By Barry Rubin
In almost 40 years of studying these issues I’ve never seen a better case study of mass media bias and knee-jerk narrowness than an aspect of the current flap about what presidential candidate Mitch Romney said during his trip to Israel. I’m going to focus on a single point because it brings this problem into sharp focus.
In almost 40 years of studying these issues I’ve never seen a better case study of mass media bias and knee-jerk narrowness than an aspect of the current flap about what presidential candidate Mitch Romney said during his trip to Israel. I’m going to focus on a single point because it brings this problem into sharp focus.
If
you truly understand what you are about to read, I don’t see how you
can accord most of the mass media any credibility when it comes to
Israel ever again. Briefly, Romney mentioned the gap between the Israeli
and Palestinian economies—ironically, he vastly understated the
gap—and attributed it to “culture” by which he meant, as Romney has
said elsewhere, such things as democracy, individual liberty, free
enterprise, and the rule of law.
But
I’m not talking about Romney here or the media’s critique of him. What
is interesting is this: How do you explain the reason why Israel is so
more advanced in terms of economy, technology, and living standards? The
media generally rejected Romney’s explanation and pretty much all made
the same point. To quote the Associated Press story, that was:
“Comparison
of the two economies
did not take into account the stifling effect the Israeli occupation
has had on the Palestinian economy in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east
Jerusalem—areas Israel captured in 1967 where the Palestinians hope to
establish a state.
"In
the West Bank, Palestinians have only limited self-rule. Israel
controls all border crossings in and out of the territory, and continues
to restrict Palestinian trade and movement. Israel annexed east
Jerusalem in 1967, but has invested much less heavily there than in
Jewish west Jerusalem.”
Or,
in other words, it’s all Israel’s fault. Yet in choosing to blame
Israel, the media generally showed no interest at all in additional
factors which
are equally or more valid.
I’m
not suggesting that journalists and editors thought through the
following list of factors and deliberately decided not to mention them. I
think that these things never entered their minds. Yet how can that be?
Some of these points require knowledge of the situation on the ground
and its history. Still, many should be obvious to those who have read
past newspaper accounts or just use logic, not to mention research.
Consider
the points made below. You might count them for less but anyone honest
should admit that they add up to a compelling case:
1. The
most devastating problem for the Palestinian economy has been the
leadership’s refusal to make peace with Israel and to get a state. Most
notably, the opportunities thrown away in 1948, 1979, and 2000 doomed
both countries to years of suffering, casualties, and lower development.
Today, in 2012, both Palestinian leaderships—Fatah and Hamas—continue
this strategy.
2. Statistics show major advances in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the
period of Israeli occupation. A lot of money also came in from
Palestinians working in Israel (or to a surprising extent on the Jewish
settlements).
3. The
media should be expected to explain why Israel interfered at all once,
by around 1994, almost all West Bank and Gaza Palestinians were under
Palestinian rule. The reason, of course, was Palestinian violence
against Israel and Israelis. If there had not been such attacks, Israeli
forces would not have set foot in Palestinian-ruled areas. Stability
would have encouraged development and foreign investment. There would be
no roadblocks. Incidentally, roadblocks and restrictions on travel have
changed constantly and at times of relative quiet became almost
non-existent. Of course, Israel maintained control of the borders to
prevent weapons from coming
in.
4. There was a large transfer of funds (as provided in the Oslo agreement but PA behavior did not make Israel violate the agreement) from Israel to the PA regarding refunds on customs' duties and workers' fringe benefits.
5. The
well-documented incompetence and corruption of the Palestinian
Authority. For example, there is no reliable body of law that a
company could depend on there. Bribes determine who gets contracts.
Literally billions of dollars have been stolen and mostly ended up in
the European accounts of Palestinian leaders.
6. And
where did those billions of dollars come from? They came from foreign
donors who showered huge amounts of money on a relatively small
population. Yet, even aside from theft, the money was not used
productively or to benefit the people.
7. Because
of the risks and attacks on Israel, the country stopped admitting
Palestinian workers except for a far smaller number. Tens of thousands
thus lost lucrative jobs and the PA could not replace these.
8. The
unequal status of women in the Palestinian society throws away up to
one-half of the potential labor and talent that could otherwise have
made a big contribution to development.
9. And
then there are the special factors relating to the Gaza Strip. Under
the rule of Hamas,
a group committing many acts of terror and openly calling for genocide
against Israel, the emphasis was not put on economic development but on
war-fighting. The shooting of rockets at Israel created an economic
blockade. Note also, however, that Hamas also alienated the Mubarak
regime in Egypt which also had no incentive to help it, instituting its
own restrictions that were as intense as those of Israel.
10. The
Palestinian leadership generally antagonized Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and
other oil-rich Arab states that were consequently not interested in
helping them develop.
11. Finally,
compare
the Palestinians to the Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians, or Lebanese. In
those places the excuse of it’s all Israel’s fault is hard to sustain
yet the Palestinians have done as well or better than those other Arabs
who share a very similar political culture.
12.
And incidentally remember that Israel also had to cope with war,
terrorism, and defense needs unequaled by the burden faced by any other
democratic state in the world. Moreover, it could not trade for most of
its history with any of its neighbors--and commerce is still limited--or
any of the countries in the Arabic-speaking world that surrounds it. In
addition, it has almost no natural resources. So while Israel received a
lot of U.S. aid most of that went into defense and not economic
development. In other words, Israel's has
handicaps as impressive (or almost as marked) as the Palestinian ones.
My
goal here was not so much to present these twelve points but to ask the
question: Why is it that these factors were barely mentioned or not
mentioned at all in the media analyses of Romney’s statement?
The
answer, of course, is that most of the media is set on the blame-Israel
argument. Yet even given this truth, why do they have to do so
virtually 100 percent of the time with nothing about the other side of
the issue? This applies to dozens of other questions such as why hasn't
peace been achieved. And in this as in many other cases, they virtually
take the PA's
talking points as their themes and facts.
Often,
one suspects there are a lot of people in the mass media and academia
who are totally uninterested in presenting anything other than an
anti-Israel narrative. This article doesn't mean to generalize about
everyone, of course, but you who are doing that know who you are, and
you readers know who they are!
Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org
The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/.
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org
Editor Turkish Studies,http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t713636933%22
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