Right_And_Disproportion

Chava Gurion

RIGHT AND DISPROPORTION - Israels Lebanon War 2006 in Austrian Media

Sometimes it possibly would be wiser not to be in the right. Anyway, it is senseless to wish to promote European, especially Austrian understanding for Israel's military operations in Lebanon by demanding the phantastic imagination of Europeans, at all Austrians, a serious conflict with a neighbour nation would concern them daily. Today Austria has learnt from her - not always glorious - history, has brouht forth some respected mediators of peace and many more people motioned by peace, is a state under the rule of law beyond suspicion, an irreproachable democracy of western character and Christian values, embedded in the peaceful and wealty fortress of the European Union. The imagination to tolerate missile shelling by hostile neighbours on Zwettl, Illmitz, Ferlach or Schruns (places in Austria, comment of the author) for years, the imagination of their own people hurted and killed, of destroyed houses, all this is too abstract, unreasonable for the peaceful Austrian soul. Not to mention the imagination, some political group would want - supported by some states in the neighbourhood or region - to "wipe" the State of Austria "off the map" and to lay claim to it for themselves.

The isle of the blissfull ones

Here we live in a country, where conflicts with neighbours find their climaxes in bilingual place name signs, in noise pollution by outdoor pubs or by stereo units and in shit of dogs on sidewalks, and where the state under rule of law sentences the disproportion of restistance proportionally more strictly than the attack or the provocation itself. The ability to take in more complex conflicts must be described as proportional poor in this happy, unendangered, righteous and rather self-righteous country, mostly it falls because of emotional hurdles. Of course, according to official sources, one has renounced anti-Semitism, the biggest ugh of history, since a longer time. Even latent anti-Semitism has declined in the last years, when statistic data from opinion polls are bent into right shape.

Very good that we have Israel, the Ahasver ram of the international community, whose policy everyone is allowed to criticize, comfortly stretched out on the sofa in the living room, naturally without any prove of basic knowledge about the Middle East region at least. All the attempts to explain and mediate the Israeli position are in vain. However Israel is acting, in the view of a vast majority in the international community, it is always the wrong thing.

Disproportion in the media reports

Jointly responsible for the anti-Israeli mood here, is disproportion in the Austrian reporting, especially in information programs of ORF (Austrian Broadcasting and TV, comment by the author), but also in some daily newspapers. In Austria, rebuilt for decades in the political climate of historical misrepresentation, officially recuperated only at the end of the 20th century and after few formal excuses carried out, at last we can bawl Israel out again. This attitude is proportional poor of risks, because the Jewish community in Austria is a tiny minority, and the few, little groups of Gutmenschen (pejorative political term for political idealists), who declare solidarity with Israel, who refuse being converted to anti-Semitism even under actual circumstances, are no considerable factor, whether politically nor in our society.

Today, experienced journalism uses pictures and headlines almost exclusively, to transport the main message to settle in our brains. Who ever take the opportunity to compare information programs on the Lebanon conflict by German TV and those by ORF from the beginning, meant to be put into totally diverging realities.

In German TV, they showed destructions in Lebanon as much as in the north of Israel, attacks of the IDF as much as those of Hezbollah and their hits in the North of Israel and Haifa, they brought detailed interviews with Lebanese and Israeli civil survivors, showed Lebanese refugees coming from the south and Israeli refugees coming from the north - all this in rather proportion of horror.

Here in Austria, they showed only destructions in Lebanon, more and more the stereotypy of the lamenting Moslem woman in her tshador against some destroyed house, the hurted Moslem child, the lamenting Lebanese merchant against his destroyed shop - impressive pictures of the victims of Israeli aggression. During the first two weeks of reporting, there was no space left for missile hits and the dead on Israeli side of the war, but in a very short mention.

At the beginning also unilateral in print media

At the beginning, Austrian print media followed to this asymmetric pattern. Not even so called high quality newspapers withdraw from. Only after NEWS (vol. 29 and 30) had presented articles and pictures showing Hezbollah aggression and destructions in Israel, also daily press more or less felt called upon examining also this side of the war. Hesitent ORF fit on this trend of objectifying - as short as possible, as detailed as necessary, without presenting balance until totay.

But before this moderation in asymmetry had a chance of perception, it happened that the IAF - great misfortune for the victims and good luck for the enemies of Israel - hit an unarmed UN-outpost in south Lebanon, when four UN-soldiers lost their life and one of the victims was an Austrian UN-soldier. In Austria, the indignation at this incident was broadly used again to secrete unreflective critics on Israel and to extract latent anti-Semitism by verbal injuries to the surface. By the way, nobody here cared about the other three victims who were not Austrians....

Reporting in an Austrian year of elections

Additionally, the actual crisis in the Middle East fell in a year of Austrian elections. Luckily, the Lebanon war did not only fill up the feared silly season of journalism, but also saved journalists from inner Austrian discussion of more complex themes like aquiring nuclear armaments by Iran.

Israel has to defend herself

Who ever is calculating the relative high readiness for defense in Israel, is always right. It is not reasonable for the average consumer of media to make out the little state of Israel as a representative and outpost of western democracy, like Islamic fundamentalism does since long times and therefore strives for its destruction. To comment on this aspect, at least one time in Israel's favour, is no theme for Austrian journalism, especially not in a summer before elections. Compared to the little Jewish community and to few groups and organizations with a friendly attitude for Israel, the Moslem community in Austria is relative numerous and - at least for election analysts - some reasonable factor. So this year we could reckon on recognizable, also unreflective, disproportional critics on Israel, coming from some political parties also for this reason, not only for following the long term Austrian mainstream.

But must it come so far, that because of the incident at the UN-outpost, which caused one Austrian victim, the wellknown Mr. Haider could demand to expel Israel from the United Nations in public, and that a Mr. Stadler, a proud confessor to the ideology of the radical political right and people's advocate in Austria, could think on hoisting the Palestinian flag on his rooftop in his private garden, and so on and so on? Is this proportional in the framework of the constitution of a democratic country?