Unequal Treatment in the News.

[Delphinium]

Recently I've received a few e-mails which give details of the results of the missles that hezbollah shoots towards israel. it made me realize just how little we hear about this in the mainstream news. i wish there was more un-biased fact-based news available to the public. we shouldn't have to search for "facts" on our own to find out what is going on.

War Update - FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 7:00 PM

From Jerusalem • 8/4/2006


Its been another day of death and destruction here in the Holy Land as well over 100 Hizbullah rockets killed and wounded three more Israeli civilians, while also setting homes, businesses, cars, forests and fields on fire. As was the case yesterday when three of eight civilian deaths were non-Jews—all of them Arab teenagers who were tending sheep near the town of Ma’alot, including one girl—today’s attacks left a 27 year old Druze woman dead in the Galilee Arab-Druze town of Marar, and another Arab killed in the village of Maj al Qum. (The third victim has just been announced, but not yet identified). One other person was severely wounded, and is expected to die, as rockets crashed down in many communities, one of them a northern Galilee kibbutz. Dozens were treated for shrapnel wounds and for shock. Police officials said a new, more deadly short range Syrian-made rocket was introduced into the conflict today, dubbed the 302. It carries a far more powerful warhead than previous Katyusha rockets fired at Israeli civilian centers until now—some 100 kilos of explosives—another possible step up to a direct Israel-Syrian clash in the coming days.

Today’s heavy Hizbullah assaults came after the deadliest day so far for Israel in the current conflict. Fourteen people, six of them soldiers and eight civilians, were killed on Thursday. Emotional funerals were held earlier today for a father and his 15 year old daughter who were slaughtered in a rocket attack on the mixed Arab-Jewish ancient port town of Acco—with the grieving wife and mother crying out the word “abba!!” as she was literally carried to the twin grave sites. Three other civilians killed in the stricken town yesterday were also buried today, including a middle aged woman. Four of the six IDF soldiers slain in heavy fighting in southern Lebanon yesterday and overnight—most of them teenagers—were also laid to rest in various parts of the small country. Foreign news reports say additional soldiers perished today, but that has not yet been confirmed by IDF officials.

At least 12 dead, 12 hurt, in massive Hezbollah rocket barrage across north - By Amiram Barkat, Amos Harel and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service

At least 12 people were killed Sunday afternoon and 12 wounded, four of them seriously, in a direct hit on an open area in the northern community of Kfar Giladi, as Hezbollah renewed its rocket fire against Israel with what was described as an enormous barrage.

The condition of two of the victims suffering from serious wounds deteriorated after arriving at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

A rocket landed in Haifa, and seven more in open fields in its outlying suburbs early Sunday evening. There were no reports of injuries in any of the incidents. Another rocket landed in the Jezreel Valley. Sirens also sounded in Binyamina and Hadera.

Hezbollah continued shelling the Kfar Giladi area for a prolonged period after the deadly attack, but no additional casualties were reported.

A resident of Kfar Giladi who is on the community's security committee said that the victims did not adhere to warnings sounded ahead of the attack.

"This shouldn't have happened," he said. "We sounded the alert several minutes before the rocket hits."

"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Northern District Police Chief Major General Dan Ronen told Army Radio.

A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.

Witnesses described the barrage of rockets as "enormous" and that it lasted more than fifteen minutes.

"I was sitting with my friends in a parking lot and got up to get a cigarette," an eye-witness told Haaretz, "I heard a big boom and came back running to see the bodies of my friends."

In a later barrage, a Kiryat Shmona home sustained a direct hit, Channel 10 reported. There was no immediate report of casualties.

Rockets that landed in the Beit Hillel community in the Upper Galilee left one person lightly wounded.

In earlier attacks Sunday, three Katyusha rockets landed in an open area near Ma'alot, two in Safed, two in open areas near Acre and one landed in the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported in these attacks.

Mother, two daughters killed in Saturday attacks

On Saturday, a woman and her two daughters were killed when their home suffered a direct hit in a Katyusha rocket strike on the Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, in the Western Galilee near the northern border.

