Israeli Children’s Trauma Ignored by Washington Post
January 6, 2013 14:47 by Simon Plosker
The Washington Post has published a story examining the trauma suffered by Gazan children as a result of conflict. The scene is set with a vivid and emotive opening:
Fatima still dreams about Ahmed. Sometimes they’re playing with toys as they used to do. But in other dreams, she’s looking over the edge of the balcony at her brother’s smashed and bloodied body, his pink brain spilling from his skull, her father screaming through his tears.
Ahmed was 7 when he was killed by an Israeli airstrike during the 2008 Israeli invasion of Gaza. Fatima was 8 at the time — but that was “old enough to remember,” said her father, Osama Mohamed Qurtan.
And herein lies the fundamental problem with the story – the description of an Israeli “invasion” paints a picture of Gazan children suffering as a result of Israeli malevolence. Indeed, later in the article is the following:
Gaza was attacked, they say, for the same reason Israel struck in 2008 — to kill Palestinians and seize more Palestinian land. (Israel says its warplanes carry out precision strikes on carefully identified terrorist targets.)
A short sentence in parentheses is all that Israel’s narrative warrants according to the Washington Post. This article could not be any more one-sided. Nowhere is there any reference to the thousands of rockets fired at Israeli targets from Gaza. While the writer refers to Gaza experiencing two wars in four years, what about Sderot and the surrounding areas of southern Israel that have experienced barely a day of quiet during the past decade? Israeli children have been brought up experiencing almost daily alerts that give them some 15 seconds to take cover or run for a bomb shelter.
While the trauma of Syrian children has featured in the Washington Post, it seems that Israeli children just don’t suffer. Is this because fewer Israeli children have died than Palestinian children? This reduces the story to one based purely on unequal body counts and ignores the bigger picture.
Nobody disputes that Gaza’s children have suffered as a result of conflict. But resorting to the knee-jerk “blame Israel” routine completely ignores reality. A reality where Palestinian children are exposed to danger as a direct result of terrorists operating from within civilian areas turning children into human shields. A reality where Israel makes supreme efforts to avoid causing harm to Palestinian civilians while Palestinian terrorists do their utmost to indiscriminately kill and maim innocent Israelis.
Indeed, following much of the mainstream media, the Washington Post exhibits the familiar tendency to absolve Palestinians of any responsibility for their situation. In this framing of the story, Palestinians can only be victims and are never capable of affecting their own circumstances.
But you wouldn’t know this from the Washington Post where Israel is responsible for the trauma of Palestinian children while the trauma of Israeli children doesn’t even register.
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Guest
11:58 am
Jan 08, 2013
Well, that is what we called WAR. WAR is not an orgy friday night or pool party! WAR is cruel! nobody like it. It is a RISK to live on WAR area! If you logic then you will move to safer area! What I see is HAMAS using residence shield, Israeli using laser targeting system. It is normal response.This is Modern World, The Arabs should know that the nation come and go as the GOD want it. Arabs should forget Palestine dream. They lost it to Britain and France, and they lost it to 6 day war. Just admit it and start living on peace. I say to Israel, stop pretending that you not in WAR. In fact the Arabs wage a war on you. NEXT TIME, if you win, NEVER NEVER NEVER give back Sinai / Golan!
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Dubblek2
4:05 pm
Jan 08, 2013
emes – “Very nice that you spent 3/4 of a year in Israel and during that time you and your family have sucked the crap out of the place in education and lifestyle…” Sounds like someone who is willing to share beliefs, biases, etc., without letting facts get in thier way. Btw, when you quote someone you ought to get the quotes accurate, at least. Here’s some facts: the 3/4 of a year was spent 1-2 weeks (1 time 5 weeks) at a time over 4 years, on business trips to Israel (and one vacation). That’s 45 round trip tickets, most times accompanied by 1-8 business associates: all flights were on El Al, bringing over $2M business to that Israeli business, just in travelling to and from there.
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emes
10:46 pm
Jan 08, 2013
Good for you Dubblek2 – you should underline the facts before printing a half-baked rendition!
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Dubblek2
1:09 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – What facts, pray tell, should I have underlined before “before printing a half-baked rendition”?
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Dubblek2
4:20 pm
Jan 08, 2013
(emes – continued.) To say nothing of the hotel, restaurant, and incidental business travel expenditures I and my associates brought to multiple Israeli travel-related businesses. We were there bringing $15-25M in recurring year-over-year business to just one Israeli company, and asociated employment, pay, and benfits, to ~150 Israeli citizens working there. Since startup, that’s ~$100-125M (Earliest-To-Date) in business to that one Israeli company, conservatively. It varies depending upon demand, but without doing the accounting, it could easily be ~$300-450M ETD. And that translates to work, pay, and benefits for 1,350 Full Time Employee Israelis.
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emes
10:50 pm
Jan 08, 2013
That is wonderful news Mr Dubblek2 – bubbelah! I’m sorry to disappoint but I won’t be employing you so there is no need to give me the rundown of your resume!
