biasedmedia

Gaza: "La responsabilité de la situation incombe au Hamas"
Par LEXPRESS.fr, publié le 29/12/2008 17:51 - mis à jour le 30/12/2008 08:37
D'Angela Merkel à Nicolas Sarkozy, en passant par la Maison-Blanche, les réactions des responsables internationaux face à l'opération israélienne qui embrase la bande de Gaza depuis samedi, se multiplient.
D'un bout à l'autre du monde, les réactions des responsables internationaux se multiplient contre la flambée de violence qui embrase la bande de Gaza depuis le début de l'opération "plomb durci" de l'armée israélienne, ce samedi. Si la nécessité d'un cessez-le-feu fait consensus, la question de la responsabilité de la situation au Proche-Orient divise.
Angela Merkel vient de se prononcer en faveur d'une responsabilité exclusive du mouvement palestinien Hamas. Un avis peu partagé par la communauté internationale dans son ensemble qui condamne souvent "les provocations du Hamas" mais aussi parfois la "réponse disproportionnée d'Israël". Les dirigeants appellent Israël à la retenue et le Hamas à cesser les tirs de roquettes contre les localités israéliennes. Seule la Maison-Blanche a aussi réservé au Hamas l'ensemble de ses critiques.
Allemagne
La chancelière Angela Merkel tient le mouvement palestinien Hamas pour seul responsable de l'escalade de la violence à Gaza, a annoncé lundi le porte-parole du gouvernement. Lors d'une conversation téléphonique dimanche soir, Mme Merkel et le Premier ministre israélien Ehud Olmert "sont tombés d'accord pour dire que la responsabilité de l'évolution de la situation dans la région incombe clairement et exclusivement au Hamas", a déclaré Thomas Steg lors d'un point de presse régulier.
France
Le président Nicolas Sarkozy a exprimé sa "vive préoccupation face à l'escalade de la violence dans le sud d'Israël et dans la bande de Gaza". Egalement président en exercice du Conseil européen, il a appelé dimanche par téléphone M. Abbas, et "a rappelé sa ferme condamnation des provocations qui ont conduit à cette situation ainsi que de l'usage disproportionné de la force".
Italie
Le chef du gouvernement italien Silvio Berlusconi s'est dit "inquiet" samedi par la reprise des hostilités entre Israël et les Palestiniens du Hamas, demandant leur arrêt "immédiat" et la reprise du dialogue pour trouver une solution "stable et durable".
Etats-Unis
George W. Bush ne s'est pas exprimé publiquement. La Maison Blanche a toutefois réservé au Hamas l'ensemble de ses critiques. « Ces gens là ne sont que des voyous et Israël défend son peuple contre les terroristes comme le hamas », a déclaré Gordon Johndroe, un porte parole. Les Etats-Unis "tiennent le Hamas pour responsable de la violation du cessez-le-feu et du regain des violences à Gaza", avait souligné auparavant la secrétaire d'Etat américaine, Condoleezza Rice.
Obama surveille la situation...
De son côté, Le président américain élu Barack Obama est "déterminé" à oeuvrer pour la paix au Proche Orient, a indiqué un de ses proches conseillers dimanche. Il "surveille la situation", a assuré Axelrod, soulignant toutefois que "durant cette période de transition il n'y a qu'un seul président et que le président (George W.) Bush parle au nom des Etats-Unis jusqu'au 20 janvier.
Royaume-Uni
"Le Royaume-Uni est en faveur d'un cessez-le-feu urgent et d'un arrêt immédiat de toutes les violences", a déclaré David Miliband, le ministre des Affaires étrangères, soulignant que "la détérioration de la situation humanitaire (était) extrêmement inquiétante".
Reste du monde
A ce stade, de nombreux pays en Europe et en Asie, ont appelé Israël à la retenue et le Hamas à cesser les tirs de roquettes contre les localités israéliennes.
La Chine, généralement plus virulente, s'est dite "choquée", mais sans plus.
Le Mexique qui exige l'arrêt "immédiat" des raids israéliens et condamne l'usage "excessif" de la force par l'armée, "rejette au même titre les lancers de roquettes sur le territoire israélien depuis la bande de Gaza".
Le Canada a quant à lui de nouveau dimanche rendu le Hamas responsable de l'escalade de la violence dans la bande de Gaza.
De leur côté, l'ensemble des pays arabes et l'Organisation de la conférence islamique (OCI), basée à Djeddah, en Arabie saoudite, ont condamné les bombardements israéliens, qualifiés de "crime de guerre" par l'OCI qui regroupe 57 pays et représente 1,3 milliard de musulmans.
La demande de retour au calme a été formulée par la Russie, la Suède, l'Autriche, la Norvège, l'Espagne ou la Suisse, ces deux pays jugeant toutefois, comme le Brésil, que la riposte israélienne était "disproportionnée".
Les Pays-Bas ont appelé Israël à "une retenue maximum", tout en condamnant "les provocations du Hamas".
La Turquie a réclamé l'arrêt immédiat des raids israéliens sur Gaza et exprimé son "mécontentement" face à ce qu'elle considère comme un "coup porté aux initiatives de paix".

