Interesting Nugget In Kalb Israel-Hezbollah Media Analysis

Soccer Dad doesn't think Kalb went far enough. For example, there's this:

Kalb noted that a reporter from Australia's Herald Sun took and smuggled pictures out of southern Beirut showing confirming Israeli charges that Hezbollah indeed hid its military equipment among the civilian population. Why didn't he criticize the rest of the media for failing to pick up the story? Did he find it incredible?

And then Kalb for no particular reason drops this jaw-dropper:

When bin Laden wanted to help tip the 2004 presidential election in the U.S. to the incumbent, George W. Bush, he criticized Bush in a taped message delivered to Al-Jazeera.

Yes yes yes, that's how lefties think, of course. bin Ladin loves Bush because he aggressively fights Al Qaeda, and hates Democrats because they wisely wouldn't fight much at all. So of course a tape implicitly endorsing Kerry must be a double-bluff to encourage people to vote for Bush.

Right.

Does bin Ladin have a history of demanding that people do the opposite of what he really wants and rely on the power of reverse psychology, or does he tend to make his demands directly?

Seems to me it's the latter. I don't hear him, for example, urging Israel to "stay, stay in the occupied territories... yes, please do... it's your right..."

This is a common thing with left-leaning Jews. They tend to support Israel's right to defense -- fair enough. But then they offer opposite policy prescriptions and analysis for the US and America -- Israel is acting prudently when it fights terrorists, but the US is "merely encouraging more terroirism" and "playing into bin Ladin's hands" when they do the same.

A bit of intellectual consistency on this basic point might be useful.

posted by Ace at 12:29 PM

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