Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East

Kiwis for Balanced Reporting On The Mideast New Zealand Media bias

June 23, 2009

Email to Radio New Zealand

A KBRM member writes to Radio NZ's Saturday morning show after its airing of yet another anti-Israel diatribe, this time from former US diplomat Edward Peck on the 13 June show:

Dear Kim,

I'm a week late putting pen to paper here. In any event, you read out a letter of mine on a similar topic a month or so back (grateful for that, thanks) so I don't expect a repeat.

But... some of the stuff your guest Edward Peck said the Saturday before last can't go unchallenged, not least because it continues a National Radio practice of airing heavily jaundiced views against Israel while offering no counterweight to these. Allow me to tackle just a few of Peck's points, in no particular order:

Peck is just one of a long list of people who think that Hamas' win at the ballot box obligates Israel to join it at the table, whatever its actions. But Hamas' democratic credentials are neither here nor there. What Israelis really take issue with is the fact it has fired upwards of 7,000 rockets at civilian targets in Israel since winning office. That's what the Gaza invasion was about — not, as Peck would have us believe, a desire to brutalise and intimidate Palestinians. If he was faced with an angry neighbour lobbing molotov cocktails onto his patio, would Peck's first instinct be to sit down and iron out misunderstandings...? If that neighbour refused to stop, would he simply live with it? I doubt it, yet this is exactly the sort of heroic restraint Peck and others expect of Israel.

Peck repeatedly referred to 'what Israel has been doing' for the past 60 years. One could argue about the ledger of what has been done to vis-a-vis by Israel throughout its 61-year history; it is at least debatable. But it'd be particularly interesting to know what Israel was doing that was so objectionable before the fateful events of 1967. Until that time, Gaza and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Jordan respectively, neither of which demonstrated the remotest intention to help establish a Palestinian state out of those territories. Yes, Israel did occupy the Palestinian Territories in 1967, when Egypt, Jordan, Syria, et al, had initiated yet another war against Israel. But does Peck seriously contend that the subsequent (and regrettable) occupation is all about aggressive expansionism and nothing to do with some very basic security imperatives?

‘Israel bombed Baghdad’ is another example of the sort of inflammatory half-truth Peck goes in for. Israel did indeed carry out a clinical bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor outside Baghdad. An aggressive act? Yes. Politically very risky? Absolutely. But a groundless attack on a city, as Peck implies, it most certainly was not. What agenda leads the likes of Peck to simplify and twist events like this, rather than deal with their complexity? (I shudder to think what he serves up to his cruise audiences...) Similarly, he stated that Israel has bombed Syria, invaded Lebanon, attacked Egypt. Not a mention of the context and background to these events, and the years of provocation and violence against Israel that preceded them. In the initial years following Israel's founding, this violence was carried out on the assumption that Israel could and would be wiped out.

One could go on. Suffice to say that I for one, while disturbed by the Palestinians' suffering, am thankful that Israel has defended itself and prevailed rather than succumb to violence. More than that, it has prospered as a vibrant multi-ethnic democracy. The Palestinians might have had all this too, had their leaders been focused on their interests these last six decades rather than bringing down Israel.

What to do about one-sided analyses like that of Peck? Let us hear them by all means, but how's about bringing someone on to counter them and lay bare their inherent biases. This need not be an equally one-sided account in favor of Israel. You could, for example, approach the likes of Israeli historian Benny Morris — someone who does not shy away from criticizing his country's actions, but neither crassly dismisses the real and present threats that have prompted these.

Thanks for hearing me out once more.

Best regards,
[KBRM Member]