Sensible Erection | Ongoing protests in Israel - not slightly reported by Western Australian media

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Ongoing protests in Israel - ~~not~~ slightly reported by ~~Western~~ Australian media

quote [ Thousands of people march in the streets during a protest against the rising cost of living on August 6, 2011 in Tel Aviv, Israel. ]

There have been significant protests in Israel this month - on August 6th over a quarter of a million people participated in a demonstration demanding social reform.

I only saw this because I'm subscribed to updates from Wikileaks. There has not been one mention of this situation in the Australian press. SE folks come from all over the globe - tell us, what has the press had to say about this in your country?

[politics] [by Omegaphobic@4:29pmGMT] [+4 Interesting]

Comments

sensibleb said @ 4:55pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:5 Underrated]
Dear Israel,

I'll make you a deal. I'll support your calls for social justice when you stop forcing an entire population to live in an open air prison.

Shalom, etc.

structured_spirits said @ 8:49pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
Arguably the israeli citizens are becoming every bit as fed up with their fashish US-supported puppet state as the Palestinians are. I think that's worth supporting.

f00m@nB@r said @ 10:09pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-periphery-proved-it-is-part-of-the-struggle-1.378601
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/tens-of-thousands-take-to-israel-s-streets-as-social-protests-move-out-of-tel-aviv-1.378465
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/dozens-of-israelis-rally-outside-emergency-knesset-session-on-social-protests-1.378911

I don't think they're demonstrating against a "fashish" gov't. It sounds like they're rallying for better public welfare support.

f00m@nB@r said @ 10:10pm GMT on 16th Aug
From the last linked article:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose free-market outlook has been challenged by a month-long surge of demonstrations for economic and social reform, was out observing construction of a new train line that he said would help young couples commute to city jobs from outlying towns where housing costs are lower.

structured_spirits said @ 10:34pm GMT on 16th Aug
Netahyahu's been spending all the government's money on the military at the expense of social programs just like here, so yeah I'd call that rebelling against their government.

sanepride said @ 10:30pm GMT on 16th Aug
Israel, like much of the west, is experiencing a widening gap between its haves and have-nots. A lot its citizens are being left behind by their booming tech economy and are getting priced out of decent housing, etc.

MelloHippo said @ 11:37pm GMT on 16th Aug
The world's financial situation is terrible, but it's an economy of competition so somebody has to be doing well. Rich assholes and corrupt politicians are draining the people's governments dry everywhere. The riots in Greece and even London were fueled mostly by the 'austerity' measures the no-longer-middle class are being forced to suffer while those who implement these measures live more comfortably than before.
I wouldn't suspect it long before some spark similar to the shooting death last month happens in the US. Probably as a result of the 2012 election.

sanepride said @ 10:15pm GMT on 16th Aug
Fashish? Is that like hashish?

structured_spirits said @ 10:45pm GMT on 16th Aug

lalanda said @ 6:06am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
No, seriously, does anyone know what this word is meant to be? Is it Hebrew?

dangerm00se said @ 9:24pm GMT on 16th Aug
Dear sensibleb,

We'd love to, but protests against Israeli occupation are met with US produced gunfire and are ignored even harder by Western Media.

sanepride said @ 11:05pm GMT on 16th Aug
The people calling for social justice are addressing their government - the same one that is also forcing an entire population to live in an open air prison. You may note in these pictures there are Arab citizens participating in these protests. Probably a fair portion of these protestors would agree with your 'deal'.

Israel said @ 3:24am GMT on 17th Aug
Dear Sensibleb,

What if we just start calling them 'reservations' instead?

structured_spirits said @ 5:00pm GMT on 16th Aug
What, the western media is isn't trying to sell us an "Israeli Spring?" You say these dictators are white folk? I find it very interesting the way the media sold us the protests in islamic controlled countries vs. the virtually non-existent coverage of major civil unrest in European as well as other "western" nations. Meanwhile the American Empire is feeling fine. Must be all the drugs they've got us on.

sanepride said @ 10:40pm GMT on 16th Aug
The Israeli protests have in fact gotten wide media coverage, at least in proportion to their impact outside of Israel. And I'd say the same thing about civil unrest that has occurred in Greece, Spain, Iceland, and elsewhere in Europe.

