(By Ray D.)
Sex sells and Stern magazine is apparently hard up for cash. Don't believe us? Just look at this cover if the Viagra isn't working. Now that is a real attempt to please the million readers and reach-out to the "Bild" pinup crowd.
Seriously though. There is a war in the Middle East and we at Medienkritik expected to see something (shall we say) slightly different on the cover of Germany's most widely read political weekly. The Blue Lagoon was not quite what we had in mind. On the other hand, if you can pull your eyes away from nature's bling-bling for just a moment and look down at the lower-right-hand corner, there is a small subhead about Hezbollah. And to be completely fair, Editor-in-Chief Andreas Petzold, winner of our 2003 anti-Americanism prize, did dedicate most of his weekly editorial to the conflict and the cycle of violence and hatred that he believes it has spurned. Here's a quote:
"It is understandable that the Jewish state, after 58 years of fighting for its existence doesn't want to look on without acting. Nevertheless: If it is most urgently about destroying those rockets-, the real threat to the life of the Israelis-, why must entire sections of Beirut be reduced to rubble and ash? Would have been so dishonorable to trade the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers for a handful of Lebanese.
A handful of "Lebanese?" An interesting choice of words to describe Hezbollah terrorists...
And how can Mr. Petzold ask about civilian casualties when Hezbollah is so obviously using the Lebanese people, (and anyone else they get a hold of - including UN peacekeepers,) as human shields? Does he honestly believe that Israel is intentionally targeting civilians? Petzold's patently false assertion that Israel is destroying entire sectors of Beirut testifies either to his profound ignorance or a perverted belief that Israel is engaged in a campaign to kill innocent women and children.
The fundamental problem with Mr. Petzold's editorial can be identified as what we would call the angry left's cycle of ignorance. Fortunately, not all of us were born yesterday. Some of us actually remember that Israel has attempted to appease and compromise and negotiate and exchange prisoners time and time and time again for decades on end. In exchange, Israelis have gotten suicide bombers, rockets, invasion and international scorn.
And why should we assume that putting another big, wet, UN band-aid on the region will do anything but exacerbate the problem and buy more time for Hezbollah and its supporters in Damascus and Tehran? Perhaps Mr. Petzold and other German media gurus should read what Claudia Rossett recently had to say about past efforts to solve the crisis the multilateral way:
"Hezbollah deliberately provoked this war on July 12 by kidnapping Israeli soldiers inside Israel’s borders, and has been launching rockets into Israel from a massive arsenal that under U.N. writ Hezbollah is not even supposed to possess. That was not the deal under which Israel, in keeping with U.N. wishes, withdrew entirely from southern Lebanon in 2000. The U.N. promise was that Hezbollah would be defanged and that U.N. peacekeepers would help the Lebanese government reestablish control over Hezbollah-infested terrain inside Lebanon.
Over the past six years, Israel honored its commitment to peace. The U.N. — disproportionately — required in practice no such compliance on the Lebanese side of the border. The “peacekeepers” of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, called UNIFIL, sat passively looking on, costing about $100 million a year and doing nothing to stop Hezbollah from trucking in weapons, digging tunnels, and running the armed protection rackets with which it has kept a grip on swathes of Lebanon, including the southern border with Israel, parts of the Bekaa, and southern Beirut. Before the current fighting, UNIFIL had most recently distinguished itself for a run-of-the-U.N.-mill financial swindle involving a contingent of Ukrainian peacekeeping troops. On that subject, whatever laws might have been violated, the U.N. has — as usual with U.N. scams — refused to release details. Now, UNIFIL peacekeepers have been reduced to casualties of the crossfire, while Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges that we take what the U.N. has done wrong already, and do more of it.
With its false promises, and disproportionate deals for “peace,” the U.N. left Israel exposed to the attack that has now come, and a war that Israel did not seek. Like America when attacked by al Qaeda, Israel has been fighting back. In response, U.N. officials have come close to trampling each other in their stampede to the media microphones — not to admit the U.N.’s own failure to stop Hezbollah, not to apologize for administering a phony peace that incubated this miserable war, but to denounce Israel."
Unfortunately, in the German media world, and particularly at publications like Stern, there is remarkably little criticism of the UN (particularly when compared to criticism of the US), even in cases of massive incompetence, bungling impotence and outrageous waste. How many Germans know that it cost $100 million to support UNIFIL? How many critical articles have been run in German media on the performance of UNIFIL and the expansion of Hezbollah over the past several years? It is this chronic bias and unwillingness to explain historic context that has strongly contributed to Germans' rejection of Israeli actions. So it shouldn't really surprise anyone that 75% of Germans polled find Israel's actions "inappropriate" while only 12% see them as "appropriate" and 13% don't know. Opinions like those expressed recently by Charles Krauthammer are frighteningly rare in German and European media. The resulting views speak for themselves.
