iconic victim of the intifada.

The army quickly convened a committee to investigate the deaths on the beach and almost as swiftly absolved itself of responsibility.

The Guardian and Human Rights Watch carefully go thru the evidence including the timing of the incident and army records of shelling. They were able to identify the shell

From the number of shells counted beforehand by the survivors, Mr Garlasco believes the killer shell was one the army records as fired at 4.34pm.

The Israeli’s have made very good use of the US media’s proclivity to just report what they say. So the lesson learned by the Israeli government and the Bush administration has been to just keep repeating something, no matter how easy it is to disprove it, and the media will keep reporting it. Whatever it is then becomes part of the dialogue. The media make it so.

Finally Mr. Wederman closes his Mickey Mouse segment with the very sad acknowledgement :

Hamas TV may be exploiting the trauma of Gaza’s children but the ground was already fertile, If anything, this weeks program underscores a simple reality. Hamas is set on teaching a new generation of Palestinian children that co-existence is simply not an option.

Isn’t that precisely the message of the occupation?