it's Arab hammer time again. The Israel Defence Force and the Lebanese Army are pounding Gaza Hamas targets and refugee camp 'Fatah al-Honest' targets in north Leb. In both cases, the convention not to enter these zones means indiscriminate bombing of those civvies is the appropriate response, and of course creates a space to allow excessive incursion when enough violent resistance has been generated. Ratcheting up of permanent conflict? Welcome back to the Middle East, Portugal kiddy snatch watchers.

Of course, there have always been several tracks to the Middle East problem, capable of generating a similar amount of myths of perception: Syrian involvement corrupts Lebanese affairs; Israeli goading and encouraging Phalangist phucks and the Sunni does not. Similar to: Iranian fighting UK/US in Iraq; four years of military presence in Iraq of UK/US has only ever been to establish democracy.

Take that hyperlinked example from the Boston, Mass rag: Conjecture and innuendo presented as fact that is contradicted later in the same article, pointing out that the group’s leader links to the Syrian state are absolute Ed Balls - if anything he is on the run from them. Fair and balanced journalism: it gives the reader/listener the opportunity to be selective about which bits they wish to acknowledge. Total info jerk-off. Either way, Al-Absi is manna from an extremist Judaeo-Christian heaven (featuring St Peter on Uzi and Moses on cluster bombs).

Last year's Israeli assault on the south, sorry all, of Lebanon because Israel misjudged the need for a regional contretemps (there's always offs in the territories) provides obvious context here, with the more deluded end of the Hamas PR machine saying ‘if Israel escalate it any further then we'll happily do the same as Hezbollah last year'. It's astonishing that the conflict last summer has been broadly portrayed as an Israeli defeat. Because they don't now occupy southern Lebanon? Because they had some soldiers killed in military action? Because rockets are still being fired into Israel?

What's being manufactured is necessarily of specialist concern; these are not end-products for the consumer put a fair few stages back. Basically, a few companies make it and a few sell it, and prices go up and down. Inevitably, if any particular product gets too popular, higher profits are sought, costs are analysed to hell and those areas of the world that get hold of the original product the cheapest win out. Yet, each product's industry is cottage, a few on each side of the buy-s[M]ell mnemonic, maybe a few middle-men traders.

But it's the approach of the publication covering the industry, ie, their representation of it, that is revealing. The reporters if anything are the self-appointed market movers. They tell their little clique of makers and vendors the talk of others' prices, what they have ‘been hearing', true or not, ‘in the market.'