As they say: Ignorance is bliss. And never stare at the sun...
UPDATE: The Qana tragedy is playing predictably in the German media. Almost no one is asking why Hezbollah chooses to place rocket launchers and other military assets in cities full of vulnerable civilians. Once again, Israel is being handed the majority of the blame. This article in the SZ (in German) is a typical example in which the author completely fails to acknowledge Hezbollah's cynical, reckless use of civilians as human shields. There are many more articles with much the same tone. The German blog No Blood For Sauerkraut has a more balanced take (in German).
What a coincidence! Just this morning I was preparing for publication an article in which G. K. Chesterton addressed precisely our situation. Almost a century ago in his regular column in the Illustrated London News. he responded to those who wondered why, as one of the most prominent writers of the day, he did not sign on to each and every fashionable cause. His response was blunt:
For "one or two passes in the mountain," think of news services such as Reuters, AP and AFP, as well as the one-sided coverage of the news from Iraq in papers such as the NY Times.
Elsewhere in his article, Chesterton gave examples of situations when in retrospect these "periodic ramps of righteousness" concealed nasty agendas (such as the Boer War). In the case of the Middle East, we need look no further than the terror many elites have of terrorism striking at them personally and at their nation's thirst for oil. Israel's real problem isn't its behavior. It is that its behavior is too civilized and its land sadly lacking in oil.
--Michael W. Perry, Editor of the soon-out Chesterton at War: Militarism and Pacifism in the Writings of G. K. Chesterton
Posted by: Inkling | July 29, 2006 at 09:51 PM
The "why must entire sections of Beirut be reduced to rubble and ash?" meme is getting pretty old now. Just another indicator of how journalists everywhere can't seem to be bothered with little details like facts.
Posted by: Don Miguel | July 29, 2006 at 10:16 PM
Don Miguel, they do know what the facts are, they were the ones who created them.
Posted by: Mike H. | July 30, 2006 at 06:48 AM
Andreas Petzold
"Der Haß auf beiden Seiten ..."
"Das lässt sich nicht nach einfachen Maßstäben wie Gut und Böse oder
Recht und Unrecht bewerten:..."
"Tausende Tote, Krüppel und Verletzte werden auf beiden Seiten den Hass lebendig halten. Die tragischen Bilder im TV-Sender al Jazeera einen aufs Neue das arabische Lager. Selbst Sunniten und Schiiten, sonst einander zutiefst suspekt, solidarisieren sich. Israel und damit auch die Vereinigten Staaten sehen sich einer frischen ideologischen Front gegenüber."
Britta Petersen
"In Afghanistan droht ein Bürgerkrieg - weil die US-Truppen wie Besatzer auftreten und die Taliban wieder mächtig sind.
Blutjunge, nervöse Soldaten mit dem Finger am Abzug verbreiten mehr Angst und Schrecken als alt gediente Mudschaheddin.
Wie lang noch wollen die USA einem Land, das in seiner Geschichte bisher jeden ausländischen Besatzer durch zähen Widerstand abgeschüttelt hat, demonstrieren, dass es nicht den geringsten Respekt für seine Kultur und seine Bewohner hat?
Wer so unverhohlen das Recht des Stärkeren demonstriert, darf sich nicht wundern, wenn Islamisten binnen kürzester Zeit einen gewaltbereiten Mob mobilisieren können. "Ich fürchte den Augenblick, in dem meine Landsleute zu der Meinung kommen: Die Amerikaner sind auch nicht besser als die Russen - und wieder den Dschihad erklären", sagt ein Afghane, der lang in Deutschland gelebt hat. So bedroht die Arroganz der Weltmacht USA den Erfolg des Wiederaufbaus.
Die Deutschen und andere Europäer müssen jetzt die Sympathie, die sie sich durch ihre behutsame Arbeit bei den Afghanen erworben haben, in die Waagschale werfen und auf ein anderes Auftreten der US-Truppen dringen.
Wer war in den vergangenen 25 Jahren Freiheitskämpfer und wer ein Verbrecher?"
