One bright spot last week in CBS’s coverage of the war between Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas came on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News as correspondent Richard Roth filed a story exploring Israeli life under a "siege mentality." Roth: " Spend a while in earshot of an air raid siren or cramped in a shelter, and it's hard not to have some sympathy. Or, if you want to understand what pushed Israelis past their limit, they'll tell you, just take a look at the numbers. Since the first one almost eight years ago, the army says more than 11,000 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at southern Israel."
But CBS was only starting to catch up with NBC, which had previously devoted two full stories to the situation in Sderot, Israel. After the Sunday, January 5, NBC Nightly News showed the first report, which was previously documented by Newsbusters, on Monday, January 5, correspondent Martin Fletcher filed a second piece for the show, as he spent time with a firefighter in Sderot who had been one of the Israeli settlers forced by the Israeli government to leave Gaza in 2005 in an attempt to make peace with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Fletcher noted the failure of Israel’s withdrawal: "Israel gave the land back to the Palestinians, hoping for peace. It didn't happen. The conflict continued. And now rockets are fired from his old home."
On the Wednesday, January 7, CBS Evening News, Katie Couric set up Roth’s report: "Israel maintains it's been under attack for years. Today alone, Hamas militants fired 14 rockets into Israeli towns. As Richard Roth reports, the attacks have created a siege mentality on the Israeli side of the border."
After relaying that "11,000 rocket and mortars" have landed in Israel in the last eight years, Roth recounted the words of an Israeli boy who complained of having to hide in response to sirens. Roth: "They've landed as far as 25 miles beyond the Gaza border, killed 15 civilians and put as many as a million people in range and in fear. ‘You wash your face and brush your teeth,’ a boy named Moishe told Israeli TV, ‘and then the siren sounds.’ He'd no sooner said that when it did."
After a clip of Hirsch Goodman of Tel Aviv University relaying that Israelis believe it is a "just war" that will at least force Hamas to have to rebuild their military, Roth concluded pessimistically: "Victory might be defined here, in other terms, as not much more than buying time."
On the Monday, January 5, NBC Nightly News, Fletcher began his piece by introducing Israeli firefighter Moisha Gephin, and recounted a time Gephin responded to two rockets that landed in a Sderot marketplace. Then came a clip of Gephin proclaiming his fear of the rockets: "It is the scariest feeling in the world., that might be your family."
Fletcher relayed that 5,000 "terrifying" rockets have been fired at Sderot over eight years, and informed viewers that Gephin used to be an Israeli settler in Gaza who was forced to leave. Fletcher: "In Sderot, for the last eight years, 5,000 rockets have hit the town. Crude, but terrifying. And fireman Gephin back at the station can't get away from the war. And for him there's a terrible twist. He lived in Gaza for eight years. He was among the Israeli settlers forced out by their own government three years ago."
As he concluded, Fletcher acknowledged Israel’s failed attempt at peace by withdrawing from Gaza: "But Israel gave the land back to the Palestinians, hoping for peace. It didn't happen. The conflict continued. And now rockets are fired from his old home. Another red alert at the fire station. Ten seconds to get to the bomb shelter. ... They race through the streets of Sderot, searching for the latest rocket, but this time it fell in a field, harmlessly. All's clear till the next alert. Martin Fletcher, NBC News, Sderot, Israel."
A transcript of the story the NBC Nightly News ran on the rocket attacks on Sderot from the Sunday, January 4, show can be found here.
Below are complete transcripts of the relevant stories from the Monday, January 5, NBC Nightly News, and the Wednesday, January 7, CBS Evening News:
#From the Monday, January 5, NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: More than 30 rockets slammed into Israel today from Gaza, and our own Martin Fletcher has been racing through the streets of one town with one member of the team of first responders.
MARTIN FLETCHER: Red alert. Hamas fires two rockets.
MOISHA GEPHIN, ISRAELI FIREMAN: We run as quick as we can. Our job is to save lives.
FLETCHER: And what a job it is. Sderot, one mile from Gaza, is under a barrage of attacks. Noon today, one hit in the marketplace. Nobody was hurt. There's where we met Moisha Gephin, a third of the way through his 24-hour shift, a fireman, born in Boston.
GEPHIN: It is the scariest feeling in the world., that might be your family.
FLETCHER: This is the rocket that fell on the marketplace, and these also fell on the same day. In Sderot, for the last eight years, 5,000 rockets have hit the town. Crude, but terrifying. And fireman Gephin back at the station can't get away from the war. And for him there's a terrible twist. He lived in Gaza for eight years. He was among the Israeli settlers forced out by their own government three years ago.
GEPHIN: It was and it still is very painful. At times where I was ready to cry-
FLETCHER: But Israel gave the land back to the Palestinians, hoping for peace. It didn't happen. The conflict continued. And now rockets are fired from his old home. Another red alert at the fire station. Ten seconds to get to the bomb shelter. So this is the alarm. And now we just heard boom. You just heard a boom right? A boom, yeah. Okay, we'll go see what it is. They race through the streets of Sderot, searching for the latest rocket, but this time it fell in a field, harmlessly. All's clear till the next alert. Martin Fletcher, NBC News, Sderot, Israel.
