What none of you seem to be taking into account is the fact that the only person killed inside the church thus far has been a religious member of the church (the reports here in the US is he was a bellringer, shot by an Israeli sniper while moving inside the courtyard area of the grounds.

The Italian TV journalist was interviewed last night on either CNN or MSNBC news--he was allowed to leave the church by the Israelis. He said he felt extremely guilty, because he does expect there could be a massacre of the people inside the church. He felt they were at very high risk if and when the IDF troops move in to take over the church.

The priests may well be obfuscating the facts in order to protect the people inside the church, Wolfgang. Are you suggesting that the priests give the Israelis as much intelligence information as they need to successfully attack the Palestinians in the church would be in their own best interests, the IDF's best interests or what?

How can anyone even consider surrendering any arms to the IDF, when the IDF has already killed one of the religious members inside the church?

As to my "bias"--well, if my allegiance was to the Israeli/US "war on terror" sycophants, I don't think any of you would be using the word bias at all. Rather, you seem to think the propaganda being spewed at you by the governments engaged in terror campaigns against civilian populations is "fact" and not bias.

I don't accept that. I believe journalists who work for mainstream media outlets are the ones most guilty of biased reporting, because they usually act as nothing more than megaphones for the country's government propagandists.

This is a critical battle for the hearts and minds of people around the world regarding what the world's major military powers are calling "terrorists" and using as moral cover to attack civilian populations at will. The words we choose to use, the people who's side of the story we hear, the perspective of the reporters, their attitudes to people who aren't part of the West's mainstream, all that matters a great deal.

That is my bias. I don't believe the propaganda being aimed at me by the government media apparatchiks in Washington, Jerusalem, London, or Ramallah. Period. I need a lot more information than what they provide to determine the facts of a situation, and I know I usually won't be able to get them. So I already know that I am going to have to form opinions based upon extremely biased government propaganda being broadcast as "objective reporting" by the American mainstream media, whose bias is always towards American government and corporate interests--not the public interest.