Israeli Attack on Syria as Presented in Syria and Iran

Posted by Indigenious at 10/24/2011 3:31 PM
Categories: Israel, Syria, Iran
        

Background:
On Sept. 6th Israel supposedly violated Syrian airspace. The Syrian's initially claimed that their anti-air defense system fired and drove away the Israeli planes. The Syrians then, on Sept 11th filed a complaint to the UN for a breach of airspace. Israel in the meantime kept mostly quiet, excet for a mention by opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 19th until finally confirming that a strike actually took place. All along there has been speculation and rumors in the Western Press on the events. Initially, there were claims that the attack was meant to prevent shipment of weapons from Iran to the Hizbullah in Lebanon that were passing through Syria, then it was claimed that the attack was against a nuclaer site that was in early stages of development and had received recent supplies from North Korea. Wikipedia presents a great summary of the events: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Orchard with additional remours and references.

Iranian Press:

We find the Iranian press to be most different from the Western press and therefore the most interesting.

Press TV is a very good Iranian source. It is the website of a new government backed English language TV network claiming that one of its visions is: "To break the global media stranglehold of western outlets.", so it is perfect for our purposes. They definetely present a different view and unlike the official press of many other non-democratic states do not shy from the use of adjectives.

A Day after the attacks the site publised: Iran, Syria Confer on Israeli Agression, in which Iranian Foreign Minister, Motakki says: "Such stunts couldn't prevent the Zionist regime from fading". On the  9th of September the site reports that Syria has accused Israel of bombing its territory and says it could respond to the Zionist states aggression and treachery. Although, the Syrian's had not made such accusation directly, only accusing the Israeli's of violating their airspace. Several days later the paper reports US Official: Israel Bombed Syria, only to state a few days later that Syria Denied US Reports on Air Strike. The site never reports again that Syria confirmed the strike (as was reported in Western press on October 2nd), but on October 11th reports Assad's saying: Israel's Strike: Intelligence Failure

Syrian Press:

There is not much to illuminate the reality in Official Syrian Press. They do not acknowledge an attack, but do express anger at the Israeli aggression and threaten of reprecussions.

One of the most interesting reports was an opinion piece published in in Syria Times,the English language version of Teshreen, a government run paper and the most popular newspaper in Syria, blaming the US (and of course Israel) for its support to Israel and tying the violation to a greater Washington agenda for the area: Syria's Right to Self Defense
A few days earlier, on Sept. 12 the paper reported of the complaint filed by Syria to the UN, stating "that ignorance by Israel of the condemnation of such violations may result in consequences which cannot be predicted.": Syria has filed a complaint at the UN regarding the Israeli aggression on and violation of the Syrian airspace last week

SANA the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on the matter in its dry fashion with the first response on Sept 6th was, immediately following the attack: Air Defense Units Confront Israeli Aircrafts over Syrian airspace forcing them to Leave
SANA then started publishing articles of the condemnation of the "Zionist Entity"'s infiltration of the airspace by foreign (mostly arab) entities as can be seen in: Israeli Aircrafts Infiltration into Syrian Airspace Condemned and in: Arab Parliamentarians Condemn Israeli Aircrafts infiltration
Finally, towards the end of the September the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) published a denial that one of its stations was attacked following an article in an Israeli paper claiming just that: ACSAD Denies Reports of Israeli aggression on Agricultural Research Station

Another good view of the Syrian response (to the Western public) can be seen in Imad Moustapha, Syria’s envoy to Washington, interview with Newsweek: Israel ‘Will Pay a Price’


 

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  • 10/19/2007 8:30 AM Connecting News, Commentaries and Blogs at NineReports.com wrote:
    Brush up on your Hebrew for fest ...Blogged about at Israeli Attack on Syria as Presented in Syria and Iran - foreign views of global events,

    Israeli films come to Chicago via a variety of festivals. Three features from Israel screened at the Chicago In

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