Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi in charge of public relations, could not have done any better than NPR's campaign to suppress criticism of the US unconditional support of Israel. The media's task of propagandizing the American public was made more difficult by the past week's violence by Israel. After US Secretary of State Colen Powell made his major (weak) speech on Nov. 19, calling for restraint between Israel and Palestine, Israeli PM Sharon insisted there would be no peace negotiations until there was a full 7-day week with no violence. Palestinians continued to beg in vain for international monitors to observe and assign responsibility for continuing violence.
Immediately after Secretary Powell spoke, the Israelis launched attacks on Palestinian children and civilians, with the obvious intent to provoke Palestinians into a violent retaliation. Israeli commandos planted a land-mine next to a road along which school children walked to school and killed five boys. The next day, Israel assassinated three men, including a Hamas leader, in a helicopter attack on their car. During the funeral for the five boys, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot to death for throwing stones, and so on. The week's toll was 12 Palestinians. On the sixth day, Sharon got part of what he wanted: a single Israeli soldier was killed by a mortar attack on a military base. This gives Israelis their excuse to reject peace talks, and lays the base for another round of US media propaganda blaming the Palestinians.
As the Sunday, 11/25, NPR report concludes: this will make the Palestinians appear responsible for no peace talks. (Of course, the appearance of responsibility will occur in the US media as pro-Israel propaganda .) With no further violence to use today, the news from the Middle East was followed by a long segment on a revival of Jewish culture in the former Soviet Union, using interviews to personalize the portrayal of Jews. Goebbels would have been proud and the brainwashed US public and politicians line up to pay for the Jews to keep it up.