Yet another critical discussion that really should be on national TV IMO.
But on a side note, while I am much more on Cenk’s side over the issue, I also have serious concerns about his health when he gets riled up by this. As for Ben, I can totally empathise with his desire to defend his people and I have no doubt he truly believes that is what he is doing. But IMO his view is evidence of a biased Israeli groupthink which can only perpetuate the actions of their current government.
I am reminded of what happened in Northern Ireland (different situations I know, but still many similarities) in that Netanyahu’s red line of “all Hamas must be destroyed” is along the same lines as the Unionists’ one of “decommissioning” which stated that there could be no peace until the IRA had given up all their weapons. Neither is a definable position. When would we know the IRA had given up all their guns? When would we know all Hamas members were taken off the board? They are both policies that can only prolong a conflict. BUT – eventually the Unionists did relent after a lot of diplomacy from all sides, so we can only hope that eventually something similar can happen in the Middle East.
I quote The Young Turks a lot on this site so in a way I’m glad to have the opportunity to show an area where I disagree with them. Although for the above segment, while I agree with the actual. point being made by the show’s Executive Producer Ana Kasparian, I really do think she devotes too much time expressing it.
Anyway I voiced my view in the form of a comment on YouTube, which will probably never be read, but for the record I’ll copy it here anyway…
Well I know Anna said she doesn’t care if someone disagrees with her but I’m going to do it anyway. Thing is, it’s not her main point of this segment where I disagree.
Of course it’s wrong to condone or defend or rebrand Hamas’ actions. I’m 100% with her on that, in fact to me it’s pretty obvious.
My problem is with the presentation. While her point is one that needs to be made, I totally disagree that it’s one that needs to be made in the A Block of the main TYT show, while finding about a dozen different ways to call people with those views “stupid” in the process.
For one thing, I find this hypocritical since having watched the show for years I know she often pushes back on Cenk when he goes too far on the intelligence of MAGA voters (and I also agree with her on this).
But what bothered me most about this segment was that Anna kept saying “I don’t know whether or not it’s a tiny minority who think this way” (paraphrase). If she didn’t have this information, maybe it wasn’t worthy of being the feature topic of the show, suggesting that this is the most important thing in the news cycle. My guess would be that this is a minority view on the Left so while it shouldn’t be ignored I don’t think it should be elevated to this extent either.
And one final point, Ana claims those voicing their opinions at the council meetings are “providing fodder for the right”, which is true, but I also think her segment does that because it would not be difficult for someone to either clip to make it look like TYT agrees with them, or at least highlight the left fighting among themselves.
To summarize, I love the show, I love both Cenk and Ana as well as all the crew, it’s just for this one segment I felt I had to push back a bit. Agree with the point, just not the framing. Keep up the otherwise excellent work guys!
Following the disgusting and senseless actions of Hamas we are now in yet another time of war involving Israel.
But it’s not merely the reports on the atrocities that instigated this latest crisis that we need to discuss. It’s also the actual reporting of it. Just a couple of weeks ago my wife told me she wanted to watch the movie 1984 with John Hurt and Richard Burton. And while the term “Orwellian” might be overused these days, it certainly has to be said that large portions of the mainstream media have reverted to 1984-style propaganda from the moment news of the (again, reprehensible just in case it isn’t clear how I feel) Hamas action broke.
I could go on about my feelings on this matter but the purpose of this post is to share some media which has been produced by people who understand the situation much more than I do yet find themselves able to approach it with a holistic view rather than a “we stand squarely behind Israel no matter what, and anyone who doesn’t totally agree with us is an anti-Semite” one.
So here they are, I hope you either have the time to watch/listen or at least have been able to find similar open-minded discussions and presentations out there.
Apologies for not posting for so long, I could literally produce multiple posts every single day but most of my online time has to be taken up with rugby, especially now. I’m hoping to start a TikTok account for this site soon. JLP
1. POD SAVE THE WORLD
First we have a podcast from Pod Save The World, an excellent production featuring Tommy Veitor (of parent show Pod Save America) and Ben Rhodes (who worked with the US State Department under President Obama) which generally talks about world news from a US perspective, which some may see as a contradiction as the vast majority of the population is definitely ignorant of anything to do with global politics. They normally have a show during the week but they got together for this special one immediately after the news broke, and this is why I appreciate their extremely balanced view which pointed out the actions of the Netanyahu government as well.
2. THE YOUNG TURKS
Next up we have The Young Turks, generally hosted by Cenk Uygur and Anna Kasparian, but for their first show after the Hamas attack, Anna gave up her seat to occasional guest Ben Gleib, and Israeli-American comedian who is always promoting Progressive values, a fact proven by his very existence as a TYT host. But with a lot of his family members living in Israel and some directly affected by the Hamas attack, he is of course extremely well placed to offer that perspective.
So for this protracted debate, which I would recommend you watch in its entirety, we not only have the standard “anti-Occupation” viewpoint offered by Cenk, but it also comes with strong rebuttals from someone speaking for Israeli citizens in the aftermath of a horrific atrocity.
Unfortunately the video is age-restricted so I can’t share it directly to the page, so instead I will add the link below.
Even with the terrible nature of a story like this, it is actually possible to turn to comedy for both solace and, most crucially, information.
This clip may not be a current one from The Daily Show (it first aired in 2014), but it is still perfect for illustrating just how polarized the media landscape becomes whenever Palestine is in the news.
First Person Plural 