Worldfocus

01/06/2009 :: 07:32:11 AM
Joseph Says:

While I do not agree with all of Israel’s policies, the incursion into Gaza is one that is long overdue. How long should they wait while a terrorist organization fires rockets repeatedly into their backyard before they retaliate. It is unfortunate that innocent people are caught in the cross fire but remember that Hamas has been firing rockets at innocent people for years and the world said nothing condoning the practice. So now when Israel defends itself it is bad. If a terrorist group was to fire rockets at London, Paris or Rome, do you think those countries would just sit back and do nothing. Some may say that Hamas is fighting for a return of their lands but who attacked whom? How did those lands wind up in Israel’s possession in the first place? How quickly we forget the chain of events that led up to this nightmare. And to add insult to injury, Hamas took over Gaza by force killing their own brethren. They do not care much for life and are putting their own people in harms way by entrenching themselves into the civilian populations. Plus, the population voted them into power and condone their actions so how innocent are they?

Instead of having outrage against Israel for not wanting daily rockets to land in their cities, where is the outrage for the Hamas government that is putting their people in harms way? Where is the outrage for allowing them to continue their terrorist activities without any ownership of their actions? Where is the outrage for not honoring a brokered peace agreement? How can you trust a group that has no respect for life, it’s people or the world? They do not want peace and made that very clear. They have one goal and it is to eliminate all Jews. How is that OK with the world?

01/05/2009 :: 11:44:23 PM
Wolfgang Moller Says:

In the light of history I confess that Israel is dumber then the US.
Remember the Warshaw ghetto ? This is the Palestinian Ghetto and the Israelis are the makers of it. How many Palestinians are in Israel’s prisons? And Israel complains about 200 or so political prisoners in Cuba ?
Israel will not find peace but by diplomacy.
Egypt as an enabler is paid by the US and so are others.

Shalom.
Wolfgang Moller
San Jacinto, CA

01/05/2009 :: 09:46:01 PM
Desia R Duncan Says:

Why is it we have not heard about the fact that the Israeli’s were the one’s who orchestrated the attack by Hamas? The Israeli’s have blocaded the borders of Gaza making prisoner’s of the Palestinians and preventing them from building themselves up economically and receiving much needed supplies? It is a shame that I have to find alternative news sources because mainstream news does not present the news in a fair and objective manner. Why did you not have a Palestinian on to present their perspective after you had the Israeli Consul? What is your objective? It is not to present the news in a fair and unbiased manner. I thought I might at least be able to depend on World Focus for a fair and unbiased presentation, but I guess that is not the case. I thought you would be more objective than the mainstream stations, but I guess you are working under the same constraints as the mainstream media.

01/03/2009 :: 02:44:46 PM
FM Says:

The fact is that every news source is biased. As long as there are extremist opinions on each side, nothing will change and the region will never see peace. Neither side is right or wrong, neither side has a “right” to the land. Let’s just continue arguing, that’s a sure-fire way to bring about change

01/02/2009 :: 05:44:20 PM
Len Lewis Says:

Worldfocus is doing a very poor job of explaining to the public what is truly happening in Israel and Gaza. The reporting is extremely biased against Israel and is often factually incorrect, a typical characteristic of the American network media and NPR. Here is a glimpse of reality…
Sderot sits less than a mile from the border with Gaza , and has been under almost daily rocket attack for months. Rory I. Lancman, Assemblyman from New York, met the leaders of the Israel Trauma Coalition there and toured their facilities. He visited a nursery school where a missile crashed into the yard and where the children nap in bunkers. Just imagine nursery age children as the targets of Palestinian “freedom fighters”. He saw the remnants of missiles and shrapnel indiscriminately launched into the city.

Ashkelon is barely ten miles from Gaza , and the missiles and rockets reach there, too. He toured Barzilai hospital, where the victims from Sderot and the western Negev are taken for trauma care. The staff walk around with special devices alerting them when an incoming missile warning is issued anywhere in the region, so they can be ready to expect patients. While at the hospital there was a missile attack to the south, and we saw the Israeli fighter jets fly overhead toward Gaza. Hopefully, the government of Israel has finally decided to act to protect its citizens from these missile attacks. Hopefully, this war will be prosecuted to its conclusion. Perhaps the world will learn to respond forcefully and decisively against terrorism. As Benjamin Netanyahu stated, “There is no measurable response to terrorism”.

