Gazans fire mortars, AP calls it “test” of truce again

Mortars fired from Gaza are yet another “test” of the ceasefire, according to AP, while somehow, the closing of the border crossings—which were contingent on the ceasefire working—are labeled as the cause of the mortar fire by the AP. Note the headline: It’s a cause-and-effect summation.

Israel closes Gaza, Palestinians fire mortars

You see? As a result of closing the border crossings, the Palestinians fired mortars at Israel. Not as a matter of habit, this being the third day in a row that the Palestinians have violated the truce by firing rockets and mortars. But that’s not the worst of it. The AP is outright blaming Israel for the rocket fire. Look at the lead:

Israel refused on Friday to fully open crossings with the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants attacked Israel with mortars, further testing an already fragile truce.

For the third day in a row, Israel prevented food trucks from entering Gaza by closing crossings in retaliation for repeated Palestinian rocket attacks, Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner said. Later in the day, Palestinian militants fired two mortar shells toward Israel, Israeli police said, but no injuries or damage were reported. It was not immediately clear which militant faction fired the shells.

Notice the order of the events in the paragraphs. Israel closed the crossings, and THEN the Palestinians fired rockets. The AP is framing the situation as an Israeli cause—“refusing” to open the crossings—and a Palestinian effect—firing rockets and mortars. As if those are the natural progression. What the AP is no longer doing is calling the rocket fire a violation of the truce. The Israeli refusal to open the crossings is following the terms of the truce, which the AP knows full well, having published many articles detailing the truce. First, the attacks were supposed to stop. Then Israel would send more goods into Gaza. If three days went by without an attack, more goods would go in. Since the Palestinians are violating the truce, Israel is doing exactly as was agreed, and not sending in more goods or opening the crossings. But the AP is not reporting this honestly. The news service is trying to make its readers think that Israel is violating the truce by “refusing” to open the crossings. You have to dig down ten paragraphs to find the word “violation” anywhere in this article. And it’s used in the context of a revenge attack.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called for retaliation for the attacks.

“I am not interested who fired and who didn’t fire at Israel,” she told reporters Thursday. “It is a violation, and Israel needs to respond immediately, militarily, for every violation.”

Notice that the only Israeli quoted is made to look like a bloodthirsty, well, “militant.” Strangely for the AP, which manages to find a quote for every single Palestinian casualty of Israeli fire, there are no quotes at all from Hamas or terrorist groups in this article. And in this short piece from early this morning, the AP outright calls Israel’s closure of the crossings a violation of the truce, thus following the Hamas line.

Israel has refused for the third day in a row to fully open crossings with the Gaza Strip in retaliation for rocket attacks. The rockets and closure both constitute violations of a cease-fire that began June 19.

Truly, is there anyone out there anymore who thinks the AP is an objective news source? Because if so, I have this bridge that’s been in my family for generations, for sale, cheap.