Al Jazeer giving fairer reports that UK and Euro media

Strategy Page has this discussion of why Israel like al Jazeera. Red it in context with Melanie Phillips report just below.

Al Jazeera, the Arab language satellite news operation, is hated by Arab governments, but loved by Arab, and Israeli, people. Wait a minute? Isn't al Jazeera supposed to be a major source of anti-Semitic propaganda and cheer-leading for Arab causes? Sort of.

What al Jazeera provides is an unfettered soapbox for all sorts of opinions found in the Middle East. This includes Israelis, who appear once or twice a week to give the Israeli point of view, usually in Arabic, and often delivered by an Israeli who not only sounds like an Arab, but looks like one. This comes as a major shock to many Arabs (who have never seen an Israeli on TV). That's because decades of official state propaganda has largely buried the fact that about as many Middle Eastern Jews were driven out of their homes, as Palestinians Arabs were from theirs in Israel. These Middle Eastern Jews, from all Middle Eastern countries, were descendents of those Jews forced to leave Israel two thousand years ago, in the aftermath of their failed rebellion against Rome. While some of these exiles eventually became Christians, and then Moslems, many remained Jews, and ended up back in Israel during the late 1940s or early 1050s. Exiles again, right back where their distant ancestors had come from.

While many Arabs dismiss the Israelis on al Jazeera as "Zionist propagandists," the Israelis don't just give the Israeli point of view, but often a more accurate assessment of what's going on in Israel, and the Palestinian Territories, than you will find on any other Arab news outlet. This has made it tough to push the usual anti-Israeli propaganda. For example, when the Palestinians tried to portray the 2002 battle of Jenin as an Israeli atrocity, Israeli pundits on al Jazeera, and al Jazeeras own reporters in Jenin, made it clear what was really happening. The "Massacre of Jenin" story then melted away, like ice in the Middle Eastern sun.

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There is more. This is a side of al Jazeera you do not hear that much about. You also do not hear too much about the blantant unfairness of the UK media when it comes to Israel, but Melanie Phillips lays it out below. It is interesting that Hezballah is under more criticism in the Arab world than it is in Londonistan.