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by Pierre Rehov
• July 22, 2014 at 5:00 am
For terrorists, the death of
innocent children is irrelevant. In a society that promotes martyrdom as the
ultimate sign of success, the death of innocent children can sometimes even
be seen as a public relations blessing.
In every action, intent is
paramount. There should never be a moral equivalence painted between the
deliberate killing of civilians, and a retaliation that tragically leads to
casualties among civilians.
There is, however, one small
difference: in the Middle East, reporters are threatened, except in
Israel. Their choice becomes a simple one: promote the Palestinian point of
view or stop working in the West Bank. Keep the eye of the camera dirty or
lose your job. This show should not go on.
Pictures
and footage from other conflicts, mostly from Iraq and Syria, are being used
in the media to depict Israeli "atrocities" in Gaza.
"This whole conflict," the foreign journalist said over
coffee, "is a prime time show; the Palestinians provide us with the more
romantic story."
Terrorism is a show; it needs a producer and a distributor. Without a
certain complicity from the international media, terrorism would not be so
effective and might even disappear altogether.
While Hamas is raining rockets and missiles on the Israeli civilian
population, and in return, is suffering a high level of destruction and
hundreds of casualties as a result of collateral damage, one might ask:
"What is the purpose?" The same question is also true of suicide
terrorism. The genuine aim seems to be to gather sympathy while terrorizing
the enemy, with an audience on an unlimited number of channels.
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