Labels: No Comment

Death Toll 375 palestinians vs. 7 israelis and Ban-Ki Moon condemned Hamas for the rocket attacks, but also had strong words for Israel.
"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I have also condemned the excessive use of force by Israel in Gaza. The suffering caused to civilian populations as a result of the large-scale violence and destruction that have taken place over the past few days has saddened me profoundly," he said in a prepared statement.(cnn.com)

Wwhat do you think guys? Not biased eh?

Labels: Biaaaaaaaas, Bias

I got this article from http://www.moqavemat.ir , I would like to have your comments on it as well as factual confirmation or rejection of its content.
Tony

Politicians Without Principles
Today's main defenders, yesterday's main critics!It is Walid Jumblatt who called for revenge from Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, during last year's first anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister martyr Rafik Hariri. It is the same Walid Jumblatt who no one currently calls into question his close bond to martyr Hariri.However, a quick review of Jumblatt's positions shortly before the assassination of Hariri stunningly shows something different.Jumblatt, who is today extremely fond of Hariri and his memory, was also extremely critical to him. The (Bey), who once described Hariri as financial whale who wants to devour Beirut, launched between 2003 and 2004 a fierce offensive against the Hariri and his political and economic policy. The Lebanese daily Annahar quoted Jumblatt on the 13th of June, 2003 as saying: "Hariri does not decide whether there should be an extension to the President's term or not. A probability might emerge that we would want to extend the term, even if it was not publicly supported, because the current phase is not that of side battles. What's important now is to preserve the political trend and to protect the resistance, and Lahoud has it all. Does this mean that Hariri has lost to Lahoud? Well I say that at least he lost me. Hariri lost to Lahoud in the logic of a country of institutions in the face of privatization. And if this is only a small part of Jumblatt's numerous positions, the positions of other key figures in the so called February 14 bloc were not very different from Jumblatt's. He is the Higher President of the Lebanese Phalanges and former President Amine Gemayel, who never stopped criticizing Hariri between 2002 and 2004. Assafir daily quoted Gemayel on the 11th of February 2004 as saying: "Who chose the current parliament? Did those MP fall with parachutes? They are imposed on the people. With all due respect to Premier Hariri, after all he is a Prime Minister and a political official, but neither Rafik Hariri nor anyone else can impose candidates on the public opinion. We have to understand that Beirut is not only to its residents. Some people came to Beirut and possessed and dwelled in it, like Premier Hariri. He is from Sidon and he's a Beirut candidate."For her part, Social Affairs Minister Naila Moawwad was a member of the National Gathering which comprised many figures who oppose Hariri, on top of which is former Premier Omar Karameh and MP Butros Harb. In a interview with Afkar magazine on the 10th of March 2003, Moawwad described Karameh, who she took part in toppling in 2005, as a revered political pole and that his presence in parliament is a guarantee for supervision and accountability. Moawwad added that the parliament should not be monopolized by parliamentary blocs which have power and money. "There is great danger that the militias of war be replaced with the militias of money inside the parliament," Moawwad added.

