Letter to the Editor
Jack Arbiser's Letter to the Editor last week summarizes my Nov. 14 editorial "American Discourse Distorts Gaza Conflict" as a narrative of "Hamas good, Israel bad" and ends by asking, "Finally, who is the unseen hand that Price implies that is preventing discourse in America?" These seem to be not so subtle ways of calling me a conspiracy theorist and a supporter of Hamas. As he has attacked my character and not just my argument, I feel compelled to respond.
I'm confused as to how anyone who read my article could state that I think "Hamas [is] good," as I said explicitly, "individuals on both sides of the border have committed terrible, violent acts." Let me be as clear as possible – Hamas is a terrible, violent organization that should change its methods if they it wants freedom for the Palestinians. Situating violence within context doesn't make anyone a supporter of Hamas. It makes them a responsible observer of the conflict.
Arbiser states that "Charlie Price characterizes supporters of Israel as either an 'inadequate or crafty storyteller' or 'a duped or vulgar propagandist'." Actually, what I wrote was that "anyone who ignores this context [occupation and siege] to portray Israel as a noble defender is ... a storyteller ... or propagandist." His quote seems to imply that I'm not a supporter of Israel. Presumably one can be a supporter of Israel and criticize it at the same time. If we want to avoid fanaticism and jingoism, we should be careful not to define a "supporter of Israel" as someone who defends the state no matter what.
"Who is the unseen hand that Price implies that is preventing discourse in America?," Arbiser concludes. The implication seems to be that I'm some sort of conspiracy theorist who thinks there are forces controlling the media. It is something of a truism among intellectuals and critical thinkers that the media and political discourse are inaccurate or inadequate in many areas. Is saying that the coverage of Iraq or the portrayal of women is inadequate the same as claiming there are puppet masters pulling strings? Most journalists and politicians say what they say simply because they believe it. A few others may stick to accepted lines because consensus on a number of issues is so strong that they feel social pressure to conform. All of this is common sense, not conspiracy.
Arbiser makes a couple of points that I think are misleading or inaccurate. In a letter, I can only mention them briefly. He states, "Civilian casualties are inevitable when schools, hospitals and UN shelters are used as missile depots" and accuses me of intentionally ignoring these issue. According to the UN, rockets were found in three vacant school shelters. Israel attacked several shelters full of persons seeking refuge. He claims that Al-Shifa Hospital's basement was a headquarters for Hamas. Perhaps, but Israel attacked several hospitals, not just Al-Shifa. One wonders where the displaced, sick and injured were expected to go.
I ignored these issues partly because of space and partly because they are irrelevant to the argument I made. The main point was: one cannot occupy a people for over 40 years, expect them to smile about it and kill a thousand civilians when a few extremists act immorally even if those extremists are carrying out their terror from public spaces. End the siege, end the occupation and allow the formation of an autonomous Palestinian state. If all these conditions are met and Hamas still continues to fire rockets, the standard justifications for war would be much more convincing.
I don't want to misunderstand Arbiser's point, but I am concerned that he has replaced a strawman version of my argument with something along the lines of "Israel is only good, Hamas is the sole source of blame." He mentions work done by Israeli hospitals and a few other noble deeds. I, too, admire medical workers, but I am not sure why this is relevant. In my mind, Israeli hospitals treating Gazans for dialysis or the family of Hamas members doesn't erase or in any way diminish the horrors of siege and occupation. There is no mention of any of this or even a suggestion that Israel might have ever done anything objectionable during the decades long conflict, making the letter a perfect example of the discourse I sought to criticize.
Charlie Price is a College senior from Oxford, Georgia.
