A Mountain Is Not a Beach: Media Rules on the Middle East [rewind :: commentary]

The following timely commentary by Laura Flanders aired on GritTV in the summer of 2014. At the same time as the Iraq Sinjar crisis, Gaza was experiencing the 2014 Gaza War (Operation Protective Edge), a 50-day conflict  between Israel and Hamas that began in July 2014. The war involved intense Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion in response to Hamas rocket attacks, resulting in over 2,000 Palestinian deaths (mostly civilians) and significant destruction in Gaza. Israeli casualties included 67 soldiers and six civilians.  The US response in Gaza was primarily diplomatic.

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note:  The following closing commentary  or "F-Word"  from July 2024 Laura dedicated to the late great poet June Jordan. Find out more about her at JuneJordan.net  The episode from 2014 featured an interview with long time civil rights activist Dorothy Zellner about her work for peace and justice in the Middle East.  Learn more about Dorothy Zellner's formative years in the civil rights movement at the SNCC Digital Gateway website.

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TRANSCRIPT- CLOSING COMMENTARY, JULY 2014:

Hi, I’m Laura Flanders of GRITtv

“I will not compare slaughter to slaughter. I will not compare death to death. I will not compare I will not compare… “

Welcome to my morning mantra.

It’s been a long hot news summer and it’s important to remember the rules. Under prevailing US media law, you may not compare a killing to a killing. You may not say the word Palestinian for example and then in the same sentence, say Yazidi.

You may not compare. You may not compare… The rules are very clear, especially when it comes to the Middle East.

I, for example, may not compare destruction to destruction. It is best, in fact, if I do not even contemplate or wonder about men and women and children trapped without food and medicine and drinking water under siege on a mountain top, and at the same time, contemplate or wonder about men and women and children trapped without food and medicine and drinking water under siege on a place near a beach.

A mountain under siege is not to be compared to a beach besieged. That’s simple enough. After all, a mountain is very different from a beach.

I will not compare. I will not compare… In particular I will not compare a destroyed mosque in Mosul with a destroyed mosque in Khuzaa. And I absolutely will not compare the motivations of the uniformed soldiers whom I hear laugh and cheer on a videotape out of Gaza as they explode that mosque in Khuzaa, with the motivations of any men anywhere committing war crimes.- Even if I can’t get that laughter and cheering out of my head.

I may not compare, I may not compare. Why? Because comparisons are odious, of course, and politics is complicated.

You heard the president, the U.S. "cannot and should not intervene every time there’s a crisis in the world.”

Some require the U.S. to act to help the people besieged. Some require the US to act to help the people doing the besieging.

To compare is to risk blurring the differences and the differences are all important.

To recap the rules: it is wrong to compare.

You can not say: a life is a life.

You can not say words like oil and money and markets.

You can not ask what’s the difference between a mountain and a beach.

I’m Laura Flanders. Today’s commentary is dedicated to the late great poet June Jordan. Find out more about her at JuneJordan.net 

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