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Dubblek2
1:19 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – I am not disappointed as I was not seeking to be in your employ. Where’s that come from, in things I have said here? I’m retired, and not seeking employment, by you, or anyone. Btw, that wasn’t my resume; it was merely the outline of one small project. It was done for the sole purpose of answering your unfounded, outrageous accusation that I and my family “have sucked the crap out of the place in education and lifestyle…”. As I said, my opinion differs from yours in that regard, justifiably I humbly protest. An unbiased arbitrator would, I have no doubt, agree.
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Dubblek2
4:33 pm
Jan 08, 2013
(emes – continued) My family paid for my son’s education there, at a higher rate than Israeli citizens pay for the same education, thus supporting BGU and its Israeli employees through his tuition, room, board, education related (books, etc.) and other expenditures. My wife did the 5 week vacation there with me; thus bringing our tourism related business to multiple Israeli companies. My son separately and at time other than when he was at BGU did volunteer archeolgy work there, thus bringing his costs of doing so for 1 1/2 months in tourism related business to other Israeli companies, and knowledge of its archological past to Israel.
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emes
11:03 pm
Jan 08, 2013
Mr Dubblek2 – I have every respect for your input into Israel’s sustenance and I find it incredibly noble of you to have taken so much time and trouble employing the multitudes to benefit from your vast experiences but there is absolutely no reason to explain yourself to me – my outline to you was not to make the mistake of putting the muslim sector on the same footing as Israel – there is no comparison!
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Dubblek2
2:16 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – Thank you for your respect and your judgement of my nobility. I was not seeking either from you, and somehow, perhaps due to the blatant vitriol you’ve esposed here I find that I am dubious of the veracity of your statement of respect and confirmation of nobility upon me. As I have said, you don’t like the message, so you attack the messenger. People in the muslim and non-muslim sectors have at least one thing in common – they’re all people. Each side learns its biases against each other; I proffer you as prima facie proof of that. And as I implied in my first post here, as long as practicioners on both sides continue that then both sides’ delimma will continue ad infinitum.
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Dubblek2
4:36 pm
Jan 08, 2013
(emes – continued) You have said that I and my family “have sucked the crap out of the place in education and lifestyle…”. Forgive me if I have a different opinion; I beleived we brought economic development and knowledge to Israel. I’ll allow for your opinion, warped as I feel it is, if you’ll allow for mine?
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emes
11:32 pm
Jan 08, 2013
Mr Dubblek2 – I bow to your vast knowledge and I am sure Israel is equally in awe of your ingenuity to bestow such bounty to a country hovering in insecurity, just waiting for someone like yourself to be its gd-father. Yes, allow my opinions to be ‘warped’ and I’ll allow you, wholeheartedly, the credit of pompousness in demeaning the peoples of Israel by your ‘open-ness’ of charitable economic development!
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Dubblek2
2:31 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – Thanks, but there’s no need to bow for my having put your accusation that I and my family had somehow “sucked the crap out of the place in education and lifestyle…” in context, since you made that comment without context, yet made it nonetheless. Shoot first, let the almighty sort it out, yes? I’m not as sure as you are that Israel is in awe of me: I do know that the Israelis I did business with there appreciated it as much as I appreciated, and still do, their doing business with me, as it was mutually beneficial. Israel was not “a country hovering in insecurity, just waiting for someone like” me “to be its gd-father”, at least I doubt it was.
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Dubblek2
2:36 am
Jan 09, 2013
(emes – continued). The two sides of the deal, I and my associates and our Israeli counterparts, got together for the same reasons most businesses do: we both saw benefit in our working together. Nothing altruistic about it on the part of either side, I assure you.
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Dubblek2
4:47 pm
Jan 08, 2013
(emes – continued) You also say “Lovely! well Mr Double Decker, it is easy to poke a stick through the rabbit cage to torture the inhabitants but don’t you think from the safety of your home that you could at least condone Israel for trying to survive? – how much education did your son receive in the muslim sector before his studies were stunted by their rockets?” You have the absolute right to call my stated opinion poking a stick through the rabbit cage. I’ll just disagree with your characterization and stand by my previusly posted opinion, thank you. You have no idea, not a glimmer, of what I have done “from the safety of” my “home” to “at least condone Israel for trying to survive”.
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emes
11:45 pm
Jan 08, 2013
Mr Dubblek2, you are right, I do not know what you have done for Israel from the comfort of your own home and, neither do I need to! – I can only take at face value the comments portrayed on this site in the first instance. I am pleased that your son has delved into the archeological experience Israel and the Middle East has to offer – brilliant to take advantage of historic and priceless exploits – good for him and I hope he grows up as erudite and ‘giving’ as yourself.
