There is little disagreement on the
indispensable role of the media in influencing
political debate and narrative, thus shaping
public discourse.
Among progressives,
liberals and most political minorities in the
United States and Europe, there is an equal
consensus regarding the troubling alliance that is
bringing warmongering politicians,
ideologues, religious zealots
and media moguls together. They alone possess the
capabilities to sway the public in any way they
wish, or so it seems; they stack a nation's
priorities in the way they find most fit; they
concoct wars and justify them when they go awry.
In short, they manipulate democracy by
manipulating the public, using whatever means
necessary: fear, misinformation and all the
familiar rest.
No other issue has been the
victim of such treachery as has the Middle East
discourse in the West, and particularly that
concerning Palestine and Israel. This is a subject
that is as old as the conflict itself. Even before
the establishment of the state of Israel upon the
hundreds of conquered and mostly destroyed
Palestinian towns and villages in 1947-48, the
founders of Israel seemed utterly aware of the
destructive impact of their action on Western
public opinion.
Israeli historian Benny
Morris's commanding book, The Birth of the
Palestinian Refugee Problem, is dotted with
instances where - in their secretive dealings -
Zionist politicians bickered over the massacring
of Palestinians or their overt ethnic cleansing
particularly because of how such blatant actions
could damage Israel's image in the West, not
because of the moral dilemma of the acts
themselves.
This "image" problem has indeed
irked Israel since day one and continues to do so;
this is why the term "PR disaster" has always
constituted a nightmarish scenario for Israeli
politicians throughout the years, and subsequently
turned Israel into a master in media spins and
crisis management.
Israel understood well
that in order for its habitually indefensible
policies, so evident in the illegal confiscation
of land, the oppression of people and the defiance
of international law, and so on, to be justified,
facts have to be spun, truths have to be hidden
and a new discourse, one that defies reality
altogether, would have to be woven, as it
has.
Thus, despite the fact that the
Arab-Israeli conflict is the most reported media
story on earth, it's the least understood,
seemingly the least rational, and most certainly,
one with the least potential to be resolved. The
media's skewed narrative makes the conflict an end
in itself; it creates a status quo that is most
suitable for Israel's colonial policies and least
desirable for Palestinians, who are silently - or
so it seems - losing their land, their livelihood
and any prospect of freedom, let alone their
refugees' right-of-return.
Israel's impact
on the media, however, has metamorphosed
throughout the years, from that of seeking to
influence to the one of doing its own molding of
public opinion. Israel's dedicated media friends,
from the New York Times to the London Telegraph,
are perhaps the largest and by far the most
influential interest groups in the media anywhere
around the world, a fact that they -
understandably so - often rebuff.
But the
facts are too apparent to deny. According to the
findings of a recent study conducted by two top
American scholars - Professor John Mearsheimer at
the University of Chicago and Professor Stephen
Walt of the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University - the single largest influence
on US foreign policy in the Middle East is
Israel's interest, even when it is at odds with
the United States' own interests. The study cited
the Israeli lobby, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as chiefly responsible
for hijacking US foreign policy in the Middle East
and has based its apparently thorough research on
diverse sources, including uncountable media
reports.
Many are already familiar with the
"special" ties between the United States and
Israel, which arguably allowed for the latter to
steer the foreign policy of the "greatest
democracy on earth" into the Middle East political
abyss - whose injurious consequences are likely to
diminish the US global import.
But most
might not be aware of the fact that the media is
largely responsible for manufacturing that
"special relationship". In fact, US interests in
the Middle East - be they political, economic, or
strategic - have been greatly hampered, thanks to
the perpetual, albeit misguided advocacy of
Israel's allies in the administration, Congress,
media and "independent" think tanks and endless
lists of "experts" who are unleashed whenever
Israel's image is at risk.
But what has in
fact magnified the impact of the Israeli lobby and
its influence in the media - whose work on behalf
of Israel has exceeded Palestine, Palestinians and
even the Middle East as a whole to all kinds of
geopolitical boundaries as far as Africa, Asia,
Latin America, and of course, Washington itself,
also known as "the other occupied territory" by a
former US congressman - was the pitiable and most
disorganized response of Palestinians, Muslims and
Arabs.
Some out of fear, perhaps, chose to
disown the matter altogether, using whatever
injudicious logic they could drum up. Others tried
to develop their own media alternatives, which is
commendable. However, such mediums have failed -
unlike the Israeli media machine - to carry any
depth, strategy or sense of unity toward a fixed
goal. In fact, it reflected Arab factionalism and
brought into question the actual motives behind
these "alternative" ventures.
The result
has been catastrophic. Israel's decades-long quest
to bolster its media image has done wonders as
American public opinion either sees Israel as a
lone defender of democracy amid uncivilized Arab
polities or Arabs as irrational, lazy and
inherently violent.
I am afraid that many
Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are themselves
content with the status quo and are the least
interested in reversing their misfortune or
appreciating the immense impact of the media on
politics, wars and indeed peace. There is an
overall inclination that associates media bias
with racial categorization - always the easy
answer to all enigmas - which is usually followed
by a shoulder shrug and the defeatist impression
that "all is lost", an echo of the same defeatist
sentiment that has accompanied the Arab-Israeli
conflict since its inception, which is now
directly involving the United States, its
military, its resources and
reputation.
However, all is not lost, for
even the most focused misinformation can be
reversed, no matter how humble the initiative, how
modest the resources. I have said so for many
years and many have said it before me and many
will continue to echo the same idea: with all due
respect, "It's the media, stupid." And if one is
foolish enough to neglect its import, then maybe
one deserves to be burned by its fire.
Ramzy Baroud is the author of
The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle
of a People's Struggle. (Pluto Press, London)
He is also the editor-in-chief of
PalestineChronicle.com
