Back in November, I wrote my second diary here about the war in Palestine and Israel. The intention of the diary was to question the difference between qualitative and quantitative DK coverage of the Russo-Ukraine War to that here of the latest phase of the 70-year long Israeli campaign to diminish whatever Palestine as a country might now or someday be.
The diary received several comments. Markos Moulitsas wrote, apparently around the same time that DK hid the comment I had written he was responding to:
This, right here. The diarist isn’t asking for a reasoned and nuanced discussion on the Israel-Gaza war. He’s asking for coverage that affirms his existing (bullshit) “apartheid” narrative. He can get that at any number of other places.
Ukraine-style coverage of the Gaza War would be: “The IDF easily steamrolled yet another square kilometer of Gaza today, with Hamas offering only the most pitiful, token resistance, hoping that using human shields to drive up the civilian death toll will create enough international pressure to force Israel to back down.”
What about the diplomatic side of the conflict? “Iran and Hezbollah have washed their hands of Hamas, claiming they had no idea what was happening. Egypt has had a decades-long blockade of Gaza, so how weird that only Israel gets blamed for ‘apartheid’ and ‘open air prison.’ Even the PA in the West Bank refuses to allow passage to Gaza Palestinians. Saudi Arabia is sitting on trillions, why aren’t THEY funding Palestinian infrastructure? And how come no other Arab states will grant Palestinians citizenship?”
Yes, I know all of this is more complicated, but no one will ever care about the nuance. And it’s clear that the diarist wouldn’t be happy with any of this anyway.
No one at Daily Kos will solve this conflict. If there's one thing I learned from my own personal experience with El Salvador’s civil war, wars don’t end until people get tired of killing each other.
About three months later, may I be allowed to disassemble Kos’s rant?
First of all, his dismissal of Israeli apartheid as “bullshit.” He wrote this comment the day after Rosalind Carter had passed away. The woman married to a U.S. President, and who had written a book titled “Peace Not Apartheid.”
Why did you disrespect President Carter at my diary the day after his wife passed away, Markos?
Egypt has had a decades-long blockade of Gaza, so how weird that only Israel gets blamed for ‘apartheid’ and ‘open air prison.
This is true. However, whenever this comes up, the reality is that people like Kos are either subliminally or actually implying there is some fucking other place for these people to relocate themselves to. Adjoining nations to Israel, all of which have been invaded by the IDF, have no responsibility to accept the refugees of apartheid. Duh…..
Also, just by responding here I’ve likely sparked the Next Great Daily Kos Outrage, and what’s the value in that?
I suppose that had I continued blogging as long as you have, and had enjoyed the success this place has, I could pat myself on the back similarly.
Daily Kos is a great asset to democracy in the USA.