Losing Its Morals and Marbles:

If Hezbollah were a military, given Western standards, it would certainly be the most moral in the world. During Israel’s five week offensive, Hezbollah killed 118 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians (18 of which were Israeli Palestinians). Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers for every one Israeli civilian. In contrast, Israeli forces killed more than 1000 Lebanese civilians during the onslaught (more bodies are expected to be discovered during the current period of “calm”). Robert Fisk, based in Lebanon, reported, “They are digging them [Lebanese bodies] up by the hour.” Israeli forces killed 25 Lebanese civilians for every Israeli civilian killed by Hezbollah.

Israel claims it killed three to four hundred Hezbollah fighters during the 33 day war. Hezbollah argues the number is much lower, but since the world maintains that Hezbollah is a “terrorist organization,” Hezbollah’s figure is swiftly rejected. Supposing Israel’s numbers are accurate, the state still killed roughly three Lebanese civilians for every one Hezbollah fighter.

Although the issue of proportionality was discussed in the US media, the issue of disproportionate coverage of the conflict was not. The American population’s strong reaction to the media’s coverage of the loss of civilian life in Lebanon—albeit its extremely minimal coverage—enhanced pressure for the eventual cease-fire. The Bush administration’s “green light” quickly turned red when it realized widespread regional chaos may bring harsh repercussions during an election season. One can only assume citizen pressure for a US pullout of Iraq would have been stronger if the US media properly reported the conflict and shown even a handful of the endless images of immense suffering the Iraqis are enduring due to US occupation.

Israel estimates that more than 4,000 Katushya rockets were fired across its borders during the five weeks of fighting—this was extensively reported throughout the US media. It brings one back to Wolf Blitzer’s opening news segments on the crisis in the Middle East: “Hezbollah rockets hit deeper into Israel and closer to Tel Aviv.” Similarly, it takes me back to images of a disheveled Tucker Carlson reporting the hard news in front of Israeli tanks firing “retaliatory” artillery shells on the civilian population of Lebanon. Yet, 4,000 Katushya rockets pale in comparison to the amount of force used by Israel, which one cannot put an exact figure on because the US media has yet to offer up the information (apparently the media didn’t want to complicate us with too many statistics). The Lebanese government, however, did state that Israeli air and ground forces destroyed approximately 30,000 buildings throughout Lebanon—300 high-rise buildings in southern Beirut alone.

Israel must have lost its copy of the Geneva Conventions for Dummies because Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states, “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited…Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.” Regarding the Geneva Conventions, Hezbollah is not a signatory; the same cannot be said for the state of Israel. This is not to excuse attacks on a civilian population by any force, including resistance forces, but only to put into context the “morality” of Western nations compared with adversaries they consider to be “terrorist groups.”

An Amoral History

Israel has a long history of using extreme force against civilian populations. During “Operation Peace for Galilee,” Israel slaughtered nearly 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in Lebanon. Since the start of the second Intifada, Israeli forces killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, most of which were civilians. According to Tanya Reinhart in Israel/Palestine: How To End the War of 1948, “More than seven thousand Palestinians were reported injured in the first five weeks of the uprising, many in the head, legs, or knees by carefully aimed [Israeli] shots, and, increasingly, live [Israeli] ammunition.” Since the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israeli forces have killed 188 Palestinians in Gaza, 44 of which were children. Israel used the capture of Shalit as a pretext to wage war on Gaza. Palestinian groups assert that the capture of Shalit was a response to the abduction of Dr. Osama Muantar and his brother, Mustafa.

Since the start of “Operation Summer Rain” in late June, Israel has pounded Gaza with thousands of artillery shells and air strikes. The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in Gaza reported that the Israeli military has “fired on average 200-250 artillery shells per day into the Gaza Strip and conducted at least 220 aerial bombings.” The violence used against the civilian population and infrastructure is increasing, rather than abating, causing billions of dollars in damage. Several UN agencies and human rights groups warn that a disaster of catastrophic proportions is imminent if the status quo—the complete closure of Gaza and the population’s inaccessibility to medicines, food and supplies—is not changed. The United Nations humanitarian agencies stated, “We are concerned that with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten.”

An Amoral Partnership

Israel’s main ally, private ATM machine, and arms supplier, America, has been similarly brutal in its attempted conquests. Since the start of the US invasion in Iraq, an estimated 150,000 Iraqi civilians have perished. There is no official number of resistance and foreign fighters killed during this period, but if one were to use November 2004 as a measuring stick—a month in which approximately 1000 fighters were killed—more than 40,000 insurgents would be killed to date. In November 2004, American forces “battled” for Fallujah—apparently using phosphorus bombs that burn to the bone in the process—and considered this the period in which the largest Iraqi fighter death toll amassed. Given these numbers, nearly four Iraqi civilians have died for every one fighter; for the sake of the population, I dare not consider this “mission accomplished.”

What Happens Next?

The intense and indiscriminate force used by Israel should spark not only condemnation and swift action by the international community, but fear. Dan Halutz, once the star pupil of old comatose Sharon, is already packing his suitcase for civilian duty. Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz, however, are not going down without a fight. After the fall of Labor, and the subsequent rise and fall of Likud, Olmert and Peretz were positioned to be the new wave of Israeli politics—whether the Israeli public liked it or not. When the invasion began, morale was predictably strong, but with war comes politics, and in this case, war brought defeat.