Christian Schütte, Andreas Petzold, Britta Petersen (bildet Journalisten in Afghanistan aus) sind erschreckend typische Journalisten. Daß ein Christian Schütte den Antiamerikanismus in dem Artikel der Britta Petersen nicht erkennen kann, stimmt mich sehr pessimistisch.
Wie Petzold richtig schreibt, gibt es eine Solidarität auf der anderen Seite. Er nennt sie das "arabische" Lager. Selbst Sunniten und Schiiten würden sich gegen Israel solidarisieren. Mit diesem Label "arabisches Lager" drückt er sich davor, präzise zu gucken und zu ananlysieren, wer sich denn hier wirklich solidarisiert.
Frau Petersen sieht in der Arroganz der US-Soldaten die größte Gefahr. Sie glaubt tatsächlich, das Verhalten der Soldaten würde menschen dazu bringen, Selbstmordattentate gegen das afghanische Volk zu begehen. Nervöse junge US-Soldaten sind mehr zu fürchten als Gotteskrieger? Der Realitätsverlust dieser Leute kann doch deutlicher nicht gezeigt werden.
Und die Krönung ist, daß ein anderer Journalist (Schütte) hier im weblog postet und Petersen's Artikel verteidigt (den muß man mal im ganzen lesen!!!). Es ist schlimmer als ich dachte. Es ist entmutigend. Unsere Journalisten sind nicht in der Lage, die Propaganda der Terroristen zu begreifen. Wie Nick Robertson (CNN) macht man sich zum Hampelmann. Israel und die USA stehen alleine da. Daß deutsche Medien den Konflikt im Nahen Osten nicht begreifen und vor lauter Angst, sich gegen das "arabische" Lager zu stellen, mit den Wölfen heulen, ist nicht nur unmoralisch, sondern schwächt Israel. Solange kein europäischer Druck kommt, schwächen wir die Positionen Israels und der USA. Dadurch verlängern sich alle Konflikte. Für Israel wird das tragisch sein. Ich hoffe auf die Weisheit Merkels, die hier im Unsichtbaren agiert, weil die deutsche Öffentlichkeit durch unzählige Petzolds und Schüttes gegen Israel aufgehetzt wird.
Es ist doch eine schwachsinnige Satzhülse zu behaupten, es gibt nicht Gut und Böse, Recht und Unrecht. Da muß man doch mal drüber nachdenken. Petzold meint eben, auf dem ersten Blick sei Israel das Böse, aber man müsse da genau hingucken. Israel ist weder böse noch im Unrecht. Da man in deutschen Medien schon so viele Jahre der palästinensischen Propaganda aufgesessen ist, traut sich doch keiner mehr, aus diesem Gleichklang auszuscheren. Niemand will wie Theo van Gogh enden. Der Karikaturenstreit hat gezeigt, wie gefährlich die Wahrheit ist. Haß auf beiden Seiten? Da liegt Petzold falsch. Es gibt sicherlich aus Israelis, die hassen, aber es ist eine unverschämte Verharmlosung, den Haß auf Seiten der Extremisten, Terroristen und Fanatiker in der islamischen Welt auf die gleiche Stufe zu setzen. Die arabischen Sender sind voller Haß-Attacken auf Juden. Man muß sich nur mal die Mühe machen hinzuhören. Es gibt genug Übersetzungen. Diese Kultur des Hasses gab es auch in der Nazizeit. Da schallte es aus allen Medien, wie minderwertig Juden sind. Normalbürger wuchsen mit diesem Gift auf, so daß sich heute Menschen fragen, wie war das möglich, das waren doch alles völlig unauffällige Leute. Wer diesen Haß nicht begreift, der unsere heutige Welt ergriffen hat, hat nichts begriffen. Warum gibt es denn eine Hizbollah? Was ist denn deren Ziel. Warum kämpfen Menschen für die Auslöschung Israels? Wie kann das vergleichbar sein mit den Gefühlen aus israelischer Seite? Da ist eine riesige Masse gegen Israel. Und Petzold hat weder das Wissen noch den Mut, Israel beizustehen.
Wenn das Böse die Amis sind, wie Petersen denkt, dann ist die Welt ja nicht so schlimm, aber wenn das Böse unbegreiflich ist, im Dunkeln agiert, sich weltweit arrangiert, Menschen haßt, dann kommen wir in eine Welt, wie wir sie vor dem WW II hatten: Die anderen haben die böse Ideologie nicht erkannt und begriffen und mußten in einem Weltkrieg zurückschlagen, was vorher mit weniger Opfern möglich gewesen wäre.
Geschichte wiederholt sich, weil die Menschen sich nicht ändern.