Labels: Politicians Without Principles

ZNet Mideast
The Manichean Middle East of Mark MacKinnon
by Stefan Christoff and Dru Oja Jay; The Dominion; January 03, 2007
When newspapers send correspondents afield to report on world events, the position is fraught with opportunity and responsibility. Opportunity to share meaningful insight into current events, and responsibility to accurately report on them.
In many cases, unfortunately, other motivations prevail. For the owners and editors of the few papers that shell out for foreign correspondents, the opportunity to shape public opinion seems too tempting to pass up, even if it comes at the expense of insight and accuracy.
The Globe and Mail's Middle East correspondent Mark MacKinnon has been publishing dispatches on the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon regularly from Beirut. It should be noted that Mackinnon's reports are often superior to the generic newswire reports carried by many newspapers. Regrettably, this speaks more to the skewed quality of wire reports and less to the Globe's correspondent's capacity to promote accurate understanding of events in Lebanon.
It's no secret that the Globe and Mail prefers certain political actors in Lebanon to others. When in 2005, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese demonstrated in response to the assassination of Former PM Rafik Hariri, eventually resulting in the withdrawal of Syrian troops, admidst intense US pressure on Damascus, the Globe ran a series of front page stories, touting the "pro-Western" "Cedar Revolution" that was sweeping the country. Globe editorialists praised the IMF-mandated "free market" reforms of "pro-western" forces, which won a Parliamentary majority in the subsequent elections.
When larger street protests hit Beirut in recent weeks, however, Globe coverage was to be found in small doses, nowhere near the front page. It is in this context that Mark MacKinnon's frequent reports are published.
Mackinnon's reporting from Beirut is dominated by a neat division of Lebanese politics into "Pro-Syrian" and "Pro-Western" camps, a theme that is repeated multiple times in every one of 19 dispatches that were examined for this analysis. On the other hand, MacKinnon barely mentions the summer Israeli offensive that destroyed most of the country's civil-infrastructure, and killed thousands, mostly civilians. MacKinnon mentions the offensive in less than half of the reports we examined, and then usually only in passing.
A look at the evidence shows that MacKinnon's Syria-vs-West division is erroneous, while Israel's summer offensive is the defining factor in the current political situation on the streets of Beirut.
MacKinnon cites Michel Aoun, the Christian leader of "Free Patriotic Movement" party, as one of the key supporters of the Hezbollah-led protests, which he constantly characterizes as "pro-Syrian." Overlooked by Mackinnon is the fact that Aoun was driven to exile in France by Syrian and allied Lebanese factions in 1990, and returned only with the withdrawal of Syrian troops in 2005. As a result, it is awkward to characterize Aoun as simply "pro-Syrian."
Hezbollah, on the other hand, maintains a strategic alliance with the government in Damascus, though this is far from the central focus of the current protests.
Why do these unlikely allies find themselves demanding a greater share of cabinet seats? Because, as MacKinnon mentions in passing in one article (but does not mention at all in 17 out of 19 reports on the subject), "recent opinion polls suggest Hezbollah and Gen. Aoun would combine to win more seats than the government in a snap election."
Why is this? It has everything to do with the Israeli bombing of Lebanon that killed 1,100 people, displaced a full quarter of the country's population, and systematically destroyed its key infrastructure, including roads, airports, power stations, hospitals, schools and refugee shelters.Israel's destruction of entire neighbourhoods during the summer war, and Hezbollah's status as the only source of serious resistance during the summer war, are the defining issues in Lebanese politics. The Globe and Mail has framed the protests as between "pro-Syrian" and "pro-Western" forces. Photo: Mohammed ShublaqIndymedia Beirut
During the assault, Hezbollah led fierce counter-attacks, ultimately limiting the Israeli army's ability to maintain a hold on the ground in southern Lebanon, and winning massive support from Lebanese for their resistance.
The relatively well financed government and state insitutions of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora--the leader of Mackinnon's pro-Western camp--by contrast, did almost nothing to provide aid to many affected by the war, and offered no military defense against the Israeli attacks despite multiple bombings of Lebanese military bases.
At the height of the Israeli bombings, Ghassan Makarem of the grassroots relief organization Samidoun, told CKUT Radio that the "internally displaced Lebanese support for the resistance hasn't wavered due to the level of aggression on the part of Israel."
"Until now, there has been no action from the government or by the government agencies," Maskarem added, "while many people in regions of Lebanon who are traditionally not supportive of Hezbollah are shifting their support towards the resistance."
In stark contrast to the silence of Lebanese state powers during the war, the Free Patriotic Movement [FPM], General Michel Aoun's political support base, mobilized hundreds of volunteers to provide frontline medical and humanitarian relief for internally displaced refugees from southern Lebanon, while thousands more opened their homes as impromptu shelters in the heart of East Beirut a traditionally Christian area.
