CNN’s Irresponsible Reporting: Goldwasser and Regev

I do not regularly read CNN.com and I don’t watch cable at all. So I make no claim to be a monitor or to know CNN’s record in reporting from long experience.

But I decided to check CNN’s reporting of the Goldwasser-Regev murders by Hizbullah while they were prisoners of war. The usual things I hear about CNN’s biased reporting seem to be true in this irresponsible article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/16/israel.swap/index.html

First, there is no mention that Goldwasser and Regev were murdered as prisoners of war. It is possible to deduce it from the article, since they say these Israelis were kidnapped (and thus not killed in action). Yet nowhere does the article mention, find a source to state outrage about, or clarify that Hizbullah murders its prisoners while Israel keeps them alive.

Second, the Hizbullah terrorists and even mass-murderer Samir Kuntar are called militants. If CNN had a commitment to integrity in reporting the news, they at the very least would not call Kuntar a militant. This man, in 1979, snuck into Israel, killed a policeman to avoid detection, and kidnapped a family. He shot Danny Haran in the back of the head while holding him hostage. He smashed four year old Einat Haran’s head on the rocks and killed her. Yael Haran was accidentally smothered by her own mother while hiding in terror and trying to keep the toddler quiet. Yet CNN calls this brave murderer of four year olds a militant. See more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_Kuntar

We’re not asking for much. We’re not asking for Israel to be given preference in reporting. We’re just asking that CNN would report the news.

See article above, “Did CNN Make Improvements to this Story?”

Arab-Muslim Brutality and the Murder of Regev and Goldwasser

Eldad Regev, killed while a prisoner of war.

The difference between Israel and her Muslim neighbors is starkly revealed yet again today in Israel. The Israeli government agreed to a foolish prisoner swap as they have done many times before, releasing mass murderer Samir Kuntar to the Hizbullah in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the war crimes of Hizbullah once again go unpunished.

Ehud Goldwasser, killed while a prisoner of war.

To understand this story, you have to know that the war with Lebanon was provoked by the abduction of Israeli soldiers, including Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in July 2006. These soldiers were captured alive. International law dictates that prisoners of war should be kept alive and treated with basic human rights.

As of today, the families of Goldwasser and Regev were hoping to get their sons back, but certainly pessimistic about them being alive. Sure enough, when the time for the prisoner swap happened, the democratic state of Israel, which is constantly under fire for being too violent, returned the murderer Samir Kuntar alive. But Hizbullah returned two coffins with the mutilated bodies of their prisoners of war. The Goldwasser and Regev families are confirmed in their bereavement today.

And the Israeli government agreed to this prisoner swap, demonstrating a remarkable lack of will and common sense.

The liberal myth of potential peace with Islam takes yet another blow. Yet, as has been the case before, the truth will likely have no impact on world opinion. The world will still be talking about the aggression of Israel.

But a live murderer and two dead prisoners of war should tell us the real story.