Same boring news

We were all sitting around the hotel room watching the news today and kept seeing the same two stories: Mel Gibson, and the conflict in the middle east. I can't believe the yellow journalism that is going on, even at some of the news stations that are less prone to it.

First and foremost, Mel Gibson apologized, end of story. If he hadn't come out with the Passion movie that has seemed to create such a ruckus, none of this Anti-semitism reporting would have come out in the first place. But because he's a celebrity, and because he decided to make a movie that is extremely accurate to the gospels of the bible, the media has to attack him for what he said while he was (now legally) drunk. Yes, he should have been pulled over, and he shouldn't have been driving under the influence, but he was so drunk that he couldn't exactly control what he was saying at the time. Have you tried to control what you were saying while you're drunk? Now, I'm not anti-Semitic, nor do I believe that people have the right to single people out for what they believe in. That said, I'm moving on to my next qualm with the side of the media I saw expressed today. Or should I say, the only side of the media that was being expressed.

I'm sick and tired of turning on the news and hearing how the poor, little, helpless, and innocent country of Israel is being attacked by the brutish, thoughtless, animalistic, and terrorist-harboring Lebanese. Two Israeli soldiers are captured by Hezbollah militants and all hell breaks loose. Instead of trying to go get the soldiers back in a raid or other less damaging and problematic way, such as we would do and have done when journalists and soldiers have been captured by terrorists in Iraq, Israel instead decides to bomb them back with an over-the-top amount of force and without warning or a grace period. Then, Hezbollah, out of common sense, decides to fight back to defend itself. But no, they're not allowed to do that, they're supposed to just lay there in their lawn chairs and take massive hits and bombings (which, by the way, are WAY under-reported and downplayed) as if they could care less.

Most recently in the news, one of two Hezbollah rockets that were fired at Israel today, dating back to WWII, being highly unreliable and unpredictable, actually struck where it was supposed to, killing an unknown number of soldiers at a military outpost. Well, the extremely biased (even though they keep claiming that they're not) US media jumped all over the opportunity to show how Hezbollah is killing "numerous" "innocent Israelis" with their, what is conveniently being labeled as, "Weapons of mass destruction." Then Israel retaliates by bombing what has now totaled to be over 40 percent of Lebanon. [Source: Fox News Channel, 8/3/06] But that's okay, because the crazy terrorists of Hezbollah have attacked Israel numerous times, and they're not allowed to defend themselves. So they bomb them to death.

Now, I do realize that Hezbollah has gone to some extremes of using humans as shields, but I believe that this is just a way for them to get attention to the growing problem of Israel. Over the years, we as a nation have favored Israel in wars and have aided them numerous times. We have also let them get away with things that should not be spoken of, and we're paying for that now. Israel now thinks that they can get away with killing hundreds, if not thousands of Lebanese civilians and militant members. And the media is going along with the traditional "Israel can do no wrong" method of dealing with what has become a major problematic nation in the middle east. There's now even a commercial airing about Israel, and how we as a nation should "stand with Israel" and continue supporting their actions during this time of crisis in the middle east. The commercial is from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and it states: "Israel is under attack, the civilians living under bomb shelters...I want to add my name to the list of those who will stand by Israel in these trying times...this is your time to stand with Israel in their time of need...I pray that God will speak to your heart, especially at this time, and that you will bless the people of Israel, when they need your blessing and your solidarity more than ever." [Source: http://www.wbur.org/news/2006/59592_20060721.asp] You're asked to donate to the "Emergency Israel Fund" both on their website (http://www.ifcj.org) and on their commercial. You should watch the commercial for yourself, if you haven't already seen it, then come up with your own opinions.

"She says it's so hard, it's so hard.....you're not alone, you're not alone."