Update first. I went to Tokyo yesterday (Saturday) with two of my French friends, who were meeting their other 2 French friends in Tokyo to go have fun. I ended up being the odd one out, being the only person with English as a primary language, since everybody else was speaking French to each other. But since I could speak some French it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I will admit - it was still a somewhat annoying trip into Tokyo, almost not worth the $14 train ticket. But one thing rescued it from being a complete disaster (in my opinion) - one of the French guys we met at Shibuya station was probably the most attractive guy I've ever seen in my life. Granted he said like 3 sentences to me the entire night and probably doesn't even know my name, but that in itself put the night up from 'complete borefest' to 'barely tolerable'.
Anyways, today's topic: Israel (again as usual). I don't really know why I focus on Israel so much - I mean, there's loads of international issues like Krygyzstan's presidential election, or Poland's presidential election, etc. etc. I guess I find the moral gray area for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more interesting to blog about. So here goes.
There's one thing about Google News that bothers me slightly. It's that the "international news" sections has a lot of news about Israel, but often from the 3 Israeli News Outlets: Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, and another one (Ynet or something similar). I usually get quite annoyed and pissed off at these...because they have SUCH one-sided pro-Israel viewpoints that it was disgusting. During the Gaza conflict, these were the headlines that read "Gaza War justified and legal despite alleged humanitarian violations"...during the Biden-settlement issue, these were also the ones saying "Settlements justified...Americans can go to hell...blah blah blah." I used to think it was complete and utter garbage, like Fox News in the US.
But lately, since the Mavi Marmara incident (Turkish ship tried to run blockade and ended up with 9 people dead by Israeli commandos), I've noticed that these media sources are surprisingly docile, and even somewhat anti-Israeli government. There are news and opinion articles lambasting the government's response to the ship, the "neutral committee" that has no authority and no international approval, and the current failed blockade on Gaza. Even as Erdogan, Turkey's Prime Minister, blasts Israel for the killing of 9 Turks on board the ship, and as Turkish relations with Israel continues to deteriorate, I actually found many articles on both JP and Haaretz saying "it's not their fault...it's ours". I was quite flabbergasted by the 180 turn from their usual reporting.
I wonder if this is an indication of Israel's gradual shift leftwards. Ever since Netanyahu took over, Israel's only been embroiled in crisis after crisis. Watching their world status plummet over and over again, as Hamas remains as firmly in control of Gaza as ever, as Ahmadinejad continues his flaming rhetoric against Israel, as their biggest Muslim ally Turkey slid away from them...I'd imagine the media is becoming more and more hard-pressed to support the government. As media is probably the most effective method of controlling people, this may be just the first indication of the backlash against Netanyahu's government.
It'd be similar if we saw MSNBC turn against the Democrats, or Fox News turn against Republicans. Though I doubt either would ever happen...but it'd be quite the sight to see.
-FCDH
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