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132 Media Studies

increased their ability to use assorted rockets to harass Israel. And they
are better able to protect their launchers from pre - emptive Israeli attacks.
The number of Israeli dead in recent years is in the low hundreds, compared
with the thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel. But body counts are not
the most useful criteria in this analysis. The real measure is the nagging
Israeli sense of vulnerability and the Palestinian sense of empowerment and
defiance. It is a gruesome but tangible victory for Hamas simply to be able

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to keep firing 30 or 40 rockets a day at southern Israel, while Israel destroys

much of the security and civilian infrastructure in Gaza. The frustration in
Israel is reflected in its bombing attacks on the Islamic University and the

Palestinian parliament building in Gaza – symbols of the sort of modernity
and democracy that Israel and the U.S. claim they seek to promote in the
Arab world. Palestinians and Lebanese pay a high price for their “ victories ”
– but until someone offers a more cost - effective way of dealing with Israel ’ s
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violence, we will see this cycle of warfare continue for some time.
This report also polemicizes, but it does so in a more historically informed
way, and it challenges offi cial excuses rather than reinforces them.
In recent years, the conservative Fox News Channel has acquired a
reputation for especially biased reporting of news. It does tell viewers
about a selected set of events, but it usually skews the presentation so
that conservative assumptions get reinforced. Those would include the
following: “ the real problem is not already rich executives taking too
much wealth out of the economy for themselves; the real problem is
immigrants ” ; “ wealthy investors and businessmen are always right; every-
one else embodied in their government representatives are always wrong ” ;
and “ if we let the wealthy play at making themselves more wealthy in
a ‘ free market, ’ good will result; if anyone tries to stop them, evil will
result. ” It is instructive to compare a Fox “ report ” with a regular news
report. Here is CNN on the debates regarding President Barack Obama ’ s
economic stimulus package in the US Congress. The reporter speaks over
an image of President Obama waving to a crowd in Fort Myers, Florida,
on the right.

Yesterday, in Fort Myers, a guy who works at McDonald ’ s was saying how

he needed greater benefits. There was a woman recently unemployed who
was pleading with the President. Ah, she said she wanted her own kitchen,
needed her own bathroom. We saw the President hugging her at some point.
And later today, President Obama is going to be traveling to a constr -

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