The link above is a CNN article about a so called "terror attack" on an "Israeli family." It proves my point that I am trying to reach in my external writing assignment number two. We also discussed this in class last Thursday that the media only cares when an Israeli person dies.... and it's called a terror attack. However, when a Palestinian person is killed by Israeli's.... it's an honorable kill; a heroic act. Five Israeli civilians were murdered according to that article and CNN is already making a big deal out of it. What the world doesn't know is hundreds of Palestinians die every day, and no one cares. CNN only reports when Israeli's are harmed.... This is exactly the point that I am trying to reach in my external writing assignment two. Just because of five people... US, UN, and other countries are making a huge deal out of it; where were US and UN when Palestinians were being murdered?
This, I think, represents the worst side of Hegel -- or at least, the way that Hegel has seeped into our collective cultural "common sense" without our knowing he's there. I very much doubt that CNN, or any of the rest of the mainstream media (which some pundits now abbreviate as "MSM"), is being CONSCIOUSLY biased. Rather, it's that the common mainstream American perception is that Israel is on the right side of history, the successful (liberal, democratic, Western) anti-thesis to the (backward, terroristic, dark-skinned) dominant thesis of the Arab world, represented by the Palestinians. When you're raised upper-middle-class white conservative Jew, as I was, you get this perspective from an early age: "Look at all the amazing technology and agriculture in Israel! They're the only democracy in the Middle East! Nevermind the Palestinians -- the Arabs have ALL THE LAND around Israel, all those countries, and we [yes, "we"] only have that little sliver." (And then of course, less relevant to your point but still related, is the "Hitler defense", which goes something like "we need our own state in Israel in case Hitler happens again".) I am similarly disgusted by this news coverage, Ahmed. How to break the stranglehold of this kind of ideology (or "common sense")?
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