The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Michael Totten, reporting from southern Israel, near Gaza, writes:

"How many rockets are hitting the city right now?" I said.

"Not as many today," he said. "Because of the war in Lebanon."

"What does Lebanon have to do with it?" I said.

"All the journalists forgot about us during the Lebanon war. So the terrorists are waiting for the media to come back before firing rockets again. They don't want to waste those they have."

"That can't be the only reason," I said. "The IDF has been active in Gaza this entire time. Surely that has something to do with it."

"Yes," he said. "Also because of the IDF."

Later two more Israelis repeated what Shika said about Hamas and Islamic Jihad cooling their rocket launchers while the media's attention was elsewhere. I haven't heard any official confirmation from either side that it's true.

This doesn't strike me as hard to believe. Terrorism feeds off of the media and couldn't be an effective tool were it not for the media's ability to magnify terrorists' attacks and draw attention to their greivances (not to mention any counteroffensive). Many people will trace the origins of modern terorism back to the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics -- and it's no coincidence that those terrorists chose to attack at an event that the whole world was watching.

Link via RealClearPolitics.

topics:
Islam, Israel