12/29/2008 :: 07:54:47 PM
jb Says:

I watched on tv channel wycc your newscaster’s unbalanced questioning of Israel!s representative and his discussion with the Palestinian representative to the UN. Whereas the questioning of the Israeli rep questioned the dispropotionate Israeli response no questioning of the Arab rep was made of the continued indiscrimate rocket attacks by Hamas.

12/22/2008 :: 04:21:30 PM
Susan Walsh Says:

DL is an excellent example of why Israel can break international law and all codes of human conduct with such impunity. He tries to balm and vilify the victim and let the criminal go untouched. He says that Hamas recruits kids to launch missiles against Israel, what about Israeli kids who grow up to join the army and become trigger happy teenage boys. Where is the culture of peace among Israelis. Then He says that the Arabs attacked Israel. Out of six wars between Israel and the Arabs, the only time that the Arabs attacked was in 1973, the rest Israel was the aggressor, the beneficiary and thus the winner. In 1948, Israel took more land than the UN allowed. The UN allowed Israel to take 56% Israel took 78% and that is why some Arab countries came to defend their interests not the Palestinians, especially Jordan and Egypt. 1956, Israel attacked Egypt, in 1967, Israel attacked three Arab Countries and occupied the rest of Palestine, in 1978,1982, and 2006 Israel attacked Lebanon. Now according to many human rights agencies including the Israeli Bet”Tselem Israel is committing war crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Archbishop Tutu believes that Israeli practices are worse than those used by the white regime in South Africa and worse than Darfur. As for the refugees, The refugees do not want to settle anywhere except their original homes. Too bad DL. By the way International Law allows them that. But since neither you nor Israel have any respect for International Law, you will continue to find distractions to postpone its implementation and use propaganda to prevent any compliance with International Law Keep blaming Palestinian children for the conflict but never the Israeli military Machine

12/22/2008 :: 02:45:35 PM
DL Says:

The comments above reflect the bias punted by World focus. Again:
(1) When will World Focus show the rockets hitting Israel and report on Israeli suffering?
(2) How long will it take you to ask why Egypt keeps its long border with Gaza completely shut and refuses to provide any supplies? Why is Egypt never blamed?
(3) When will you show how Hamas hoards all supplies and manipulates the shortages for propaganda purposes, using a Gaza media over which it has total control - foreign journalists are dependent on stringers provided by Hamas?
(4) The fact is that if Hamas stopped firing rockets, supplies will pour into Gaza. Israel closes the border only when rockets are fired. The border crossing into Israel has itself been repeatedly attacked by Hamas.
(5) When will World Focus show that Hamas is happy to use children to launch rockets, and to let ordinary people suffer if it they gain propaganda victories?
(6) How long will it take for World Focus to point out that it is the Arab world that started the wars and maintains the conflict? Hamas’ stated goal is the genocide and tehnic cleansing of all Jews in the Holy Land. And Israel has every right to defend itself against that.
(7) How long will it take for World Focus to compare how Israel uplifted all the Jewish refugees from Arab lands - while Arab lands refuse to do the same for a similar number of Arab refugees? This is despite vast Arab land and oil resources, and despite the Arab world starting the wars.

12/22/2008 :: 02:33:36 PM
Sarah Jackson Says:

JHF, is illiterate when it comes to the Middle East. The Copts, The Christians, And the Jews are living better than Muslims in the Middle East. Their Economic well being is much better, level of education is higher and can practice their religion free from fear. Unlike Muslims and Christians in Israel who can not build a mosque or a church. When was the last time Israel licensed building of a church/ mosque in Tel Aviv, Jaffa or West Jerusalem. Or for that matter can Arab Christians or Muslims buy homes in these cities. None has to sit at the end of any bus, all people look alike and none can tell who is a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew in that part of the world except in Israel, because Israel demands people to write that on their ID Cards. In the Arab World People have their dignities preserved, get off your Hollywood narrative. It is time to ask Israel to treat people of all faiths as humans, not as sub-humans

12/21/2008 :: 05:53:48 PM
Sarah Jackson Says:

Where is the balance WF. How come the other side was not invited. People must be given the truth about Gaza. Israel must be ashemed of all the wrong doing in Gaza and collective punshiments that many are going through because of Israel’s blind policies. Please bring more from Gaza, but get the other side to state his views as well. All observers know that Gaza is still under ocuppation. Hope to see more balanced views on the topic soon

12/20/2008 :: 04:09:17 PM
susan Walsh Says:

