SBS Scoops Third Intifada

SBS Television's World News of June 27 featured a report by the BBC's Ian Pannell on the apparent shelling of a northern Syrian town by the Syrian army. It ended with harrowing footage of a wounded Syrian child, a boy of around 8 or 9-years, lying on his stomach in obvious pain, with tears running down the cheek facing the camera as he struggled to describe what had happened to him.

Now given the activities in the area of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), on whose side Pannell was reporting, it was possible to conclude (absent any evidence to the contrary) that this child had been caught up in a shooting war between two sides, even if this was largely a matter of shells on one side and bullets and RPGs on the other.

By way of introducing the next item, on a British report taking Israel to task for its treatment of Palestinian children, newsreader Anton Enus began with the words: "Children caught in the crossfire. That's nothing new for a region such as the Middle East."

God knows I try to keep on top of events in this tiny corner of the world, but, unlike the good folk at SBS, I swear I had absolutely no idea that the Palestinian kids hauled out of their beds in the middle of the night by Israeli terrorists, or slapped around during marathon interrogation sessions by Israeli thugs, were actually caught up in CROSSFIRE.

Thank God for quality journalism.