The problem is that there was no lull to begin with. More than 200 rockets and mortar shells rained on southern Israel in the last few months, but did the Arab media cover this? not really. Well, it is no secret that the Arab media, especially the satellite TV channels, does not even try to hide its sympathy to the "Palestinian Cause" and animosity towards Israel. Although this is not accepted by Western jouralistic standards, this is the reality. More over, some TV anchors, even on channels that are not owned by Arab countries, do tend to act as if they themselves were the champions of that cause. Therefore, the coverage of everything that's happening here is totally one-sided, whereas interviews with Israelis are either meant for entertainment (when they speak broken Arabic) or to be used as a fig leaf, to rebuff claims as if they are one-sided.
Let me give you an example. A week ago, I was interviewed on some none-Arab channel in Arabic, about the lull's expected expiration. The anchor started off in a very business-like manner, but soon became emotionally involved and didn't even let me finish answering his question, while keeping on editorializing, by expressing pro-Palestinian views without even trying to stick to the point.
And there's another thing. Most of the Arab media outlets tend to "forget" facts which do not correspond to their point of view. I was repeadtedly asked why Isarel had closed the crossing points with Gaza while totally ignoring that this was a response to the continued firing of rockets at Sderot.
Talk about keeping up jounalistic standards... However, we do get a lot of airtime on Arab channels, so at least we have the podium to speak from directly to the Arab public opinion.
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