This Festival of Western Racism

That the freeing of a mere cog in the vast terror machine of the Israeli Offence Forces, the iron fist of Zionist colonisation since its beginnings as a Zionist militia in 1920's Palestine, should so dominate today's Radio National Breakfast program and elicit in today's Sydney Morning Herald such partisan and frankly sickening headlines as Thin, pale but unhurt, a soldier makes his way home and One family's joy is heartache for victims of terrorism, reveals like nothing else what can only be described as the hegemonic hold of political Zionism over coverage of this issue in the mainstream media, and, by extension, the latter's criminal complicity in the now 94-year Zionist crime of wiping Palestine - and Palestinians - off the map.

One can only describe the media's coverage of Shalit's release to date (and I imagine this will remain true in the coming days) as revelry. I, therefore, fully endorse the outrage and sentiments of The Angry Arab:

"I almost did not want to blog today. I was too disgusted by the blatantly racist Western media coverage of the prisoner swap deal: and I'm not just talking about the typically racist New York Times, but even the French and British media. It was all about that one Israeli terrorist in Palestinian custody. The racism was everywhere: nowhere were Palestinians presented as human beings. We are never victims, just terrorists. Our grandparents are terrorists (an 80-year old was released today), our parents are terrorists, we are terrorists, our children are terrorists, and our unborn will be terrorists. This festival of Western racism coincided with the 50th anniversary of the massacre of 300 Algerian antiwar demonstrators by the French police. It was a fitting anniversary for those partaking in the festival of Western racism. Look at how many articles appeared that spoke of 'bereaved' Israeli families. As if Israeli terrorist soldiers don't kill far more of our civilians than any accused Arab terrorist. There is no comparison. You don't even have to go back to the origins of the conflict and the sole criminal responsibility of the terrorist Zionist movement. Just look at that typical racist newspaper, The New York Times: it has 2 pictures in today's hard copy about the prisoner release. One shows a frowning Hamas man with a gun, and the other shows Israeli children playing. Who needs words when you can use such images to make a point about the humaneness of one side and the backwardness of the other? The message is that the blood of the other side is spillable. That was the point and language of Netanyahu today when he spoke about 'blood on their heads'. Call this deal what ever you want in your racist media, which does not even try to feign objectivity any more, I will call it by the names of every one of our prisoners." (angryarab.blogspot.com, 18/9/11)