According to a widely published opinion poll conducted throughout the country in late July 2006 by Lebanon's main polling institute, the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 per cent of Lebanese supported Hezbollah during the war.
While widely recognized in Lebanon, this reality doesn't fit with the Globe and Mail's image of the region. MacKinnon in particular goes out of his way to warn readers that despite the specific political demands [which his reports do not mention], clashes between demonstrators in the streets are "an ominous sign that efforts by the Shia Hezbollah movement to bring down the Sunni-led government... could rapidly devolve into all out sectarian conflict."
The warning would have been tempered, had Mackinnon mentioned that in addition to Aoun's Christian party, some significant Sunni and Druze political parties are also supporting the demonstrations. Could the message of demonstrators in Lebanon be driven by something other than religion given that parties from all religious sects in Lebanon are on the streets with Hezbollah?
It's not even clear from MacKinnon's reports what motivates Hezbollah's demands, or what motivates the countless thousands on the streets of Beirut. Further inquiry revealed that the reason for this is that he did not ask.
In a recent interview with CKUT Radio in Montreal, MacKinnon was asked whether he had interviewed any of the leaders of the demonstrations.
"Since it began... No," MacKinnon responded, "because they are quite busy people and in the specific case of [Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan] Nasrallah he hasn't given any interviews since the summer war with Israel."
However, Hezbollah political leaders have been regularly speaking with the Western press at the Beirut demonstrations. Just this week Mahmoud Komati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political bureau gave a widely published interview to the Associated Press.
"Now we are demanding it [greater government share], because our experience during the war and the performance of the government has made us unsure. On several occasions they pressured us to lay down our weapons while we were fighting a war," Komati was quoted by the Associated Press on December 15th, presenting a political argument against the current government not a sectarian one.
Despite the readily available Hezbollah spokespeople and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators clogging central Beirut, Mackinnon did not quote a single Hezbollah representative while he was there. MacKinnon, however, did manage to secure an interview with Sheik Sobhi Tufeili in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
Sheik Tufeili, a former Secretary General of Hezbollah, no longer associated with the party, has been comparatively absent from Lebanese politics in recent years. Living in a compound and flanked by body guards, Tufeili is wanted by the Lebanese authorities. Through fragmented quotations, paraded as confessions extracted by MacKinnon, Tufeili denounces the current Hezbollah leadership.
Highlighting a Sheik Tufeili without featuring any of the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese on the streets of Beirut is puzzling.
It's not clear that the poor quality of his coverage is entirely MacKinnon's doing, though it is difficult to imagine that he is not aware that his coverage does not match the facts on the ground.
Indeed, MacKinnon's writing is more in touch with reality in his online diary than it is in reports that appear in print.
Shortly after the UN brokered ceasefire in August, MacKinnon visited southern Lebanon. "No picture or 1,000 words of mine can ever capture what these places look like. In towns that once weren't much different from some places in Greece or Italy, there's simply nothing left standing," wrote MacKinnon. "Just piles of rubble where people's homes and lives used to be."
Today, a responsible journalist--or a minimally competent one--would have to ask why residents of the very same villages bombed by Israel and described by MacKinnon above are now demonstrating for political change in Beirut.
It's hard to imagine that MacKinnon is ignorant of this direct connection between the current demonstrations and the recent Israeli attack. A more likely explanation is that he is conscious of the interests of his own career, knows what his editors want to hear, and is willing to severely compromise his own journalism in service of both.
If Mackinnon were to be replaced, his successor may have a slightly different journalistic style. The ideological and political exigencies of the Globe and Mail's editorial board, however, would remain. We predict the result would hardly be an improvement, regardless of the skill of the correspondent.
In a recent op/ed in Montreal's La Presse, Fabrice Balanche took reporters to task for simplistic reporting along the same lines as Mackinnon's.
"Manicheanism is de rigeur," Balanche writes. "Certainly it is difficult to understand Lebanon and to explain it in a few minutes to [an audience], but all the same, lets stop the caricatures."
Balanche cites facts that show the story of pro-Syrian battling pro-West forces to be bogus. But while Balanche's modest appeal to pay attention to reality is compelling, corporate media like the Globe have long-standing and equally compelling reasons of their own to ignore it.

