Wednesday November 21st, 2012 The 'both-sides-are-awful'
dismissal of Gaza ignores the key role of the US government
(Glenn Greenwald) Everything about the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict follows the same pattern over and over, including the
reaction of Americans. In the first couple of days after a new
round of violence breaks out, there is intense interest and
passion, which is quickly replaced by weariness, irritation, and
even anger that one has to be bothered by this never-ending,
always-ugly and seemingly irresolvable conflict. These
sentiments then morph into an attempt to separate oneself from
the entire matter by declaring both sides to be equally
horrendous and thus washing one's hands from any responsibility
for thinking further about it ("I'm sick of both sides"),
followed by recriminations against anyone who actually has an
opinion that is more supportive of one side than the other.
Esquire's Charles Pierce, one of the nation's best political
writers, provided a classic case of this mindset yesterd