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Last update - 02:45 11/01/2009
Gideon Levy / My hero of the Gaza war
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Gideon Levy, hamas 

Click here for more articles by Gideon Levy

My war hero likes to eat at Acre's famed Uri Burri restaurant. He thinks it's the best fish restaurant in the world, and told me as much yesterday from the porch of the central Gaza City office building from which he has broadcast every day for the past two weeks, noon and night, almost without rest.

My war hero is Ayman Mohyeldin, the young correspondent for Al Jazeera English and the only foreign correspondent broadcasting during these awful days in a Gaza Strip closed off to the media. Al Jazeera English is not what you might think. It offers balanced, professional reporting from correspondents both in Sderot and Gaza. And Mohyeldin is the cherry on top of this journalistic cream. I wouldn't have needed him or his broadcasts if not for the Israeli stations' blackout of the fighting. Since discovering this wunderkind from America (his mother is from the West Bank city of Tul Karm and his father from Egypt), I have stopped frantically changing TV stations.
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Whoever recoils from the grotesque coverage by Channel 2's Roni Daniel is invited to tune in to this wise and considered broadcaster. Whoever recoils from our heroic tales, bias, whitewashed words, Rorschach images of bombing, IDF Spokesman-distributed photographs, propagandists' excuses, self-satisfied generals and half-truths is invited to tune in. Whoever wants to know what is really happening, not only of a postponed wedding in Sderot and a cat forgotten in Ashkelon. Watching is sometimes hard, bloodcurdlingly hard, but reality is no less hard right now.

I have followed him throughout the war. Sporting a helmet and protective vest, and sometimes a Lacoste jacket, he stands on the roof, broadcasting in the most restrained tones, never getting excited or using flowery adjectives to describe what we're inflicting on Gaza, even when planes fly over him and bomb a house in the distance. Sometimes he crouches during a blast, his eyes perpetually glazed from fatigue, his face sometimes betraying helplessness.

At age 29, he has already seen one war, in Iraq, but he says this war is more intense. He is frustrated that his broadcasts are carried virtually everywhere in the world except the United States, his own country, the place he thinks it is most important that these images from Gaza be seen.

"At the end of the day, if there is one country that can have influence, it's the United States. It's frustrating to know you're not reaching the viewers you would like to," he told me this week from the roof. On Friday he finally came down, for safety's sake, after the Israel Defense Forces bombed a neighboring media center.

Is he afraid? "I'd be lying if I said I don't feel fear, but my obligation is greater than the fear," he says.

Nor does he have a single bad word to say about Israel. He says he would gladly return to visit - after all, he's got friends here. We even set a dinner date at his favorite restaurant, for 6 P.M. after the war.

