The BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen writes on his blog:
I’m struck by the constant Israeli message that “any other country in the world would do the same”. Would they? Comparisons are difficult, because the century-long conflict between the Arabs and the Jews is one of a kind.
I’m not saying, by the way, that there are not any other long-running, bitter and bloody conflicts in the world.
But I don’t know of another one which has so many international ramifications, and above all I don’t know of one that has the same capacity to enrage people all over the world, even if they have never been to this small patch of the planet.
Why?
How can a journalist so glibly state this a fact without making the slightest effort to ask why this might be the case and whether or not he’s colluding in creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
What other conflict get’s this sort of blow-by-blow media exposure? People die in their hundreds in this conflict, but in their hundreds of thousands in other conflicts that get a fraction of the media’s obsession, the UN’s attention, or the public interest.
Why does this one tiny conflict which involves a population roughly the size of London’s have more capacity “to enrage people all over the world” and greater “international ramifications” than any other?
Is it not time the media took a step back to see if they are wagging the dog?
