Differing Views of the Middle East Conflict.
SWEENEY: In the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday said Israeli and Palestinian leaders will get back to peace negotiations. This comes despite fierce fighting in Gaza. Israel responding to rocket attacks, launches air strikes that have killed more than 100 Palestinians, some of them civilians. Several Israelis have also died. On Friday, a gunman from East Jerusalem opened fire at a Jewish seminary school, killing eight students. Several others were wounded before an off duty Israeli military officer shot the gunman dead. Before that attack, I spoke to CNN's Ben Wedeman in Gaza and an Israeli journalist. We looked at the media coverage before Friday's incident. Commentators across the Middle East are unanimous in their condemnation of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. But how are events playing out in the Israeli media? The opinion headlines read, "In Mariv, the hot winter of allusions," saying that a member of the Knesset (ph) call for a change of the Israeli government are empty words, as "if all we have to do is change one side of the equation, so that the other side will also change. Our soldiers will not be killed and our civilians will not be hurt." Another paper, "If Hamas sends a quarter of a million Israelis to the shelters - it feels it has won; and if we fire at Hamas and children and civilians are killed, it is won again; and finally in the commission of inquiry that will be for formed - we will lose for the third time." While Akiva Eldar of Ha'aretz writes, "If the Israelis are retreating into what he calls an "inner logic of `our' conflict, as if Israel and Hamas were the only actors on the regional stage." Well, Akiva Eldar joins me now form Tel Aviv. Now is it fair to say that the media in Israel is focused on what's happening in Sterot (ph) and Echkelon (ph) more so than what's taking place on the ground in Gaza?</s>AKIVA ELDAR, "HA'ARETZ: I think that the problem with the media, and this has been also the problem in the recent war in summer 2006, that we're too busy with scoring points. It's like, you know, a soccer game. And who's scoring more goals, and who is punching harder? And who is going to lie on the ground at the end of this - of the coming round? And the problem is that we don't look at the day after. What is going to happen to our relationship with the press? It's like, you know, a wall that is going on. Even I hope that the British media is more busy with following and covering Afghanistan than the way the Israeli media is covering Gaza and the West Bank. And Gaza and the West Bank are just across the street. So even if you win this round, and you hit the Hamas very hard, the media has to think about the implications it will have, not even in the long run, in the short run. On our Palestinian policies with whom we are trying to conduct political negotiations right now. And a few days ago, President Abbas decided to stop. And he decided to come back to the talks. But this is accumulating. And at the end of the day, the media has also to talk about the price that Israel is going to pay in the long run. And we are not learning from previous mistakes.</s>SWEENEY: Well, am I right in thinking that there has been a change in the Israeli media, because my experience of it has been that it has been very concerned with what happened in the Palestinian-Israeli relationship and beyond in terms of other regional relations with Lebanon and Iran, Syria, etcetera. You're saying that's not the case now?</s>ELDAR: No. You know, the Israeli media was busy was criticizing al Jazeera. That al Jazeera is not covering properly or they're not balanced enough, covering what's happening in Israel in Sterot (ph) and in Echkelon (ph) with the kassam rockets. And they're just focusing on what's happening in Gaza. The other problem, to be honest, is the fact that the Israeli media is not allowed to go into Gaza and cover it. My own newspaper is using the wires and is using foreign press to cover what's going on one hour away from where I'm sitting right now in the studio in Tel Aviv. And this is also not helping us, the Israeli media and the Israeli public to understand what's happening there and to turn from this or make duo or not with what Israel is doing in Gaza right now.</s>SWEENEY: But.</s>ELDAR: So there are some also objective problems. And of course, the idea - spokesmen will tell you that they are doing it only, you know, to make sure that we will not get hurt.</s>SWEENEY: Well, am I right, though, in thinking that the Israeli media keeps a very close eye on the Palestinian press and what's being said there, as well as the reports from international journalists and wire services?