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Dubblek2
2:54 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – Go back to my original post here. What comments, quoted and specific, so offended your sensibilities that you felt the need to respond as you first did, in the manner you did? Regarding my son and his archological work in Israel, I guess I’ll ask forgivenss for his voluteering to work on a project sponsored in part by Hebrew University? You see we were unaware that it was taking “advantage of historic and priceless exploits”. He’ll do just fine with our without your hopes for how he’ll grow up – he’s 30 years old, fully capable of researching facts and coming to his own thoughts and conclusions based upon them, and last I knew he was OK with having me as a father
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Dubblek2
4:53 pm
Jan 08, 2013
(emes – continued) Suffice to say that I have more than one Israeli friend that would vouch for what I have done in that regard, vehemently, no doubt if they were to bother themselves with addressing your uninformed statements. I won’t bother them to do so. You’ve taken a traditional tack here: you don’t like the message, so you attack the messenger. I won’t go further in answering your attacks other than what I have already done here. Instead I’ll show and give you what you deserve – my pity. “No one is so blind as he who will not see.”
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emes
11:52 pm
Jan 08, 2013
Mr Dubblek2 – I am glad you have friends, especially Israeli ones – I am neither attacking you as a messenger, just your ostentatious outpourings! – thankfully I neither need your approval nor your pity in espousing the truth!
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Dubblek2
3:09 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – Again, go back to my first post here. What specifically was “ostentatious” about anything I said in it that prompted you to reply as you did, in the manner you did? Everthing I have said in reply to your first post to me was not intended to be “ostentatious” but rather merely a rebuttal to your stated assumption of the economic relationship between me and Israel, as you had stated your assumption in your first post to me: “you and your family have sucked the crap out of the place in education and lifestyle…”. If my providing facts that laid out the economic reality is “ostentatious” in your opinion I guess all I can say is res ipsa loquitur.
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Dubblek2
3:11 am
Jan 09, 2013
(emes – continued) Truth, on the other hand, and again I proffer you as prima facie proof of this, is often in the eye of the beholder.
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Dubblek2
5:09 pm
Jan 08, 2013
emes – One last. You ask: “how much education did your son receive in the muslim sector…”? Truthfully, none by way of formal educational methods. Instead he brought education to the muslim, and non-muslim, sectors there while doing educational volunteer work during the entire 2 year period he attended BGU. ANd what he leaned in return, while doing so, was priceless – from both sectors. Poke your beliigerent finger at someone else; as I said, I stand by my previously posted opinion, and can go toe-to-toe with you, intellectually, figuatively, or otherwise, anytime.
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emes
12:03 am
Jan 09, 2013
Mr Dubblek2 – I’m glad you have a son! – its nice to have family but I fear he might lose his identity with someone like yourself who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds! I checked out my finger, in fact all of them and they insisted they were not at all beligerent! All I wish to say Mr D is that I know who I am, I do not want to bestow love and kindness to a body of people who bay for my demise – you may have a death wish, I don’t!
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Dubblek2
3:24 am
Jan 09, 2013
emes – “I fear he might lose his identity with someone like yourself who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds!” This, from someone who has eminently demonstrated here that they are a master par excellence of being someone “who runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds!” Forgive me, but as the saying goes “sounds like the pot calling the kettle black”. As I have previously said, my son will do just fine without your concerns for him. Your fingers need to consult someone capable of truly judging your nature, as they obviously are biased and therefore can’t. Nothing in my first post here suggested that you “bestow love and kindness to a body of people who bay for my demise”.
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EthanP
2:45 am
Jan 09, 2013
Please! Everybody! Lets please not resort to personal comments.
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Dubblek2
3:36 am
Jan 09, 2013
I’m done, and will leave standing by my first post here. Not an excuse, just the facts, I’m old enough to know myself by now, and I don’t let shots taken at me go unanswered, period.
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emes
3:05 pm
Jan 09, 2013
Hello Mr D – I am happy that we have sorted out our differences and that “you are done!” – It was great to have an insight into your lifestyle and thank you for sharing! – kind regards to you and your wife – I would suggest you come for tea but I doubt you are in the vicinity – it seems one of us is slightly off the planet!
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Dubblek2
3:24 pm
Jan 09, 2013
Hello yourself emes! We’ve found one point on which we agree: your last sentence.
Thanks for at least the thought of an invite to tea though.
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Michelle Wayne
9:07 am
Jan 18, 2013
It’s boring all this crap between Dubbleks2 and emes, it has nothing to do with the subject here, shame, I was interested in opinion but not this crap.
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martin
10:17 pm
Jan 19, 2013
Just to return to the initial reporting in this column, A group of youngsters from Sderot and the immediate surroundings visited the uK. Theywent to Jewish institutions and explained the trauma of being targeted by missiles, rockets and mortars. They received a very empathic and sympathetic response. They contacted the British news media to explain their side of th stort, not one organisation wanted to know.
Is this double standards? Of course not, to have double standards, means there must be a standard applying to both sides. when it comes to Israel, the only standard is one of hate and total lack of underdstanding.
Arab obscene riches pays dividends in propaganda
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