Auch mir ist es unerträglich, die Opfer auf libanesischer Seite zu sehen. Aber es schürt keinen Haß gegen Israel in mir, sondern nur tiefe Verzweiflung, daß die Hisbollah zu lange von der Welt hingenommen worden ist. Hat Petzold wirklich Zweifel, daß man nicht zwischen gut und böse unterscheiden kann? Genau darauf baut das Recht auf. Wenn wir diese Fähigkeit nicht mehr haben, könnten wir keine Gesetze machen.
Posted by: Gabi | July 30, 2006 at 09:58 AM
Iran was once the dominant middle-eastern power of Persia. The government of Iran wants to attain that importance and power again. It uses a fanatical religious muslim and anti-western approach for this purpose. Iran also develops an atomic bomb to strengthen its political and military leverage.
Beside supporting terrorist activities in the western world, Iran also is a strong supporter of the extremist palestinian faction of Hezbollah, providing financing, training, and weapon supplies. Hezbollah is based in Lebanon. Iran's and Hezbollah's initial military target is Israel.
The US has close ties with Israel, but beyond that it wants to limit in principle the growth of Iran's fanatical and terroristic muslim power. Therefore, it supports Israel in its fight against Hezbollah. The US is also in favour of Israel continuing the fight and decimating Hezbollah to the largest extent possible. Lebanon and Israel are the meat in the sandwich, getting squeezed between Iran's aggression carried out by Hezbollah and the political resistance of the US.
The European Governments with their generally leftist attitudes (based on utopian egalitarian principles) are reacting in a typical naive, appeasing fashion to the actions of Iran. They are closing their eyes to the future dangers of a powerful muslim state in their neighbourhood, a state with a declared hatred for all western values.
The Europeans call on Israel to stop fighting. They also limit political measures to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In all this they are supported by Russia and China, who are in favour of any development that limits the power of the US and therefore increases their own relative power in the world.
What will the historic consequences be of European appeasement and of its opposition to American initiatives to stop Iran?
Gunter Schaule 31/07/06
Posted by: Gunter Schaule | July 31, 2006 at 09:37 AM
Regarding the magazine cover, FKK Woche must be coming up soon. At least they have their priorities straight: keep those Ya-ya's and Hoo-hoo's protected.
Regarding the situation in the Middle East, let's not forget that this current situation was started when Hezbollah "militia" violated Israel's sovereignty, and not only kidnapped two Israeli citizens but also killed 8 other Israeli citizens (3 on Israeli soil) while they were taking the two hostages.
I think this little tidbit, which got (not) suprisingly little news coverage, speaks volumes:
Hezbollah surprised by onslaught
A senior Hezbollah official has said that he did not expect Israel to react so strongly to the group's capture of two Israeli soldiers two weeks ago.
"The truth is... let me say this clearly... we didn't even expect [this] response ... that [Israel] would exploit this operation for this big war against us," Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told the Associated Press.
His comments were the first time that a leader from the group has publicly admitted that it miscalculated the consequences of the July 12 cross-border raid that seized two soldiers and killed eight others.
He said that Hezbollah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel.
"In the past, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending in commandos into Lebanon and kidnapping Hezbollah officials or briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon," he said.
Israeli strikes have reaped death and destruction on south Lebanon Komati also said that his group had expected negotiations to swap the soldiers for three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it had in past prisoner exchanges.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_hezbollah
This is, of course, the reason you do not negotiate with terrorists. Apparently too many people still don't get it.
Posted by: Scott_H | July 31, 2006 at 11:16 AM
Oh, I forgot. There's one comment by Komati that is just classic spin:
"...we didn't even expect [this] response ... that [Israel] would exploit this operation for this big war against us..."
"...exploit this operation..." To paraphrase, "All we did was kill and kidnap a few Jews, Israel is the real evil for using that as an opportunity to punish us."
Night is day, and day is night.
Isn't that a hoot?
Posted by: Scott_H | July 31, 2006 at 11:23 AM
Great job guys, keep it going strong!
Our media in Europe and America, even those on the right are being manipulated with great skill by a deceitful and dangerous radical element from Iran to Syria and every single Islamic Fascist leader.
Iran started this purposely on the day they were to respond to Europe. Notice how little attention we all pay to Iran's Nuke ambitions now. Remember, they wanted to respond on Aug 22nd, some significant religious intonations abound on this date.
Secondly, they generate thru well-oiled propaganda machines the sad, sad pictures of death to a dumb media that eats it up and regurgitates it on to us, the public and we are expected then to express disgust for Israel.
