HIZBALLAH AND PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY ESCALATING ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA

By Michael Widlanski
Jerusalem, Sunday, 23 July, 2006

Hizballah is now placing an unambiguous "bulls-eye" on the United
States, calling America and its leaders state terrorists, and symbolically
placing America in the same "enemy" class as "the Zionists"-Israel.

"Here is the head of terror," proclaims a Hizballah propaganda film
montage Sunday morning on Al-Manar television, showing the face of President
George Bush.

As faces of dead and wounded children appear on the screen, crude
pictures of bombs rain down on the pictures, all of them labeled "MADE IN
AMERICA."

A similar though less pronounced change has occurred in the media
propaganda of the Palestinian Authority (PA) led by Mahmoud Abbas, which
receives millions of dollars in American aid.

Nazir al-Ghul, anchorman of Voice of Palestine radio, began Sunday
morning broadcasts with a condemnation of American transfers of precision
laser-guided bombs to Israel.

The change in the Abbas regime's view of America is not unexpected,
because the Abbas and his Fatah movement have-for more than a week, at
least-been supporting the killing and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers as a
legitimate form or "muqawwama": "resistance" in Arabic.

A cartoon in the Abbas-controlled Fatah newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida this
week depicted an Arabic holding up a bandaged hand in a sign of victory in
which the fingers were kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
Al-hayat- al-Jadeeda July 19-06
www.alhayat-j.com/char.php?cid=501

The tough anti-Israeli and anti-American attitude of the supposedly
moderate Abbas regime has been largely ignored or excused by Israeli policy
makers and Israeli army intelligence analysts (such as former intelligence
chief Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash) since Abbas publicly referred to Israel as "al'udu
al-sihyouni"-the Zionist enemy-during his election campaign.

Identical terminology is used by Sheikh Hassan Nasserallah, the leader of
the Iranian-financed and trained Hizballah, though Hizballah does so
incessantly and without even a trace of camouflage, as is often the case
with the PA.

Both Hizballah and PA news and interview shows include coverage of the
war in Lebanon and Gaza in which Israel is condemned for hurting innocent
civilians, but neither Hizballah nor the PA has condemned, criticized or
even frowned on the killing and wounding of Israeli civilians by
indiscriminate Hizballah and Palestinian attacks.

"Notice how scared and confused they are," noted a Hizballah commentator
Friday afternoon to his colleague on Al-Manar television as they reviewed
films from Israeli television showing bloodied Israelis against the
background of destroyed buildings in Haifa and Nahariya Israel.

For their part, the Palestinians make no attempt to hide their delight at
the deaths of Israelis in or near Lebanon.

Al-Ayyam, a Palestinian paper controlled by Abbas's Fatah movement,
had a cartoon this week that showed an explosive mine-shaped like
Lebanon-waiting to blow up an Israeli naval vessel.

The largest Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds, which is also vetted by Abbas
and the PA, has featured several cartoons this week showing Israelis burying
themselves in a grave marked Lebanon, in quicksand marked Lebanon, or Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert being hung out to dry on a clothesline.

www.alquds.com/template.php?opt=2

The same newspaper's lead story Sunday morning is about the "martyrdom"
of "a 21-year old youth."

The sympathetic story features a member of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades,
Ahmad Abu-Awad, the rocketeers who have been trying to attack Israeli
cities or Israeli soldiers trying to suppress the rocket fire on Israeli
cities.
© 2006 Michael Widlanski Associates [Material may be cited with source
attribution]
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Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication
whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former
reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times
,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.