Dr. Who and The Look of Shame

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Missy (the Time Lady formerly known as The Master) asks Clara, "What is that look on the Doctor's face?" Clara responds, "It is a look of shame."

This exchange comes in this season's opening episode of the BBC television series, Doctor Who. The Doctor's look of shame is derived from something he did, or failed to do, years ago.

That look of shame is the appropriate metaphor for a formidable sea of faces. If you are a taxpayer and a voter, a Doctor Who look of shame deserves to be on your drivers' license, because our tax dollars fund Israel's arms currently in use to kill protesting Palestinian stone throwers and knife wielders.

The look of shame also deserves to be on the faces of Israeli voters who continually choose political leaders who send their young men and women to kill, not just to deter, angry protesters whose stones and knives are no match for Israeli rifles.

The campaign on U.S. campuses to block efforts to tell the Palestinian story, is a display of shameful, craven and cowardly responses by academic leaders yielding to Zionist pressure.

The full list of faces that should be shamed is too long to detail here. It must be added however, that those faces that cry out for shame are soothed and encouraged by U.S. religious leaders who prefer ignorance in the face of reality, and even refuse to endorse BDS, a peaceful Palestinian protest movement.

Also enabling faces that should be shamed, are the U.S. media power brokers whose journalists "report" on the massacre of Palestinians with distorted reporting from Israeli hometown newspapers like the New York Times, which distorts events from Palestine and Israel to soothe readers and advertisers.

One of many recent examples may be found in a Times story this week which began...

"Despite an Israeli security crackdown that includes giving the police greater leeway to open fire and mobilizing 1,400 border police reserve officers, Israel is struggling to contain a spasm of violence. Palestinians carried out four attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem on Monday alone...."

Buried deep in the story, the Times strains to pretend its pretentious media "balance" with this:

"Al Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, noted that under global standards the use of firearms 'is permissible as an absolute last resort' against imminent threat of death or serious injury, and 'only when other extreme measures are proven insufficient.'

"Sarit Michaeli of the Israeli human rights group Btselem said, 'On an immediate level, of course the police have an obligation to protect citizens. But they are expected to do so by using the minimum amount of force.' If necessary, the police could aim to shoot suspects in the leg, she said."

National Public Radio (NPR), the "liberal" public news outlet, reported the deaths in Palestine, with what Philip Weiss describes as gaping holes of fact:

"Today National Public Radio did a piece on the latest violence in Israel and Palestine and referred again and again to events in occupied territory, but never provided that simple fact to readers. Host David Greene began by saying that the latest stabbing took place 'just outside Jerusalem's Old City.'

"Yes: it took place in occupied East Jerusalem, at the Damascus Gate. Palestinians who live there can't even vote for the government that controls their lives.