;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l2,15,75,192,2,20,25,127,15,0,
;.l3,20,75,192,2,25,127,20,0,
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:  5/20/96
RE:    Qana
REF:   TIME Cover 5/20/96 (Walsh) 
       / Reporters Lisa Beyer - Jlem; Laura Marlow "Qana"
CC:
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TEXT: "fumed Lieut.-General  Amnon Lipkin-Shakak, the IsraelDefense Forces Chief of Staff.  Prime Minister Shimon Peres, whileacknowleging "We are terribly sorry," declared, "In my opinin,everyhthing was done according to clerar logic and in a responbleway.  I am at peace."
l2
COMMENT:  Well-written.  To be a good polemical journalistwithout lying, one needs a fine aesthetic sense of collage. In the context of the death of 100 people, Peres' civilizedremarks, like the huffy epithet "fumed", have a practicallyobscene impact.
l1

TEXT:  "Isreli commadner say their 155-mm howitzers fired two tpesof shells, proximity- and impact-fuzed, at a two-to-one ratio inrandom order.  But according to the UN, the prximity shells, whichexplode above ground and can inflict fearsome injries, convergedalmost exclusively over the compound.
l2
COMMENT:  The text indicates that such shells constitute ananti-personnel weapon.  If personnel are within a building,would those shells be more or less likely to causecasualities.  If less likely, then it would seem that theywere fired in the belief that the target was out-of-doorsguerillas, not indoors refugees.
l1

TEXT:  "Hizbollah ...whose Islamist guerillas has been retaliatingfor civilian deaths by firing Katuysha rockets into northernIsrael."          
l2
COMMENT:  Depends on when you start keeping score.  Neglectsto mention that those rockets were aimed at apartmentbuildings.                                  
l1
TEXT:  "The commandos were further north, beyond the 'red line'demarcating the [Security] zone.  They were either reconnoiteringsources of hostile fire, as Israel says, or sowing "verysophisticated and deadly minefields" as suspectged by TimurGoskel, senior political advisor to UN forces in Lebanon. 
l2
COMMENT:  I assume the quote is from Goskel.  It's a prettyserious charge, especially in the context of the growingpolitical incorrectness of minefields. As such, it shouldhave been further developed; to simply state it with noattempt at critical analysis raises the possiblity that itwas merely slander by a political advisor without sufficientmilitary training to asssess credibilty. 

l1                                           
TEXT:  "For his part, Peres, quoitng Isreal's founidng PrimeMinister David Ben-Gurion remarked, "It's not important what thegoyim say, It's important what the Jews do.""
l2 
COMMENT:  Nicely placed quote, even if the context in whichPeres quoted it might have been quite remote from the subjectunder discussion. 
l1
GENERAL COMMENT:  In this incident, what was required from thestandpoint of global-village PR, was one of those pseudo-sincereexpressions of regret and assumptions of no-cost responsibilitythat Bill Clinton is so good at.  Peres, apparently seeking tocurry favor with the IDF, made a most incongruous show of stonewalling it.  The Global Village of Goyim, which might haveaccepted that from John Wayne or Eitan or Rabin, must surely feelthat, with all the Nobel Prizes and hugs they've given Peres, they have a right to expect him to play the Guilty Jew.       





