The AP’s moral equivalency problem

See if you can figure out what AP’s moral equivalency problem is.

An Israel-Hamas truce has boiled down to a simple tradeoff: For a day of calm, Israel adds five truckloads of cows and 200 tons of cement to its shipment of the barest basics to Gaza, but also punishes sporadic rocket fire by resealing the territory for a day.

[…] On Tuesday, each side blamed the other for lack of progress.

Hamas has not reined in all militants, particularly those from rival groups, and the Israeli army says 15 rockets and mortars have been fired since the truce took effect June 19, including a mortar shell Tuesday. Lt. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said Hamas’ failure is slowing a broader opening of the crossings.

Hamas says Israel closed border crossings for seven of 17 days of post-truce operations. “The calm is not shaky. The Israeli commitment to the calm is shaky,” said Said Siyam, a senior Hamas official, before heading to Cairo for more truce talks with Egyptian officials.

And despite some attempts to defuse tensions, both sides have stuck to pre-truce behavior.

In Gaza, an explosion went off Tuesday in a Hamas military training camp, an apparent “work accident” that killed two militants and appeared to confirm Israeli fears that the group is using a lull to rearm. In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israel ordered an entire shopping mall shut down by August as an alleged Hamas front.

Have you got the gist of it yet? Because I’ll put it in plain English. According to the AP, Israel is not fulfilling the truce by trying to shut down Hamas terror supporters in the West Bank, which is not part of the truce agreement. Meantime, Hamas is not fulfilling the truce by allowing “sporadic” rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. And notice the subtleties in this article (which is by our pal Ibrahim Barzak, with a joint byline from Karin Laub). Notice that several Palestinians are named and quoted directly. Israel is quoted as “the Israeli army says,” even when there is a named spokesman in the same paragraph. And in that paragraph, the named spokesman is not directly quoted. He is paraphrased, once again showing how the media dehumanize Israel at every turn. There are no quotes from, say, someone living in one of the Israeli areas that are still under rocket and mortar fire. But there is a quote from a Palestinian truck driver, a “senior Hamas official,” and the head of the Gaza Contractors Association. Because the narrative is always about the poor, poor, pitiful Pals. And the AP takes one of the more important quotes and buries it in the very last paragraph, usually the first one that newspapers cut when they need space:

Abu Shanab, the Gaza trucker who earns just $30 dollars for a day’s work at Sufa, said the militants need to start thinking about ordinary Gazans.

“We ask them to take into consideration that we live in a very bad situation,” said the father of eight. “If they fire one rocket, it means we go backwards.”

Funny how those quotes never make it into the lead.

And one more funny: Here’s a howler the AP editorial staff missed.

Later, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants two years ago is to be freed in a prisoner swamp under the deal.

Actually, I like the idea of a prisoner swamp for terrorists. Filled with alligators, please.