Olmert and Peretz need a victory fast. Fighting till the bitter end before the cease-fire was implemented didn’t accomplish this goal, and rather than fading into the dark dungeons of Israeli politics, they will have no other choice but to up the ante on the second phase of war. The reason for the fight? The existential threat to the state of Israel is more imminent than ever before—Olmert is even putting his West Bank convergence plan on the backburner. Furthermore, Hezbollah has been not disarmed, but rather galvanized by Israel’s embarrassment, and Hezbollah must be defeated. The course of this line of thinking will take Israel no further in Lebanon than it has taken America in Iraq. One only need to point Olmert and Peretz to the people chanting and waving signs at the massive demonstrations taking place throughout the US, Europe and the Arab world: “No justice, no peace!” These words have resonance today in Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territories, and throughout the Arab world. Unfortunately for Israel and its America ally, who hoped for a different type of “new Middle East,” these words are being put into action.

Out to Lunch: The US Media's "Special Relationship"

The US media’s biased coverage of the crisis in Lebanon should come as no surprise. While the White House and Congress claim a “special relationship” with Israel, our news outlets are not supposed to have a “special relationship” with anyone. Their job is to fairly reports on matters; anything less is a disservice to those watching their news programs and reading their newspapers.

Shockingly, Larry King Live has been “fair” in its coverage of the conflict consuming Lebanon in contrast to Fox News’ O'Reilly Factor, MSNBC’s Scarborough Country and yes, CNN’s darling Anderson Cooper 360. There is, however, much criticism to be doled out to CNN’s “longest-running interview program.” One need look no further than Larry King Live’s first two guests, Republican Senator George Allen and Democratic Senator Evan Bayh. It was nice to see—in this nine minute segment—two senators putting their congressional partisan politics aside to stand together in solidarity with the state of Israel. When Larry King asked Senator Allen if the US should be a true broker in the region, Allen replied, “We support Israel, you’re right Larry. Israel is a wellspring in the wilderness in the Middle East and we do support them and their right to protect themselves.”

The next guest on the show was positioned as the “Lebanese side.” Larry King Live passed off the nearly four minute interview with Chibli Mallat—one of the leaders of the Cedar Revolution, deep critic of Hezbollah and candidate for President—as the voice of the Lebanese people. When Larry King asked Mallat about Nassrallah’s remark that the conflict is an Israeli/American plot to control the Middle East, Mallat responded, “I’m afraid that I do agree with the senators. He [Nassrallah] initiated the conflict, and all this talk about a great plot between Israel and America is out of place. The conflict was initiated…by [Hezbollah’s] reckless action through the Blue Line that separates Lebanon from Israel. That was a grave violation of international law and I think also a grave violation of Lebanese law.” Like a true patriot, Mallat later urged “restraint” from Israel, echoing comments made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice weeks earlier.

Now that the “Lebanese people” were heard, it was necessary to bring on the Israeli side, Israeli Consul General Ehud Danoch, to counter any “Lebanese” propaganda. For nearly four minutes, Danoch defended Israel and extensively illustrated its commitment to root out “terrorism.” As icing on the cake, Danoch took softball emails from viewers and general questions from Larry King such as, “Why do you oppose a cease-fire now?” and “Are you optimistic?”

One would think that after Larry King Live came back from break, the show would cut to the carnage in Lebanon, the destruction of its infrastructure, or an analyst discussing the humanitarian implications the siege on Lebanon presents. Not exactly. When the program returned from the break, Larry King cut to Anderson Cooper in Northern Israel, who—given the amount of reporting he’s doing in the North—may as well be looking for a second home. Larry King then cut to Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Haifa. While Gupta spoke of the horror Katyusha rockets exact (thousands have been fired, inflicting very little damage relative to Israel’s 500 pound bombs and artillery shells), pictures crossed the screen of injured Israeli women and children. The producers, however, were still unsatisfied. Before going to commercial, Anderson Cooper needed another six minutes explaining that the “terrorist group,” Hezbollah, is hiding within the civilian population. Cooper makes no mention of the fact that Hezbollah formed as a resistance group to fight off an Israeli military that slaughtered nearly twenty thousand innocent Lebanese and Palestinian civilians in 1982. To justify the mass murder of the Lebanese population today, Cooper makes clear to the viewer that while Israel is trying to be as accurate as possible, even “the most moral military in the world” can only be so precise. It’s ironic that Cooper always has the exact number of Katushya rockets fired on Israel, but the exact number of cluster bombs, artillery shells, and missiles used against the civilian population of Lebanon seems to evade his statistical charts.

A simple cut to commercial would not suffice; the producers of program realized that any decent show must have a good outro. Larry King Live eased into commercial with a “balanced” set of pictures: first, a young Muslim girl holding a picture of Hassan Nassrallah, followed by what is assumed to be a group of Lebanese burning American and Israeli flags, followed by a man carrying a blanket-covered lifeless body, succeeded by two young covered Muslim girls (one of them is in tears), and the sequence ended with three injured Lebanese boys (one of the boys is in tears). Apparently, when showing pictures of injured Israelis (they’d show dead ones, but it doesn’t happen often) and “heroic” Israelis, the producers of Larry King Live misplaced the Associated Press pictures of little Israeli girls writing messages on missiles that were about to be fired on the civilian population of Lebanon. Ironically, the only person killed the day of this particular episode was a Palestinian-Israeli girl.

Estimates of dead Lebanese civilians surpassed 900, while the Israeli civilian death toll is at 27. Although thirty three Lebanese civilians die for every one Israeli, the US media deems it necessary to give the Israeli agenda ten minutes of airtime for every minute allotted to the Lebanese voice. The war crimes being carried out against the Lebanese and the Palestinian people by Israel should be newsworthy enough to receive proper coverage. As the conflict drags on, thanks to the US administration’s “green light,” the coverage is becoming ever more skewed, compounded with additional justifications for Israel’s actions, the further villainizing of Hezbollah and now that the Lebanese-American community has been evacuated, the silence of the Lebanese voice. One civilian is one death too many; yet it looks as though thousands more will perish at the hands of Israeli forces, and once again, the US media will be out to lunch.