By host Tom Ashbrook:

“Forty-eight hours,” Condoleeza Rice told the world. For 48 hours, she said, Israel would stop air operations over Lebanon after the weekend’s death toll at Qana except in response to “imminent threats.” And twelve hours later, air strikes resumed.

A million Israelis have huddled in bomb shelters. The burials, and Hezbollah resistance, go on in Lebanon. The fighting will go on, too, the Israeli government said yesterday, at least until a potent international force shows up — if it shows up.

But the battlefield in these weeks of fighting goes far beyond Lebanon and Haifa. It’s a battle of perception, and it also matters.

Hear about the message of the fighting in the Middle East and how it’s seen and how heard.

Guests:

Christopher Dickey, Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine

Rami Khouri, Editor of the Daily Star Newspaper in Beirut Lebanon

Martin Indyk, Director Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institute, U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1995-97, 2000-01)