Labels: Worldwide evaluation of media coverage of Lebanon crisis

Canada: Des organismes libanais dénoncent la couverture «biaisée» de leur pays
December 13, 2006
Presse Canadienne
Montréal - Des organisations communautaires libanaises et de solidarité avec le Liban basées à Montréal ont dénoncé, mercredi, la manière dont les médias d'ici rapportent les événements qui secouent leur pays.

Des centaines de milliers de Libanais manifestent depuis quelques jours à Beyrouth pour réclamer la création d'un gouvernement d'unité nationale et la tenue d'élections anticipées.Des représentants de COLCO (Council of Lebanese Canadian Organizations), de l'Association Al-Hidaya (un organisme communautaire libanais musulman) et de Tadamon (un groupe de solidarité canado-libanaise pour la justice sociale) rencontraient les médias, mercredi, à l'Institut Simone-de-Beauvoir de l'Université Concordia pour discuter de cette situation.Les organismes libanais se disent étonnés et déçus de constater que des médias canadiens et québécois parlent de manifestations organisées par le Hezbollah et des éléments pro-syriens ou pro-iraniens. Ils reprochent à certains médias d'être allés jusqu'à parler de tentative de coup d'État.
Leurs porte-parole font valoir, d'une part, que la demande d'élections anticipées est l'antithèse du coup d'État. D'autre part, ils soulignent que le Hezbollah n'est qu'un acteur minoritaire au sein des manifestations auxquelles participent également des formations politiques laïques, des partis de gauche, des sunnites, des chiites, des druzes et autres coalitions politiques, incluant des députés élus au sein de la présente assemblée législative.Quant à l'implication de la Syrie et de l'Iran, ces représentants disent trouver insultant de qualifier des centaines de milliers de Libanais d'agents étrangers, alors qu'il n'en est rien.

Who to believe?
While reviewing some of the articles written on the Christian participation in the Lebanese opposition demonstrations, I came across some very interesting contradictions that show the extent to which some media are far from the truth and biased in their analysis and reporting.
A sample of these are three articles, one written by Michael Hirst on the website of the Catholic News Service, whereas the conclusion is that:"Former Gen. Michel Aoun, a Maronite Catholic who was once a critic of Syria but switched allegiances and leads supporters of Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian opposition, said Dec. 6 that the Lebanese opposition would escalate its street protests unless the Western-backed government accedes to its demands for a national unity Cabinet."
Moreover, Hirst argues that "Since then, thousands of predominantly male Shiite protesters have been sleeping in hundreds of white tents erected on streets and squares near the prime minister's office, and ongoing daily demonstrations have brought businesses in the capital's commercial center to a grinding halt. "
The second article, by Sophie McNeill in the Global Research, states that "The size and commitment of the Christian participation became clear Sunday, as thousands of Christians from Aoun's 'Free Patriotic Movement' marched in from East Beirut to join their Shia allies in calling for the Prime Minister to resign".
The third report is from Reuters that claims that Christian protesters return to Beirut square the reason being, as Yara Bayoumi reports that"Of course we are still against any Syrian military presence in Lebanon. When we came down on March 14 we wanted Syria to leave and its army left," said Bashir Salameh, 18. "Now we have internal demands that have nothing to do with Syria."

Well, as a christian myself, I know that many of my friends were down there! However, it is worrying that even the Catholic press is biased while our Lord stated clearly that : "THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE"!!!

Maradona(Argentina) 1986

Again an analysis that is so biased and stupid that it assures you of how biased international media is when it comes to Lebanese matters, read and comment on the red part!

