The smuggling muddle

Headlines tell us so much. First from the Washington Post. Israeli Operations Kill 9 in Gaza

Israeli forces launched military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank early Thursday, hours before a Katyusha rocket fired from Gaza crashed down harmlessly near the Israeli city of Ashkelon. At least nine Palestinians were killed during Israeli tank and helicopter attacks in Gaza, including five members of a family killed near the central city of Khan Younis, Palestinian officials said. . . . Israeli military officials said the operation in Gaza, which began just after midnight, was intended to counter Palestinian attacks and followed recent rocket strikes. Israeli soldiers also entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus in search of Palestinian fighters. The Katyusha was fired at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, they said.

But the problem isn’t only with the headline, it’s also with the introductory paragraphs. Consider, what do 3 of the first 4 paragraphs of this report tell us? Before a Palestinian rocket harmlessly exploded in Israel, the IDF killed 5 members of a Palestinian family. There is nothing factually wrong with the report or that summary, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t fundamentally dishonest. Giving the Israeli rationale that the attack on Gaza “…was intended to counter Palestinian attacks and followed recent rocket strikes …” doesn’t fully describe the situation Israel finds itself in. In recent months Elder of Ziyon has been scouring news sources to produce monthly qassam calendars. He introduces the December post with this:

As usual, this is far from complete, and it is more to show how ignored the Qassam issue is rather than to show how many are being fired. Many Qassams never make it in the news, and the rare times that the IDF publishes statistics shows that I am usually undercounting by about 50%. Also, these are Qassams that make it to Israel; many that are fired explode in Gaza itself. This list does not include mortars being shot from Gaza, which are usually much more numerous on any given day.

dec 2007 – 99

nov 2007 – 69

oct 2007 – 58

sep 2007 – 42

Understand that by Elder of Ziyon’s estimate, roughly 500 qassams have been fired at civilian Israeli targets over the past 4 months with perhaps another 2000 rounds of mortars. Maybe most of the projectiles land harmlessly but this a relentless assault on Israeli territory. So to introduce a report by focusing on a family killed by the IDF misrepresents the situation on the ground. The reporter, Jonathan Finer, reports Israeli claims at the end that two members of the family had been firing on Israeli forces and then retreated into their house. It was then that the IDF fired on the house and killed everyone inside. Another problem with Finer’s report is the context into which he places it: President Bush’s upcoming visit to the Middle East.

The violence occurred as President Bush prepared to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in an attempt to build momentum toward peace. “With President Bush coming so soon, one would hope to see positive steps toward the Palestinian people, but instead we see the opposite,” said Jamal al-Muhaisen, governor of Nablus. While Nablus has long been considered a stronghold of militant groups launching attacks on Israel, the Palestinian Authority has intensified policing efforts there in recent months. “I regard this incursion as an attempt to destroy our security plan, which was working,” Muhaisen said. Bush’s visit is timed to build on November peace talks in Annapolis, Md. Those meetings included Israeli and Palestinian officials, but not representatives of the armed Islamic movement Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Note how Finer frames the story now. By quoting Gov. Muhaisen, he effectively characterizes Israel’s reactions to terror as working against the “momentum toward peace.” In fairness, Finer does mention the Katyusha and the smuggling through Egypt to Gaza.

“What we’ve seen today is the beginning of a situation where it isn’t just the adjacent communities in the firing line but up to a quarter of a million Israelis,” said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. “Today’s rocket attack represents an escalation, an upgrade, a bigger rocket with a longer range, not something homemade, but something smuggled into Gaza from outside.” Citing concern that more advanced weapons were being brought into Gaza, the Israeli government had one day earlier condemned Egypt’s decision to open a border crossing for pilgrims returning from Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The problem is that his earlier paragraphs minimize the Katyusha at the expense of the Israeli offensive. (Though the Israeli offensive is, in fact, a reaction to constant rocket and mortar fire against Israel, we get little sense of that from this article. When Finer provides context it is to Israel’s disadvantage.

The simultaneous Israeli operations were the most significant offensives in the Palestinian territories in more than two months, residents said.

“Most significant” is more definite than “recent rocket strikes.” And yet the Washington Post treats the continued war against Israel as an afterthought. But the Jerusalem Post cuts through the fog and identifies the problem. It’s not a diplomatic problem but a Smuggling Crisis.

This goes beyond politeness to imply that the Egyptian failure to stop smuggling is a mere nuisance, even though this failure could easily force Israel into a foreseen and preventable war in Gaza. Egyptian irresponsibility is risking Israeli lives, harming Israeli security, and working directly counter to the international goal of isolating Hamas and bolstering an Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process. If anything, our leaders have not spoken out early and forcefully enough on this issue, and should certainly not stop pressing Israel’s case now.

If President Bush is to seek peace in the Middle East he must first stop the war against Israel. That should be a precondition for a Palestinian state and not the other way around.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.