"A good article, but no comment on the disproportionate number of Zionist Jews among journalists and editors. Apparently 'the lobby' just magically convinces media managers to tow the line almost 100%. Wow, what a 'lobby.'"]
Press Supports Caterpillar in Sales to Israel,
by Dane Baker, Bewildered Herd, April 14, 2005
"Press accounts in support of poor Caterpillar, ranked #57 in the Fortune 1,000 corporate index with 2004 revenues of some $30 billion, and Israeli policies in general are limited to second-tier intellectual press, mainly the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. The trouble centers around Rachel Corrie, a college student crushed to death by a Caterpillar-made, IDF-operated bulldozer in March of 2003 in the Rafah refugee camp, where she had traveled to protest razings. With Corrie’s death ruled an accident by Israeli officials and the three soldiers involved absolved by an Israeli military prosecutor, her family has sued Caterpillar, characterized by the LA Times as a “legal attack” against the company in an otherwise fairly straightforward March 20 account spelling out the allegations. The Corries' attorney, Jennie Green, is quoted as saying “Caterpillar purposefully turns a blind eye as to how their products are used” while a three-sentence Caterpillar statement follows, noting the company “shares the world’s concern over unrest in the Middle East” without a hint as to their culpability in such concerns, but unfortunately has “neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of the equipment” they sell. Perhaps forgotten is a Human Rights Watch report published last November that refutes Caterpillar’s “head-in-the-sand” statement, which “ignores international standards on corporate social responsibility and the requirements of Caterpillar’s own code of conduct." .... Also ignored are the contents of a State Department report, repeated in a letter to the Corrie family by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, which noted the lack of a “thorough, credible and transparent” investigation by Israeli authorities. The only mention I’ve found of the statement among U.S. press is in an apologist editorial appearing in the March 18th edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in which Robert Jamieson Jr. contends that Caterpillar is “free to do business with whomever it chooses” yet bothering to learn how its products are used and prevent it might be “admirable” from a “moral perspective” because it’s “smart public relations.” In defending Caterpillar, Jamieson Jr. says “the real terrorist in Rachel’s death” was the IDF soldier at the bulldozer controls, a shockingly unusual admission rarely found in the U.S. press but understandable since it was written in defense of the almighty corporation, which is to be absolved of any responsibilities and concerns according to American cultural beliefs. Not content to simply report Caterpillar’s profiteering at Palestinian expense, doctrine requires support for the occupation itself, dutifully provided by LA Times editors in article published yesterday. Teresa Watanabe reports on a Caterpillar stockholder resolution protesting sales to Israel and lead by “four Roman Catholic orders of nuns” and the California group Jewish Voices for Peace. Lest you think Jewish and Roman Catholic support for Palestinian liberation is widespread, Watanabe quickly cites "several" Jewish organizations that are leading a “counter-campaign” against the resolution, saying it is “part of a broader movement that unfairly singles out” the occupier Israel “without holding Palestinians accountable for terrorism and other actions that have stymied the peace process." Statements like this have become the standard method of dealing with criticism for Israeli policies, serving to draw attention away from specific allegations with warnings of racist conspiracies against Jews. But in case you didn’t get the picture, LA Times editors spell it out several paragraphs later, artfully turning a lawsuit against Caterpillar into “divestment from Israel” at large, “rekindling a siege mentality and fears of anti-Semitism” during this “time of some progress in peacemaking”, followed by a statement noting “blatant bias against Israel” from a American Jewish Congress official. Boston Globe editors join the chorus in a March 24 report, taking special care to include multiple statements from Israeli officials, who provide the standard line about destroying Palestinian homes as a way to “combat terrorism”, used to “target terror” and “not innocent civilians”, reported without noting such an easily refutable façade or any evidence, let alone quotes from any number of available groups who might refute the standard official line. The Globe cites a Consulate General spokeswoman’s comment that in the face of a halt to razings, continuing to protest “proves that these activists are merely opposing Israel’s policies out of habit and vendetta”, presumably an implication of racism against Jews, joining the common refrain in such matters and offered without comment here. Paragraphs later we learn that although razings have officially stopped, “Israel deems that other conditions, including illegal building, nonownership of land, and criminal reasons, could warrant the demolition of a house.” The implications being what they are, we’re left with a distinct impression that Israel does what it likes in the Occupied Territories, and anyone who dares to protest such activities are naturally anti-Semites, and should be dismissed with repugnance. The disregard for Palestinian life is palpable as LA Times and Globe editors lend support, apologist if not fully complicit, to the brutal and illegal Israeli domination of Palestine, using bitterly ironic phrases like “siege mentality” to describe not Israeli occupation policies but the supposed harsh treatment of Jews in this matter. And where, one wonders, are the concerns of “anti-Arabism” in press accounts? I doubt such a phrase even exists among the U.S. press, who prefer to grimly note the “rekindled” hatred of Jews while ignoring daily accounts, widely reported in Israeli press and other sources, of Palestinian death and destruction at the hands of Israeli occupiers. It’s interesting to note that media attempts to support Caterpillar complicity has been successful so far—company shareholders overwhelmingly voted down a proposal today (97 percent opposed) to simply review the company’s sales of bulldozers to Israel, another notable win for the corporate/state community." |
