Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer
ERLANGER, JUDGE AND JURY, NOT REPORTER
During a discussion about the media coverage of the Lebanon war held in Jerusalem (see The Media War against Israel), The New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Steven Erlanger, made clear that he did not see his job as reporting the war as experienced in Israel but as judging whether Israel ran the war the way he thought appropriate. Other reporters wished they had more access or tried to downplay the importance of fake photos. But not Erlanger. He complained that Israelis disagreed with his critic of their actions:
He said Israelis didn't "quite grasp how the war was perceived outside of Israel."
He lamented the lack of "proportionality" in the war, adding: "This is a charge that came against Israel from the United Nations… the French, the Italians."
The New York Times bureau chief also said that Israelis "were not interested in whether 1,000 Lebanese civilians needed to die," adding that the question of "whether Israel fought a proportional war is not much of interest here (in Israel)."
How dare Israelis think of themselves first? How dare they care about their dead and kidnapped soldiers? How dare they refuse to live under the constant threat of Hezbollah terrorist rockets? How dare they be more concerned with the lives of their children than with the lives of their enemies? How dare they imagine that their experience or view point should be reported when it differed from that of the UN, Italy or France?
In other words, Erlanger does not see his job as a reporter covering the news but as a judge and jury of what should be the news. If Israelis fail to see the news his way, it's their own fault, not his.
It should be noted that reporters in Hezbollahland had no similar agenda. They covered what Hezbollah told them to cover and were silent about the rest. His darling UN, Italy and France followed suit. You want an example of what they did not cover? Today's NYT has an excellent example:
At one post, manned by members of an Indian battalion in blue turbans, the commander laid out on a table pieces from both Hezbollah rockets and Israeli aerial bombs that had rained in on the peacekeepers during the 34-day siege.The commander pointed with a look of helplessness to a spot just outside the post’s perimeter fence where Hezbollah had set up a launching site. General Pellegrini recalled how he had sent letters of protest to the Lebanese government without getting a single reply.
Does Erlanger believe it was proportional of Hezbollah to use UN "peacekeepers" as human shields or the rest of Lebanon for that matter? Does Kofi Annan? Does Italy or France? Does Erlanger believe it was proportional of Iran and Syria to tell Hezbollah to kidnap and kill Israelis in order to change the subject at the G-8 Meeting? Or does Erlanger believe that it is disproportionate for the Jewish state to demand that the world stop using it as a convenient scapegoat? After all, isn't that the Jewish role from time immemorial?
Oh, yes, Hezbollah arming for a second round. Kofi thinks it is disproportionate for Israel to interfere with their efforts. Erlanger must have trouble understanding the reason Israel does not lift its blockade of Lebanon to help speed up Hezbollah rearmament.
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