The fatalities were identified as Fadiya Juma'a, 60, and her daughters Sultana, 31, and Samira, 33. They will be laid to rest at their village's cemetery at 4.00 P.M.

Hezbollah fired 170 Katyusha rockets across northern Israel on Saturday afternoon, 130 of which landed between 4 P.M. and 5 P.M.

An Israel Defense Forces soldier sustained serious wounds when a rocket hit an army base near the northern border.

Some 40 rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona, one of which hit a factory. Some 17 rockets landed around Safed, four hit in the vicinity of Carmiel, 15 landed near Nahariya, 14 hit the Golan Heights, 19 landed in Ma'alot, four landed in Acre and one landed in Rosh Pina.

The village of Maghar, Tiberias, Ma'alot, Shlomi, and Rosh Hanikra were also hit in Saturday's barrage. Some of the rockets hit homes and damaged infrastructure.
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Second barrage of rockets assails Haifa, Jezreel Valley - Jerusalem Post

After a lull of a few hours since the first rocket attack on Sunday morning killed twelve people, Hizbullah resumed its rocket assault on Israel on Sunday evening.

Some 10 rockets fell in the Haifa area as well as in the Jezreel Valley, while sirens sounded throughout the North.

After the second attack, there were reports of several people who suffered from anxiety, though no one was wounded.

At least 160 rockets were fired into northern Israel throughout the day.

Ten people were killed on Sunday afternoon when a rocket hit a gathering spot in Kfar Giladi in the Upper Galilee.

An eleventh person died of his wounds shortly after he was taken to hospital. Another person died in the evening, raising the death toll to 12.

In addition, four people were listed in serious condition, one suffered moderate wounds, and three were lightly wounded.

MDA said that those who were badly hurt were treated on location, and were airlifted to hospitals in the region.

"It was a direct hit on a crowd of people," Dan Ronen, the chief of the northern police command, told Army Radio.

Convoys of police and rescue vehicles raced to the town.

"This was the most difficult thing I could have imagined in my career. There are nine bodies here covered in blankets, around us cars are going up in flames," Army Radio reporter reported as she choked back tears. "On one side is the cemetery, on the other side are the nine young bodies waiting for burial."

A security official said it was the "worst attack" that Israel sustained since hostilities broke out 26 days ago.

"The scene is very difficult it can be described as a battlefield," said Shimon Abutbul, a rescue worker who was one of the first to arrive in the area. "There was a lot of blood."

"We saw difficult scenes in the days of this fighting. This is the worst I have seen," he said, adding that the rocket hit cars among other things in the area.

A nearby forest burst into flames from the barrage and huge plumes of gray smoke rose into the air.

Many of the rockets hit the nearby town of Kiryat Shmona, damaging a synagogue and sparking a series of fires, Mayor Haim Barbivai said, calling on all residents to remain in their shelters because more barrages were sure to follow.

Rockets also landed in Haifa and the surrounding bay area, Nahariya, Karmiel, Rosh Pina, the Golan Heights, Ma'alot and Safed.

This latest barrages of rockets follows a weekend in which three people were killed when a rocket scored a direct hit at their home in a western Galilee Arab-Israeli town.

The three were a 60-year-old woman and her two daughters, both in their 30s. They were all in the same room at the time of the strike.

They were later identified as Fadya Juma, 60, and her daughters Samira, 33, and Sultana, 31.

Some 170 rockets landed in Israel throughout Saturday, with 120-130 of those falling in one hour in the late afternoon.
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[UndercoverGator]

What about the 250,000 left homeless in Lebanon by the first unwarrented strikes by Israel?? The death and destruction is far greater on the Lebanese side and they didn't start this conflict. I hope they shell Israel into a parking lot.

[DirtyPool]

I blame Paula Zahn! i regard journalists the way most people regard lawyers- with disdain. they are the bottom feeders of the lowest order.

[pacific breeze]

Well, as a journalist, i have to disagree. And since when was Paula Zahn a journalist? She's a fucking news reader, period.

There are a few bad apples in journalism, as in any profession.