structured_spirits said @ 12:44am GMT on 17th Aug
yeah I agree they've gotten about the same amount of coverage in the American media as the protests in Europe, very little. The American media is fearful that showing white middle class folk protesting might give Americans ideas.

bruceski said @ 1:05am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
[citation needed]

sanepride said @ 1:14am GMT on 17th Aug
Is this what the voices told you?

eggboy said @ 8:04am GMT on 17th Aug
If you want to know more about what's happening in the world, I think you're maybe just looking in the wrong places.
By Western Media, do you mean American cable news? They are only really good for American politics and stories that effect American politics. (CNN are actually pretty good)

I've been following this for weeks on BBC and Al Jazeera, not the most obscure outlets. A good story is always up-front, no-one makes money hiding shit 10 pages deep.

sanepride said @ 5:08pm GMT on 17th Aug
US news media in general just doesn't focus so much on world events. They cater to their audience, who really aren't so concerned about what goes on outside US borders, plus the fact that shrinking news budgets mean even less coverage of international stories. When I travel, especially in Europe, I'm always impressed at how much more extensive and international news reporting is than here.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 6:18pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:4 Informative]
Any time you hear or read "not reported in Western media" ...you can wager it was...often, days ago...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14494523

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/protest-at-the-corner-of-rothschild-and-tahrir/article2113479/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6b9d9c08-c299-11e0-9ede-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1VDUtv4Yg

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/09/opinion/la-oe-oz-israel-tents-protests-20110809

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/07/israel.protests/

f00m@nB@r said @ 6:33pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
Coverage has been minuscule compared to coverage of the Arab protests.

structured_spirits said @ 6:41pm GMT on 16th Aug
exactly!

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 6:49pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
That would be because it was bigger news by far.

1) They allow protests in Israel
a) They normally do not allow protests in the Arab world

2) The first days of protests in Tunis did not get major attention beyond the wire services
b)After 10 days they did.

That being said, the Israeli protests have had wide coverage from the 1st of august.

Bah...old news

structured_spirits said @ 6:58pm GMT on 16th Aug
Yeah there's that, there's also the fact that the US government isn't trying to use it's propaganda machine to sell the UN on bombing Israel or England, Italy, or Greece.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 7:19pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
..Or tunisia, egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Yemen, UAE, Jordan, Iran, algeria, bahrain.....either ...

But then again, peaceful protests are not unusual or illegal in Israel

Is there a rational point you would like to make?

structured_spirits said @ 7:29pm GMT on 16th Aug
Point is that the media don't give a shit about freedom or liberty or saving lives, they're just a mouthpiece for discriminating the opinion that the government thinks the people should have, regardless of whether that opinion is in the people's besst interest. Do you not have a problem with that?

sacrelicious said @ 8:15pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
which government? Obama's government? the government of the congressional republicans? the government of the congressional democrats? the supreme court? which government are the mainstream media being mouthpieces for and disseminating the opinions of?

and which media? CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News? ABC, CBS and NBC? PBS (who gets a large part of their funding from the government, yet doesn't seam to answer to any particular part of it)? the New York Times? the LA Times? the Washington Post? Reuters? AP? the New York Post? the Wall Street Journal? Time? Newsweek? USA Today? The National Review? they all seem to have positions that disagree with the other in ways that range from subtle to major. are you telling me they're all propaganda outlets for the same government?

I'm very confused, because all of the monolithic government seems to disagree with itself an awful lot, and the monolithic media often doesn't seem to agree with any part of the government or itself either. oh, I get it: the government is a singular entity with multiple personality disorder, and the media is as well, only moreso.

yes, obviously we live in a one-party fascist state. it could not be more clear unless you pry your eyelids open for a second or two.

structured_spirits said @ 8:39pm GMT on 16th Aug
The New World Order Illuminati obviously.

structured_spirits said @ 8:44pm GMT on 16th Aug
And their Reptilian Overlords, who've recently reopened the middle-east stargate.

