It is all in the numbers—¦ sort of
Both the Young Fogey and Fr. Jim Tucker at Dappled Things have linked to reporting from If Americans Knew.
The site reports statistics on Israeli deaths and destruction in Israel as opposed to Palestinian deaths and destruction in the Palestinian territories.
Whenever I run across sites that comment on the Middle East I look to see who is behind them. Where do the numbers come from? How true/accurate are the numbers? Is there a political agenda? This is not an area of the world known for being the bastion of truthfulness.
I looked at If Americans Knew. At first the disparities shocked me. I was in my accountant mode, analyzing numbers, comparing columns, checking out the graphs. I was fascinated. Then the Holy Spirit gave me a kick and I said, ‘These are people.’ I was comparing who is more evil based on tallies of death and destruction. I saw the numbers, not the people.
I decided to look deeper. If Americans Knew seemed a little one-sided.
A quick Google search revealed a lot of opinions on the woman behind If Americans Knew, Alison Weir (NOT the British novelist). Most of the opinions were from campuses where she appeared and spoke. She was labeled everything from a raging anti-Semite to the bearer of all truth. No help there.
I looked at the wiki on If Americans Knew but it didn’t really analyze the credibility of the site.
I checked out The Middle East Now, The Middle East from a Secular View. Their site analysis, linked from Wikipedia, seemed pretty well balanced (albeit not perfectly so), pointing out both the truths in If Americans Knew and the wholesale and subtle distortions in their reporting.
There are subtle truths in every story. We have to move beyond the distance of a story to the truth of the matter. Evil people are deciding to kill other people on both sides. Both are being indiscriminant. They hope we won’t notice, they hope we won’t say no, never again.
Deacon:
I visited the “If Americans Knew” website, and immediately was suspicious. For one thing, other than showing a great disparity, what precisely do those numbers prove? One thing they don’t prove — or, shall we say, disprove — is the question of the what the enemies of Israel want to do; namely, to destroy Israel. Nor do they speak to whether the enemies have tried to carry that out. No, all they can demonstrate, on that front, is that Israel is far better at inflicting lethal force than the enemies are. Well, that is as true of America vs. her enemies — because we have vastly better technology and our forces are so well trained and equipt. Does that disparity, by itself, negate the moral superiority of the West vs. Islamofascism? I’m not seeing that. . .
Nor do I. It’s like science – in and of itself neither good nor bad, it is all in how it is applied.
In the case of the U.S. in Iraq and Israel – well wherever – technology and knowledge are being applied badly. I blame that poor leadership and a low standard of conduct.
We can and should do better. Reagan lifted us up as a nation in many ways. I’m afraid we’ve now fallen to the lowest common denominator – might makes right.
I am glad to know that you open to leadership from any party. I too thought Reagan was a great president, I really had no problem with Clinton either, except for the Lewinsky stuff, but I feel that W just wanted to finish what his father started. My grandmother watches the news with sadness. She always tells us that our country has lost its pride and honor that my grandfather fought for.