Our political leaders and leftist media hype this minute by minute on TV, hour by hour. We are beaten down with it daily.
Yet where was the outrage in Sudan? CNN International, where was your arrogance and outrage at an Islamic government who has killed hundreds of thousands!?!
We may be in the minority of opinion. But WE ARE RIGHT! We are at war. Every nation, from India to Thailand, Israel to UK, Afghanistan to America is constantly under attack by the most sophisticated propaganda machines of hatred and villification this earth has seen since Hitler himself utilized the same techniques to villify the Jews and then villify his enemies.
We must do all we can to wake up our media. We should post the pictures of the dead, the dismembered, the hands cut off, the heads cut off by all these religious fanatical leaders and their followers all around the world.
Why does the media put up shots of dead Shia when Israel accidently kills them? Yet when the Shia and Sunni intentionally blow up, mame, torture and murder innocents CNN, ABC, NBC and even Fox will not show the brutal pictures of death at the hands of Islamic crazed lunatics?
We are losing this war to a crazed bunch of religious wackos who are using our own media against us, who are using our higher sense of moral ethics against us.
The peace negotiations of Israel got them over 1000 innocent Israeli men, women and children dead.
India - over 150 people dead
Iraq - Daily, upwards to 100 people dead
Sudan - daily genocide and land grabs by Arab militia on the part of an Islamic government - hundreds of thousands dead, millions moved off their land.
Our media is so blind, falling into the trap of propaganda precisely because they have no spiritual compass of which to guide them. They're easily manipulated and play the part of the fool to Islamic radicals.
These radicals quickly call the media in - see, see, come here - see how evil Israel is. But when the Islamic radicals kill, cut off limbs and chop off heads in war zones they do not allow the media into their dirty and disgusting areas - such as Sudan.
We are in a worldwide war and its time the Free World wake up.
Posted by: Yeshooroon | July 31, 2006 at 11:50 AM
"We are losing this war to a crazed bunch of religious wacko..."
I want to make a slight alteration - we are losing this war due to propaganda, by a crazed bunch of religious wackos..."
They manipulate our media better than Hitler did. Our media, secular and equivacol on all issues, refuses to see that we are at war around the world.
Our political leaders need to start pointing out all the death and destruction around the world caused by Islamic fanatics. Our leaders need to openly challenge our own media who are failing us - to wake up, start reporting the death and destruction and the actual genocide taking place in Sudan.
Both of the demonstrations in Lebanon and Gaza were started by the terrorist and religious leaders. They tell their sheep to go protest - and they do.
Please notice how it was not Millions like the Cedar Revolution, but only a few thousand.
We are being manipulated. Frankly we all need to write our media and tell them to stop pandering to terrorist and start reporting the truth.
Posted by: Yeshooroon | July 31, 2006 at 11:58 AM
Read this:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html
Posted by: Gabi | August 01, 2006 at 08:29 AM
Would it be possible to remove the picture you have at the head of this report. It is not a plesanst sight when one visits this web site. Maybe replace it with the cover of Stern!!
Posted by: wc | August 02, 2006 at 09:53 AM
I happened to notice this article on the Bild cover. Are bombs commonly found left at the, I presume, rail stations or inside the cars? A machine translation makes the occurrence sound bland, like it's almost an everyday occurrence. Kind of like their bragging about having 4.5 million travelers a day and so-far no 'KABOOM!' A,’ Don’t worry while traveling, it's not terrorism,' because they presume the bombs were placed by a disgruntled passenger or for political reasons, as opposed to being put there by one Germany’s more zealous Muslims.
Posted by: Eg | August 03, 2006 at 11:00 AM
Would it have been so dishonorable to trade the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers for a handful of Lebanese.
8 Israeli soldiers were killed during the same raid, you fucking moron. Of course that's not 'dishonorable' in your book, since it's only a bunch of 'aggressors', all of them Jews on top of it. God, these people drive me nuts with their complacent BS.
Posted by: simakperrce | August 05, 2006 at 12:16 PM
This is SO funny. I can imagine David and Ray D. foaming at the mouth, finding the cover so disgusting, and wanting to cover up the cover with his hands, perhaps draw a burqa on the woman. But then he realises that this is a free country, and nudity does not bother the people here, and that the cover is viewable by all, including children.
Poor David, what can you do? What is this free society coming to? Where has the Islamic style censorship gone?
Hehe.
Posted by: Proletarian | August 25, 2006 at 10:35 PM