But in todays Australian the letters to editor section, with regard to the Middle East conflict, has 6 out of 7 letters pro Israel – whereas the balance is normally a bit more even. So Rupert for one must feel a need to be hammering his point home – 'specially Saturdays edition – more readers relaxed and receptive. It's a worry.

Meanwhile the IDF behaves like a rabid dog off the chain – bombings in the Christian sector of Beirut as well – there may even be some Christians around the world who are starting to think that's a bit rude.

Now that's not fair and balanced. The Israeli's are not that crude with their handling of the media-more nuanced somehow. The media is not only encouraged to report the truth as seen from an Israeli perspective, the Media is actively encouraged to remain embedded by …getting shot and blown up if not.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0608/S00043.htm
"Lebanon: Press Under Fire During Israeli Offensive

Wednesday, 2 August 2006, 4:45 pm"

http://www.cpj.org/attacks03/mideast03/israel.htm…
"t…wo journalists were shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fire. Others encountered harsh treatment at checkpoints or had to contend with army-imposed limits on their movements."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0419-03.h…
An Israeli soldier shot and killed a cameraman with Associated Press Television News who was covering a skirmish between troops and rock-throwing Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday, witnesses said.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment but said it was looking into the shooting. "

(Haw haw…What! We're not Animals. It was AN ACCIDENT!!)

I think it's pretty obvious that Israel has used up it's get out of jail free cards for good. This was just to blatant, too arrogant, too cruel, to spiteful, to careless and too damn obvious in the eyes of the world.

They have inherited the worst aspects of the US. After 911, the US used it as an excuse to attack Iraq. After Hezbollah captured 2 IDF soldiers on what appearst to be Lebanese soil, Israel are attascking Lebanon and killing Lebanese.

Israel is loosing this battle against a small militia group resisting the illegal occupation of Palestine. The state of the art Israeli military loaded with accurate and unlimited weapons (given in charity by the US and its western allies) have failed to even scratch the surface of this small militia group Hezbollah. Israel has weakened in all state aspects it even fails to win hearts and minds of its own people let alone others. One can rightly agree that Israel has already lost this battle irrelevant of the final outcome.

The war crimes and state level terrorism that Israel has committed on Lebanon will no doubt have damaged Israel from root upwards, and no longer will this illegal state be looked upon with sympathy after their own experience during world war I and II, but it has also made their enemy more stronger with greater respect from around the world. Hezbollah is the new emerging force.

British MP casts doubt on David Kelly suicide

An opposition member of the British Parliament has alleged a Government scientist who cast doubt on intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction may not have taken his own life.

A judicial inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly in July 2003 concluded the one-time UN weapons inspector and expert on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs committed suicide.

He did so after he was named as the source of a BBC news report suggesting that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" intelligence in the run-up to the US and British invasion of Iraq four months earlier.

"Today, I challenge that conclusion," wrote Norman Baker, from the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

"I do so on the basis that the medical evidence available simply cannot sustain it, that Dr Kelly's own behaviour and character argues against it and that there were serious shortcomings in the way the legal and investigative processes set up to consider his death were followed."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1694…

Their constant sniping does, of course, play right into Rupert and Blair's hands. Rupert would love to see the BBC dismembered and then be able to foist his "fair and balanced" news approach on the Brits and anyone else unfortunate enough to have to listen to or watch the drivel. Blair has been determined to exact revenge on the Beeb for having dared to suggest the case for the Iraq war was embellished (which it was). The death of the Brit WMD expert who allegedly leaked the material on which the Beeb's case was based was not enough to stop the PM going on the rampage and forcing through savage cuts at the BBC. Now it seems he will sit on Rupert's board. Job well done, Tone, here's the reward.

The joke of all this is that the alleged "sole democracy" in the Middle East is uncomfortable with any media organisation that reveals its atrocities and contempt for human rights.

According to the NYT, Israel's attacks have definitely brought the Lebanese together, though not for the reason they thought or on the side they had hoped:

In an event that would have been unthinkable a few months ago, in this country where politics is locked into religious lines, the Maronite Catholic patriarch — the spiritual leader of the most pro-Western populace — convened a meeting this week of religious leaders of other communities, Shiite and Sunni Muslims and several varieties of Christians . . . Their joint statement, condemning the Israeli “aggression,” hailed “the resistance, mainly led by Hezbollah, which represents one of the sections of society.”