One Step Back

After two strong pieces (see previous post) on Saturday Weekend Edition, Scott Simon and Juan Williams were back to explaining away the horrors of US and Israeli policy in the Middle East. Scott began the analysis by stating the number of Lebanese displaced at 40,000--although this may have been a genuine reading error since later Juan Williams quoted the figure of 800,000 displaced! I found the most depressing part came when Scott Simon asked if the "air campaign" by Israel could in fact weaken Hezbollah, and Juan Williams answered, "but when you’re talking about where missles are stored, when you’re talking about where Hezbollah has more armaments and headquarters, it’s just so hard because it’s hidden among civilian populations which is exactly why Israel says that it has had no choice but to engage in such a massive bombing campaign that has devastated much of southern Lebanon." (As if Israel has no peaceful options.)