DescentBB

wow.. what a deal.

I don't envy any of those people and what they are going thru.

I want to direct a question to Flabby, and so this topic might go in any direction.

Flabby, I don't know how much of the US news you see. I imagine you have seen msn's news or the like. I was wondering how accurately our news it relating what's going on in the Gaza strip?

From what I have seen on the news there are no winners from this move, only losers. And while I doubt it was that wide spread, what CNN translated from some of the Arab "news" sources were not earning any good points for the Arabs.

I would count Israel lucky if they get through this and things remain only as bad as they were before and not get worse. But somehow I think this will just make the terrorists and their supporters even more active.

I get CNN, NBC, Fox, Skynews and BBC World news of the foriegn press. Usually i flick to the BBC and CNN if i'm in front of the telly, but over the last few days i've been checking them all out. Here in Israel we have three main channels that have been covering the withdrawal almost constantly, moving their regular programs to a different frequency.

As a bit of a background i just want you to know that the IDF decided before the operation to let the press have full unconditional access to all aspects of the operation so that there would be no accusations from either side (or the international community) of wrong doing. Also there are representatives from the IDF and the police filming everything. I suspect this is to use in the future as training tools for future pullouts (in the west bank or the Golan) though i'm not 100% sure about that.

First thing i noticed 'cause it smacks you right between the eyes is the difference between the Israeli and foriegn press. The home media is showing absolutly everything, laying it all out raw on the screen from the tears and embraces of the forces and settlers to the few acts of violence. The worlds press however, right across the board, don't put Gaza on air unless there is the threat of blood. I've not seen any (extremely emotional) scenes of soldiers crying in the arms of their fellow countrymen shown abroad. Or maybe i just missed it.

I think this operation will be studied in a few years as the first real time military operation that was given such freedom as far as the media was concerned. Far more freedom than the so-called "embedded" reporters in Iraq. Also a usually very secretive Israel laid itself open, i had hoped that the honesty would have been reciprocated...maybe next time.

Flabby Chick wrote:...First thing i noticed 'cause it smacks you right between the eyes is the difference between the Israeli and foriegn press. The home media is showing absolutly everything, laying it all out raw on the screen from the tears and embraces of the forces and settlers to the few acts of violence. The worlds press however, right across the board, don't put Gaza on air unless there is the threat of blood....

That's because your press is reporting so that people watching can be informed of events.
Our press is in the business of creating sentiment and inciting emotional response so as to compete for audience share and if the events that took place don't compel their viewers to stay tuned...well then it is their job to shape the events so we will want to keep tuned in!

I have a thought...what if we kill our press in a series of bloody mass murders....import some Israeli press teams to cover the event that way we will still get the kind of news we prefer and when the smoke clears we'll be rid of the jackals and leeches that are enabling the slow decay of our society.
It's a win win for everyone!

Flabby Chick wrote:First thing i noticed 'cause it smacks you right between the eyes is the difference between the Israeli and foriegn press. The home media is showing absolutly everything, laying it all out raw on the screen from the tears and embraces of the forces and settlers to the few acts of violence. The worlds press however, right across the board, don't put Gaza on air unless there is the threat of blood. I've not seen any (extremely emotional) scenes of soldiers crying in the arms of their fellow countrymen shown abroad. Or maybe i just missed it.

i've seen non-violent emotional footage with a "this is a very trying time, as many soldiers themselves come from the westbank, etcetc" newscaster voiceover. this is on tv in australia (i most likely saw it on SBS world news). so it is getting through.