Press coverage concentrates on Israeli proclamation
CAIRO: In a blood-red headline, Al-Masry Al-Youm features the news of the Israeli decision to continue its offensive on Lebanon for another month, “Tel Aviv: The war will continue for 30 more days.
“Israel decides to expand its ground operations . the Security Council will not reach a decision ‘before days,’ read another headline. A front page picture shows a funeral where a large crowd of Lebanese men, bearded sheikhs in robes and shaved plain-clothed citizens are all huddled around a dozen cloth-wrapped bodies on stretchers.
The message the independent Al-Masry Al-Youm seems to be sending is simple and clear, one could argue, as the war rages on, more Lebanese innocents are killed, in south, east and central Lebanon not just in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs. Meanwhile the Security Council is silently watching. What are at stake here, it seems, is Lebanese lives, as Al-Masry Al-Youm chooses to put it, in agreement with other opposition and independent media who took a similar approach to war coverage.
Al-Masry Al-Youm is only one example. Independent newspapers are yet again primarily focusing on the reluctance of the United Nations’ Security Council and Arab governments to impose a cease-fire. Arab governments have not gone beyond the level of verbally, almost mildly and apologetically, condemning the Israeli air strikes, praising each other’s positions or sending limited aid into Beirut, as the city’s infrastructure is burnt down.
“We are not asking for a full-fledged war with Israel, or even a military engagement in Lebanon, writes analyst and columnist Amr Al-Shobaky but for an effective peace deal instead of the “failure [of Egypt] to manipulate the course of peace as Israel pounds on Lebanon . [Egypt’s leadership is acting] in a mild and disappointing fashion.
On the other hand, the national newspapers focus on Israeli damage and the negative impact the war has had on the Jewish state. Perhaps this is an attempt from the side of the national media to curb the growing anger of the man on the street. Then again the average Egyptian citizen has been constantly bombarded for the past few weeks by satellite television images of disemboweled children, wailing women and burning rubble on stations like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
Al-Ahram reports that 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed and at least 15 were wounded and that Israel, in a first since the beginning of the Israeli-Lebanese exchange of fire, had to evacuate one of its cities near the borders “because of rockets, clearly Hezbollah’s but Al-Ahram left this piece of information for the reader to figure out. The name of the Shiite militia group is rarely mentioned in any of the headlines, and many of the Lebanon-related stories.
A lone soldier, his nose apparently injured and covered by a patch, is the picture Al-Akhbar chose to put on its front page coupled by a large caption reading: “Breaking the nose of Israel.
The picture featured on Al-Ahram’s front page shows an Israeli Jew covering his face and shedding tears for one Israeli soldier killed in the south of Lebanon, according to the caption.
Other front page news includes that of an Egyptian ship carrying a full load of humanitarian aid on its way to Lebanon “at President’s Hosni Mubarak command. In another news item, Lebanese Premier Fouad Seniora praised Mubarak’s “stand and support for Lebanon and its people.
“The visit of the Egyptian convoy to Lebanon proved that Lebanon is no longer alone; and that it is supported by a national Arabic front, Seniora was quoted by Al-Ahram as saying. “Egypt does not give up on its Arabic brothers, the premier added.
Columnists in independent newspapers focused almost primarily on the war; even when the editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm chose to tackle another issue, he began his column with an apology for not writing about Lebanon.
“Where are all the communication and media ministers in the Arab world? pleads columnist Sabry Ghoneim in Al-Masry Al-Youm, referring to what he deems the “failure of the Arabic media to promote the Lebanese cause. “What are they doing in regard to the events in Lebanon?
Ghoneim argues in his column that the media leaders in the Arab world have failed the Lebanese cause; leading to the success of “the propaganda of the Zionist lobby. According to Ghoneim, “the Zionist lobby succeeded in covering up the massacres that occurred in Lebanon . the truth never reached the European or the American street.
“They have not seen the pictures of mass killings and murder . pictures of destruction . pictures of explosions or children buried under the rubble, writes Ghoneim. “We have expected that the Arabic media ministers would do something about this. But they didn’t, said the author, in spite of the resources available through Arab-funded satellite television channels.
