[Peace-discuss] Letter to DI

[David Green]

The DI’s exclusive reliance on AP articles to inform readers regarding the Middle East and the Israel/Palestine conflict in particular often leads to gross distortions. In general, the emphasis is on Arab terrorism and Israeli suffering, regardless of the context of Israeli occupation and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, neither of which are discussed in any depth.
  For example, the DI writes headlines that grossly sensationalize events with propagandistic language. More specifically, on February 15th the DI carried an AP article titled “Hezbollah’s threats echo across the globe; Israel on alert.” One would think that it is Israel that is occupied, and that it is Lebanon that invaded and destroyed Israel in 2006. 
  In addition, the article contains the following unproved assertion: “Hezbollah has retaliated in the past for Israeli attacks 
 The 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires (that killed 85) followed Israel's capture of a senior Hezbollah leader, Mustafa Dirani 
” This often-repeated fabrication is intended to demonize Iran, and is part of a larger campaign to promote an attack on that country. It has been most recently deconstructed by Gareth Porter in The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080204/porter). There is no evidence that Hezbollah perpetrated this bombing.
  The DI owes its readers a more accurate rendering of both historical context and current events in the Middle East. It should be an embarrassment to a “world class university” that its newspaper does no more than repeat the propaganda of the mainstream media. The editors owe their readers a retraction and an apology.

       
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