Someone in the AP decided that even that news service can’t keep ignoring dozens of missiles fired at Israeli civilians.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with dozens of mortars and rockets on Wednesday, sowing panic and despair there and burdening diplomatic efforts to revive a truce that expired over the weekend.
No Israelis were injured in the barrages. The attacks took a steeper toll in Gaza as explosives apparently misfired, wounding three civilians and killing two militants. One of the injured civilians works for a conflict resolution center.
But of course, they have to blame Israel for bringing it on herself.
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, said the bombardment came in retaliation for the deaths of three of its fighters in a clash with Israeli troops late Tuesday. Israel said the militants were planting explosives in northern Gaza along the border fence.
Because after all, why not equate the death of terrorists with the bombing of civilians twelve miles away—who were killed while trying to plant explosives to keep the IDF from coming in andstopping terrorists from firing rockets).
Interesting how the lead changed in half an hour. Take a look at the previous edition of this story:
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with mortars and rockets early Wednesday, burdening diplomatic efforts to revive a truce that expired over the weekend.
Separately, a civilian was badly wounded in an explosion at a house in Gaza City. Two other civilians were lightly wounded when a rocket failed to clear the border and landed on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, Gaza health officials said.
Meanwhile, two militants were killed when an explosive they were preparing went off prematurely.
Note how in the first report, the rockets that wounded civilians were given more prominence, and a separate paragraph, in the lead. Also notice that the AP dropped the description of the death of two terrorists during a “work accident,” and made it look like it was part of the misfired rockets. And of course, in the update, the blaming of Israel was moved up to the first three paragraphs, just to make sure nobody reading the three paragraphs that get published in their local World News section of the newspaper don’t misunderstand whose fault this rocket barrage really is.
CNN equates Hamas firing missiles at civilians with Israel “threatening” to respond to such firings. And CNN acts as Hamas’ press agency, passing along their propaganda uncritically in the lead.
Palestinian militants fired more than 30 rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel on Wednesday days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert threatened to respond to the ongoing attacks.
Izzedine Al Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, announced in a statement on its Web site it had fired four rockets in revenge for what it called the “assassination” of five of its members by the Israeli military.
CNN is also forgetting that “jihad” means “inner struggle,” and that Islam is the religion of peace. Funny how CNN won’t use the word terrorist, but they will publish this:
Sources with the military wing of Hamas said the group fired a number of mortars into Israel from an area east of Khan Younes in southern Gaza. The sources also said two members of the military wing were killed Wednesday morning during a “work” related accident, while on a Jihad mission.
What, not even quotes?
The BBC is the winner of the Most Biased Award, of course.
Gaza rocket fire follows shooting
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired mortars and rockets into southern Israel, without causing any injuries.The Islamist militant group, Hamas, said the attack was in retaliation for three of their men being killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday.
More than 50 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip since Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire last week.
Actually, the toll is far higher than that. Not counting today, there have been 47 kassams and 37 mortars fired at Israel since December 19th—the end of the truce. Sure, it’s “more than 50,” but so is a million. Nice counting there, BBC. The BBC also knows whom to blame for the ending of the “truce”:
Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire on Friday, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed in.
Most media reports will then add a paragraph in which the entity accused responds, something like “Israel says Hamas had continuously fired rockets into Gaza in violation of the truce,” but the BBC does not do that. I wonder why that is?
Meantime, Xinhua, the Chinese news service that is no friend to Israel, at least reports what the other news services won’t: That Hamas is firing Grad rockets into Israel.
Gaza ruler Hamas fired longer-range rockets into Israel on Wednesday amid continuous makeshift rockets attacks, escalating violence around the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hamas confirmed that its militants have fired Grads (military-grade rockets) from northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning in response to the killing of five of its militants.
The two Soviet-made Grads landed near a factory and a parking lot in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon respectively, causing damage to several cars, according to Israeli sources.
