There’s no sympathy vote for Arvind Kejriwal—at least not in leading news media outlets—after the Delhi High Court dismissed his plea challenging his arrest in the liquor excise policy case.
There’s even less sympathy in the international press for Israel’s government, six months after the Gaza war began—they’re calling for an end to the conflict or at least a ceasefire. Note: the Indian media has refrained from comments on six months of violence that has killed at least 33,000 Palestinians.
Big question on Kejriwal
The Delhi High Court verdict in the Kejriwal case was very different on television news and in leading English newspapers.
While TV news channels all but called for his head—and his resignation as Delhi’s chief minister—Wednesday’s newspapers simply published lengthy reports on the observations of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in his order, without flourishes or comment.
On TV, the verdict was “scathing”, according to Times Now. On CNN News 18, anchor Zakka Jacob said, “It is a massive blow…There cannot be a more damning indictment of the CM.” He then added, hastily, that of course this was no trial.
But, he did ask, “…should [Kejriwal] finally confront the reality… and resign?”
Padmaja Joshi (Times Now) followed suit: “Will Mr Kejriwal resign?” In an amusing aside, she was slightly annoyed when the AAP guest smiled at her: the CM’s in jail and “you are smiling…what’s the secret?”
NDTV 24×7’s Vishnu Som termed the HC verdict as “a huge blow” to the Delhi CM and AAP. “Does this make it incumbent on Kejriwal to step down?” he asked.
Panelists across channels reacted identically: the AAP leaders shook their heads for an emphatic ‘No’; the BJP members nodded emphatically, ‘Yes’.
It was left to commentators such as journalist Neerja Chowdhury to say that this was a case of “legal v/s politics”. She said that she found sympathy for Kejriwal among the middle class—even those who had never voted for AAP—while the poor always had a soft spot for him anyway (NDTV 24×7).
The HC verdict was the lead story in most newspapers in Delhi, Wednesday, barring The Hindu, which put ‘Kejriwal to remain in Tihar jail…’ at the bottom of Page 1. The Times of India went to town on the Kejriwal verdict with 10 stories. These included the judge’s comments, point by point, AAP-BJP reactions, ED plans to “fast track trial”.
Newspapers verbatim quoted Justice Sharma—in this case, it was helpful – readers could understand his verdict and appreciate his reasoning.
The rubble in Gaza
In words and in pictures lie before you the devastation of the war in Gaza following the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took more than 130 people hostage.
The first feeling in reports or opinion articles was of exhaustion with war and its horrific consequences. “Israel Fatigue’ is what Alon Pinkas called it in the Israeli paper, Haaretz. Photographs in Reuters and Axios explicitly show all you need to know about the war in Gaza.
“Israel is waging the longest, deadliest and most devastating war in its history in the territory…,” wrote the French Le Monde.
Daniel Estrin of NPR (US) said, “More Palestinians have been killed in this conflict than in any other in their history…Gaza residents have been blown to pieces or buried under rubble…There is no escaping war…”
The Washington Post saw the rubble too: “Much of Gaza, a sliver of land the size of Las Vegas with three times the population, has been reduced to rubble…. many fleeing into an area around the southernmost city of Rafah, where they live in squalid camps with little food and even less hope.’’
Inside Israel, heartbreak is a tent at Hostage Square—there are countless accounts from there too: “The nightmare of this long war is beyond anything we imagined. We are still stuck in the trauma of Oct 7th and the killing and dying goes on. So many lives destroyed…” (Nili Bresler, The Times of Israel).
Trouble for Netanyahu
The second assessment that emerges in the international coverage of this middle-eastern conflict is that the Benjamin Netanyahu government in Tel Aviv has failed to achieve its goals. “Israeli Army pulls out troops from southern Gaza without meeting its primary goal,” writes Israeli journalist Amos Harel in Haaretz, the Israeli paper very critical of the government.
The New York Times argues that the conflict is being drawn out by Israel because of its “reluctance to either hold ground it has captured or transfer its control to an alternative Palestinian leadership, creating a power vacuum. That vacuum has led to a breakdown in civil order, making it harder to distribute badly needed aid safely.’’
Even as Iran and Israel are in the middle of their own confrontation, The Tehran Times of Iran, as might be expected, is almost victorious in what it sees as Israel’s failure: “Six months into the Gaza war, Israel is further sinking into a horrific quagmire as it has failed to achieve its purported military aims,” it wrote, headlining the article ‘Israeli wishful thinking’.
With calls for a ceasefire and widespread protests at home, BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen wrote, “Six months on, it is no longer considered unpatriotic to protest against the failure to end the war and free the hostages. Israel’s divisions are wide open once more.”
The third standout factor highlighted in the international media is the increasing frustration of Israel’s allies with the continuing bombing. Wednesday morning’s headlines featured US President Joe Biden’s call for a ceasefire.
The Guardian said Biden’s comments and a ceasefire were amongst his “strongest criticism” of Netanyahu and “marked a shift from his previous comments.”
Much of this may be prompted by the Israel Army’s bombing of the World Central Kitchen NGO on 1 April, in which seven aid workers—mostly from Western countries—were killed. The Economist said these nations were “furious” with the Israeli government. “The deaths will almost certainly lead to greater domestic pressure on such governments when it comes to arms sales to Israel. Whether they lead to a shift, in a way that 33,000 Palestinian deaths have not, is less clear.”
So here’s the question: six months on, is the trajectory of the Gaza war moving inexorably towards a ceasefire or negotiations between Israel and Hamas? Haaretz hopes so but is sceptical:
“Ostensibly, there’s a feeling that these are fateful days in which Israel stands at a dramatic crossroads. Is it heading toward a crazy, destructive multifront war, or toward salvation…”
(Edited by Prashant)