Haaretz profiles Amir Peretz, Israel's relatively dovish defence minister who backs the very hard line being taken in Lebanon.

From the NYT:

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

This BBC story looks at the skyrocketing stock of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah amongst the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

Daniel Pearl, deputy editor of Newsnight, in a BBC editor's blog posting:

... Also, we know what you are saying about us (really, we do).

If you write anything about Newsnight, or about me, on a blog, I'll probably find it via Technorati. So for example, I know that there's a whole debate going on about Ming Campbell's performance on Newsnight - the question being asked is whether Ming is the Lib Dems' Iain Duncan Smith... see here or here.

The thing I find strange about all this is that often people who write blogs, or contribute to them, somehow think that they are involved in a private forum.

I recently came across a comment claiming Jeremy disliked recording his weekly podcast. I posted a response and the blogger seemed appalled - "the BBC's watching us - spooky" was his reply. But if you write something about us on the internet surely I have every right to read it and respond - that's not spooky.

I had to confront this the other day. We often have students with us on work experience. Twice in the last 6 months I've come across blogs in which people trailing the programme have written things about the team. When I approached one of these people, her reponse was that the blog was supposed to be just for her and her friends!

It wasn't the confidentiality issue that bugged me, but that anyone would think that we as programme makers don't have as much right as everyone else to read what you're all writing, especially if you are writing about us. So, what do you think? Stick it on your blog and I'll respond.

OK. Here goes nothing:

Hi Daniel:

I think we can agree that blogs are part of the public sphere, and that if someone makes a comment about the Beeb, the Beeb (or its designate) has a right of reply.

Now, for argument's sake, let's say I said something unkind about the Beeb, like: "BBC Online couldn't carry CTV.ca News's lunch."

And then, to my horror, I then found myself the subject of a withering Panorama investigation: "Bill Doskoch: A snow bubble collector exposed."

In terms of a response from the BBC, would that be going too far? :^)

Cheers

Bill Doskoch
CTV.ca News wage slave in Soviet Canuckistan