Dr.Faustus said @ 9:40pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
I really like what they've done with the place and the tapas are incredible!

blibblob said @ 6:49pm GMT on 17th Aug
What's the difference between a one-party fascist state and a two-party fascist state where they agree with each other on everything but the most inconsequential of topics? Or have the last 12 years demonstrated to you that our government actually is willing to work in the majority's favor and not their contributors?

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 8:27pm GMT on 16th Aug
You mean aside from the veracity of the premise, or the false statement that suggests that the media's role should be something other than simply reporting.

The media is not a human rights organization...and as I pointed out, the events were covered from the very first.

structured_spirits said @ 9:03pm GMT on 16th Aug
so you're argument is that the news media's stories are not biased for political gain? How very rational to the point of blindness.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 9:58pm GMT on 16th Aug
Media is in the business of selling content. They sell it when labour/conservatives/republicans/democrats/liberals are in or out of power. Suggesting they are in it for political gain only makes sense if the tin foil is too tight.

Let me repeat, they don't make money from politics other than covering it...

f00m@nB@r said @ 10:04pm GMT on 16th Aug
Tell that to Rupert Murdoch.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 11:14pm GMT on 16th Aug
Rupert Murdoch sells content just like any media owner...

Krutz said @ 11:00pm GMT on 16th Aug
Apparently you've never heard much about Roger Ailes. Murdoch tried to cozy up to Hillary, but Ailes would sooner jump into an industrial shredder than air a story that didn't slant so heavily to the right it'd change the way an Englishman drives.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 11:13pm GMT on 16th Aug
They sell content, and the readers buy that content because that is the content they like...

This isn't a hard concept....not much different from packaged goods....people like kraft dinner because that is what they like...change it, and you don't have a market any more.

structured_spirits said @ 12:41am GMT on 17th Aug
See while everything you say there is accurate, you're ignoring the very real fact that one of these reasons that media barons like Murdock or Hearst amass a media empire to begin with as opposed to becoming banksters or some such is because of psychological and personal factors that make them want to influence people into believing their version of the truth. To say that these guys are in it solely for the money where there are much more lucrative businesses ignores their need for power to control the will and hearts of others.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 2:57pm GMT on 17th Aug
..that and the low start up costs....

structured_spirits said @ 7:32pm GMT on 16th Aug
Also, I think it's pretty slimy to mod a post about the Israel protests as "old" when it's not been posted on SE before and is still ongoing. I can't remember if oyu're based in the US or in Canada, perhaps there's been more coverage there, but outside othe internet in the US there hasn't been shit said about this.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 8:32pm GMT on 16th Aug
chortle

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/07/israel.protests/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/world/middleeast/06israel.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904480904576494373143958448.html
http://www.ketknbc.com/news/in-israel-protests-a-surprise-arab-inspired-taste

Clearly another case of: I haven't seen it therefore it does not exist

structured_spirits said @ 8:47pm GMT on 16th Aug
Yeah like I said, outside of the internet this hasn't gotten much coverage in the US and hasn't been posted on SE before.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 10:00pm GMT on 16th Aug
And like I said, because you haven't seen it in print, you assume it doesn,'t exist....gotta say though, I hear the internet has a following these days...

bruceski said @ 1:02am GMT on 17th Aug
I read it in the paper, it may even still be at the Subway I left it at.

bruceski said @ 1:03am GMT on 17th Aug
And saw it mentioned on the PBS Newshour, which is TV rather than internet. Maybe you should take a look at your news sources and criticize them instead of all media?

structured_spirits said @ 7:27pm GMT on 16th Aug
How long is that humanitarian transition to prevent genocide gonna take Mr. Prez?

Hmm, seems it's been almost half a year, I wonder if the Nato Empire is still claiming they're trying to save lives?

In an amazing display of doublespeak that would make Orwell blush, Nato continues to propagate the claim that it's illegal war on Libya is not about ousting Qaddafi but rather about protecting Libyans from a humanitarian crisis, yet insists war will only end when Qaddafi deposed as body count in artificially-extended civil war continues to rise.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/22/what-is-the-us-plan-for-libya/two-ways-to-remove-qaddafi

f00m@nB@r said @ 7:38pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
It's lasted for over a week with people camping in the street. I think that counts as big news regardless of whether their gov't allows protests.

