8 civilians killed in Haifa

Hezbullah killed eight civilians in Haifa today, in a deliberate attempt to—kill civilians. Let’s look at the AP coverage.

Hezbollah Fires Rocket Barrage at Israel
Jul 16, 5:26 AM (ET)
By ODED BALILTY
HAIFA, Israel (AP) – Hezbollah guerillas fired a barrage of rockets into Israel’s third-largest city Sunday, killing eight people and wounding seven in the worst attack on Israel since violence broke out along the border with Lebanon last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed there would be “far-reaching consequences” for the attack – the second against the northern city of Haifa in four days.

The attacks came hours after Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs and bombed a major power station south of the Lebanese capital.

Comments: Passive headline; no notice that the rocket barrage killed eight. Notice the immediate insertion of scary threat by Israeli PM, and the inclusion of a cause-and-effect in the third paragraph. Realize that this headline, and these three paragraphs, are generally what end up in the “World” section of your local paper.

Next, the update is inserted into the main Israel story:

Israel Escalates Bombardment of Beirut
Jul 16, 7:43 AM (ET)
By HAMZA HENDAWI
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – Airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in swaths of the Lebanese capital Sunday as Israel dramatically escalated the ferocity of its campaign after Hezbollah rockets hit the northern city of Haifa.

Before the attack on Haifa, Israel had already unleashed its worst bombardment yet in southern Beirut, a teeming Shiite districts where Hezbollah has its headquarters. A series of 18 explosions rocked the city before sunrise.

The airstrikes started again soon after the Haifa attack, which killed at least eight people.

Beirut, a city of 1.5 million people, was emptying as residents fled to the relative safety of the mountains and the eastern Bekaa Valley – though in the past 24 hours Israel expanded its strikes to the entire country. Police said 130 people, almost all civilians, have died in Lebanon in the five-day Israeli onslaught. In Israel, 23 have died.

Comments: Spun as a tale of vengeance by Israel. The context is they hit us, we hit them back harder—there is absolutely no context or regarding the Hezbullah origin of this war. In fact, they whitewash UN Resolution 1559, a binding Security Council resolution which demands the disarming of Hezbullah, this way:

The United States and United Nations have long demanded the Lebanese government deploy the army in the south, which Hezbollah guerrillas effectively control.

But any effort by Saniora’s Sunni Muslim-led government to use force against the guerrillas could trigger another bloody civil war in Lebanon. Many fear the 70,000-strong army itself might break up along sectarian lines, as it did during the 1975-90 civil war.

Now, the most recent update:

Hezbollah Rocket Barrage Kills 8 in Haifa
(Link that will not break is here. MyWay News clears its links after a few months.)
Jul 16, 9:14 AM (ET)
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
HAIFA, Israel (AP) – Lebanese guerillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday, killing eight people at a train station and wounding seven others in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict that has shattered Mideast peace.

Soon afterward, Israeli warplanes hit the south Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah with at least six airstrikes, shaking the Lebanese capital and sending up a cloud of thick smoke. Hezbollah’s firing of at least 20 rockets at Haifa came after Israel unleashed its fiercest bombardment yet of Beirut, reducing apartment buildings to rubble and knocking out electricity in many areas of the city.

Comments: Balance at last. The information is given to the reader, who then gets to make up her own mind about how to feel.

Do I think it has anything to do with the fact that there is not an Arab-sounding byline on the article?

Yes. I’ve been reading the wire services long enough to see the difference. Check my archives, and you’ll see why I say: Yes. It matters.