There’s no mention of the longer-range rockets—which Hamas smuggled in during the “truce”—in most of the other wire reports. The New York Times noticed, however.
Most of the rockets fired out of Gaza are locally made, short range projectiles that fall close to the border. Several of those fired on Wednesday were imported Katyusha-type rockets with a longer range. Ashkelon, which lies about 10 miles north of Gaza, has been hit occasionally. Attacks on Netivot, which lies about six miles east of the Gaza border, have been rare.
News flash: Reuters just took the Most-Biased crown away from the BBC with this headline and lead:
Flare-up dims truce hopes along Israel-Gaza border
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel on Wednesday to avenge the killing of three gunmen by Israeli troops, dampening hopes of a renewed truce.
Right. What’s most important here is that the “flare-up” (rockets trying to murder Israeli civilians) is messing with a new truce—which of course, will be used to get even more, better rockets to fire at civilians. Note the description of the harmless little projectiles currently tearing giant holes in Israeli houses and wounding Palestinian civilians unlucky enough to be under a misfired rocket:
An Israeli army spokesman said one of the rockets — most of which fall in open ground — struck a house in Ashkelon, north of the Gaza Strip. Another hit a house in a farming community east of Gaza. No injuries were reported.
And of course, it’s all Israel’s fault.
The latest round of violence erupted on Tuesday when Israeli soldiers killed three gunmen of the Islamist Hamas group which controls Gaza. Militants responded by showering southern Israel with rockets and mortar shells.
Meantime, the Israeli Cabinet is meeting. Something will be done. Grad rockets in Ashkelon are supposed to be a “red line” (I so hate that phrase) that cannot be crossed.
Watch for the world condemnation of Israel’s response, immediately upon seeing what the response is, and no matter what the response. Guaranteed.
Hmmm and I thought we live in the liberal world with liberal press.Why the non jews still hate the jews and the state of Israel?
Did you notice that the AP and Reuters stories no longer have ratings, only a “recommend” button? There is also no one to complain to, other than a generic e-box.
I thought about the truce statement as well. Violence and terror are not the main point, the “truce” is. How twisted! Also, Hamas’ claim that Israel did not live up to its commitments goes unchallenged (though I just saw a version of the story where it said that Israel claimed that it had opened up the crossing, but shut it when there were attacks). Israel always gets the short end on these agreements with the Arabs. Whatever it agrees to is supposed to be fulfilled unconditionally (or so the Arabs claim without anyone calling them on it), while the Arabs can violate and complain about Israel not fulfilling what should be a conditional obligation.
From end of AP story
Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.
There is no palestinian state. It is the palestinians who are occupying the Israeli territory of Gaza. I guess if the press repeats lies enough, people start to believe them.
If other nations in the area are so concerned about the palestinians, why don’t don’t they allow them to settle in their country?
The Arabs get cut all the slack because our so-called ‘journalists’ are lazy.
These ‘journalists’ think that Arabs have dark skin color while Israelis are ‘white’.
In the past ‘journalists’ would do their
reporting by taking news feeds off of
the AP & UPI printers and re-arranging the paragraphs. And since the ‘journalists’ are taught in college that ‘whites’ are bad, they spice up the reports by blatant anti-Israelism.
But traditional ‘journalists’ are on the way out. The soon-to-be American depression, caused by Democrats like Rep. Frank and Sen. Dodd, will result in most, if not all, local US Newspapers to declare bankruptcy. In this case it will be ‘financial’ bankruptcy since the papers themselves have been morally bankrupt since the late 1970’s.
Liberal ‘journalists’ hate the Israelis because their paymasters tell them to do so. So at least one good thing will come out of the current financial mess.
rach kach TZHAL
The only solution is the I.D.F.
Simple solution. Do to Gaza what THE RULERS would do to Israelies.
I agree. I think it’s sad that people out there see newspaper articles as an educational source, when it is clearly biased.
I’m sick of all the media’s propaganda.
If they think I’m gonna be convinced by their anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist articles, THEY’RE WRONG.