Wow. FOX News is starting to get to me. I used to be a fan of theirs for a while yet lately I've only been satisfied with a few shows. Now after what I just heard I'm thinking this channel either has problems or they need to get some new staff.

Julie Banderas is her name. She was questioning about how the UN stands in the situation between Israel and Syria and she asked if there was any other country from the UN who could jump in and help Israel keep the peace. Keep the peace?!?!? That is such BS. They are the ones doing most of the damage creating most of the hate. She should be fired gone, no more reporting from her for she is full of crapola. I am definitely starting to lose my faith in FOX news. Israel is not trying to keep the peace. They are murdering children and innocents.

You are aware that Hezbollah was the one who started this by sending rockets into Israel, not to mention the same things happening in Gaza.

Israel was the first to shoot rockets. Am I wrong?

Hamas kidnapped a soldier. Then Israel invaded and attacked Gaza so Hezbollah kidnapped a soldier. Then Israel bombed Lebanon which Hezbollah replied with their rockets.

Here is a time line, thanks to Aljazeera. It supports my view that the kidnapping came first followed by Israeli bombing.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...13C4F29C9B.htm

Hezbollah and Hamas have been shelling Israel for some time now. Even BEFORE the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli soldiers.

Here's the timeline of the conflict since the first of the year:

Jan 4, 2006 On January 4, Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke, leaving the leadership of Israel and the new Kadima party in the hands of Ehud Olmert.

Jan 26, 2006 On January 26, the radical Islamist Hamas movement won an upset victory in Palestinian Legislative Council elections, threatening to end about 40 years of Fateh-PLO leadership of the Palestinians and to completely ruin hopes for peace with Israel. Hamas spokesmen sent mixed signals, but vowed never to recognize Israel and never to give up their claim to all of Palestine. Donor countries suspend direct aid to the Hamas until they are willing to recognize Israel and participate in peace process. Subsequently, a mechanism is agreed upon to pay salaries to PNA employees and give emergency humanitarian aid, but it is not implemented. Hamas smuggles in cash through the Rafah crossing with the connivance of European monitors in order to pay salaries.

March, 2006 Over 40 Qassam rockets fall on Sderot in March, this number increases in the next months. IDF responds with shelling of launching sites and IAF raids to kill leaders of Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah Al-Aqsa brigades involved in the attacks.

March 28 Ehud Olmert elected PM of Israel, heading Kadima party coalition

May 11, 2006 Palestinian Prisoners' in Israeli jails issue document of national unity calling for a state in West Bank and Gaza Strip and right of return for Palestinian refugees. Hamas government rejects the document and Hamas prisoners who signed it repudiate it. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he will hold a referendum on approval of the document if the factions cannot agree. On June 28 a revised prisoners' document is issued, supposedly agreed to by Hamas and Fatah. However not all factions agree and Abbas decides to hold a referendum.

June, 2006 Israeli targeted killings in Gaza and West Bank continue, while Hamas fires about 90 Qassam rockets into Sderot and other Western Negev communities. Seven Palestinian civilians having a picnic at a Gaza beach are killed by an explosion attributed by Palestinians and HRW to an IDF shell. IDF denies that it was shelling the beach at the time, and points out that shrapnel recovered from the victims does not come from IDF shells.

June 25 Following announcement of a "truce" agreement by the PNA, Hamas kidnap Israeli soldier from Israeli army outpost inside Israel, and kill two others. They demand release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel refuses to negotiate, demands release of soldier. Israel

June 27 Hamas, Fatah sign Palestinian Prisoners' Document, supposedly cementing national unity. Israel begins operation Summer Rains, invades Gaza strip to recover kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and stop Qassam rocket fire..

