April 12, 2002

Dear NPR News,

It is shocking that Julie McCarthy claimed in her report on Morning Edition today that Lebanese attacks against Israeli military targets in the occupied Golan Heights are attacks on "Northern Israel." She repeatedly referred to the area as the "Israeli-Lebanese border."

Not even Israel claims that the area under attack is part of Israel. "Har Dov" as the Israelis have renamed it is part of the Golan Heights, territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Lebanon says that the area that the Lebanese resistance is attacking is part of Lebanon, while Israel says it is part of Syria. There is no doubt however that the area is deep in the Golan Heights and cannot be considered under any circumstances to be part of Israel.

McCarthy claimed that it is Lebanese attacks that have "shattered" calm on the border. While Lebanese resistance action against Israeli occupation forces in the Golan Heights have increased, she made no mention of the dozens of incursions made by Israeli forces and jets deep into Lebanon since Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, not to mention thousands of unprovoked attacks over decades.

McCarthy's report gave the impression that most of the Lebanese resistance actions were against Israeli civilian settlements, when in fact, Israeli military targets inside occupied territory are the primary targets of the resistance forces.

This deeply one-sided report accepted all of Israel's claims without question.

If NPR is not able to distinguish between occupied Lebanes and Syrian territory on the one hand and Israel on the other, then it is not competent to report on the conflict, because clearly it has no notion what it is about.