By Jane Stillwater
Last Sunday, "60 Minutes" ran a segment on Israel and Palestine, and for the most part they did a good job of covering some of the very real issues there. But according to segment host Bob Simon, "Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote." What? Democracy is not a good option?
Although Simon struggled valiantly with presenting a fair view of the so-called "settler" situation on the West Bank, there were a couple of scenes on that subject that made me almost want to laugh. Instead of showing us footage of the thousands of modern (by American standards) condos that have been built on Palestine's West Bank so that we could get real-life glimpses into the lives of some of these so-called "settlers" as they hung out on their verandas, sipped coffee in their posh living rooms or watched their big-screen TVs, Simon showed us footage of some grubby woman in a headscarf as she wandered around on some rock pile out in the middle of nowhere, wielding a pickax.
This woman had obviously never seen a pickax before in her life. This woman appeared to be straight out of central casting.
But here's one scene that "60 Minutes" left out, as described to me by a reliable American reporter currently in Gaza:
Gaza woman: "I have ten children."
Israeli Defense Force soldier: "Pick out five of them to be shot."
Gaza woman: "I cannot do that."
IDF soldier: If you don't, then I will." Soldier then picks out five children randomly and shoots them.
Last Sunday, "60 Minutes" ran a segment on Israel and Palestine, and for the most part they did a good job of covering some of the very real issues there. But according to segment host Bob Simon, "Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote." What? Democracy is not a good option?
Although Simon struggled valiantly with presenting a fair view of the so-called "settler" situation on the West Bank, there were a couple of scenes on that subject that made me almost want to laugh. Instead of showing us footage of the thousands of modern (by American standards) condos that have been built on Palestine's West Bank so that we could get real-life glimpses into the lives of some of these so-called "settlers" as they hung out on their verandas, sipped coffee in their posh living rooms or watched their big-screen TVs, Simon showed us footage of some grubby woman in a headscarf as she wandered around on some rock pile out in the middle of nowhere, wielding a pickax.
This woman had obviously never seen a pickax before in her life. This woman appeared to be straight out of central casting.
But here's one scene that "60 Minutes" left out, as described to me by a reliable American reporter currently in Gaza:
Gaza woman: "I have ten children."
Israeli Defense Force soldier: "Pick out five of them to be shot."
Gaza woman: "I cannot do that."
IDF soldier: If you don't, then I will." Soldier then picks out five children randomly and shoots them.
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