</s>ELDAR: The mainstream Israeli media and of course the right wing Israeli media is very interested in the radical reports and the radical analysis that you get from the Palestinian and from the Arab media to show, to prove that Israel is now the victim. The media is playing the same game as the government. And it's - on the one hand, Israeli media against the Palestinian media, who is the victim. This is the name of the game. And we are playing right into the hands of our government. Because you know, we are both victims, the Israeli public and the Palestinian public. And I think that both the Israeli and the Palestinian media is not doing enough to get this message across.</s>SWEENEY: Akiva Eldar, there we must leave it in Tel Aviv. Thank you very much indeed for joining us.</s>SWEENEY: For more about the conflict and how it's being covered in Gaza, CNN's senior correspondent Ben Wedeman joins me now. Ben, to pick up on a point Akiva Eldar was making toward the end of his interview, is that Palestinians and Israelis both equally feel they are victims in this situation, and that he believes that neither public is being served well by either press on either side of this conflict.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. In fact, Fionnuala, there tends to be a real focus by each side, by the media on each side on the suffering of their side. If you look at the Palestinian media, certainly after a week like this when there's been so much bloodshed, it really completely focuses on the suffering of the Palestinians. And the same applies to the Israeli side. You rarely get discussions in the Israeli press, or rather in the Palestinian press about the implications of the rocket attacks, for instance, that are being launched from Gaza into Israel. It's very much - both sides are very one sided in that respect.</s>SWEENEY: The Israeli press is considered by many to be largely Western. There's a lot of debate that goes on. And it's side by side with an Arab Palestinian media. Is it a very different media? What are the distinctions?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, on the Palestinian side, there's very much a focus on the national cause, the Palestinian cause. There are differences of opinion within that perspective. I mean, for instance here, I'm in Gaza. You have a Hamas run newspaper, which very much mirrors the Hamas viewpoint. In the West Bank, it's different. It's the Fatah viewpoint. And you don't get sort of the range of opinion that you do in the Israeli media. In the Israeli newspapers, you will find opinions, for instance, very much against the occupation of the West Bank, very much against and critical of the policies of the Olmert government, suggesting or accusing. They're just making things worse. In the same newspaper, you will have other people who say the Israeli forces have to go into Gaza and really rip the place apart to stop the rocket attacks. The Palestinian press doesn't have that broad range of opinion that the Israeli press does. And certainly, in difficult times, like we've had in the last week in Gaza where you've had a major Israeli military operation, leaving more than 100 people dead, the instinct is to join ranks and not to be critical of one faction or the other, and really focus on, as I said before, the suffering, the human suffering of people on the ground in places like Gaza.</s>SWEENEY: And a final question, Ben. How much attention do Hamas and Fatah pay to the Palestinian media, what's written there, what's broadcast?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, they obviously keep an eye on it. But it's not unlike many of the - sort of the media in other Arab countries. In the West Bank, you have a variety of newspapers published there, that do to a large extent, mirror the opinion of the regime in Ramallah. In Gaza, there is a Hamas run newspaper that's very much a mouthpiece for Hamas. But of course, people don't depend solely on the newspapers here. There are some very good websites, which have very reliable information about the situation that are run by Palestinians. And then, of course, everybody here is addicted to things like Jazeera and other Arabic sounding like news networks. So they oftentimes, when people want to know what's going on, they go beyond the newspapers. They spend a lot of time listening, for instance, to the BBC Arabic service, which is a very reliable source of information.</s>SWEENEY: Ben Wedeman in Gaza, thanks very much indeed for joining us. Well, don't forget to check out INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS online. Log on to cnn.com/correspondents to see all or part of this week's show again. You can also view our archives, take part in the quick vote, and read the weekly blog. It's all at cnn.com/correspondents. That's all for this edition of the program. Tune in again next time for another look at how the media are handling the big issues. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney. Thanks for joining us. END TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com