End of the Free Ride?

The American media, poor at the best of times, has given so much slack and leeway that any so-called "reporting" or analysis from and on the Middle East has been one-sided pro Israel.

As The Guardian headlines in a piece by Michelle Goldberg in Comment is Free "Israel's free ride ends":

"As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media"

Goldberg writes:

"No doubt, some of Israel's most aggressive partisans are going to be alarmed by this sudden shift in the American discourse. They're used to dismissing the world's criticism of Israel as the mutterings of antisemites and bien-pensant third-worldists. The US has been a cocoon that protects Israel and its advocates from facing harsh judgments. But Israel has been ill served by America's endless indulgence. What is happening in Gaza endangers, first and foremost, the benighted people who live there and who are dying by the hundreds. It also endangers Israel itself, pushing already elusive prospects for peace ever more out of reach.

An American media that turned a blind eye to Israeli expansionism and human rights abuses ultimately made the Jewish state less, not more, secure. Without the US putting pressure on Israel to dismantle the settlements and loosen the blockade in Gaza, leaders there had neither the incentive nor the political cover to do so. Now that the American press is displaying a bit of courage in facing an unfolding catastrophe abetted by American leadership, perhaps our politicians will have room to do the same."

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