'Shut up, you barefaced liar'

[Behind the Aegis]

"The war against Lebanon caught us completely unprepared," an editor on Jordan's television station told Haaretz. "All of us were focused on what was happening in Palestine or Iraq. I know that the majority of Arab stations, except for news channels like Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya didn't even have permanent correspondents in Lebanon after the completion of the Syrian withdrawal, and after the elections in May-June 2005.

"Lebanon wasn't an object of interest. And then all of a sudden - war. How are we supposed to relate to it? How are we supposed to define Hezbollah? What is the official line we are supposed to take on the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers? What vocabulary should we be using? Everything needed to be rethought. Even the system to which we answer didn't quite know how to deal with it." Yet now, even after a week and a half of warfare, no one on the Jordanian station seems too troubled by the fighting. The same is the case on the Libyan and Moroccan networks, and most especially so on the Iraqi network. After all, Iraq has a large daily dose of death, with numbers several times higher than those in Lebanon.

This war has also rekindled the question of what format the reporter's interviews should take, and primarily how to relate to Israeli interviewees.

"There are times when I am forced to suppress a voice that rises within me, and which wants me to tell the Israeli interviewee: shut your mouth, you barefaced liar," says Mai al-Sharabani, a newscaster on the Al-Arabiya network, in an interview with Ibrahim Totanji, a reporter for Al-Hayat, the Arabic-language newspaper published in London.


more...

[Poll_Blind]

1. Watch a good example on YouTube of the Dep. Israeli Amb. to London...

...attempting to justify collective punishment, claiming that destroying civilian infrastructure is not an act of terror. Watch for the payoff, his unreal explanation of why Israel destroyed the ONLY power plant in Gaza.

Jon Snow confronts Dep. Israeli Ambassador on Israeli terror

  Mai al-Sharabani is not alone.

PB

[Behind the Aegis]

2. you have a point?

The fact is that Jon Snow was an asshole spewing the same propaganda here. So why not fight propaganda with propaganda?

[Poll_Blind]

3. I'll let DUers watch it and decide who the propagandist is, thank you.

PB

[Behind the Aegis]

4. agreed.

[MrPrax]

5. What is the official line

What is the official line we are supposed to take on the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers?

Whatever Israel says...if Israel claims it was Hez tunnelling under their border and capturing the soldiers at a border outpost, then that the official story. Since Israel doesn't allow any other reporting and has censored everything, this remains the official story.

The fact is that Israel sent a team into Lebanon (at Aitaa al-Chaab) and it was destroyed by Hez, the soldiers were killed, the tank was destroyed and two soldier were taken prisoner.

So if the Arab media was caught off guard, just like Hezbellah was, it was probably due to none being aware that Israel wouldn't allow itself to be humilitated by Hez again and so the new untested leader, in order to prove his mettle to the hardliners, launched an unprovoked and viscious attack on all of Lebanon in revenge.

Pure and simple.

"There are times when I am forced to suppress a voice that rises within me, and which wants me to tell the Israeli interviewee: shut your mouth, you barefaced liar,"

I know that feeling... :eyes:

[sabbat hunter]

6. facts

"
The fact is that Israel sent a team into Lebanon (at Aitaa al-Chaab) and it was destroyed by Hez, the soldiers were killed, the tank was destroyed and two soldier were taken prisoner."

you are incorrect. the fact is this, hizbollah invaded israel, attacked an outpost and took 2 israeli soldiers captive (they are probably dead now given hizbollahs history)



please get your facts straight

[MrPrax]

7. Sorry...

but it is the truth -- that is what happened. There is no doubt and it is understandable that the supporters would continue to promote the OFFICIAL version that makes Israel's naked aggression justified.

This is why there was a news blackout as Israel tried to retrieve it's burnout tank...it was obvious then and it was obvious now.

This is what happened.

[sabbat hunter]

8. do you have any proof

links? articles?

not obvious to me, or to most progressives.


dont you think if what you said was true, the terrorists like hizbollah wouldnt be shouting it from the rooftops? instead they call for the destruction of israel, o h excuse me the "zionist entity" as they call it.