On Aug 27, 2006, at 1:00 PM, Jim Farmelant wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:43:09 -0700 joanna <123hop at comcast.net> writes:
>> Well, I don't know, it seems to me that if Israel can blow up
>> American
>> planes and UN stations, it could also blow up the Iranian embassy. I
>> mean, there's such a thing as an honest mistake, right?
>
> I guess the Israelis could have had an "accident" like the
> Americans had back in 1999 when they "accidently" bombed
> the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. (Who could have imagined
> that they would have put an embassy over there?). I suspect
> that the Israelis had decided that taking on Iran was a bit more than
> they could have handled. In fact this recent war has shown
> the limits of Israeli military power just as the Iraq war has
> shown the limits of US power.
>
>
>>
>> Joanna
>>
>> Joel Schalit wrote:
>>
>>> I hear tell from various sources that Al-Manar had a backup studio
>>> operating out of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, which is where
>>> Nasrallah is alleged to have sat out the war. One can understand
>> why
>>> the Israelis would not target said building.
>>>
>>> Joel
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 27, 2006, at 11:41 AM, Michael Givel wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/
>> 1107AP_Mideast_Guerrilla_TV.html
>>>>
>>>> Friday, August 25, 2006 · Last updated 11:35 a.m. PT
>>>>
>>>> Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV survived attacks
>>>>
>>>> By ZEINA KARAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
>>>>
>>>> BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Its headquarters was leveled, its antennas
>>>> pounded, its transmissions jammed and Web site hacked. Yet,
>>>> throughout 34 days of ferocious fighting between Israel and
>>>> Hezbollah, the group's Al-Manar TV stayed on the air - mocking
>>>> Israeli military power from studios in secret bunkers.
>>>>
>>>> How is a mystery. For security reasons, Al-Manar officials won't
>> say
>>>> where they located makeshift studios. The station stayed on the
>> air
>>>> even after its main offices south of Beirut were flattened by
>> Israeli
>>>> warplanes, beaming out live talk shows with political guests.
>>>> Newscasts were broadcast on schedule.
>>>>
>>>> Now that the war has ended, Al-Manar's public relations chief
>> Ibrahim
>>>> Farhat said the broadcaster would rebuild its bombed-out
>>>> headquarters. But its plans have not yet come together about where
>>>> and how quickly. He said the station was still taking stock of its
>>>> losses.
>>>>
>>>> During the conflict, which began July 12 after Hezbollah killed
>> three
>>>> Israeli soldiers and captured two in a cross-border raid, the
>> station
>>>> routinely aired reports on guerrilla rockets strikes on northern
>>>> Israel and ground battles with Israeli troops.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps the most important broadcasts carried exclusive videotaped
>>>> speeches by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who went into
>>>> hiding when the war began.
>>>>
>>>> And within hours of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the
>>>> fighting on Aug. 14, Al-Manar came out of hiding and into the
>>>> sunshine, its reporters anchoring a live program in the midst of
>> the
>>>> rubble of destroyed buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs.
>>>>
>>>> advertising "A flame that will not be extinguished," read the new
>>>> slogan beneath the station's logo that was hoisted on surrounding,
>>>> bombed-out buildings.
>>>>
>>>> "It (Al-Manar) fought alongside the guerrillas ... fielding a
>> unique
>>>> experience of tenacity with great commitment," wrote George
>> Hayek, a
>>>> TV columnist for Lebanon's leading daily newspaper, An-Nahar. "Its
>>>> employees were like the soldiers on the battlefield."
>>>>
>>>> Farhat said the station was able to continue broadcasting through
>> the
>>>> efforts of its employees. "Certainly, there were many
>> difficulties,
>>>> but the will to confront was bigger and stronger," he told The
>>>> Associated Press.
>>>>
>>>> He said contingency plans to face such a situation were made
>> several
>>>> years ago, after the U.S. decision in December 2004 to place the
>>>> station on its list of terror organizations. Earlier that year,
>> the
>>>> station was blocked from satellite programming in Australia and
>> had
>>>> to struggle with France to keep it from taking similar measures
>> after
>>>> its transmission of an anti-Semitic miniseries was denounced by
>>>> Jewish lobby groups.
>>>>
>>>> The series - "Al-Shatat," Arabic for "The Diaspora" - was based on
>>>> "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - the 20th century
>> anti-Semitic
>>>> text purporting to describe a plan to achieve Jewish global
>>>> domination - and depicted among other scenes the killing of a
>>>> Christian child on the orders of a rabbi so the child's blood
>> could
>>>> be added to matzos for Passover.
>>>>
>>>> On Wednesday, a Pakistani businessman in New York was arrested and
>>>> charged with providing satellite broadcasts of Al-Manar to New
>>>> York-area customers.
>>>>
>>>> "They (Israelis) were trying to silence Al-Manar during peace, we
>>>> knew it was only a matter of time before they tried to do that by
>>>> force," Farhat said.
>>>>
>>>> Al-Manar's headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut was
>> leveled
>>>> in an airstrike in the early days of the monthlong war. The TV
>>>> station went off the air for just a few minutes when hackers broke
>>>> into its transmissions but has since been broadcast without stop,
>>>> despite repeated airstrikes that knocked down transmission towers
>>>> across the country. Israeli warplanes attacked an Al-Manar antenna
>>>> just 15 minutes before the cease-fire took hold on Aug. 14.
>>>>
>>>> Since then, the station, which obtained its license from the
>> Lebanese
>>>> government in 1997 and is watched by many across the Arab world
>> and
>>>> elsewhere, has been broadcasting live programming from secret
>> bunkers
>>>> and bombed out areas in south and eastern Lebanon and the southern
>>>> suburbs, often interviewing women who claim to be the mothers, as
>>>> well as other relatives, of those killed in the Israeli attacks.
>>>>
>>>> Al-Manar also airs blatant propaganda videos of its fighters -
>> often
>>>> firing Katyushas from rocket launchers - anthems to rally fighters
>>>> and marches that glorify Hezbollah guerrillas.
>>>>
>>>> One of the clips shows smiling Israeli generals and prime
>> ministers
>>>> juxtaposed against an Israeli flag, ending with the words
>> "Terrorism
>>>> has found a state." Another shows dead and wounded Israeli
>> casualties
>>>> being evacuated from southern Lebanon, with the words: "Your
>> wretched
>>>> fate."
>>>>
>>>> The clips are signed by Hezbollah's "war media" department, in
>> charge
>>>> of recording battles and operations on the battlefield and editing
>>>> them for propaganda purposes.
>>>>
>>>> Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres recently ridiculed Al-Manar's
>>>> coverage.
>>>>
>>>> "They can sing all the songs they want. We know the realities on
>> the
>>>> ground," he said in an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya
>>>> station.
>>>>
>>>> President Bush said it could take time for the people of Lebanon
>> and
>>>> the world to come to the "sober realization" that Hezbollah lost
>> the
>>>> war.
>>>>
>>>> "The first reaction of course of Hezbollah and its supporters is
>> to
>>>> declare victory. I guess I would have done the same thing if I
>> were
>>>> them," Bush said last week.
>>>>
>>>> Regardless of who won on the battlefield, employees at Al-Manar
>> are
>>>> confident they have won having survived the war.
>>>>
>>>> "I feel so proud that we kept Al-Manar on the air," says Farhat.
>> "And
>>>> they should know they will never succeed in silencing us."
>>>>
>>>>
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