Thursday, July 17, 2008

Israel mourns soldiers


Did you know that the people of Israel and Hezbollah have spent the last month killing each other? Neither did I, because to today's media, Angelina's new babies are more important. Perhaps I should start reading The New York Times more often, since they've put together an excellent piece on two Israeli soldiers who died.

JERUSALEM — With solemn speeches and military salutes, thousands of mourners on Thursday buried the two Israeli soldiers whose remains were returned in a long-awaited exchange with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Wednesday.

The funeral of Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser took place in Nahariya, the soldier’s hometown on the northern coast, within view of the Lebanese border crossing where the exchange took place.

Later in the afternoon, the remains of the second soldier, Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev, were interred at the military cemetery in Haifa.

Mourners gathered in the morning heat for the Goldwasser funeral, with the soldier’s family and others taking shelter from the sun under a broad cloth canopy.

Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: “This is not the way we wanted to welcome you. We all dreamed — the families and the state of Israel — to hug Udi and Eldad around the necks and surround them with warmth, and to see the smile on their faces.”
And here's some info about a war that journalists ignored.
The two Israeli soldiers were seized by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006, an attack that set off a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that left some 160 Israelis and more than 1,000 Lebanese dead.

In return for the soldiers’ bodies, Israel handed over five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, who had been held for nearly three decades after being convicted in connection with a deadly and notorious attack that also took place in Nahariya.

As part of the exchange on Wednesday, Israel also handed over the bodies of 199 combatants and infiltrators from Lebanon.

4 comments:

  1. Eh, the New York Times has a history of misinformation. If you read or watch Manufacturing Consent, you will see several instances where they have neglected to include crucial information. Of course, you are right that they are much more newsworthy than most other major media outlets, such as the news on TV.

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  2. Yeah, plus there's that whole "liberal bias" thing...and Jayson Blair...The New York Times, finest paper in the world!

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  3. Eh, the "liberal bias" is a myth read Chomsky and Herman's Manufacturing Consent and I am confident you won't question their bias. I also want to read some "liberal bias" literature myself, just to get a good balance, so far what I've seen hasn't compared to Manufacturing....

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  4. The mainstream media are no more liberal than the conglomerates that own them or the advertisers that pay their bills.

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