What the blogosphere thinks about Lebanon
- 17 Jul 06, 07:51 AM
A quick trawl through the blogosphere on the Lebanon crisis produces the following. has a comprehensive blog-of-blogs, which sorts out those on the ground from those not on the ground, and includes both sides. I will be monitoring this during the conflict and want to know of anything better if you come across it.
Though this is not the first Blogging war, it remains the case that Iraq did not have a fully functioning free media + internet when invaded and therefore you were not able to get virtually realtime postings showing what happens when you bomb civilians. Now you are, and thankfully the images are below the scroll-line at Letters Apart.
Also, this is turning out to be the first Youtube war. This home from Haifa brings to life the fear of those caught up in the conflict as vividly as any news report.
Plus, in no particular order:
Canadians getting about the death of Lebanese Canadian civilians under Israeli bombardment.
Thomas Friedman's Friday , linking the rise of pro-Iran Islamist groups in the democratically elected assemblies of Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian Authority much debated during the weekend.
Robert Fisk's reporting much copied/pasted, including . And his revelation of the behind Hizbollah's offensive, plus a report that Israeli censors blacked out a Hizbollah attack on the northern military command post.
For the battle technology-heads, there is plenty of , as here.
Occasional whiffs of humour, as .
On Friday Newsnight covered the way the Lebanese and Israeli media are covering the war. We will go on trying to give you a picture of what people on the ground are hearing and seeing and how it is shaping their response to the war, particulary in Lebanon where the population has been divided over its attitude to Hizbollah. Get in touch if you are an Israeli, Palestinian or Lebanese blogger in the war zone.
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It is weird that innocent people have to pay for the foolishness of their leaders.
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I've just looked at a couple of YouTube vids from Lebanon, and the comments in response said things like "I just saw this on CNN".
Who needs paid journalists any more?
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The US (Bush Adminstration) is truly lost:
- It is afraid to critize Israel for its innocent killings of Lebanon civilians
- its slow response to getting its own civilians (US) out of the "war zone"
-Condi Rice (Secty of State) is afraid
to go and at least talk with the combatens and possibly arrange a "cease fire" to stop this madness and killing of innocent civilians.
-The USA, under the BUSH Adminstration has lost its "Sense of Correctness and Leadership"
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The US (Bush Adminstration) is truly lost:
- It is afraid to critize Israel for its innocent killings of Lebanon civilians
- its slow response to getting its own civilians (US) out of the "war zone"
-Condi Rice (Secty of State) is afraid
to go and at least talk with the combatens and possibly arrange a "cease fire" to stop this madness and killing of innocent civilians.
-The USA, under the BUSH Adminstration has lost its "Sense of Correctness and Leadership"
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Noam Chomsky reveals some facts about the conflict not widely known by the public in this audio transcript. He says Israel were the first to kidnap two citizens from Lebanon. Listen here:
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The shortest but best overview i can give on the ongoing Middle East conflict is a quote by an unknown person that to me says it all;
"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel".
I recognise this language.
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You forgot to mention that at the same time Hezbollah attacked the soldiers they launched missiles on TWO civlian border towns to cause a diversion. We are also told they told the Lebanese government in advance about these attacks. That means the Lebenase government are complicit in war crimes (intentionally targetting two civilian towns).
Furthermore, you do not spend 5 years stockpiling with missiles that serve no other purpose but fire indiscriminatly against Israeli cities if you are planning to just fight a defensive war against occuption.
This was long planned by Hezbollah and timed to coincide with the long planned Hamas raid through the tunnels into Israel in the south.
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Why as usual does the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Newsnight portray this crisis only from the Lebanese perspective?
We were treated to a 15 minute travelog of Lebanon showing death, destruction and displacement in southern Lebanon, with a long moan about the fact that the summer festivities have been disturbed.
I believe that there are virtually no Israelis living in the northern 30 - 40 kilometers of the country. They too have been displaced with similar hardships. People living in bomb shelters. Empty beaches - Just like in Lebanon.
Where is the report that thousands of Rockets have indiscriminetly fallen, killing Israeli civilians and soldiers, bring fear and terror to those affected?
And now Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ correspondent Orla Guerin has come back to haunt us! She has long been criticized for her anti-Israel line of reporting, yet still we see her using the cameras to fulfill her own personal political agenda.
I can only imagine the rhetoric on these blogs if Newsnight showed a similar bias towards Israel.
Perhaps the real villains in this war could be shown as the terrorists they are, Hezbolla - Terrorising the citizans of Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon!
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Newsnight appears to try to keep a balance between the Israeli and the other point of view. But what is sometimes lacking is a blended report where you get comment on Beirut matters interleaved with comment from Haifa. I thought that Robin Denselow's report on Friday 11th August 2006 was very biased, almost amounting to a propaganda exercise for the Lebanese.
I also watch Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World and while I know that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ tries to be even-handed, I think that general Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ news coverage tends to side, quite surprisingly, with people, such as Hezbollah, who are the absolute antithesis of what we in the West stand for. Whoever started the war, I cannot understand how anyone in their right mind, reporter, editor or layman, can side in any way with people who spent the time that Israel had withdrawn from Lebanon stocking up thousands upon thousands of rockets and dominating the government using threats from hidden positions.
Siniora is a pathetic and laughable man - not worth interviewing. He is no doubt afraid that if he puts one foot wrong, Hexbollah will do to him what Syria did to Hariri. Israel, however imperfect, is a Western-style democracy. Even the ultra-orthodox faction is not threatening the deaths of ministers in the government there.
Furthermore, all the things the Left have won in the West since the 1960s, such as rights for women and gays, political representation, freedom of religion and many other things are anathema to the Islamic fascists (Bush's term is perfectly right). And yet the Western press keeps supporting those they believe to be the poor oppressed underdog.
9/11 was planned before the Iraq war. So I think Western journalists should always take into account that while they will automatically get Western-style answers from the Israelis (equivocation and evasion, maybe, but still playing by our rules), it is evidently a duty for Islamists to lie to the infidel (including Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ infidels) in order to put themselves in a better light. The likes of Robin Denselow are just not extracting the information in a wily way, but appear to be traipsing round all the set-up propaganda sites and swallowing the message hook, line and sinker.
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To-nights newsnight showed an interview with a spokesman for "the national association of black police officers" is this not racist?
I can only imagine the hue and cry that would come if there was a national association for white police officers.
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* Concerned Blogger wrote:
"Why as usual does the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Newsnight portray this crisis only from the Lebanese perspective?"
Becaue it IS only a crisis to the Lebanese.
The numbers of Israeli deaths do not constitute a crisis by any stretch of the imagination.
The only crisis for Israel is now in its military, administrative and most of all, its moral authority. It has opened the door for Hezbollah to increase its power in the Lebanese government, and has succeeded in unifying the Shia muslims with the Maronite and Druz Christians of Beirut, an acheivement which, under different circumstances, would justify a Nobel Peace Prize.
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Did you receive my comment or did a little man at Orange erase it? It is not for publication, but I would be pleased to hear you received my comment. Jennifer Watts
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What London thought about Lebanon:
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Please do not post:
I've searched for information on the environmental repercussions of the war in Lebanon, especially on sea life, and wonder if you could point me to a place to find some of this information. I was there during the bombings and was in the ocean the day the oil began to spread, finding out about it later. What is happening to all those fish, the fisherment, the jellyfish? Do you have any advice as to where I can find this information?
It would also be an interesting topic to post on this site. Thank you for this site. Emily
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