Lebanese Blogger Forum...
| 14:04 UK time, Tuesday, 18 July 2006
.... on the roots of the conflict
and more generally
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Every morning, from Monday to Friday, World Update provides a comprehensive briefing on the stories that are making the news. Presenter Dan Damon, expands on topics covered in this daily programme through the World Update blog. 
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Comments
your 5:00 am "US east cost time" broadcast this morning had 3-4 reports from Lebanon (and 2 from the PA territories) and only one from Israel. the ones from Lebanon had "human interest" components and interviews with civilians. No such interviews were aired from Israel. Why didn't you go into the bomb shelters in the north and interview real people there who are scared and displaced as well? and why don't the Lebanese have bomb shelters for there people? is it because the government does not care to or is unable to protect its citizens?
this morning's report from the middle east was disappointingly unbalanced: one brief report from haifa and then 30 minutes of stories from lebanon, largely uncritical. your trenchant scepticism was absent today.
My Heart, Thoughts, and Prayers are with the victims of these atrocities.
Comments 1. and 2. of this "Lebanese Blogger Forum..." make the hollow complaint that your 19 July reporting spent much more time on events in Lebanon that those in Israel.
I believe it's obvious to any objective listener that the "Big Story" is unfolding in Lebabnon, not Israel.
While the casualties and destruction in Israel caused by Hezbollah rockets are certainly tragic -- the scale does not begin to compare to that being inflicted on Lebanon by the IDF.
Reports to date indicate:
*** 29 Israeli deaths versus 216-300 Lebanese deaths.
*** 524 - 1,000 Lebanese injured (I can't find an official number of Iraeli injured).
*** Upwards to 500,000 Lebanese displaced.
*** Widespread, deliberate, and pinpointed destruction of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, including airports, bridges, buildings and homes, gasoline and fuel storage facilities, power plants, food warehouses, etc.
*** By comparison, Hezbollah rockets have resulted in limited casualties or damage to Israeli infrastructure. In fact, according to MSNBC, "So far in this conflict, about one rocket in 100 fired by Hezbollah has killed an Israeli. The rest usually explode in empty fields, tear concrete from abandoned streets or plunk into the Mediterranean. Fired blind, Hezbollah’s thousands of mostly short-range, inaccurate munitions simply pose a random peril to Israeli citizens."
Reporting at zmag.org (ZNet) from El Koura Lebanon, Rania Masri says, "Regardless if one agrees with the action of Hezbollah or not, regardless if one views Hezbollah's action as a reaction or a provacation, regardless: the attacks by Israel are clearly not proportional. Furthermore, while Hezbollah has kidnapped soldiers, the Israeli army has been deliberately attacking civilians and imposing an illegal and terrorist collective punishment on the country as a whole. '[Israeli] Brigadier General Dan Halutz said: "Nowhere is safe [in Lebanon] ... as simple as that." '(From the Guardian (UK))."
Again, it seems obvious to me why more time is spent reporting events in Lebanon vis-a-vis Israel -- and I think this would be the conclusion of any objective observer.
When Lebanon cries...