July 12 Hezbollah terrorists cross the blue line border with Lebanon, attack an Israeli patrol, killing 3 and capturing 2 soldiers. Additional soldier dies the following day and several are killed when a tank hits a mine, pursuing the captors. At the same time, Hezbollah began a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel. In subsequent days, Israel carried out massive but selective bombing and artillery shelling of Lebanon, hitting rocket stores, Hezbollah headquarters in Dahya quarter of Beirut (see Beirut Map) and al-Manara television in Beirut, and killing over two hundred persons, many civilians. Hezbollah responds with several hundred rocket attacks on Haifa, Tiberias, Safed and other towns deep in northern Israel, killing 13 civilians to July 18 (See Map of Hezbollah Rocket Attacks) , and a Hezbollah Iranian supplied C-802 missile hits an Israeli missile cruiser off the cost of Beirut, killing 4. Hezbollah rocket also sinks at least one foreign neutral ship and damages an Egyptian one. G-8 meeting calls for cessation of violence, return of Israeli soldier and disarmament of Hezbolla in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and UN Security Council Resolution 1680.

http://www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm

It's ALL the fault of Hamas and Hezbollah and the countries and leaders who support them. It's time to end this thing. NOW is the time. No more false ceasefires that don't mean anything to these nutcases.

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

nope. You're source conveniantly neglects to mention that on the morning of the 12th Hezbollah initiated mortar and rocket attacks into israel, attacked IDF forces inside Israel and killed 3 soldiers and then kidnapped 2.

I'd say that Hezbollah starting it all.

OK. I guess I didn't hear enough of that news to understand that the cease fire was not truly met. Apparently they were firing rockets before Israel's bombing of Lebanon. That somewhat changes my view on their offensive. Thanks for the info. Although I still don't like how it's going in Lebanon and I wish the US would not support the killing of innocents, it is not as unprovoked as I thought. It just got worse.

The reporters (like Julie Banderas) are just talking heads - they basically read whatever comes across the tele-prompter. The people writing the scripts are mostly the "managing editors". Some reporters are their own managing editors (Wolf Blitzer on CNN, O'Reilly on Fox) - but most of 'em are just talking heads.

In Fox's case, there's a "vetting" process for managing editors - and they also have "writers" that are told what to write and how to say it. The "spin" enters into play in very subtle ways sometimes, although the most common is pretty obvious - "spin by omission". An example of this can be found in JP5's post, in the paragraph titled "June 2006" - it tells you that IDF denied it was shelling the beach at the time, but it fails to tell you that IDF later admitted that they were responsible for the incident. Whether that "spin" was intentional or not, is an open question (and I didn't mean to prejudge that it "is" intentional - I'm just using that as an example of news that's "spun" because it doesn't tell the whole story).

But other forms of spin are also common - the choice of words for instance. If you were a writer and you had to choose between talking about "terrorists" and "insurgents", which would you use? The former connotes an illegitimate targeting of innocent civilians, while the latter suggests something closer to a legitimate resistance movement. At this point in time, the word meanings are specific, but back a few months ago there was a time when the two words were used more-or-less interchangeably, and it was the managing editor's choice which picture he wanted to paint.

Fox, in general, aligns with the "conservative" view to world events (or, in the case of domestic politics, that of the Republican Party). While, a station like MS-NBC tends to emphasize the "liberal" view to world events (or, in the case of domestic politics, that of the Democratic Party). It's exceedingly difficult to find a truly "neutral" news source. The best we can do, most of the time, is to listen to both ends of the spectrum, and try to read between the lines to separate the wheat from the chaff (or the truth from the spin, as the case may be). And, I would definitely recommend getting some international news sources too, 'cause most of the stuff here in the US comes from one or two major sources (the AP's and Reuters' of the world), including the pictures and the general outline of the various stories.

Julie's not too bad, in the global scheme of things. I could definitely think of some more despisable personalities on Fox. She's gotten a little heavy recently though, don't know what's up with that (maybe she's getting paid too much)....

Nor do most (or any?) US media sources reveal, for their consumers' enlightenment, that on June 24 two Palestinian brothers (one a doctor) were kidnapped by Israeli forces - this, of course, before the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit by Palestinians. But that would not sit too comfortably with the narrative under construction, now, would it?

Here's another aspect of the timeline context to consider: by the time Hizbollah lauched their illegal and terrorist attack on Israeli forces inside Israel (and in the illegally occupied Golan Heights as well), on July 12, 52 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza from June 27. This does not include those slaughtered before, on the beach etc., or those 50+ who have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since July 12.

Nearly all civilians, of course. 'War crimes' according to Amnesty International.

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

We have to make clear that also Israel has the duty to make compromises and finish their attacks against the Libanese population. Of course Hizbollah kidnapped two soldiers, but the reaction wasn´t rational at all. This conflict nearly seems to be planned and organised ago...