Balanced reporting

This is from the Middle East Reality Check Blog, which in turn draws upon this article in The Australian.

"The Israelis have prevented foreign journalists from entering and reporting from Gaza, thereby limiting the scope of the coverage from the Palestinian side. The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, which represents about 400 journalists, has taken to the Supreme Court its petition for access to Gaza, whose borders are sealed both by Israel and, by treaty, by Egypt... While restricting foreign media access to the battle zone, Israel has launched a vigorous propaganda offensive to put its point of view across to the world, with its army unveiling its own YouTube footage of air strikes on Hamas militants loading rockets on a truck to fire at Israel." (Officials afraid of getting blogged down, Lucy Bannerman (Gaza border), The Times/The Australian, 1/1/08).

I urge you to read the rest of the article, here and as said before, if you want a humanitarian perspective from a western doctor who has travelled to the area, read the Chestdoctor blog . Though writing about the West Bank, I think it illustrates well the daily conditions of a Palestinian's life. The link is also in this blog's sidebar. It is beautifully written, humane account, and it is a contained blog. Or hunt out some United Nations reports and so on.

Actually, just read through the lines, or pretty straight out on the Australian article. It seems to speak for itself. Though the commentary from the Middle East Reality Check blog is very incisive.

500 dead, more than 2000 injured, a city and a people literally Cut in Half . "The Israelis have prevented foreign journalists from entering and reporting from Gaza, thereby limiting the scope of the coverage from the Palestinian side." ( Bannerman, L., 2009, Jan 1, Officials afraid of getting blogged down in Gaza. The Australian). To put it mildly.

By the way, Gordon Brown from the U.K. seems to be the only Western politician who is actually concerned about the plight of the people in Gaza with this latest comment:
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate ceasefire, saying the "blame game" could come later

It seems he has the novel concept that the more bombing that goes on the more people will die.

I guess everyone else hums and haas, because they know that inevitably the States will take so long to approve anything, if they approve anything at all, that it will be all over and far, far, too late. From the (Australian) ABC news online site:

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for an immediate ceasefire, saying the "blame game" could come later, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to arrive in Jerusalem today with another peace proposal.

But it is the US that will make the difference, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reportedly cancelled a trip to China, although it is not known if she will be making a detour to the Middle East (Ben Knight, 2009, January 5).

In the same article, our own deputy prime minister says hardly anything at all. I expected more from this government. It seems it is a carbon copy of the last one on international affairs.