WASHINGTON, 19 July 2006 — As the escalating conflict entered its seventh day in the Middle East, what coverage should one expect from the US media? To summarize, the United States and its western allies have refused to intervene to halt spiralling violence in the Middle East despite a civilian death toll that has soared to 227.

Israeli air attacks killed at least 120 people across Lebanon yesterday and the day before, including about 50 civilians and 20 members of the Lebanese Army.

The dead included 10 members of one family, including several children, who were killed when Israeli aircraft shelled their car as it crossed a bridge in an attempt to escape south Lebanon. Another family was wiped out when Israeli aircraft bombed their house.

And at least 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel struck areas as far south as Afula and injured 11 people in an apartment building in Haifa.

Of the Lebanese killed in Israeli air strikes and bombings, only a handful are members of Hezbollah. The militia group killed eight Israeli soldiers and captured two more in a border raid that sparked the crisis, and Israel subsequently lost four naval personnel when a missile struck a vessel off Beirut. Twelve Israeli civilians have been killed by long-range Hezbollah missiles.

So how is the American media reacting to these dreadful facts? A quick local search of the headlines reveals a telltale summary: “A War With Extremists — This Middle East conflict should end with the defeat of its instigators” — on yesterday’s lead editorial in the Washinton Post.

“Israel Signals Its Cease-fire Demands,” “Militants Seen As Able to Hit Tel Aviv,” and “New Strikes on Lebanon kill 42; Haifa Blast Hurts 2,” were all on the Washington Times’ front page yesterday.

The New York Post signaled no surprises with yesterday’s lead stories: “50 Rockets Slam Israel,” “Tale of Two Shell-Shocked Cities,” and “Determined Olmert Lays Down The Law.” Yesterday’s papers related much of the same: “Israel Answers Hezbollah Strike,” was the lead headline in the Washington Post, followed below with: “In Israel: Siege Is Met With Stoicism in Haifa.” And, “Planes Hammer Lebanon After 8 Die in Haifa.”

“Officials Hit Hezbollah Support, Israel Accuses Tehran of Breaking Law,” reads one headline in Monday’s Washington Times. “G-8 Lays Blame on ‘Extremist’ Forces for Strife,” reads another. And their lead editorial? “Give Israel Time to Complete the Mission.”

Exceptions were to be found. At the Boston Globe, yesterday’s page one stories on the war read: “Annan, Blair call for peacekeepers in Mideast,” Hezbollah Arsenal May Be Substantial,” “Amid Beirut Bombs, Americans Wait in Hope of Evacuation,” and a story of hope, that locally “Jews, Muslims Work to Keep Local Dialogue Going.”

The news channels reports are similarly single-focused. When this correspondent spoke on Fox News this morning to discuss the Arab media’s perspective on the war, she mentioned Israel’s arrest of Al-Jazeera’s Israeli bureau chief.

Noting Al-Jazeera’s reporting has been deemed fair by Arabic-speaking colleagues at the State Department and the Pentagon, one of the newscasters ended the segment by saying: “Yes, but we all know that Al-Jazeera worked for and aided Saddam Hussein.”

Pro-Israel lobbies are also in full swing. In both the New York Times and Washington Post on Monday, the Anti-Defamation League, ADL, leased entire pages with the same advertisement, which led with a recent quote from President George W. Bush: “Israel has a right to defend herself.”

Then in bold type, on separate lines, is written: “Kidnapped soldiers. Murdered civilians. Sustained terror. All unprovoked.” The advertisement ends by saying: “Thank you, Mr. President, for your courageous stand. We call on Europe and the world community to follow your lead.”

Alas, the US Senate and Congress has also followed suit: The New York Times, which yesterday focused on the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon, also said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., “who addressed a crowd of several thousand in Midtown at an impassioned rally for Israel, said that she supported ‘whatever steps are necessary’ to defend Israel against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria, which she described as among ‘the new totalitarians of the 21st century.’”

An American reporter once reminded me that we cannot blame the American people for their limited, one-sided understanding of what is happening in the Middle East. It is the American media that must be chastised for its disproportionateness.