16 March 2007

Given the frequent media criticisms and depictions of Hezbollah instigating a war last summer that Israel did not want, Arab Media Watch is disappointed that the Guardian and Independent were the only British national dailies to report, on 9 March 2007, the revelation by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the invasion of Lebanon was in fact premeditated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2029731,00.html

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2341366.ece

This confirms previous allegations of Israel preparing for a premeditated war long before Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, and using the kidnappings as a convenient excuse to launch the invasion of Lebanon.

Such allegations were reported last summer by the New Yorker, the Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, CNN and the BBC, among other media outlets. Further details are available at:

http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/CountryBackgrounds/Lebanon/Invasion/tabid/330/Default.aspx

Certain columnists and editorials in much of the British media have suggested, during and since the conflict, that the blame lies with Hezbollah for instigating a conflict that would not have otherwise happened.

On 8 March 2007, the Israeli daily Ha'artez reported a leaked testimony by Olmert to the Winograd Commission, the body charged with investigating the 34-day war, in which he admits he first discussed the possibility of war in January 2006 and asked to see military plans in March.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=834572&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5

Now that the matter is beyond dispute, AMW is discouraged to note that those who were so quick to lay the blame for war on Hezbollah have remained completely silent when Israel, the instigator, has owned up to its actions.