EPT said @ 12:13pm GMT on 17th Aug
Over a week? Amateurs.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is decades old.

sanepride said @ 10:13pm GMT on 16th Aug
It's not really a valid comparison. The protests have been huge, even unprecedented for Israel but so far have not had the kind of global implications or human drama that the Arab uprisings have had. At the worst the Netanyahu coalition may fall (we can only hope) but the stability and central authority of the Israeli government is not in danger.

structured_spirits said @ 10:30pm GMT on 16th Aug
Arguably the Muslim country's governments were never in any real danger other than that the US was seizing all their operating cash and dropping bombs or threatening to drop bombs on them.

sanepride said @ 10:36pm GMT on 16th Aug
um...ahem...Egypt. And Tunisia. The only two Arab governments that have actually fallen had none of these things happen to them.
But you did get the "arguably" part right.

structured_spirits said @ 10:53pm GMT on 16th Aug
The US didn't freeze have Ben Ali's and Mubarack's assets and threaten economic sanctions and canceling foreign aid to those countries?

sanepride said @ 11:11pm GMT on 16th Aug
I seem to recall that the US supported Mubarak almost right up till it became clear that his position was untenable. There was no freezing of assets in either case that I'm aware of, but feel free to prove me wrong.

structured_spirits said @ 12:30am GMT on 17th Aug
US Freezes 30 Billion in Libyan assets, EU places embargo on Libyan Oil - Feb 28th. US then turns around, tries to hand frozen Libyan assets over to rebels to purchase weapons, EU disagrees, so US fronts them a loan to be repaid later.

Swiss Freeze 3.5 Billion in Egyptian Assets. Despite the US dragging it's feet in freezing Mubarak assets, it does threaten to suspend aid

EU and MiddleEastern countries seize of 5 billion from Ben Ali and family of Tunisia.

sanepride said @ 1:08am GMT on 17th Aug
None of these links advance your argument. First group is only about Libya. Second group about Egypt refers to US freezing Mubarak's assets after leaving power. There were never any 'threats' to suspend the substantial economic and military aid Egypt continues to get from the US, only a 'review'. And the third link, regarding Tunisia, has nothing to do with the US.

Nice try but no cigar. Actually, it's a lame try.

structured_spirits said @ 2:31am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Funny]
Well if you think you can do better please do go ahead and give it a try.

sanepride said @ 3:54am GMT on 17th Aug
Do better...to disprove my own point? Why would I do that?
You're the one making claims that the US was behind the Arab uprisings, including in Tunisia and Egypt - freezing assets etc. So it's up to you to either back it up or shut it up.

sanepride said @ 10:09pm GMT on 16th Aug
I believe it was last week that NY Times ran a big front page story and photo also.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 6:24pm GMT on 16th Aug
Why! It's even been picked up in Australia!

http://www.smh.com.au/world/protests-put-unflattering-spotlight-on-israel-20110807-1ihok.html

GordonGuano said @ 6:42pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:-2]
Jews being cheap is not exactly news.

GordonGuano said @ 6:53pm GMT on 16th Aug
Oh noes! My words are getting smaller! It must be the sheeny curse!

sanepride said @ 10:17pm GMT on 16th Aug
No doubt it's the zionist-controlled media.

cb361 said @ 7:04pm GMT on 16th Aug [Score:-2]
After getting himself killed, my Legendary Jeweler returned to haunt my fortress as 'Ghostly Jew'. Or that's what it said, at any rate.

Xiph0 said @ 10:15pm GMT on 16th Aug
First I'm hearing of it. +1

sanepride said @ 10:27pm GMT on 16th Aug
+1, they're good photos and a reminder that we've been lacking these kinds of photojournalist posts in JOECAM's absence. I especially like the images of young Israelis and Arabs protesting together. Maybe this can be the seeds of a renewed peace movement a wider push for social justice that includes the occupied territories.

Omegaphobic said @ 12:20am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Insightful]
Let me put it this way: protests in Egypt - on every channel and spread across every paper and news website for many days in a row. Even someone like myself who gets the majority of their news from blog websites like SE couldn't avoid seeing it *everywhere* I went. It was Big News.