More coverage of Gaza is needed, but the other side must be invited as well. I could not stop laughing at the CG, when he began saying that Israel no longer occupies Gaza. If that is the case why are they still controlling the borders and preventing Palestinians from fishing in their own water. If that is not occupation, then define for us

12/20/2008 :: 03:59:44 PM
John Smith Says:

Where is the balance in you reporting. How come no people from the other side were invited to state the point of view. the councel general had it so easy with Mr. Savedge. Mr. Lubnsky got it all wrong. All he has to see is Israeli media reports on Gaza no need for Western Views, just see how some couragous Israeli jounalists cover the stories from Gaza

12/20/2008 :: 01:19:04 AM
annjell Says:

Martin Savidge, you’re an awesome fella, to apologize to JHF. However, I believe it wasn’t necessary.

I have a better idea of what’s happening in Gaza, because of your show and most of all, a documentary called, “Death In Gaza,” by filmmaker James Miller.
In this documentary, it was not cut out,that showed this British filmmaker killed by the Israeli Troops. The filmmaker had T.V. on his helmet, was waving a white flag, and kept yelling out that he was British and a film crew.
He was filming Israeli troop bulldozing homes.

This documentary also showed hospital scenes where Palestinians allegedly were teargassed, but, they had muscle spasms…a U.N. doctor said the Israeli’s were violating the Geneva Conventions on every level.

I have seen and heard of the refugee camps these Palestinians are living in, at least 4 that I’m aware of.

I’ve seen the housing that most Israeli’s live in. Some of these homes look better than the homes here in the U.S.

For anyone interested, you can buy any documentary of Palestinians at http://www.arabfilm.com
**no I don’t work at arabfilm, nor am I associated with any company.

12/19/2008 :: 11:50:45 PM
AJ Says:

I am sick and tired of hearing the same biased view over and over, especially from those who support Israel blindly. “World Focus” is not a biased organization. Unlike most American media, which by the way is pro-Israeli, “world focus” is objective in its reporting to bring out the truth. People around the world can say all they want about Hamas, and the Palestinian people. You can call them terrorists, self inflicting bombers, or want to destroy Israel. The fact remains that Israel occupies all of the Palestinian’s territories, has destroyed thousands of homes, destroyed crops, infrastructure, jailed kids, tortured thousands, and the list goes on and on….. How can anyone in the right mind claim Israel has the right to defend its self, but when it comes to the Palestinians, they have no rights? I cannot understand this hypocritical view of the world especially the west. Once and for all, if Israel wants piece with its neighbors, give up the occupied territories with out any conditions. Otherwise, Israel and its supporters will not live in piece. Oh, by the way, STOP USING THE SLOGAN THAT THE LAND OF THE CANAANITES, PHILISTINES, ISRALITES IS THE “PROMISED LAND FOR JEWS.” This propaganda must stop! Israel and its supporters must come to grip and recognize that there is no promised land for any specific race, end of story!

12/19/2008 :: 06:56:34 PM
brian moreau Says:

Dear World Focus
Thank you for your program on the Gaza blockade,if we could see and learn more about the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine we would soon come to understand they are much like ourselves. What right does Israel have to torture these children? Israel and her supporters should be ashamed. A recent opinion poll states that Israel is the second most hated country in the world, now I understand why. According to the U.N.,46% of the children of Gaza suffer from “severe anemia” and 80% live “in poverty”,shame on Israel and her apologists. Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu called what is happening in Gaza “worse” than South Africa under Apartheid………..Richard Falk, Human Rights Commissioner for the U.N. calls Israel’s actions “War Crimes”……….please keep bringing us the HUMAN face of the Palestinian people and enough of the vulgar propagandists. Thank You, Brian Moreau

12/19/2008 :: 06:12:19 PM
Martin Savidge Says:

JHF Thanks for the input… One of the reasons I speak a little slower is not because I don’t believe PBS viewers are sophisticated or sharp enough, to the contrary… I know them to be extremely smart… but I also know that there are alot of viewers of this particular program for whom English is not their primary language. There are also other viewers who are a little more senior. Regarding the pronunciation of Sderot that was specifically guided by by one of our Israeli staff members who sits and works directly side by side with our Palestinian producer. I’ll try picking up the pace just a tad.

Martin

12/19/2008 :: 03:43:47 AM
JHF Says:

Much like the plight of African-Americans in the “White Only” American South, the Israeli people have had to suffer through the oppression of Pan-Arab segregation, ostracizing, and violence. Other minorities in the Arab world include the Copts, Kurds and Berbers who are as indigenous to the Middle East as Jews.

