July 27, 2006: Victims ...

PM Olmert: Lebanon and Israel are both victims of this brutal terrorist organization July 27, 06 via newsbeat1
www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/

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IDF video: Hizbullah deploys Katyushas near Lebanese homes

IDF video: Hizbullah use of civilian shields



Arabs Disavow Hizbullah by Daniel Pipes, Jerusalem Post. July 26, 2006

The current round of hostilities between Israel and its enemies differs from prior ones in that it's not an Arab-Israeli war, but one that pits Iran and its Islamist proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah, against Israel.

This points, first, to the increasing power of radical Islam. When Israeli forces last confronted, on this scale, a terrorist group in Lebanon in 1982, they fought the Palestine Liberation Organization, a nationalist-leftist organization backed by the Soviet Union and the Arab states. Now, Hizbullah seeks to apply Islamic law and to eliminate Israel through jihad, with the Islamic Republic of Iran looming in the background, feverishly building nuclear weapons.

Non-Islamist Arabs and Muslims find themselves sidelined. Fear of Islamist advances – whether subversion in their own countries or aggression from Tehran – finds them facing roughly the same demons as does Israel. [....]

Meanwhile, our mainstream media, particularly what I have read in the Globe--with a few exceptions like Marcus Gee's article--and what I have heard on CBC--the usual suspects--has been overwhelmingly negative toward the Harper government's stand that Israel has a right to protect itself.

After all, for the mainstream media the real war for them is to defeat the Harper government and to return the usual corruptos politicians to power -- the politicians with whom most of the Ottawa-based media have had a long-term relationship. They understand each other and how things have been done ... to keep government and media happy ... the expense accounts overflowing, the cozy relationship between Ottawa politicians and the media returned to their rightful place in running the nation, and telling the rest of us what to think.

Too cynical am I? Listen, watch and read the news. Read to the end of articles to find what others say, if you can find it. Today, the lead is Kofi's outrage at Israel -- not much to balance that perspective. I have listened to, for example, a former Ambassador to the UN Paul Heinbecker * (a Liberal appointee) present an anti-Israel viewpoint as he talked about how Canada is losing its balance which allowed it to be an honest broker and ... blah, blah, blah. Why do serious journalists not talk to and report in greater depth what the current administration says? Instead, news and headlines in general, are negative.

In the Maritimes, with mostly BellGlobeMedia, Irving newspapers, and CBC, what news are the natives getting? They're being told to be anti-Israel for the most part. It suits the old pols perfectly, so they won't do anything about the dearth of balanced reporting; imbalance keeps them in office. No other viewpoints needed. Media concentration helped by CRTC regulations work for them.

It's all pre-election biased reporting designed for people too busy to read the fine print to the end. The above-named will tell them what to think ... with occasional injections of another viewpoint, usually quickly refuted, to give reportage that pretend balance with which we are so familiar.

* See the letters to the editor, Globe and Mail, July 26 -- both worth reading for their views on Heinbecker's anti-Israel stance ... of course, it was not phrased that way when Heinbecker spoke. There is always a Liberal available to talk to the media ... to tell the media one view.

David Smith and George Fleischmann's letters are worth reading.

"The pro-Arab stand of our Foreign Affairs mandarins is similar to that of foreign ministries in the European Union, and has been a constant going back to the early 1950's. ...."