7 ms·

Have you seen any criticism of the Iran or Syrian regimes on al-J? Have you seen any criticism of Hamas or Hezbollah? Are these guys really beyond reproach?

hasenj 16y ago
> Have you seen any criticism of the Iran or Syrian regimes on al-J? Have you seen any criticism of Hamas or Hezbollah? All the time. > Are these guys really beyond reproach? What? Have you seen anything of Al Jazeera? probably not. Now, does any western media channel regularly host speakers from Hamas? I doubt it. Al-Jazeera always interviews people from the Israeli side (and they get a lot of heat for it).
- dfaasdfasdf 16y ago
  > Have you seen anything of Al Jazeera? probably not. Please do not make any assumptions about me, I have seen plenty. For example, when al-J threw a birthday party to Samir Kuntar and called him a hero. Samir Kuntar is a guy who was doing time in Israel for killing a 4-year old girl by bashing her head with a rock. > Al-Jazeera always interviews people from the Israeli side (and they get a lot of heat for it). You're comparing guys like Samir Kuntar to Israeli government ministers?
  - hasenj 16y ago
    See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure. > You're comparing guys like Samir Kuntar to Israeli government ministers? No, you are. You're also implying the Israeli government ministers are "the good guys", which they are not. To put it more objectively, Al-Jazeera is an Arabic channel, supposed to be supporting Arab causes, like Palestine. Israel is the enemy here. So, network X is supposed to be endorsing a cause where A is the hero and the victim, while B is the evil aggressor. Yet, X interviews people from the B side all the time and gives them a chance to voice their views. I've yet to see any American media outlets do the same. I remember a long time ago, a Hamas spokesman appeared on CNN for a few minutes, and the title was reading "Spokesman of Terror?".
    - nitrogen 16y ago
      Maybe I should cloak manipulative fabrications as questions more often. I thought about providing some ridiculous startup-related examples, but couldn't bring myself to do it.
    - Locke1689 16y ago
      See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure. You're both a little wrong and right here. The grandparent is right that journalists shouldn't be outright supporting viewpoints. He's also correct that it's generally agreed that Samir Kuntar was responsible for several deaths in his orchestrated kidnapping of an Israeli family (Wikipedia, I had never heard of this incident before this conversation). However, the Al Jazeera network head then admitted that the behavior of the Beirut office was wholly inappropriate and should never happen again.
  - enry_straker 16y ago
    True. How can you compare a nation and it's minions who are conducting a terrible subjugation of an entire group of people who made the mistake of being born there. Silly.
    - talsraviv 16y ago
      As an Israeli I was really hoping Hacker News could be the one online forum where I didn't have to hear generalizations about my country's right to exist. I respect your opinion and I'm sure there's more complexity and historical awareness to mutually discuss, but please keep the snarky one-liners to Reddit.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - ajays 16y ago
        Repeating this, once again: Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. Criticism of the Israeli government's policies does not question Israel's right to exist. One should not blindly support one's government. We all know how that turned out in Europe in the 30s.
        talsraviv 16y ago
        Asking someone not to generalize is not the same as claiming someone is an anti-semite. I appreciate your clarification that you're not questioning Israel's right to exist, I read too much into it. Finally, thank you for helping this thread comply with Godwin's law.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
        Locke1689 16y ago
        Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. What? No one said that. Is this like a knee-jerk response or something? Truly shameful.
  - teyc 16y ago
    Your account is less than a day old. Are you a HN regular?

hasenj 16y ago

> Have you seen any criticism of the Iran or Syrian regimes on al-J? Have you seen any criticism of Hamas or Hezbollah? All the time. > Are these guys really beyond reproach? What? Have you seen anything of Al Jazeera? probably not. Now, does any western media channel regularly host speakers from Hamas? I doubt it. Al-Jazeera always interviews people from the Israeli side (and they get a lot of heat for it).

dfaasdfasdf 16y ago
> Have you seen anything of Al Jazeera? probably not. Please do not make any assumptions about me, I have seen plenty. For example, when al-J threw a birthday party to Samir Kuntar and called him a hero. Samir Kuntar is a guy who was doing time in Israel for killing a 4-year old girl by bashing her head with a rock. > Al-Jazeera always interviews people from the Israeli side (and they get a lot of heat for it). You're comparing guys like Samir Kuntar to Israeli government ministers?
- hasenj 16y ago
  See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure. > You're comparing guys like Samir Kuntar to Israeli government ministers? No, you are. You're also implying the Israeli government ministers are "the good guys", which they are not. To put it more objectively, Al-Jazeera is an Arabic channel, supposed to be supporting Arab causes, like Palestine. Israel is the enemy here. So, network X is supposed to be endorsing a cause where A is the hero and the victim, while B is the evil aggressor. Yet, X interviews people from the B side all the time and gives them a chance to voice their views. I've yet to see any American media outlets do the same. I remember a long time ago, a Hamas spokesman appeared on CNN for a few minutes, and the title was reading "Spokesman of Terror?".
  - nitrogen 16y ago
    Maybe I should cloak manipulative fabrications as questions more often. I thought about providing some ridiculous startup-related examples, but couldn't bring myself to do it.
  - Locke1689 16y ago
    See, the thing is, you're obviously biased towards Israel and you're endorsing the Israeli side of the story. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but clearly the Lebanese side of the story is that he's a resistance figure. You're both a little wrong and right here. The grandparent is right that journalists shouldn't be outright supporting viewpoints. He's also correct that it's generally agreed that Samir Kuntar was responsible for several deaths in his orchestrated kidnapping of an Israeli family (Wikipedia, I had never heard of this incident before this conversation). However, the Al Jazeera network head then admitted that the behavior of the Beirut office was wholly inappropriate and should never happen again.
- enry_straker 16y ago
  True. How can you compare a nation and it's minions who are conducting a terrible subjugation of an entire group of people who made the mistake of being born there. Silly.
  - talsraviv 16y ago
    As an Israeli I was really hoping Hacker News could be the one online forum where I didn't have to hear generalizations about my country's right to exist. I respect your opinion and I'm sure there's more complexity and historical awareness to mutually discuss, but please keep the snarky one-liners to Reddit.
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - ajays 16y ago
      Repeating this, once again: Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. Criticism of the Israeli government's policies does not question Israel's right to exist. One should not blindly support one's government. We all know how that turned out in Europe in the 30s.
      - talsraviv 16y ago
        Asking someone not to generalize is not the same as claiming someone is an anti-semite. I appreciate your clarification that you're not questioning Israel's right to exist, I read too much into it. Finally, thank you for helping this thread comply with Godwin's law.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - Locke1689 16y ago
        Criticism of the Israeli government's policies is not antisemitic. What? No one said that. Is this like a knee-jerk response or something? Truly shameful.
- teyc 16y ago
  Your account is less than a day old. Are you a HN regular?