In this Sunday's New York Times, reporter Craig Smith wrote 1179 words on the so-called Sheba Farms issue, and after presenting the basics more or less accurately, still managed to omit virtually every key fact. For example, if Sheba were turned over to Lebanon, Hezbollah has already claimed other land in Israel as belonging to Lebanon, and therefore in need of "liberation."
After a CAMERA article criticized Human Rights Watch for implying Hezbollah did not use the Lebanese towns of Srifa and Marwaheen as staging areas to attack Israel, HRW contacted CAMERA to challenge several of the assertions in the article. The HRW letter and CAMERA's response follow.
Christian Century magazine, the house organ for mainline Protestantism in the United States, has refused to correct an incontrovertible misstatement of fact in a column written by its star columnist, James M. Wall.
The perception that Israel's response to Hezbollah attacks was disproportionate, and that indiscriminate force was aimed at the Lebanese population, was largely a result of media reports on the casualty breakdown in Lebanon. But there is plenty of reason to doubt often repeated claims that almost all Lebanese casualties were civilians.
Most remarkable about the Aug. 25 article about Hezbollah is the author's willful omission of key and well-documented facts about the organization's virulently anti-Semitic philosophy and its dedication to the destruction of Israel.
The Washington Post is not always a reliable source for coverage of Israel's war against Hezbollah. The August 13 edition evidences this with its misleading word choices, key factual omissions, and lack of logic.
CAMERA has long criticized Reuters for providing a platform for terrorist propaganda—not only with the photographs they distribute, but with reports from the region as well. Reuters responded by pledging to reinforce editing safeguards. But now, following the war in Lebanon between the Hezbollah terrorist group and Israel, the pledge has apparently been forgotten.
Washington Post news coverage of and commentary on Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon often refer to "the disputed Shebaa Farms" region and "Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms." Such descriptions frequently accompany reports of Hezbollah insistence that it will continue "armed resistance" until Israel ceases occupying Lebanese territory. Yet there is no international dispute over the status of the 10-square-mile area at the intersection of the Lebanese, Israeli and Syrian borders.