Jews, Copts, Berbers and Kurds have had to “sit on the back of the bus’ in the Arab-dominated Middle East, living as second-class citizens (”Dhimmi”) in the region, under the yoke of colonialist Arabization and intimidation.

12/19/2008 :: 03:24:58 AM
JHF Says:

“WorldFocus” is a real turn-off. Second-rate reporting and biased against Israel.
————————————————

WorldFocus falls short of journalistic standards.

I didn’t realize that we are supporting the verbatim broadcasts of Abu Dhabi TV, via WorldFocus. About 10% of tonight’s 30-minute WF aired an entire segment straight from Abu Dhabi, a state whose TV programs have legendarily included bigotted, hate-fomenting blood-libels against Jews and Israel, for news, history and entertainment. If WF can’t muster its own quality resources to report Arab-Israeli relations in a fair, accurate, and contextual manner, it should not report the topic at all. Moreover, WF should certainly not pretend to be balanced simply because it had an Israeli official in its studio for a brief, dry interview, following an emotionally charged 3 minutes of footage showing parents with their 10 children whose only breakfast is tea, evidently because of big, bad Israel. …You failed to humanize in video footage the faces and voices of Israelis and their children’s suffering and humiliation. Thousands of rockets have been launched by Hamas into Israeli border towns, such as Sderot, and the residents are oppressed, traumatized, injured and dead.

Martin Savidge, in the same segment, could not even pronounce the name ‘Sderot’ — I believe he said “SAY-rat”. Note: it’s “sday-ROTE”, and the town has been in international news for well over a year because of its humliation and victimization at the hands of war-making Palestinian terrorists and their Arab League counterparts (Israel is surrounded by 22 Arab/Muslim nations on a plot of land smaller than Vermont). Clearly, not much deep effort has been put into understanding the Israeli side or the whole conflict in appropriate context, given that the host can’t even pronounce a major news-making city relevant to the topic being reported.

If Savidge and WF are trying to be the American answer to the BBC, they’re doing an astonishing job emulating and cloning the BBC’s media bias, and doing a lousy job in overall quality.

Savidge has continually come across as a frustratingly slow-paced speaker, and rather smarmy and avuncular (the latter would be ok, to a point), as if he and WF don’t believe PBS viewers are sophisticated or sharp enough to follow a more densely detailed report at a much faster speed. Consequently, we get less content per minute and feel like we’re being spoon-fed like children.

Lastly, as a woman in a free society, who supports women’s rights and gay rights, I can’t believe it’s okay with WF and PBS to show a Gazan Arab woman covered from head to toe with nothing but her eyes showing, with no subsequent comment on it, as if to condone it, and in essence communicating that this kind of over-arching fundamentalist perspective has nothing at all to do with the bigotry of Arabs against Jews in the Middle East.

12/19/2008 :: 03:24:31 AM
annjell Says:

I thoroughly enjoyed your segment on the crisis within Israel & Palestine. For one, as an American, for years, our media has always been one-sided, telling Americans that Palestinians are terrorists.
I have to look at your program and BBC to see both sides of the coin.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, that I truly saw what conditions the Palestinians were living in.
Because of the American news, when Americans do travel or gets into a discussion about Foreign Policy, we have no clue what is going on. Not by our own doing, but, because everything is oh so censured.
I completely understand how the Palestinians feel, likewise, I understand how the Native American Indians feel.

I have been telling people about your program, keep up the good work.

12/19/2008 :: 02:13:48 AM
Lee Sewell Says:

I guess I shouldn’t be suprised by the biased, narrowly focused coverage of the long standing socio-economic and political situation that exists between Isreal and the Palestinians as highlighted in your recent segment about the breakdown of the most recent truce agreement between Isreal and Gaza.

The one sided Isreali commentary served up effective propaganda for American consumption, not really much different than how the American government described the kindness and assistance provided to American Souix Indians forced onto the Dakota Reservation as the US Govt expanded and solidified control over Indian territory ~ circumstances that ultimately lead to and were used to justify the great indian massacre at Wounded Knee.

Of course,like the Souix, the Palestinians are at fault. The Irealis are the good guys, providing for all Palestinian needs just like we “took care” of the Indians after taking their lands and means of self sufficiency away, and, for all practical purposes imposing on them the terms of a lifestyle they did not want.

