While most of the developed world is in an uproar about Israel’s attack on the humanitarian flotilla and all the issues that assault raises in terms of the bigger picture in the Middle East, there has been very little coverage of it at Daily Kos.
Markos, on "This Week" you stated the attack was "incompetently handled" but it left open a lot of questions, as it appeared you lean more towards condoning than condemning what happened. What are the views of you and your stellar writers on the bigger moral issues of who was right and who was wrong, not just in that specific incident but in the all the other issues in that troubled region? Were the flotilla killings justified? Is Israel’s siege of Gaza and its impact morally defensible in your view? Do you think Israel’s actions in the wars in Lebanon and Gaza were brutally one-sided or "measured and proportionate"? Are the settlements illegal? Is the occupation acceptable?
Like millions of other progressives I rely on Daily Kos for a truly genuine progressive perspective on all important political issues of the day. Yet when it comes to Israel, the attack on the flotilla and all the other issues attached to that (like the siege, the occupation, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the wall, the settlements, possible war crimes and crimes against humanity as documented by internationally respected human rights organizations), Daily Kos is conspicuously silent.
Why is that?
Let’s hear what you and your highly skilled writers have to say about the subject. Your team never shies away from tackling difficult and challenging subject matter, but for some reason the Israeli/Palestinian conflict gets virtually no play on your site.
What is that reason?
The progressive community needs the analysis of your talented writers on this complex issue because right now we are basically left to guess and assume what your stance is because of the miniscule coverage given to a topic that is top of mind for the rest of the world.
You and your writers have no hesitation going after politicians that don’t tow the progressive line on the public option, on the Iraq war, on regulating the banking industry, on the environment, on the influence of money in politics, but where oh where is that same courage to go question politicians that the left has always considered "progressive" but who appear to be blindly supportive of any and all Israel military actions, no matter how many innocent people are killed?
Will there be no probing questions and commentary put forward to the Alan Grayson’s and Anthony Wiener’s of the world, politicians who have so eloquently and boldly stood up for common sense and decency when it comes to issues like health care and the public option, but who have adopted fiercely pro-Israeli justifications for Israel’s attack on the humanitarian flotilla?
For you or your writers, on issue after issue, it’s never been okay for a politician to be progressive on some issues and backwards on others. You’ve always – always - called them for out for their hypocrisy and double standards. No politician has been able to evade the sharp eyes and minds of your staff, not even the POTUS.
That fundamental truth about your site – that it will always fight for what is right and decent no matter what the subject matter – seems to be in jeopardy when it comes to Palestine and Israel.
Does that same official posture and that same demand for moral consistency go flying out the window at Daily Kos when the subject becomes the Middle East?
You and your site continue to do such great work for the common good, but your mostly silent voice on such an important issue is troubling for many of us.
Please clarify where you stand. Allow your staff to fully explore this complex issue. This will in turn give your readers and diarists the opportunity to weigh in on an issue that is in desperate need of more, not less, in-depth analysis.
Something feels very out of place to have a site like yours with such common sense, such influence and such compassion, sitting on the sidelines on a topic of such importance.
Please tell the millions of us who look to your site for moral clarity the unvarnished truth of where you stand on Israel’s actions – that way we won’t have to guess.