Tony


Lebanon analysis: Anti-Syrian Lebanese Christian Cabinet Minister Pierre Gemayel Assassinated
BY PRANAY GUPTE - Special to the SunNovember 22, 2006URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/43924
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T


The assassination in Beirut yesterday of a prominent leader of Lebanon's anti-Syrian Christian community, Pierre Gemayel, deepened the country's sectarian crisis, and created a new opportunity for Hezbollah to transform the secular state into an Islamic theocratic one irrevocably opposed to the existence of Israel.
The murder also triggered new concern on the part of the Bush administration about a region that has already been burdened with uncertainty over the Iraq war, Syria's bellicosity toward America and its continuing support of global terrorism, and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The administration had backed Gemayel, citing him as representative of a new breed of Lebanese politicians who sought to eliminate the malevolent influence of Syria and Iran not only in Lebanon, but throughout the Middle East.
But new breed or not, Gemayel's family history and the complex sectarian politics of Lebanon – and of the Christians in particular – shaped his sensibilities about governance, and about the future of his Mediterranean nation of four million people. Those sensibilities revolved around a simple, central point: National sovereignty and unity.
For Gemayel, a scion of Lebanon's most illustrious Maronite family, that meant, first of all, no interference in the polity by outsiders such as Syria, which has traditional exercised hegemony in the region. It meant peace with Israel, a country with which Lebanon is still formally at war. Gemayel often said that Lebanon's puny resources were more urgently needed for economic development.
Economic growth was especially emphasized by him because Gemayel was minister of industry in the 24-member cabinet of Prime Minister Siniora, and, at 34, also the youngest member of the 128-seat unicameral parliament, known as the national assembly. Mr. Siniora had entrusted him with the task of economic reconstruction in the aftermath of the war against Israel that Hezbollah, a Shia militant group supported by neighboring Syria as well as Iran, precipitated last July.
His family history included a father – Amin – who served as Lebanon's president from 1982 to 1989, after his uncle – Bashir – was assassinated barely three weeks after being elected to the presidency. But Pierre Gemayel was perhaps most influenced by his namesake and grandfather, Pierre, the founder of Lebanon's Phalange Party. A fiery patriarch, the older Gemayel, who died of natural causes in 1984, could not countenance the venality of his country's politicians.
That venality resulted in craven acquiescence to Syria's domination of Lebanon during the civil war of 1975-1990. It also resulted in shadowy deals between Maronite factions and Lebanon's majority Shia and minority Sunni Muslims. It would be no hyperbole to suggest that those deals contributed to the rise of Hezbollah.
While Hezbollah and its patrons Syria and Iran could well have been behind yesterday's assassination, the role of Christian factions led by warlords such as Michael Aoun and Samir Geagea cannot be entirely ruled out. Neither man was particularly fond of Gemayel, even less enamored of his father Amin, and still less warm toward the patriarch, Pierre.
Both Mr. Aoun and Mr. Geagea – whose life sentence for the murder of former prime minister Rashid Karameh was commuted in July 2005 – have been known for their shifting loyalties to various outside political patrons, as well as to domestic allies. In contrast, the Gemayel clan's commitment to political stability, economic resurgence, and social progress has been noteworthy. That is not to say that the clan wasn't capable of political deal-making – at times even with Syria – but its steadfastness in putting national interests before those of preying foreigners was notable.
Of course, the Gemayels have shown themselves to be as ruthless in Lebanon's arena of hardball politics as anyone else. Their Phalanges militias massacred scores of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla south of Beirut during the Israeli invasion of 1982. Memories aren't short in the Middle East – and particularly in the Levant – and it wouldn't be too far fetched to suggest that the events of a generation ago may have also played a part in the assassination of Pierre Gemayel.
His father appealed yesterday for peace, and urged fellow Lebanese not to engage in more internecine feuding. But Amin Gemayel knows, as much as anyone else in the fractious nation that goes by the name of Lebanon, that it's one thing to call for peace, and entirely another thing for it to take hold. Peace is not in the Levant's history, nor in its current affairs, and most likely not in its future either.
November 22, 2006 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version