#From the Wednesday, January 7, CBS Evening News:
KATIE COURIC: Israel maintains it's been under attack for years. Today alone, Hamas militants fired 14 rockets into Israeli towns. As Richard Roth reports, the attacks have created a siege mentality on the Israeli side of the border.
RICHARD ROTH: See what a rocket from Gaza can do when it hits, Israelis say. Spend a while in earshot of an air raid siren or cramped in a shelter, and it's hard not to have some sympathy. Or, if you want to understand what pushed Israelis past their limit, they'll tell you, just take a look at the numbers. Since the first one almost eight years ago, the army says, more than 11,000 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at southern Israel. They've landed as far as 25 miles beyond the Gaza border, killed 15 civilians and put as many as a million people in range and in fear. "You wash your face and brush your teeth," a boy named Moishe told Israeli TV, "and then the siren sounds." He'd no sooner said that when it did. From four to five bus stops to barren streets, rocket attacks have changed the scenery in southern Israel. They've even changed the architecture. Take an ordinary elementary school where the worry's about keeping children safe, and the solution here is put up a giant steel canopy and cover the whole building. Behind the assault on Hamas, Israel says, is a policy summed up in three words.
TZIPI LIVNI, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Enough is enough. And we cannot tolerate a situation in which Hamas continues to target Israel, Israel's citizens.
ROTH: It's won a rare consensus here.
HIRSCH GOODMAN, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES: I feel it strongly, the country feels that they're actually winning this war, and they feel it's a just war. It may not stop Hamas rockets forever, but it's going to take them an awful, awful long time to restructure their military wing.
ROTH: Victory might be defined here, in other terms, as not much more than buying time. Richard Roth, CBS News, Sderot, Israel.
—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
left-liberal culture
January 12, 2009 - 15:27 ET by notonmywatch"it's hard not to have some sympathy"
look how they *excuse themselves* for having sympathy with jews!
even on the RARE occasions they report the facts, they do it through leftist goggles
This is remarkable in that
January 12, 2009 - 23:53 ET by Indiana JoeThis is remarkable in that it shows any sympathy to the Israeli side of this conflict at all. All we hear is how horrible it is in Gaza, but what of the Israelis who have suffered these attacks for years, without a word of sympathy or even reportage?
They gave up Gaza, and for what? This? What other country would sit still for these kinds of attacks for so long without retaliating? What other country would be expected to?
I wish I could think this showed a change in how this conflict is reported, but I'm afraid this is just an aberration. The accepted meme is, "Palistinians good, Israelis bad." That doesn't look like changing anytime soon.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..." - The Who
what other country? well, how about us..
January 13, 2009 - 17:52 ET by UndercoverConservativesure, we were"allowed" to punish Bin Laden because he was out of control and hit The Money. And Saddam wasn't playing nice with OPEC so we were allowed to unseat him.
But after that, have we really taken the gloves off? Why is America also limited to "proportional response"? Why haven't the silos opened and the countries who sent their non-uniformed soldiers to kill us *glassed* into submission? Why aren't B2s carpetbombing the cities of terrorists until they beg for peace like the we did to Tokyo and Berlin? Why isn't *every* weapon in our arsenal deployed until the threat is *erased* and would-be terrorists are afraid to show their heads, and world terrorist leaders wetting themselves at the thought of declaring jihad and other threats on their national televisions?
Just like Israel, we too sit and let our people die, abroad and in our own streets, "afraid" of "world opinion" and worse, afraid of what we can do. We both have politicians and "leaders" who gain power from having constant enemies and thrive off of conflict instead of resolution. And we let others die because of our failure of honor and conscience.
We should add plenty of military presence to the area, and allow Israel to take the safeties off. Anything goes in the so-called "Palestinian territories" and Israel until the conflict is resolved and one side cries and begs for war to stop. No one interferes, no Iranians or Russian "advisors". No more "WWII" style (but current manufacture) missiles. Give both sides the freedom to do whatever they can with whatever they have in their borders now. The only caveat: nothing must affect outside the borders of the conflict. No homemade chemical warfare agents nor nuclear fallout. No more "refugees" who start fights, run away, then come back when strong.
Two nations enter. One nation leaves. (Thunderdome!)
Then we offer the same to every nation that declares war from the mouth of it's supreme leader on international television.
"to call an illegal immigrant an "undocumented alien" is the same as calling a streetcorner drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist".
"You spend your money anyway you want and respect other's rights to do the same"
It's pretty obvious that
January 13, 2009 - 00:50 ET by RR GOPIt's pretty obvious that the only reason Hamas is even doing this (attacks) is that they know the Communists over here and the usual suspects in Europe and abroad will complain enough that Israel will back down...and then they'll start all over again...and those same leaders will be silent.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
RR... Exactly
January 13, 2009 - 00:54 ET by bigtimerRR...
Exactly right.
Once again, I am saddened.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Siege mentality
January 13, 2009 - 14:43 ET by nkviking75Couric: "As Richard Roth reports, the attacks have created a siege mentality on the Israeli side of the border."
Perhaps that's because Israel is under siege.
Welcome to the era of unity, you racist!