While Israel's operations were killing more innocent civilians and bringing about more destruction in the Gaza Strip, the media war reached its peak between al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya TV news channels, reflecting the dispute between their respective countries (Qatar and Saudi Arabia). The battle broke out two days ago when the emir of Qatar called once more for an emergency Arab summit in Doha. Al-Jazeera broadcast the emir's declarations throughout the day. When Saudi Arabia refused to attend the summit and called, for its part, for a Gulf summit, Al-Arabiya devoted its bulletins to this piece of news, while Al-Jazeera only mentioned it briefly. When the meeting called for by Saudi Arabia was held, Al-Jazeera hosted many politicians to attack it. It seems the Qatar-based TV channel won the first round, especially when it hosted the Palestinian resistance's leaders, who slammed Saudi Arabia's summit and praised the one in Qatar. Yesterday, though, Al-Arabiya took its revenge while the Doha summit was being held. While Al-Jazeera was covering the event, Al-Arabiya hosted Palestinian Authority's prominent personalities in Ramallah. Palestinian Presidency spokesman al-Tayyeb Abdel Rahman slammed Qatar and Syria, saying the Doha summit was just playing with Palestinian blood. Al-Jazeera showed Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad demanding that all relations with Israel be cut, while Ramallah-based personalities were calling on Qatar to shut down the US base on its soil.
