The constant din of the anti-Israel media

Hamas has fired more mortars into Israel, injuring three today, and the headline of the AP story is not “Hamas fires mortars into Israel.” It is, instead:

Israel threatens response to new militant rockets

Note that this is an improvement over the previous story, which was headlined

Israel threatens ‘disproportionate’ response to rockets

But note that each headline uses the word “threatened” in reference to Israel, even though the real threat in the article is the rockets and mortars launched at Israeli homes and schools.

I’m actually astonished that these details are all in the first three paragraphs of the lead. Watch for them to drop later in the day, particularly if Israel responds to the mortar fire.

Gaza militants launched rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel on Sunday, wounding three Israelis, drawing a threat of “disproportionate” retaliation from the prime minister and further straining a cease-fire that ended Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The flare-up in violence came just over a week before Israel’s parliamentary vote, pitting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni – one of the architects of the offensive – against the more hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu. Continued fighting could influence the outcome by raising questions about the effectiveness of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Three people – two soldiers and a civilian – were wounded in a late afternoon mortar barrage on an Israeli village next to Gaza, police and the military said. Earlier, a rocket landed near a kindergarten in a community near Gaza, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Warning sirens sent residents scrambling for shelter.

Meantime, the IDF is declaring that Hamas has been “deterred” from firing rockets into Israel. Really?

Military Intelligence Chief Major-General Amos Yadlin told cabinet that the rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel were being carried out by terror groups that are not Hamas.

“Hamas, for its part, has been deterred and is honoring the ceasefire, but is not deterring the others enough,” he said.

This is the same bogus excuse that has been used since the days of Arafat. He claimed he coudn’t control other terrorist groups, especially Hamas—and yet, when he had to maintain quiet, suddenly, the terror attacks would stop. Until the next time he deemed it necessary to launch them.

As always, no matter what happens, it’s Israel’s fault.

Can’t wait for the election to be over. I’d like to see what happens with a new administration—assuming, of course, that it’s a Netanyahu administration. A Livni-led government will be the same as the current one, with minor differences.