Saturday, June 21, 2008

The New Arab Media: In Service of the Enemy

Having touched upon the subject of media bias regarding the Palestinian issue, I would like to shed light on a rather new and dangerous development in Arabic media circles (mostly Saudi-funded) in which Arabic news sources have taken on the role of propagating for the enemy and changing realities in our nation, such that "Israel" is no longer viewed as the enemy. Following up on the daily news, reports, and opinions coming from these media outlets, one comes out with the clear conclusion that "Israel" has been replaced with Syria and Iran (which apparently includes all people of the Shiite sect) as the new enemies of the "Arabs." These media sources have engaged in some of the most grotesque forms of sectarian incitement and hatemongering in order to instill in their viewers and readers a whole new understanding of realities in our nation.

This media campaign has set out to twist and distort all facts on the ground to promote the concept of surrender and submission to the enemy and to viciously attack the spirit of Resistance against occupation and injustice. As such, the Resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq is portrayed as nothing but a collection of proxies engaging in "terror" campaigns and "irresponsible adventures" for the sake of enforcing "foreign" agendas; those "foreign" agendas of course being those of Syria and Iran. The success of the Resistance in Lebanon in 2006 against the criminal "Israeli" war machine is ridiculed and turned into a failure and defeat for Lebanon, while the "Israeli" soldiers captured by Resistance fighters in Lebanon and Palestine are mourned.

In today's Opinion section of Al-Arabiya, Tareq el-Hamid goes on a verbal rant against Syria, complaining that Syria has not had to pay a price for all its actions. Within the article Mr. el-Hamid refers to the Lebanese Resistance as "Iranian Hizballah" in keeping with the aim of portraying our Resistance groups as foreign proxies. The article, in pure propagandistic fashion, ridicules the positions of the Resistance and Syria against "Israeli" and US occupation and hegemony by exposing their current "negotiations" with both governments. Of course Mr. el-Hamid conveniently fails to differentiate between independent negotiations with an enemy aimed at achieving certain nationalistic and humanitarian goals and clear collaboration with the enemy in order to promote this enemy's agenda.

Egyptian magazine Rose el-Yousef wanted to do its part in this interview with Mount Lebanon Mufti Mohammad Ali al-Jouzou. The blatantly extreme sectarianism expressed by both the magazine and its guest had a clear goal; to incite against and discredit any and all true Resistance against "Israel" and to aid in the division and fragmentation of our nation. The actual language used in this interview shall not be repeated here, but I would urge readers to read the interview in order to understand the vulgar nature of those propagandists doing the bidding of the enemy. In this piece, taken from "Israeli" newspaper Yediot Aharonot, al-mustaqbal translates an article essentially celebrating the "values" of the Jewish state, while demeaning our people who are sitting in "Israeli" dungeons by referring to them as "terrorists."

In all these opinion pieces and news articles, the aim is one thing: promotion of surrender and admonition of resistance. In order to achieve success in this endeavor, they must achieve the enemy's objective of stripping our people of any cause. This is why Resistance groups are portrayed as pure proxies with foreign agendas and no real national cause. In addition, "Israel" can no longer be viewed as the enemy, as that would defeat the entire purpose of this media campaign. Therefore, new enemies have to be created to distract the people and turn their attention away from the real threat to our nation. Sectarian incitement and agitation is used to turn our people's aggression inward rather than outward toward the enemy. In essence, these new Arab media outlets are serving the enemy in dividing our people and attempting to quash any spirit of Resistance within our people.

4 comments:

Abufares said...

I want to express my pleasure in reading your blog for the first time. It\'s not whether I agree with you or not that counts (although generally speaking I tend to) but rather that your writing is of extremely high caliber and a much welcomed addition to the Syrian blogsphere.

Nour said...

Thank you for the kind words, as I genuinely appreciate them. My greetings and salutations to Tartous :-).

Maysaloon said...

Nour, it's great to stumble on your new blog. Keep up the good word. I used to have very strong sympathies with the SSNP and still do! :)

Nour said...

Thank you Wassim. I actually consistently read your blog and enjoy your writing very much. :-)