Today’s AP media bias, with UN equivalence thrown in

So the post from this morning that I told you to watch the updates on as the day goes by? Here’s the first version, timestamped 9:05:

Palestinian girl, Israeli killed in fighting
Hamas militants fired a barrage of mortar shells into southern Israel on Thursday, killing one person and wounding three others on a communal farm near the border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said.

The attack dealt a new setback to Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers and raised the likelihood of a tough Israeli military reprisal.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Hamas “will be held accountable.”

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza for the past year, said in a statement it had fired three mortar shells but did not confirm the deaths.

Here’s the update, time-stamped 11:20. It reverses the order of occurrence. Instead of leading with the mortar barrage, which brought out the IDF to go after missile launchers, we now lead with the Palestinian civilian killed as a result of the IDF trying to stop terrorists.

Palestinian girl, Israeli killed in fighting
JERUSALEM (AP) – An Israeli missile aimed at a group of militants struck a house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and killed a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, Palestinian officials said, hours after an Israeli was killed by a Hamas mortar barrage fired from the area.

The sudden spike in violence dealt a new setback to Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, and raised the likelihood of a tough Israeli military reprisal.

The Israeli army confirmed the aerial attack and said it had hit a “gunman.”

But Hamas security officials said the missile missed a group of militants and struck a nearby house. The Palestinian girl, who was playing outside, was killed and her mother was wounded, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The AP again quotes Hamas terrorists, who have every reason to lie. And the fifth paragraph—the one with the necessary context for why a Palestinian child died today that will likely be dropped from your local paper’s World News section—is this one:

The airstrike came shortly after Gaza’s Hamas rulers claimed responsibility for the deadly mortar attack in southern Israel. The mortar shells were fired from the same area targeted in the airstrike, the army said.

Now let’s look at the afternoon update, timestamped 2:47, and authored by our pal Ibrahim Barzak:

2 die in tit-for-tat clash between Israel, Hamas

Notice the context of who was killed is completely removed from the headline, and the Israeli defense against terrorists is put on an equal footing with terrorists firing mortars into civilian areas for the purpose of killing civilians.

Palestinian mortar fire killed a man at a factory in southern Israel on Thursday, prompting an Israeli reprisal airstrike that apparently missed its target and killed a 6-year-old girl in the Gaza Strip.

The burst of violence dealt a new setback to Egyptian efforts to broker a truce between Israel and the militant group Hamas and raised the threat of worse violence.

The bloodshed came a day after moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for renewed dialogue with Hamas, whose gunmen seized control of Gaza a year ago in fighting with Abbas’ security forces.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the mortar attack on Nir Oz, an Israeli collective village less than a mile from the Gaza border, “as a response to the nonstop aggression against our people.”

The article no longer names Hamas as the group responsible for firing the mortars in the first graf. Instead, the article waits until paragraph four before telling the reader it was a Hamas attack. The fourth graf, as you know, is one that is frequently cut from the World News sections. The previous two versions were by Josef Federman. The whitewashing always seems to go on under Ibrahim Barzak’s byline. I wonder why that is? Hm. Let’s think.

Ban Ki-moon noticed the rocket barrages again, after Dan Gillerman filed a formal complaint. And he issued the usual toothless UN statement condemning both sides.

The Secretary-General condemns the ongoing rocket and mortar attacks by militant groups, including Hamas, from Gaza against crossing points and Israeli civilian targets, which caused the death of an Israeli civilian and four casualties today. He calls on Hamas and other militant groups to cease such acts. He also reminds them that these actions as well as attacks on crossings have detrimental implications for the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.

Wow. Just—wow. No mention that these are war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even just plain wrong. But they’re bad for the Palestinians.

Eff you, Ki-moon. Eff you and your whole organization.

The Secretary-General also condemns the death of a Palestinian child and the injury of its mother in Gaza as the result of Israeli Air Force (IAF) fire. While recognizing Israel’s right to self-defence, the Secretary-General calls upon Israel to exercise maximum restraint, and reminds the IAF and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) of their responsibility to protect civilians under international humanitarian law during military operations.

I see he only manages to accuse Israel of war crimes. The Israeli Double Standard is in full bloom at the UN, from bottom to top, with a media bias thrown in. Only Americans, it seems, can see through the bias and not blame Israel for being the victim of terrorists and Arab rejectionism.

Exit comment is from Ehud Barak:

“Military action is closer than even, it appears likely there will be an operation prior to the calm (truce).”