CNN has admitted altering its news coverage in Iraq prior to the US invasion in order to avoid being punished or expelled by Saddam Hussein. During the Israeli invasion of Gaza the past two weeks, another incident involving CNN and the news it is reporting has been a subject of discussion. Last week, CNN showed a video purporting to be of a 12-year-old boy killed by Israeli rockets. The scene has been analyzed by a number of physicians and other persons skilled at emergency care and the CPR depicted in the video is not credible. My wife and I looked at it and the boy is not being ventilated, plus the CPR chest compressions are appropriate for a five year old, not 12. They are too rapid and not forceful enough.
Then, it turns out that the supposed victim is the brother of the Hamas TV producer. CNN has defended the video after first removing it from its site.
“It’s absolute nonsense,” Paul Martin, co-owner of World News and Features, said of accusations leveled by bloggers at videographer Ashraf Mashharawi.
“He’s a man of enormous integrity and would never get involved with any sort of manipulation of images, let alone when the person dying is his own brother,” Martin said. “I know the whole family. I know them very well. … [Mashharawi] is upset and angry that anyone would think of him having done anything like this. … This is ridiculous. He’s independent.”
What is “World News and Features ?” Take a look at their web site.
Film-maker Paul Martin, of WORLD NEWS & FEATURES, has gained exclusive access to the men who fire the rockets. Martin filmed with a militant group as they prepared to risk their lives – and his – in a rocket-firing operation. He presents a unique view of the ROCKET MEN of Gaza.
What do you think the chances of survival for a neutral observer would be with “the rocket men of Gaza?” This is a Hamas front and the whole thing is a sham.
ANOTHER VIEW: Here is a unique perspective on Hamas and Gaza.
When Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza in 2007, it cost nearly 350 lives and 1,000 wounded. Fatah’s surrender brought only a temporary stop to the type of violence and bloodshed that are commonly seen in lands where at least 30% of the male population is in the 15-to-29 age bracket.
In such “youth bulge” countries, young men tend to eliminate each other or get killed in aggressive wars until a balance is reached between their ambitions and the number of acceptable positions available in their society. In Arab nations such as Lebanon (150,000 dead in the civil war between 1975 and 1990) or Algeria (200,000 dead in the Islamists’ war against their own people between 1999 and 2006), the slaughter abated only when the fertility rates in these countries fell from seven children per woman to fewer than two. The warring stopped because no more warriors were being born.
Why is there a “youth bulge” in Gaza ?
The reason for Gaza’s endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world’s refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well.
UNRWA is benevolently funded by the U.S. (31%) and the European Union (nearly 50%) — only 7% of the funds come from Muslim sources. Thanks to the West’s largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this unlimited welfare is an endless population boom.
Interesting point of view. We are funding the production of young men whose only future is to die in wars or gang fights. Maybe we should introduce the Gazans to These people.
By the way, Hamas and Hezbollah are rivals as much as allies against Israel. Neither is interested in peaceful co-existence.