Jingoists

Jingoistic is an apt term to sum up much of American mainstream media’s early coverage of the Hamas Attack. (1) Recall the first twenty-four hours of reporting and one is immersed in a cacophony of exhortations, grounded in nationalism and repression. Jingoistic is Congress’s semi-official response in so far as of this writing, Congress lacks a Speaker and the Senate has abandoned military assignments. Congress ties a vote for increase in military aid to Ukraine with comparable increases in military aid to Israel. Where once one saw dual US/Ukraine flag lapel pins on House Representatives’ suit jackets, one sees US/Israel flag lapel pins.

Jingoistic is President Biden’s address Tuesday to the nation in so far as the President failed to deprive a terrorist regime the legitimacy of its attack on civilians — a breach of international norms and modern warfare. (2 )Historical context and reckoning were glaringly absent. Viewers were offered a menu of military reports from journalists stationed in Israel, retired U.S. military whomever, speaking from home, and on October 8 leftist demonstrators protesting Israeli occupation in front of Chicago and New York Israeli Consulates: “This episode is going to show a lot of Americans that the leftist movement contains, at the grassroots level, a lot of very inhumane, bloodthirsty people. Ultimately that revelation will hurt the movement in the eyes of progressive Americans, draining some of the goodwill it built up over the last decade.”

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