If you don't know why, click on the image above to see a larger version.
Today the front pages of both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times led with that picture of Palestinian Authority security force men stripped to their underwear by Israeli soldiers who had broken into the prison they were guarding.
If I wanted to further rub raw every existing grievance nursed by "Middle Easterners" against "the West," including Israel, I can't think of a better way to do it. Humiliation of other people used to catch our gaze is wrong. Humiliation is wrong when it exploits women's bodies to sell soap -- and it is wrong when it offers us the conquered reduced to frantic efforts to cover their weakness.
The Israelis claim the stripping is a protection against suicide bombers. Maybe. But that doesn't make it right for U.S. papers to use the images to sell papers.
As for the raid itself, it is hard to believe that it wasn't just a campaign stunt by the Israeli Kadima government, abetted by the U.S. and Britain. I wonder, is our ruler preparing such a stunt before November? Is that why we hear a drumbeat of fear about an Iranian bomb that won't exist for another ten years?
4 comments:
wag the dog?
zak -- too likely. Hope it is no worse.
Why are the Israelis building their own Dybbuk again? It's grotesque.
What about the fact that the headline next to the picture was about sex offenders? You read that, see pictures of half-naked Palestinians, and an idea is implanted in your subconscious. What better way to increase hatred of Arabs than to subliminally link them with sex offenders?
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