As per our post yesterday about the role of the media when covering asymmetric conflicts between democracies and terror organizations we’d like to highlight some recent research and reporting on these issues, namely, the recent report, The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict by Marvin Kalb, Senior Fellow, Shorenstein Center, and Carol Saivetz, at Harvard University. Here’s the abstract:

“Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this paper describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare. The paper also shows how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.” Full Report here.

This is not only an Israeli/Arab conflict issue. As the US led global War on Terror has illustrated over the last 6 years, many democratic countries are confronted by these same issues. Terror groups are able to set the media agenda by perpetrating spectacular acts of terrorism which play well for TV, as well as post their gruesome exploits on the internet for all to see, and the media unwittingly provides them a global platform. Meanwhile, these same groups restrict all access to their inner dysfunctions and coercive ideological controls, as illustrated in Kalb’s report.

In our case, the media is able to scrutinize Israel because we value and uphold freedom of the press. They deconstruct our every failing and debate because they can, and at the same time treat our autocratic neighbors and terror utilizing enemies with a different standard because they must. This is not an accusation, to be fair the media tries to get the story right, but it is foolish to believe that the media can remain objective when covering asymmetric conflicts and conflicts between open and closed societies. The media either provides an invaluable platform for terror groups without any of the uncomfortable scrutiny, as they work under the threat of violence or even worse for journalists, denial of access, or they create a perception of the open society as being weak and confused because it speaks with multiple voices and cannot hide its warts.

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This says it all.

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**The video above is of an earlier Qassam missile attack on Israel**

Palestinian terror groups, namely Hamas and Islamic Jihad, continue with their campaign of missile fire on Israeli civilians, and have murdered a 35 year old woman today while she sat in her car. Over 100 missiles have been launched into Israeli cities and towns in the past week alone.

Israel left Gaza two years ago in the hope of creating a space to build peace. Since then Hamas has come to power, and cynically they continue spending their energies and money on weapons to terrorize innocent civilians both in Israel and amongst their Palestinian co-nationals in Gaza. Instead of investing in the institutions of statehood like education, health services, infrastructure, jobs, etc, Hamas chooses to smuggle tons of munitions, guns, missiles and bombs into Gaza.

As Hezbollah proved in Lebanon, and Hamas is proving now in the Palestinian territories, when terror groups bent on the destruction of their neighbors are elected into office, they do not moderate their positions. In fact, their incorporation emboldens their apocalyptic goals and they wind up dragging the region into conflict.

From YNET:
Woman killed in Sderot rocket attack

Qassam hits car near southern town’s commercial center, critically injuring a woman and moderately wounding another man. More than 10 rockets fired from Gaza Strip since Monday morning

Roi Mandel

A woman was killed and another man was moderately injured Monday evening as a Qassam rocket hit a car at a commercial center in the southern town of Sderot, near a bakery.

Five rockets were fired at the southern town at around 8 pm.Two landed south of Ashkelon, one landed in Sderot and two in the western Negev.

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The recent conflicts unfolding in Southern Israel/Gaza and in Northern Lebanon/Nahr el-Bared camp are eerily similar in that in both cases you have terror groups cynically hiding behind civilians while provoking a fight with another power. As long as extremists are allowed to sow their violent ideologies and practices, whether it is launching missiles into Israel or spreading unrest in Lebanon, these conflicts will continue without resolution.

To create the conditions for peace these extremists must be confronted one way or another.
Here is some background on the conflicts raging in Lebanon and Southern Israel/Gaza.

From YNET:
Lebanese troops tighten siege of camp

Soldiers pound Palestinian refugee camp with artillery day after worst eruption of violence since end of1975-90 civil war

Lebanese troops tightened a siege of a Palestinian refugee camp Monday where a shadowy group suspected of ties to al-Qaeda was holed up, pounding it with artillery a day after the worst eruption of violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

The death toll from Sunday’s violence climbed to near 50, but it was not known how many civilians have been killed inside the Nahr el-Bared camp on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli, the scene of the heaviest fighting. No new deaths on Monday have been reported.

Lebanese officials said one of the men killed Sunday was a suspect in a failed German train bombing — another indication the camp had become a refuge for Fatah Islam militants planning attacks outside of Lebanon. In the past, others affiliated with the group in the camp have said they were aiming to send trained fighters into Iraq and the group’s leader has been linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The rest is here.

From HAARETZ:
Hamas, Fatah officials: Internal fighting in Gaza is far from over

By Avi Issacharoff

Members of both Hamas and Fatah said Monday that internal infighting was far from over, just one day after Egyptian mediators announced a new cease-fire aimed at ending nine days of fighting that has left roughly 50 people dead.

The fighting between Fatah and Hamas has abated in recent days, as Israel has responded to a heavy Qassam rocket fire with a bombing campaign against Hamas targets, but tensions remain high.

“The Israeli attacks will only postpone the internal fighting but will not end it,” said senior Fatah official Ziad Abu Ein. “As long as there are many guns out on the streets it is very easy to renew Palestinian-Palestinian fighting.”

The rest is here.

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Recently, the Israeli city Sderot has been attacked with dozens of deadly missiles, launched with impunity by the terrorist group Hamas. It’s a shame that the international media has yet to cover these attacks with any seriousness. If Lisbon, London, or Lyon were attacked day-in and day-out with 80 pound projectiles packed with explosives designed to kill, maim, and destroy innocent civilians the story would be plastered across every front page and every TV screen in the world. Unfortunately, this story has only received coverage when Israel decides to take appropriate defensive actions and target the people launching these missiles. The world ignores the bombing of Sderot homes, schools, nurseries, kindergartens, synagogues, and parks at its own peril. If we allow terrorists to launch missiles with impunity at an Israeli city today, it will only be a matter of time that terrorists will begin launching missiles at other, more ‘tele-visible’ cities, tomorrow.

With this in mind we took a few minutes this morning to sit down with our Ambassador here in NY to get his take on the current situation in Sderot, and what Israel’s position is regarding the ongoing attacks.

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Our Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, issued a statement yesterday imploring the international community to take action and condemn the constant barrage of missiles Israel has suffered under the past 7 years.

Here is here release:

“We expect the international community to demand of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians to stop this violence against innocent civilians in Israel.

Israeli civilians are now under ongoing attacks by terrorist organizations which are part of the Palestinian government headed by Hamas, which is itself a terrorist organization. Israel views the Palestinian government as responsible for the situation.

The situation in the last two days is unbearable. It is important to understand that the Israeli government has shown restraint in the last two months, but the last two days, in which Israeli civilians are being attacked on a daily basis with missiles from the Gaza strip – a place that Israel left in order to give the Palestinians the possibility to create a normal life and not to attack Israel – this is a situation that should be changed.

The Israeli government will take all the necessary steps in order to give security to Israeli citizens, and we expect the international community to demand of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians to stop this violence against innocent civilians in Israel.

The army has received instructions to act in accordance with some of the proposals that were submitted to us. The fact that terrorist organizations that actually make up part of the government in the Palestinian Authority, headed by Hamas, are involved in this shooting is a situation that, from Israel’s standpoint, is intolerable.

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Above are new videos about Israel’s embattled city of Sderot, which has suffered under the constant and daily barrage of over 3,000 Qassam Missiles over the past 7 years.

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