How dare subjugated people resist the authority that supresses them. That’s not the American way, is it?

What frustrates me most is not so much that Darwinian Socialism continues to be healthy and at work, but that too many Isrealis, and Americans speak with forked tongues, attacking supression and ethnic cleansing in principle as from some high moral plain, while pursuing it in practice and somehow justifying it as in support of the greater good.

12/19/2008 :: 12:38:28 AM
alexandra Says:

It was sad to see the family humiliated like that.
For the Israeli man to say that Israel gives the Palestynians everything is a farse.Lubinsk has it wrong.

12/18/2008 :: 10:21:23 PM
Shay Lubinsk Says:

Dear World Focus,

The background report on Gaza (Thursday 18 December) was very biased, full of emotive
pictures and distorted selectivity. It was not balanced by the interview with Israeli
consul Asaf Shariv, despite his clear and incisive points.

I APPEAL TO WORLDFOCUS TO SHOW ISRAELIS SITTING IN THE BOMB SHELTERS IN SDEROT AND
ASHKELON, TO SHOW THE DAMAGE, AND THE IMPACT ON THEIR LIVES. What is never mentioned is
the major impact on southern Israeli towns like Sderot or
Ashkelon, for which the ceasefire has been a joke. The Israeli casualty figures have been
kept low because of (1) early warning sirens (2) bomb shelters (3) sheer luck. Some 23
rockets hit Israel yesterday, causing injuries and substantial damage.

The background piece placed all the blame on Israel. Yet, as Mr. Shariv pointed out,
Egypt has a long border with Gaza. Why does Worldfocus never ask why Egypt maintains a
tighter blockade, and refuses to provide any supplies? Why does Egypt keep the border
crossing with Gaza permanently shut? When will Worldfocus question why Israel (and not
Egypt) has to supply a strip governed by a group sworn to its destruction and the murder
of all Jews, ruling a people who elected Hamas and publicly celebrate every Israeli
casualty?

We were told much about Israel’s “siege”. Why wasn’t it mentioned that
(1) Israel continues to provide much of the electricity and water for the strip even as
the rockets are hitting its cities?
(2) Hamas takes all supplies first for its cronies, and exacerbates shortages for
propaganda purposes? You’d never find a piece broadcast from Gaza showing Hamas’ well
supplied militia and cronies who are regularly paid in dollars, while teachers etc. are
not paid.
(3) Israel continues to take in Gazans for medical treatment?

Finally, Martin Savidge asked if it is fair to punish ordinary Gazans for the conflict
with Hamas. The ordinary Gazans elected Hamas, and publicly celebrate Israeli casualties,
handing out sweets, which always miraculously are available for such occassions. Despite
that, Israel is not aiming to punish Gazans - it lets in supplies whenever the rocket
attacks stop. No doubt, if Israel goes into Gaza to stop the rocket attacks militarily,
we’d be treated to even worse bias.

When will the role of Hamas’ hoarding and Hamas’ media manipulation and Egypt’s closure
ever be raised?

12/18/2008 :: 08:52:46 PM
Neil MacCallister Says:

Okay, ..wikipedia says, “vast plots of Gazan citrus groves were bulldozed by the Israeli military”. And although Gaza is almost completely surrounded by Israel, “Gazans are no longer able to work in Israel”. Wikipedia notes that “many Gazans worked in the Israeli service industry while the border was open”, but that now “very few Gazans are presently allowed to enter Israel”. There is supposedly an “economic closure” enforced “by Israel” (..what does the UN say about this?)that is the cause of “95% of Gazan factories to be closed”. The airport was damage in past wars, and never rebuilt. And “75% of the population is now dependent upon UN food supplies”.
How about Gazans stop shooting rockets, Israel let the Gazan economy trade with other nations (and rebuild itself), and somebody send Gaza 10 thousand citrus saplings?
..Deal?

12/18/2008 :: 07:50:59 PM
Neil MacCallister Says:

Why are rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel? Why do people in Gaza have so little food or fuel? How do people in Gaza supply their economic needs for daily life? Does Gaza have seaports where they can trade with other nations? Do the industries in Gaza trade with Egypt or Jordan? Does Gaza have farmable land? Does Gaza have sources of drinking and farming water? Why are so many people of Gaza hungry, and angry? Is Israel keeping all farmable land in the Eastern Mediterranean region to itself? If there are no natural resources in Gaza, why do people stay there? Are the people of Gaza free to leave Gaza and look for work in other nations?