Leave it to the Western mainstream media to provide Hezbollah and the radical Islamic camp the best possible public relations image makeover after it started a war with Israel. Rather than cast Hezbollah terrorists as the murderers they are, and Israel as the victim of Hezbollah aggression against its statehood (imagine a few terrorist Mexicans murdering American soldiers, kidnapping two others and firing rockets on Houston), some Western media have begun to primp and style Hezbollah’s image.

“The massive, brutal and murderous viciousness of Hezbollah is unfortunately not represented in its full intensity on television screens outside of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Olmert told reporters, adding, “A twisted image is presented, where the victim [Israel] is presented as an aggressor” (Haaretz, July 24). It wasn’t the Arab press Olmert was taking shots at, in which Israel is vilified daily—no, Olmert was talking about Western media—from allied countries like America and Britain.

Yes—the media race to vilify Israel is heating up. You need only dial into National Public Radio (npr) to get a feel for the disproportionate amount of programming favoring the Hezbollah cause and concede Olmert his point. One story after another is tailored to highlight one aspect or another of Lebanese suffering—or, conversely, paint Israel as a callous bully, overwhelming with its firepower on helpless, innocent Hezbollah. Ostensibly frustrated over the lack of objectivity, one listener wrote a letter to the editor asking: Haven‘t the Israelis suffered? She wrote, “If one only listened to npr, one would assume the Israelis never suffer from terrorism” (July 21).

As Sher Zieve explained in an article titled “Media Begins to Move Against Israel,” abc World News Tonight With Charley Gibson has also begun to cast Israel as the aggressor, with reporters coining Hezbollah terrorists as “resistance fighters.” According to Zieve, “[An] abc map showed bright yellow-orange indicators of where Israeli rockets had landed in Lebanon. Missing, however, were the orange (or any other color) designations of where Hezbollah missiles had landed in Israel. From the abc map, one would believe that Israel had experienced no Hezbollah-landed rockets whatsoever—despite the inescapable reality that it has sustained hundreds and, most likely, over 1,000 missile hits. The map also suggested that Israel was carrying out some crazed conflict against the ‘innocent’ terrorists. …

“Then abc had two of its in-Beirut reporters commenting on the ‘destruction and carnage’ Israel was ‘wreaking on Lebanon.’ Apparently not able to contain their bias, these reporters actually ‘interviewed’ Lebanese children. Any mention of the carnage terrorist Hezbollah was inflicting on Israel was glaringly missing from their ‘journalistic’ efforts. Does abc even have any reporters located in Israel?” (Post Chronicle, July 25).

In Britain, the bbc is also being accused of bias against Israel. A July 24 Times Online article titled “The bbc, Marred by Hezbollah” comments rather tongue-in-cheek, “If you watched yesterday’s Andrew Marr program on bbc1, you would have seen a British tv landmark. To judge from its contents, the program was the first to have been edited by the leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

“Most of it was, rightly, given over to the events in the Middle East. But of the four guests interviewed, not one had anything but bile to pour over Israel. … All were treated with deference by Andrew Marr, as he invited them to honor us with their sagacity. … [I]t is entirely improper that not one second should be allowed on what the bbc’s website calls its ‘flagship political program’ for the view of anyone who thinks there just might be some justification for the Israeli action. Not that we should be surprised. The bbc’s coverage has been overwhelmingly one-sided, with presenters and reporters editorializing against what they universally refer to as ‘Israeli attacks on Lebanon.’”

The media outlets would have us believe that Hezbollah terrorists are victims of Israeli aggression, and that Israel is using overwhelming firepower to deal with a handful of murderers and kidnappers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These are the facts that can’t be forgotten:

Fact: Hezbollah initiated this war at the behest of Syria and Iran. It is about who will control the Middle East.

Fact: This war began because Hezbollah crossed a UN-delineated buffer-zone, murdered eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others.

Fact: Hezbollah aims to destroy Israel any way it can, any time it can, by any means it can.

Fact: The UN Security Council Resolution 1559 called for Hezbollah to disarm, and up to the time of the war, Hezbollah was still freely stockpiling arms from Syria and Iran. That’s why hundreds of rockets are being dropped on Israel.

Fact: Many Lebanese want Hezbollah out of the country.

Fact: Even the 22-member Arab League criticized Hezbollah for provoking the current crisis.

Fact: Israel warned all Lebanese in Hezbollah occupied villages and towns to evacuate.

Fact: Hezbollah is using innocent Lebanese as human shields (Hezbollah has been hiding their weapons among homes, schools and mosques of Lebanese civilians. Should an Israeli bomb hit one of these targets, the result provides camera and photo fodder for emotion-packed reports, which undermine the notion that Israel has a right to defend itself and sway world opinion against Israel).

If Israel can destroy Iran-financed Hezbollah infrastructure (it is a mini-state within Lebanon), Russian Kalashnikov assault rifles and Katyusha rocket caches, plus Chinese-made Silkworm missiles, it will also cripple one of Iran’s means of destabilizing the Middle East. What is at stake is the existence of the tiny nation of Israel itself and a race to decide who will control the Middle East.

However, the vilification of Israel by some Western media only inflames Islamic passions. After all, if seeing the effects of this war in our own living rooms is motivating hate against Israel here in America, Canada and Britain, what kind of response do these reports illicit among terrorists? It also provides a pretext for sustained violence against innocent Israelis and further destroys Israel’s image in the international community, placing it on the same level—no, on a lower level—than the terrorists themselves.

How much does Hezbollah pay for this amazing public relations image makeover? Nothing. It’s free, courtesy of some wrong-headed Western media whose reporting is beyond being merely uninformative, to being outright deceptive.