Aljazeera.Net - Watching American TV in Beirut

I've been doing some watching of the latest conflict in the Middle East. I check in on the news once in a while to see if there is anything new, which there really isn't. They are basically fighting with rockets and bombs back and forth. I read the linked to article hoping I'd get some insight that I wouldn't otherwise know. But, it's just another biased article. I guess you can't expect anything else when it comes to Jews vs. Muslims.

Take Monday's coverage of the conflict on NBC's popular Today Show with anchorwoman Nathalie Morales, who in introducing a report on Hezbollah, rhetorically asks: "So just who is Israel at war with in this latest chapter of an ancient conflict?"

Not only does the reporter assume that Israel's war targets only Hezbollah (and not the Lebanese civilians, government, private businesses and the military, which have all been attacked) but even contradicts earlier reports on her own network indicating Hezbollah's founding to be in the early 1980s; hardly considered "ancient" times.

First, I think the reporter was referring to "ancient times" in relation to the Jews vs. Everyone and fighting over land thing. I don't think she was saying Hezbollah was an ancient organization. Second, Israel likely is targeting Hezbollah. The others are being "attacked" because they are where Hezbollah is. Nobody seems to dispute, even the author of this article, that abot 1/4 of the Lebonese people are associated with Hezbollah. They are a part of the government, and are intermixed with citizens as opposed to going out to a battlefield and wearing a uniform. The "citizens" allow Hezbollah to operate, the military allows Hezbollah to operate and the government allows Hezbollah to operate. Where exactly does innocence end and complicity begin?

Absent in the reporting was any reference to Hezbollah's role in defeating the 22-year Israeli occupation of the country and its support among up to a million Lebanese, with many benefiting from an intricate network of social services and political representation.

I've heard this reporting many times. I guess he didn't. Palistinians may support Hamas, but that doesn't make them and their goals any less bad.

Of course, failing to report such details contributes to the view that Hezbollah acts as merely a renegade organisation rather than a movement that encompasses roughly a quarter of the country's population.

Also the reporting doesn't exist that they are firing missles, kidnapping and killing for the government. Oh wait, they aren't. I guess that makes them a renegade organization. You're either operating in a renegade fashion, or under direction of a government.

Anyways.. I could go on, but it's the same old stuff.