Israel Considers Hizballah TV Station Legitimate Target

Israel Considers Hizballah TV Station Legitimate Target
By Patrick Goodenough

CNSNews.com International Editor
July 14, 2006

EXCERPT

(CNSNews.com) - Media rights campaigners have criticized Israel for firing missiles at a Beirut-based television station, but Israel and other critics say the broadcaster serves a function far more dangerous than disseminating news.

Israeli missiles on Thursday targeted a transmission antenna of the al-Manar television network in the Lebanese capital. The station, which is run by the Shi'ite terrorist organization Hizballah, said in a statement that three employees were lightly hurt and two floors of the facility badly damaged.

Israel also struck two al-Manar transmitters elsewhere in the country.
The strike was part of Israel's military response to Wednesday's cross-border raid by Hizballah, during which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two more kidnapped.

SNIP

Washington Institute for Near East Policy director of terrorism studies Matthew Levitt told a House International Relations Committee hearing last year that al-Manar (the name means The Beacon) was "used by Hizballah and Iran to radicalize Muslim youth and glorify violence, especially in the contexts of Israel and Iraq."

"Al-Manar glorifies suicide bombings, calls for attacks targeting Israel, coalition forces in Iraq, and the United States, and seeks to create a radicalized constituency that is as likely to seek out terrorist groups themselves to join their ranks as they are to be sought after and recruited by these groups."