It's all in the wording

October 4, 2024

This is exactly what needs to be asked. Perhaps I can give one of the reasons why it’s been so hard for this question to be asked. Even a more ‘reasonable’ source of information about what is going on with this ‘war’ is using biased language. This is a short piece from the Guardian:

‘About 60,000 Israelis have fled their homes in northern Israel due to continual fighting between Israel, Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces based in Lebanon. On the Lebanese side of the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries, tens of thousands of Lebanese have also been internally displaced.’ The number of Israelis is 60,000 ….. the number of Lebanese is ’tens of thousands’ The Israelis have ‘fled their homes’ …. the Lebanese ‘have also been internally displaced.’

Who are the more vibrant and sympathetically described victims? Which people are given more value? It is happening all the time. It seeps in and influences. It is pro Israeli and it is pervasive, if not invasive to our basic understanding of what is happening.