Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Harvard Study: Hezbollah used Media as Weapon

The Jerusalem Post reports on this Harvard University study (here in pdf):


Hizbullah won the Second Lebanon War by achieving a propaganda
victory over Israel, a Harvard University study has concluded. Aided and abetted
by a compliant and credulous press, Hizbullah achieved victory by convincing the
world that Israel was the aggressor and that Israel's retaliatory offensive was
a "disproportionate" response to the kidnapping and killing of its soldiers.
Israel's defeat came not at the hands of Hizbullah, however, but through the
internal contradictions of being the region's sole functioning democracy in the
Internet age.
"An open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness,"
Marvin Kalb and Dr. Carol Saivetz of the Shorenstein Center of Harvard
University concluded in their research paper, "The Israeli-Hezbollah War of
2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict."


This is where I think the Israelis are mistaken in seeking a scapegoat in Prime Minister Olmert. The enemy feeds on anarchy, and attacking the government only serves their purpose, as it does here in America.