The other side of the story

I seriously believe that you can only make up your own mind if you try to get the widest picture possible. All media is biased in some way and the wider the picture you get, the less biased your own opinion will be.

The following article, which might be said to be anti-american by some, is talking about the rejoicing of Palestinians that is seen on the TV and tries to give a few comments on a) what was seen there, b) what might have been behind those cheers.

http://electronicintifada.net/coveragetrends/rejoicing.html

A few quotes:

_Whatever a group of 20–40 Palestinian children happened to be doing yesterday morning in Nablus or Ein Al-Hilweh Refugee Camp in Lebanon is no more representative of all Palestinians than the Klu Klux Klan rally — which happened recently just down the road from where I live, in St. Paul, Minnesota — is representative of all Americans.

[…]

That Israel has used “excessive force” to suppress the current Palestinian uprising against 34 years of its military occupation is a fact according to the United Nations Security Council, other UN bodies, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, and the US State Department. However offensive the images of the small groups of Palestinians that were celebrating may be, the fact is that all those depicted in the images — if they are under 34 years of age — have known nothing but military occupation for the entirity of their lives.

[…]

A current figure for U.S. aid currently given to Israel is $3 billion per year, which includes $1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.8 billion in military aid._