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      1.   Al Jazeerah is NOT BALANCED in reporting 03:18  |  Fortune 11/01/09
      2.   My hero of Israel 03:26  |  Peter 11/01/09
      3.   He`s many people`s hero 03:35  |  Marius Berntsen 11/01/09
      4.   Haaretz have you forgotten about free speech? 03:50  |  Connie 11/01/09
      5.   Haaretz won`t let me comment Gideon but, 04:32  |  BBSNews 11/01/09
      6.   Propaganda and propaganda... 04:47  |  Basil 11/01/09
      7.   Whenever you think Levy has gone as low as he can go... 05:12  |  McQueen 11/01/09
      8.   Yes, propaganda: from Levy and his Israel-hating supporters 05:15  |  McQueen 11/01/09
      9.   Ayman Mohyeldin 05:16  |  Salomon Lewy 11/01/09
      10.   I HOPE AYMAN WILL SAVE `TIL THE END 05:16  |  indrajaya 11/01/09
      11.   Hear Hear! 05:28  |  schafe82 11/01/09
      12.   To Levy...my heroes are 07:33  |  Ellis 11/01/09
      13.   God bless you Gideon Levy. 07:47  |  Maureen Ann 11/01/09
      14.   your hero 08:45  |  sandy 11/01/09
      15.   Tokyo Rose 09:33  |  Steve 11/01/09
      16.   The real heros of Israel 09:39  |  Ron 11/01/09
      17.   the true heroes of israel... 10:50  |  Maxine 11/01/09
      18.   Levy`s hero 12:48  |  Sarah 11/01/09
      19.   My Heroes 12:53  |  Daybreak 11/01/09
      20.   the real heroism 14:23  |  osvaldo 11/01/09
      21.   Confessions of a Paris Match pictorial 14:28  |  allang 11/01/09
      22.   Al Jazeera is Biased 14:29  |  Sobieski 11/01/09
      23.   Say it again and louder. 14:31  |  Kornelia 11/01/09
      24.   Islam`s hero is Gideon Levy 14:43  |  Mohammed 11/01/09
      25.   WE, DEFINITELY, HAVE 14:43  |  Robert 11/01/09
      26.   Americans are denied free speech 14:45  |  Joe 11/01/09
      27.   I understand there is a lot of regret over here 16:27  |  S 11/01/09
      28.   My her 16:31  |  ahmad fakhri 11/01/09
      29.   Gideon Levy 16:39  |  Jay Gee 11/01/09
      30.   Levy is my only Israeli hero these days 16:50  |  Nils C Nilsen 11/01/09
      31.   who pls need to know of gideon levys "war hero" ? 17:04  |  christian 11/01/09
      32.   loonies of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your brai 17:07  |  vhardman 11/01/09
      33.   Your hero 17:07  |  Ben David 11/01/09
      34.   levy`s right again 17:32  |  suzanne Sapir 11/01/09
      35.   now, if America would only have a steadfast truth-teller!! 17:36  |  Philip Lundquist 11/01/09
      36.   Mr. Levy, Al Jazeera Would Definitely Like to HIRE YOU! 17:37  |  Linda Rivera 11/01/09
      37.   Jay from Johannesburg 17:38  |  Joe Notsixpack 11/01/09
      38.   And he has "heroes"...!! 17:38  |  Romy 11/01/09
      39.   "Balanced"? 17:42  |  Barry Bernstein 11/01/09
      40.   Good Coverage Spelled Doom For Hamas 17:47  |  Yosemite 11/01/09
      41.   proof you have gone beyond the pale. just go away you waste good 17:47  |  ralph 11/01/09
      42.   Leftist Pals 17:54  |  Barney 11/01/09
      43.   Joe 17:54  |  lady from USA 11/01/09
      44.   no surprise here 18:00  |  bernard ross 11/01/09
      45.   Whoa, so this is what a man-crush looks like. 18:03  |  Amused 11/01/09
      46.   Lies & more lies , but oh so subtly dressed up as truth ! 18:05  |  Miguel Almela Perez 11/01/09
      47.   Gideon, are you a double agent or just stupid? 18:08  |  Karliner 11/01/09
      48.   Hamas PR 18:08  |  Gila 11/01/09
      49.   Is is safe for him to go out now ? 18:13  |  Elvira Wong 11/01/09
      50.   Congratulations Mr Levy 18:21  |  Manuel 11/01/09
      51.   some of us support levy 18:59  |  ruth 11/01/09
      52.   In the ideal world, a terrorist attack would strike gideon levy 18:59  |  James Spade 11/01/09
      53.   My hero of the Gaza war 19:00  |  Uri 11/01/09
      54.   Good point schafe82... 19:02  |  BBSNews 11/01/09
      55.   Lazy Levy 19:02  |  Ruach 11/01/09
      56.   Thank you, Mr. Levy 00:20  |  JoelFrench 12/01/09
      57.   gideon levy`s hero 00:20  |  pauline e. russell 12/01/09
      58.   Ayman is your hero 01:06  |  Emmanuelle 12/01/09
      59.   Gideon: A Series of Straightforward Questions 01:09  |  Brad 12/01/09
      60.   Somewhat ironic 01:17  |  Jim 12/01/09
      61.   AYMAN, BROTHER, NOW I`M`VE FINALLY RELIEVED MYSELF 05:43  |  indrajaya 12/01/09
      62.   What bollocks! 06:21  |  abdul saleeb 12/01/09
      63.   Good for you Levy 06:27  |  Disgusting 12/01/09
      64.   Hero? I think not. 06:49  |  Shechinah 12/01/09
      65.   Free Press 07:15  |  Steven M. 12/01/09
      66.   Brad -- You`re off Subject 07:21  |  Jeffrey 12/01/09
      67.   Gideon Levy 08:43  |  Mohammad Karimi 12/01/09
      68.   As a proud Moslem American I support Mr Levy 08:50  |  Yaakub Sullivan 12/01/09
      69.   Gideon`s "Hero" 08:51  |  rachamim ben ami 12/01/09
      70.   Jealous 10:44  |  Jospeh Gelernter 12/01/09
      71.   Al Jazeera balanced.... yeah right 13:03  |  GB 12/01/09
      72.   You are a hero, Gordon! 18:02  |  Lars 14/01/09
      73.   Bravo Mr. Levy... 05:44  |  AAC 01/08/09
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