[Sojiita]

Originally Posted by UndercoverGator

What about the 250,000 left homeless in Lebanon by the first unwarrented strikes by Israel?? The death and destruction is far greater on the Lebanese side and they didn't start this conflict. I hope they shell Israel into a parking lot.

Gator I am surprised at that last sentence/comment! WTH were you thinking to post such a terrible thing? The Lebanese have suffered far more casualties than the Israelis, I agree with you on that..but that last line is very reprehensible.

[Delphinium]

Originally Posted by Sojiita

Gator I am surprised at that last sentence/comment! WTH were you thinking to post such a terrible thing? The Lebanese have suffered far more casualties than the Israelis, I agree with you on that..but that last line is very reprehensible.

the Lebanese were complicit (i hope I spelled that right) in this whole situation because they did not 1. turn in hezbollah wherever they found them. 2. have not produced the israeli soldiers who are held hostage.

so they are getting the fruit of their non-labor in this instance

Originally Posted by UndercoverGator

What about the 250,000 left homeless in Lebanon by the first unwarrented strikes by Israel?? The death and destruction is far greater on the Lebanese side and they didn't start this conflict. I hope they shell Israel into a parking lot.

This smacks of blatant anti-semitism. So because the Lebanese have more casualties in this particular instance, that justifies genocide? the absolute destruction of Israel and the Jews is "okey dokey" because they are defending themselves? your comment makes me ill.

[pacific breeze]

Gator, was, I believe, being facetious.

[Grimmlok]

Again, Delphinium is equating Israel with Jew-dom in its entirety.

Stop doing that. Israel is a state. Judaism is a religion. Israel, as a state, has policies and takes action in physical form.

LEARN THE DIFFERENCE.

[Sojiita]

Originally Posted by pacific breeze

Gator, was, I believe, being facetious.

Well I must have had a mini-stroke that caused a temporary SOHB earlier today. Sorry Gator.

[pacific breeze]

Of course you'd have to ask her...but I'd bet money it was said for effect.

[A*O]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

Again, Delphinium is equating Israel with Jew-dom in its entirety.

Stop doing that. Israel is a state. Judaism is a religion. Israel, as a state, has policies and takes action in physical form.

LEARN THE DIFFERENCE.

It's a shame people need to be reminded of this important distinction although I will say that if Israel comes under too much negative scrutiny or criticism they are often rather quick to play the 'we are only defending ourselves after centuries of persecution' card just as the Palestinians do. BOTH sides are behaving disgracefully and for what it's worth most of the news reporting I see, read and hear in Australia at least is usually subtly or blatantly slanted to be Pro Israel (NB NOT Pro Jewish).

[pacific breeze]

It's the old question: is being Jewish a religion or a race? I was discussing this with a Jewish friend from Australia who was visting us last week, and he pointed out that when Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel to escape the civil war there, they were treated badly by Israeli Jews. There is a movie made about a young Ethiopian boy and his experiences, but can't remember the name of it.

[A*O]

My 'religious' Jewish friends certainly identify themselves as Jewish (religiously, culturally, ethnically, etc) first and foremost and then Australian, American, whatever. My more 'secular' Jewish friends think of themselves on the basis of their nationality and their religion comes second, like most of us I suspect.

[NoDayButToday]

Most Jews I know consider themselves nationality first, then Jewish (I always say I am a Russian Jew or American Jew, rather than a Jewish Russian or Jewish American).

I think there was actually a lecture of sorts about this in hebrew school about how Jewish is not your nationality even though it is a large part of who you are because there is no country called Jew or Jewish, and even if there was we don't live there

[A*O]

I guess it depends on your upbringing and the religious/cultural influences around you. I have a very orthodox and observant friend (to the extent she pre-tears the toilet paper into individual sheets for shabbat!) whose family escaped from Germany just before the infamous kristalnacht (sp?) and although she was born in Australia she embraces her Jewish heritage, religion and culture to the extent that it supercedes any feelings she has about her Australian-ness, although she does have a fair dinkum Aussie accent! I don't normally have much in common with ultra religious people of any persuasion but she can laugh about it (she wants to train to be a rabbi but her family are very opposed) so it's all good.