The Unknown Candidate: What the Media Isn't Reporting about the Lebanon and Israel Crisis

Friday, July 21, 2006

What the Media Isn't Reporting about the Lebanon and Israel Crisis

What's missing from the current debate about the ongoing crisis in Israel and Lebanon? The truth.

Noam Chomsky gives you the facts (like the abduction of two Gaza civilians June 24th, BEFORE the capture of the Israeli soldiers) --along with his sources--all conveniently ignored by the one-sided, BushCo propaganda of the mainstream media.

Click on the video below:
(If you have trouble viewing the video, click here.)

Excerpt:

"As always, things have precedence, and you have to decide which was the inciting event. In my view, the inciting event in the present case, events, are those that I mentioned -- the constant intense repression; plenty of abductions; plenty of atrocities in Gaza; the steady takeover of the West Bank, which, in effect, if it continues, is just the murder of a nation, the end of Palestine; the abduction on June 24 of the two Gaza civilians; and then the reaction to the abduction of Corporal Shalit. And there's a difference, incidentally, between abduction of civilians and abduction of soldiers. Even international humanitarian law makes that distinction.
If there's a conflict going on, aside physical war, not in a military conflict going on, abduction -- if soldiers are captured, they are to be treated humanely. But it is not a crime at the level of capture of civilians and bringing them across the border into your own country. That's a serious crime. And that's the one that's not reported."

About the Civilian Brothers ...

By Representativepress

About the civilian brothers, Chomsky wrote, "My sources were Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz, July 2, 2005; Jonathan Cook, July 30, who reviewed British press notices of the kidnapping, marginal and understated, in the media critique journal Medialens. David Peterson has since done a media search. He found brief mention in the Baltimore Sun and LA Times, dismissing it as quite normal (Hamas militant, suspected Hamas militant, therefore OK -- soldier in an army attacking Gaza, definitely not OK, in fact a major crime). He also found serious coverage, even identifying the victims (not worth naming in the US and UK), in the Turkish Daily News, June 25, an immediate report."

On July 2nd, 2006, Gideon Levy of Haaretz reported:

"It's no accident that nobody mentions the day before the attack on the Kerem Shalom fort, when the IDF kidnapped TWO CIVILIANS, a doctor and his brother, from their home in Gaza."

Jonathan Cook writes:

"Few readers of a British newspaper would have noticed the story. In the Observer of 25 June, it merited a mere paragraph hidden in the “World in brief” section, revealing that the previous day a team of Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip to “detain” two Palestinians Israel claims are members of Hamas. The significance of the mission was alluded to in a final phrase describing this as “the first arrest raid in the territory since Israel pulled out of the area a year ago”. More precisely, it was the first time the Israeli army had re-entered the Gaza Strip, directly violating Palestinian control of the territory, since it supposedly left in August last year."

Hat Tip to Participate.net.

Larry Johnson | Israel Takes a Stupid Pill
Larry Johnson writes: "the events unfolding in Iraq and Lebanon are going Tehran's way. The United States is being portrayed in the world media as someone who tolerates and excuses attacks on civilian populations. The perception becomes the reality and the ability of the United States to rally support among the Russians, the Chinese, and even the French becomes more impaired. We need the international community to deal effectively with nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. Now, we will be bogged down trying to defend Israel from an angry international community."
Rabbi Michael Lerner | End the Suffering in the Middle East
"The people of the Middle East are suffering again as militarists on all sides, and cheerleading journalists, send forth missiles, bombs and endless words of self-justification for yet another pointless round of violence between Israel and her neighbors," writes Rabbi Michael Lerner. This most recent episode of irrationality "evokes tears of sadness, incredulity at the lack of empathy on all sides, anger at how little anyone seems to have learned from the past, and moments of despair as we once again see the religious and democratic ideals subordinated to the cynical realism of militarism."
More Than a Cease-Fire Needed - New York Times
"Lebanon needs more than U.S. marines to evacuate Americans. It needs the fighting to stop and the international community to step in and guarantee the security of Israel and Lebanon."
U.S. at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict
"The United States faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign to cripple Hezbollah, amid calls for a cease-fire to help with the mounting humanitarian crisis. The fragile Lebanese government has pleaded for a cease-fire, and France has urged the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for an end to hostilities."
Dahr Jamail | "Open War" in the Middle East
"There is a frightening undercurrent of rage among the people in the Middle East toward their governments: The Arab world is on fire over the injustice meted out against the Palestinian people, as well as to the Lebanese. The Israeli people are deeply angered at their government for failing to provide security (of course our corporate media would never report on the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israelis oppose their government's actions in Gaza and beyond) - instead, preferring peaceful resolutions rather than brutal, unjust, failed occupation and ongoing acts of aggression," writes Dahr Jamail.