The "Other" Front

While CNN and the other 24-hour news services are focused on Lebanon, blood continues to cry out from the dirt of Gaza. Israel, perhaps, hoped to draw attention away from Gaza by attacking Lebanon.

This is not to minimize the death and destruction visited on innocent Lebanese civilians.

Just now on CNN they finally report on Gaza. Talk about dead Palestinians. Nah... a dead Israeli soldier and, of course, those Palestinian gunmen attacking the hapless Israeli troops. No mention that Israel is the aggressor here--they invaded Palestine, not the other way around.

And, of course, no mention of the 23 dead Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli military operations in these victims' own land. As Nidal al-Mughrabi reports, this is the worst day of casualties for Palestinians in a long time. al-Mughrabi, at least, can note their passing before the flames and explosions of Beirut drown out all memory of them:

Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders were meeting, witnesses said.

Wednesday's death toll was the highest in a single day since Israel on June 28 launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to force militants to free an abducted soldier and halt rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

It was also the highest number of Palestinian deaths in one day since September 2004.

A series of deadly Israel air raids coincided with an armoured sweep into the central Gaza.

I wonder whether these are al-Mughrabi's real words. Or did the editor blot out the more honest and raw reports and replaced with them "news-standard" terminology that all news media impose in reporting events--ostensibly to remain objective.

Related Links/Opposing Views

• Necessary Steps for Israel
  
• War & Piece
  
• Helpless Lebanese pay the price for their weakness
  
• Pressure Builds for Hezbollah
  
• White House Urges Restraint by Israel
  
• Behind Crisis, a Push Toward War
  
• Bush makes pig jokes, Beirut burns
  
• Bad Moon Rising
  
• Beautiful Madness
  
• The obvious success of the "Noboby fucks with da (fill in the blank)" policy
  
• Israel steps up Lebanon Offensive
  
• Israel prepares to invade the Lebanon
  
• Bush the Bystander
  
• Hezbollah Raid Opens a Second Front for Israel
  
• Frustration Grows on Frontier
  
• U.S. Options in Mideast Limited