There’s been coverage of the war in Gaza but has it been good? The New York Times has taken to calling the war, "Israel’s war on the Islamist rulers of Gaza." Thus far more than 800 Palestinians have been killed, nearly half of them civilians.

It’s often said that discussion in Israel regarding the occupation is much more vigorous than it is in the United States (i.e., it’s easier to criticize Israel in Israel than it is in the United States). So it’s not surprising to see that papers like Haaretz have been doing a much better service of covering the war, its causes, and consequences than American papers. Glenn Greenwald has been covering the coverage, from Marty Peretz’s declaration over at The New Republic that the Israeli assault will teach those Arabs a lesson: "do not fuck with the Jews," to Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard who writes that, " The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to whether or not they can, in fact, be deterred, because it’s not clear that they are rational, at least not like us." He goes on to suggest that wiping out a man’s entire family, as Israel did in the case of Nizar Rayan, might give his colleagues pause, basically sanctioning state sponsored terror. This is, sadly, conventional wisdom over here. 

Also, the US budget deficit, the "biggest since World War II," and what the media have missed when it comes to Obama’s economic plan. Obama’s final cabinet picks. Leon Panetta at CIA, Sanjay Gupta as Surgeon Genearl, and Dawn Johnsen at the Office of Legal Counsel. Here to discuss the big stories of the past week–reported and underreported–are Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report, Danny Schechter the news dissector, Ali Abunimah co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, and Elinor Tatum Editor in Chief of the New York Amsterdam News.

Comments Off   Spotlight