Free Republic

What are we seeing when we watch events from the Middle East on our television screens? Is it news or is it terrorist theater? Let us observe two media events which occurred on Sunday in Gaza. Sunday afternoon released hostages and Fox News journalists Steven Centanni and Olaf Wiig spoke before the cameras. The fact of their release and their statements were reported by more than 1,000 news organizations throughout the world. At the press conference, Centanni and Wiig, who were forced by their Palestinian captors to convert to Islam, praised the Palestinians. Centanni said, "I just hope this never...

The Western media’s more than cozy relationship with Hezbollah, which has been leading throngs of pack “journalists" around like pigs on an acorn hunt, has resulted in a myth created out of whole cloth. That myth is the Israeli “massacre" at Kana, Lebanon, and it has fallen completely apart. Let’s first start with the number of casualties. At first 57 to 60 deaths – attributed to Israeli air strikes - were claimed by Hezbollah and of course the U.N., the EU and every single United States network and cable news outlet dutifully followed the party line heaping charges of war...

First, take a look at mob scenes across the Muslim world this weekend, ostensibly--ostensibly--in response to the civilian deaths in Qana, Lebanon (via Yahoo! News). Angry Muslims from Beirut to Gaza to Lahore are setting fire to American and Israeli flags. Burning effigies of Western leaders. Raising their voices in death chants:(Tigerhawk has more shots.)It all seems so...so familiar, doesn't it? Didn't we go through this same routine, the same scripted jihad theatrics, barely sixth months ago over the Mohammed cartoons? From February:The truth about Muslim outrage over Qana is that it's not really about the tragic deaths at Qana--just...

The United States is expected to block a United Nations Security Council resolution denouncing Israel for the killing of about 60 civilians in the Lebanese village of Kana Sunday morning. Israel has said that the explosion in the building that caused the deaths may have been caused by stockpiles of Hizbullah weapons and not by the Israeli attack. The Council is taking a recess at this hour and will resume its meeting in two hours.

Despite the events in Qana, the US is decided in its rejection of an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah. Minutes after speaking on the telephone with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (who currently in Israel), US Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, declared that the United States is not interested in repeating former mistakes. "We need a sustainable ceasefire. We need to ensure that Hizbullah will not remain in a position that allows it to threaten Israeli security and we need to return sovereignty to the Lebanese government. We cannot allow Hizbullah to sit on the border...

Some 150 rockets were fired from the Lebanese village of Qana over the past 20 days, Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel said on Sunday evening. Speaking to reporters, Eshel added that Hizbullah rocket launchers were hidden in civilian buildings in the village. He proceeded to show video footage of rocket launchers being driven into the village following launches. Eshel also pointed out that the building was hit sometime around midnight Saturday night and didn't collapse until about 8 a.m. Sunday morning, leaving an unusual gap in the timing of the events which the IDF was investigating. "It's...

Senior IDF officers told reporters a short time ago that there is a contradiction in the timing of the bombing of the village of Kana and reports of the explosion that killed more than 50 civilians and set off world-wide condemnation of Israel. Air Force Commander Amir Eshel left open the possibility that Hizbullah terrorists blew up the building or that an unknown cause set off explosives which were stored in the structure. He explained that recorded information shows that Israeli Air Force planes bombed the building between midnight and 1 a.m. and that the next attack at 7:30 a.m....

In a rare find, remnants of an ancient Israelite city that dates back three thousand years have been uncovered during excavations in the Israeli Arab village of Kfar Kana in the Lower Galilee, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Monday. The area, located north of Nazareth, is revered by Christians as the site where Jesus is said to have performed his first miracle. The settlement being unearthed existed at the time of the United Kingdom of King Solomon and the Kingdom of Israel following the split between Israel and Judah, in the 10-9th centuries BCE. A section of the ancient city wall...