the sympathy factor

The other day, casting a harsh judgment, I wrote in response to Jimmy Carter’s American Jihad to Create More Sympathy for the Palestinians:

When the Palestinians become more sympathetic—i.e., when they are seen to behave in a manner that befits sympathy rather than disgust, indignation, or outrage—they will garner more sympathy from Americans.

What I meant was this: The Palestinians have been in the news (sorta) again. No, I’m not referring to the long piece by Steven Erlanger (”Years of Strife and Lost Hope Scar Young Palestinians“) in the yesterday New York Times, which certainly elicited my sympathy.

What I’m referring to is this story, first reported on Monday:

BBC journalist feared kidnapped in Gaza
 

which is just now (more than 24 hours since it happened) starting to get play, according to Google News.

E Canada Now Johnston kidnappers ‘identified’ ic Scotland.co.uk, UK - 2 hours ago BBC television correspondent Alan Johnston was taken from his car by four masked gunmen in Gaza City on Monday. The abduction was the latest in a string of … Concern for missing BBC reporter ic Wales Palestinian authorities aim to free journalist Guardian Unlimited ‘Reward wanted’ for kidnapped BBC man Telegraph.co.uk Toronto Daily News - Washington Post all 395 news articles » PRESS TV World press body calls for safe return of missing reporter in Gaza Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran - 1 hour ago The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Tuesday called for the safe return of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in the Gaza Strip, … Palestinians denounce BBC reporter abduction PRESS TV all 3 news articles » BBC journalist kidnapped in Gaza Israel Insider, Israel - 15 minutes ago Palestinian Authority security officials were able to quickly identify the victim as Alan Johnston because the latter had thrown a business card on the …

This story is probably what most Americans will hear about the Palestinians today, if they hear anything at all (while they’re driving home or while they’re fixing dinner for the kids or wherever they tune in to the “news”… if they do tune in to the “news” … and, of course, if “the news” even bothers to cover the story rather than cover it up—or cover up for the Hamas shitballs, who will try to paint themselves as heroes when miraculously recover Johnston, as they did when they miraculously recovered Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig in August, after the two Fox journalists had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam on videotape. Which is certainly a topic for another post.).

But back to the point: It’s horribly unfair to those Palestinians who are indeed suffering because of Israel’s policies (and because of Israelis’ seeming indifference to this suffering—emphasis on “seeming“), but reports of the following do not create sympathy for “the Palestinians” (in quotes because it’s unfair to the suffering Palestinians to be lumped in with the Palestinians who create the suffering):

kidnappings,

bombs lobbed into Israel,

suicide killings,

shootings,

gang warfare,

terrifying violence,

corruption,

upheaval,

kidnappings that end only after the victims have converted to Islam, on pain of death, 

hard-line threats emanating from Hamas leaders with broken-record regularity (”We will never recognize Israel“).

What’s to sympathize with here? Where are the people we should sympathize with? I don’t see them here, for example, in the kind of image that Palestinians proudly broadcast to the rest of the world:

Nevertheless, there are suffering Palestinians. There are things the Israelis can do to ameliorate some of their suffering—particularly the suffering they themselves cause. And there should be forward movement between the Israelis and the Palestinians to secure an agreement under which they can live side by side in relative harmony. Which is why brave journalists like Alan Johnston continue to report from places like Gaza despite the many dangers.

He was one the few remaining ones, reports the Guardian:

Mr Johnston, the BBC’s Gaza correspondent, was one of the few foreign journalists who continued to work there despite the fear of kidnapping. Mr Johnston divided his time between Gaza and Jerusalem and had only arrived in Gaza this morning. Most journalists would contact Mr Johnston before travelling to Gaza to ask his advice on the level of risk and what precautions to take.

So: there are two strands to this story that we should follow—

1) how the Western media reports Johnston’s kidnapping;

2) whether the Palestinians elicit sympathy *** from this episode, which has put them in the headlines. 

And here’s what anyone with a cause should think about: what kind of image s/he wants to project to the outside world. Because it matters a lot in a world influenced by images.

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*** Though I gotta say: we are living in a remarkably unsympathetic time. I see an incredible lack of sympathy—and, even more important, a horrifying lack of empathy—in our contemporary life. That doesn’t bode well for the world’s many victims.