This? Haven't heard or seen a mention of these protests that have been ongoing since the start of the month. Someone posted *one* Australian article about them from the Sydney Morning Herald website.

Thanks for posting the BBC, New York Times etc articles addressing these, since, you know, I have neither the time nor the inclination to trawl through these various sites every day in case something of import is happening somewhere and the Australian media has collectively decided to ignore it.

I wonder how many Western articles, in aggregate, there were addressing the Egyptian protests? I wonder how many there have been addressing these Israeli ones?

My point still fucking stands.

* (The Asshole FKA Morris) said @ 12:33am GMT on 17th Aug
Your point stands only if you are in denial. Given you say you have no inclination to actually see if your hunch was correct (and it was in Australian media, last week) your point fails in a flaccid lump...

Omegaphobic said @ 12:51am GMT on 17th Aug
You're really working not to see what I'm getting at.

Do me a favour. Do an advanced Google News search on the words 'Israel' and 'Protest' for the period 01/08/2011 - today. Set news source location to Australia. Look at the number of articles you get. Realise that many of those articles are referring to local boycotts of Israeli products, Facebook protests against Israel, etc. Work out how many articles actually refer to the ongoing protests that have Israelis sleeping in a tent city in the streets of Tel Aviv.

Then consider that the point I'm attempting to make is that there has been such meagre coverage of these events that a casual observer of the news such as myself (who takes the attitude that if something is sufficiently important it will be reported widely enough that I will notice it or that it will be a topic of enough conversations that I'll hear about it) has not even heard a whisper of these protests.

And for those people saying that the Egyptian protests had wider global ramifications, please - widespread social unrest in the country that is regarded, for right or wrong, as the sole and shining Western foothold in the Middle East? That's not exactly a minor deal.

EPT said @ 12:20pm GMT on 17th Aug
Honestly? People have israel protest fatigue. There has been so much coverage of protests about human rights issues in israel over the past few years that no-one cares anymore. It's wallpaper. Protests in Egypt are something new. It's not some vast consipiracy, it's just normal news cycles.

You know that there are protests in South America? Why not champion those? Israel gets some coverage at least. What about protests in India, any coverage of those? Where's their champion?

What about the deadliest war since WWII - are you even aware that the Second Congolese War even existed? The few articles around that were always stuffed up the back in the 'world news' section, never front page.

How about the Taliban blowing up two statues - remember what a furore that raised? My god, we westerners were furious about that. Not so much about the hideous treatment of women in Afghanistan - while that drew some anger, it was nothing compared to (OMG!) two statues being destroyed!

It's just the way that news works.

structured_spirits said @ 12:36am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:-1 Old]
The "Arab Spring" was sold as a PR campaign by the western media, while the protests in western countries has been played down as much as possible.

sanepride said @ 3:56am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:-1 Flamebait]
Do you never get tired of being so demonstrably wrong?

structured_spirits said @ 5:07am GMT on 17th Aug
I don't think you can prove I'm wrong anymore than I can prove I'm right, none of us really knows with certainty whats going on.

Classy on the reply then mod via script btw :P

sanepride said @ 5:02pm GMT on 17th Aug
Ah yes, the script is a handy way to be a total dick, mod-wise. Maybe somebody should fix that.

Anyway I can cite countless news items about social unrest in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, it's hardly a 'suppressed' story. The media does have its various agendas, but mostly it is just a pack of piranhas, attracted to blood, of which there has been plenty spilled in the Arab uprisings (and not so much in Western Europe). If anything, where there has been under-reporting, it has been in specific Arab countries that are closely allied with the US, like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (which of course also conveniently counters your absurd contention that the uprisings are somehow engineered by the US).

EPT said @ 10:38pm GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Informative]
the Facial script doesn't inherit anything when replying - it doesn't matter if you mod first or not. I used to open up a separate page to inherit downmods properly, but it's a bit of a chore so I just run with it these days.

afrasr said @ 1:35am GMT on 17th Aug [Score:1 Underrated]
I have nothing constructive to add.. so here is Lollipop Chainsaw...

afrasr said @ 1:36am GMT on 17th Aug
fucking youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0QYPpC_Na4

Naruki said @ 2:35am GMT on 17th Aug
+1 for the correction :-)