<nettime> Israel rushes to capitalise on terrorist attack

["scotartt" <scot@systemx.autonomous.org>]

This is an extract from today's Sydney Morning Herald editorial. I find
extremely disturbing the undue haste in the way that Israeli figures have
used this appalling act of barbarity to attempt to advance their own
interests in the most outrageous way. America, this Israel that thinks the
attack is "very good"; this is the same Israel you spend $6 billion on each
year so it can buy the tanks and helicopters it uses to shoot and bomb
civilians.

It seems to me, watching CNN, FOX, CNBC that the American media can not
and/or will not make a distinction between Palestinian organisations and
others with a much broader agenda like al Quaeda. It seems to me, that
these latter groups only use the name of Palestinian cause to further their
own interests, and that it is relatively easy to distinguish between the
two groups, their actions and their motives. I for one am sick of the total
and complete lack of nuance present in American television (even in
contrast to our own paltry imitations). I'd also like to note that in the
many claims of "widespread" Palestinian rejoicing at the news of the
attack, time and time again I only saw the same, identical, footage of the
same 10 to 15 adults with about the same number of children. The only thing
"widespread" about it was the airplay this solitary set of images received.

>From www.smh.com.au Thursday 13th Sept 2001.

" [...]    There is also a consciousness of the danger of stigmatising
American Muslims in the wake of this latest outrage. (A similar
consciousness, in the Australian context, has been evident in calls
yesterday by Australian political and church leaders not to make rash
judgments about who might have been responsible for the terrorist attacks.)
But American Muslims have few but their own to speak for them. They
struggle to assert their loyalty and commitment to the US and their
abhorrence of violence. The reaction of some Jewish Americans has, in
contrast, been to make an immediate connection between the terrorism
visited so terribly on New York and Washington with the constant cycle of
violence that grips Israel. The sentiment behind this has been chillingly
expressed by the former Israeli prime minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu. When
asked what the attack on New York meant for relations between the US and
Israel, he said: "It's very good." He quickly went on: "Well, not very
good, but it will generate immediate sympathy."     [...] "

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