The following is my response to a special report on the Arab world in The Economist called “Waking from its sleep,” published on July 23, 2009. The original article can be read at this link
The Editor:
While generally objective and informative, your report suffers from a disconcerting and revealing inconsistency. On Page 4, you highlight “Israel’s ruthless mini-wars in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza at the beginning of this year.” In a contextual vacuum, I wonder about the motivation (and editorship) behind your word choice; in light of your subsequent (pg. 5) listing of death tolls from Arab-involved conflicts in Darfur (400,000), Algeria (150-200,000), and Iraq (101-109,000) – all well and gruesomely ahead of Gaza (1,400) and Lebanon (1,200) – that wonder evolves into outrage. Indeed, it is the intentional massacre of civilians in the non-Israeli conflicts that deserves the term ‘ruthless.’ The clear restraint (however flawed in execution) exercised by the region’s most powerful army while fighting terrorist belligerents operating from civilian areas is quite the opposite.
Sincerely,
Mr. Leslie J. Sacks
Los Angeles, CA
