Chapo Trap House - 855 Teaser - The Soul of a Nation

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Will, Felix & Séamus discuss western reporting on recent “unrest” in Israel that tries very hard to elide the root cause. Subscribe today for access to the full episode and all premium episodes! www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

But I feel like Felix brought it up. I have to mention this on the topic of Israel, the most normal country in the world. I'd like to share another American media headline. This is courtesy of the New York Times, Patrick Kingsley and Aaron Boxerman. This is a headline from just yesterday. Unrested Army Base highlights a long battle for Israel's soul. Unrested army base. Unrested army base. How how is the fucking play, Miss Lincoln? I would just like to say. Unrested army base. I'd like to say.

What the fuck are you talking about? They're they are. They are. It is the closest that country has come to like, I'll put it this way, their Nat Turner would be a soldier who raped 20 children. Like that is, that is all that it is about. Unrested a fucking army base? I go to the New York Times for the theater reviews and all parties agree. Our American cousin, a barrel of laughs until the final act.

No, like, yeah, like so Israel has actually had to withdraw soldiers from Gaza to put down the civil unrest of settlers aided by MPs in the Israeli Knesset, storming military bases and military courts to free the special rape unit of the Israeli torture regime. And like the way a battle for Israel's soul, I mean, coming from the New York Times that has leaned heavily on the mostly totally spurious depictions of Palestinians as sadistic depraved sexual predators, the fact that they can't bring themselves to put the word rape and torture in the headline here is really saying a lot. No, it's unrest that's a battle for a nation's soul. What fucking soul? What nation with a soul would this be a like real, serious political problem? They're talking about it like it's the Biden 2020. Yeah.

Like, what the fuck are you talking about? I really thought, I stupidly thought, oh my God, like this is beyond horrible. This is one of the most depraved things I've ever heard in a lifetime of watching depraved Israeli shit. But maybe, just maybe it will, it will be unconscionable for like some people in the liberal media to, you know, passive voiceify this whole thing. Maybe this was the turning point. No, no, turns out there's nothing that could make them do that. Sorry, the sub-headline for this is, after Israeli soldiers were detained on suspicion

of abusing a Palestinian, riots broke out that symbolized a wider struggle over Israel's future. Abusing? Abusing, oh my God. No, no, listen to this. Abusing? Abusing a Palestinian. One guy. Abusing. Abusing. Abusing. A Palestinian. One one guy. Abusing a Palestinian like they gaslight someone that they were in a relationship with.

That could mean anything. The torture unit love bomb. They love one guy. They they fucking. They left him on red. It is a mass pedophile rape campaign. It's suspicion of abusing a Palestinian. It said riots broke out that symbolize a wider struggle over

Israel's future that has divided a country. Yes, this is all in the realm of the symbolic here. The systematic rape and torture of Israel's political prisoners. It's a symbol for the soul that's being argued over in the Israeli public. I mean like Jimmy Seville and all those terminally ill children. They were in a good second battle for Britain. It was a fight over what British values will prevail. I'm ashamed. It's like obviously like this is the way the American media covers this but like I'm curious like how how how is the like Arab press metabolized this story?

Obviously, this should be nothing new to people who live in the region and have to live next door to a country like this. How would you characterize the reactions to the story about the civil unrest happening over carceral practices in Israel right now. What I've noticed is that Arab commentators and Arab newspapers are far more willing to engage with the actual views of the Israeli far right and of the Israeli governing parties than Western correspondents are.

Like, there are the people who are paying attention to the shit that's on like, the far right channel 14, they're listening to what Likud MPs say, they get spread around and then they get actually reported by people. Because this is what's relevant to the discussion, not what gets disseminated into the English language is really pressed that Jerusalem correspondents love to read and what determines that.