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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!raju
From: raju@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Raju Bhatt)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: Lebanese Shiites & Israel
Message-ID: <2005@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 22:56:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.2005
Posted: Tue Jul  9 22:56:48 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 20:09:21 EDT
References: <600003@ur-univax> <1947@ut-ngp.UTEXAS> <691@lsuc.UUCP>
Organization: University of Texas at Edwards Aquifer
Lines: 98
Keywords: Wall Street Journal,Palestinians,Christians
Xref: watmath net.followup:5078 net.politics:9845

Dave, Dave, Dave.  I read the Wall Street Journal myself and I like it
for the business news that it gives, but for international news, NO WAY!
WSJ's coverage is heavily slanted towards the U.S.  If you were not able
to see this, then maybe you'd better start reading other sources.  And
to think all along I thought I was debating with a man who read unbiased
news (at least some of the time)! Shame on you Dave Sherman!

 > The Wall Street Journal put it very well in this article of May 30:

 > 	"Something seems to be missing as violence in Lebanon
 > 	 rises to a new crescendo. For weeks now, Christian
 > 	 forces have been in retreat from advancing Shiites;
 > 	 the number of Christian refugees is approaching
 > 	 100,000, though precise estimates are hard to find.

Sure they're hard to find because much was made up.  Keep the Christians
in the West believing that the Christians in Lebanon need Western help.
After all, look at what those X@#$ Moslems [sic] are doing to those poor
Christians.  When Vietnam was split up, the same tactic was used by the
"interventionists" to make their fellow Christians believe that the Indo-
Chinese Christians were suffering or would suffer.

 > 	 And since May 19, Shiite forces have been moving in
 > 	 on Palestinian camps, including Sabra and Shatilla,
 > 	 around the Lebanese capital... the latest despatches
 > 	 say hundreds of people have been massacred.

Again WSJ with some sensationalism by using the word 'massacred.' We all
hear (or read) about sports teams getting 'massacred' by an opposing
team, so the use of 'massacre' was used to excite the senses.  After all
the Christians can feel good that those X@#$ Moslems [sic] are killing
each other.

 > 	"Where are all the moralists now? They descended on the
 > 	 Lebanese story in droves when, in September 1982,
 > 	 Phalangist forces, moving past Israeli troops, drove
 > 	 into Sabra and Shatilla in search of Palestinian
 > 	 guerrillas and in over 36 terrible hours killed
 > 	 hundreds of people, including many women and children.

How did the Phalange manage to "move past" the Israeli troops?  Dressed
like missionaries with Bibles and flowers in their hands?  Were the
Phalange after guerrillas or were they after Palestinians?  After all,
who was there to protect them, but the Israeli army.  And we know how
the Israelis and Palestinians get along...

 > 	 Some accused the Israelis, in effect, of aiding and
 > 	 abetting the massacre...

I believe more than some (and even in Israel).  The Israeli justice
system played a drama for the Western (especially American) media.

 > 	"But you don't hear the moralists now.

 Probably because many aren't believing all the "facts" that are "coming
 from Lebanon."

 >	 ...					They aren't
 > 	 blaming the Syrian defense minister. They aren't
 > 	 asking for a commission of inquiry in Damascus. They
 >	 aren't heaping on the head of President Assad the
 > 	 kind of hateful language they leveled at Prime Minister
 > 	 Begin.

I guess you believe Syrian troops surrounded those two camps.  If you
do, then please don't return to the net until you get that cleared.

 >	 ...	And they appear to take no notice whatsoever
 > 	 of the fact that Syria's brutal consolidation of
 > 	 its hegemony in Lebanon is taking place under cover
 > 	 provided by Moscow.

 And I guess American support for Israeli actions in Lebanon was alright
 in your eyes...I forgot you got the "it's us against them" mentality.

 >	...		After a while it makes one wonder
 > 	 whether it was the deaths of innocent Palestinians
 > 	 that was worrying the moralists to begin with, or
 > 	 the possibility of a Western victory."

Obviously, Dave is one to think all the 'moralists' are anti-Western."If
you don't like it, abandon ship." Since American support for Israel was
against the Lebanese people [yes, even Palestinians and Shiites belong to
the human race; I dislike calling Palestinians "Lebanese people", since
they are in refugee status], then 'moralists' should do what they can to
stop this kind of action in the future and help to remedy the situation.
{Note:  I don't speak for all those who call themselves 'moralists'.}

 > (Wall Street Journal, May 30/85, "Deafening Silence". Ref. CJN 27/6/85 p.2)
 > Yes, there's a double standard. It's quite visible in Mr. Bhatt's
 > misleading accusations.

Who misleading whom?  The Wall Street Journal has mislead Dave Sherman.
And as good Christians would say, "Please give David Sherman the wisdom
that he needs to see the Truth."  I don't want to single Dave out - any
person who uses the Wall Street Journal (seriously) for international
news does not deserve to get involved in a discussion on foreign affairs
unless he meets a fellow follower of the WSJ.