perspective

I've been watching Mosaic (offered up by LinkTV) since April. This daily half-hour show is a compilation of news reports from television stations in the Middle East. It's interesting to try to figure out which ones are state-run propaganda, and which are the result of a "free press".

I've learned to cringe when the video feed from Tehran (Iran) appears; it frequently takes an extreme anti-Jewish view of whatever's happening in the region. It's almost as bad as watching Fox "News" and expecting impartiality. Example: When the Israeli settler in the West Bank shot and killed three Palestinians, the Tehran anchorwoman in a hijab (Islamic head scarf) matter-of-factly said that (quote) "Jews are taught to hate Arabs in school," and showed photos of older Arab women weeping, faces strained.

It's apparently okay for a Palestinian to sneak into Israel and blow himself up with as many Jews as possible (in the name of "martyrdom" - a very overused term) but an international jihad must be issued if a Jew attacks a Palestinian. Then again, Israeli retaliation is often very lopsided, which only fans the hatred.

In this country, we'd see "TV-Tehran" as inflammatory rhetoric, yet that's the only thing the Iranians are allowed to see, so they Must Believe It. TV-Tehran never presents both sides of the story.

Did you know that Arab maps commonly don't show Israel? How would you feel if USA were replaced by something else - not even acknowledged? Arab maps frequently show "Palestine" and not Israel. See science.co.il for an Israeli view on the Arab-Israeli conflict. This reminds me of a book I read (years ago) where it became clear that there is no way that conflict will ever be settled; it seems that no one in that part of the world is willing to bury the hatchet, or let bygones be bygones. They simply cannot live peacefully with one another. That's why The Puppet's War (projected to end in 2009) is such a farce: the second we leave, it'll disintegrate into civil war (unless they're broken into 3 countries first: Kurd-Iraq, Sunni-Iraq and Shiite-Iraq). And then they'll be attacked by their neighbors (Turkey, Iran, Syria). That's just the way things are done Over There.