Washington Institute for Near East Policy
SPECIAL POLICY FORUM REPORTSummary of comments by AVI JORISCH
Al-Manar, the official television station of Hizballah, is cited in public opinion polling in some Arab countries as one of the most widely used sources of news on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
With ground stations in Lebanon and programming broadcast on seven satellites worldwide, al-Manar is watched by fifteen million viewers daily and has the look of an advanced television network. The professional appearance, however, is not at all complemented by professional, fair, and balanced journalism.
Al-Manar defines its public enemy as the United States (the Great Satan) and Israel (the little Satan). Its programming themes are anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism, and revolution. U.S. foreign policy is presented as hegemonic and oppressive. The visual interpretation of this perspective is shown by a graphic video depicting the Statue of Liberty with a skull face, holding a blade instead of a torch as cascades of blood drip down her gown. As this horrifying image is being shown, names of nations in which the United States is said to have intervened -- such as Iran, Panama, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Laos -- pop out on the screen, with a grand finale message that "America owes blood to all of humanity."
Indeed, al-Manar equates U.S. leadership with that of the fascists of World War II; for example, photographs of President George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler are displayed side by side with the caption "History Repeats Itself." The United States is depicted as an evil entity because it supports institutionalized state terrorism -- that is, Israel.
Condemnation of Israel's very existence is a staple for al-Manar. Consider that it was the first news outlet to report that the Jews and Mossad were behind the attacks of September 11 -- an indication of how al-Manar¹s outrageous lies are widely picked up and disseminated by other Arab media.
Al-Manar drives home its anti-Israel message with clips proudly exhibiting children training for combat as a chorus in the background heatedly chants "Death, Death, Death to Israel," or heroic images of those who took their own lives for the anti-Israel cause, thereby glamorizing the act of suicide bombing. According to al-Manar, the only way to peace in the region is for the Zionist state to disappear, to be replaced by a Palestinian state. The station argues that the only way to defeat the state of Israel is through violence, which requires promoting a militant radical ideology to increase recruitment into Hizballah.
Although it is impossible to bring such programming to a halt, it is within Washington's reach to lessen its scope and availability. One approach is financial. Al-Manar¹s $15 million annual budget comes largely from Hizballah, which in turn gets the money from Iran (Lebanese law forbids direct foreign-state funding of local television). Al-Manar has significant advertising revenue as well. Until 2002 the four biggest Western corporate advertisers on al-Manar were Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Procter and Gamble, and Western Union. After an op-ed appeared exposing their business with the network, the companies pulled the advertisements immediately.
Al-Manar's numerous European advertisers have not followed suit, however. The station also continues to run announcements of bank accounts to which donations for suicide bombing and other terrorist acts can be sent. The Treasury Department should use the full weight of U.S. law to forbid transactions with any bank that maintains such accounts.
In addition to financial pressure, the United States should urge France and Saudi Arabia, the countries that host al-Manar's two major satellite providers, to remove the station from the satellites in question. That would block al-Manar programming from reaching 95 percent of the globe.
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