Unspinning the anti-Israel spin

If you read only the wire services, you wouldn’t understand exactly why the IDF killed three terrorists in the West Bank early this morning. Allow me to show you the depths to which the AP falls to justify the murderers, cover up terror attacks, and remove the blame from Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, and the PA—and then how they blame the IDF for killing Palestinians and make it seem like the Palestinians were either blameless or just about to surrender before the IDF blew them away.

First, the AP report on the terror attack yesterday. The headline: “Gunmen kill Israeli in West Bank shooting attack.” Note that “Palestinian” does not appear in the headline at all. Neither do the words “Islamic Jihad” or “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” both of whom claimed the terror attack that murdered a 45-year-old rabbi and father of seven. Neither group is “little-known.” Both are well-known, and Al-Aqsa is a part of Fatah. The fiction maintained by the media is that it is an “offshoot.” Note also that the AP report does not name the murder victim. The report also does not name the group that claimed the attack, calling it only “A Palestinian group” or “A little-known Palestinian militant group identifying itself as a faction of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.”

Now, let’s look at the Israeli press and see what information we can glean that the AP is not providing. First, the name of the victim, Meir Avshalom, 45. Next, Ha’aretz gives us the details of his life—seven children, one of whom was estranged from him. Okay, that’s not important enough for the AP to pass along on the wire services, granted, but this is:

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and the Islamic Jihad have both claimed responsibility for the attack.

This information is from yesterday’s article. Today, we find out that the three were well-known terrorists, one of whom, Anan Sabah, was included in the amnesty agreement that the PA negotiated with Israel. The agreement, you may remember, required that the terrorists receiving amnesty would cease terrorism against Israel. Another one, Raed a-Sarkaji, served seven years in prison for the murder of another Israeli. This next bit of information is important:

A rifle and two pistols were found on Salah’s body, and a large amount of weapons were found in the cache he was holed up in.

Today’s AP article has its own spin on the above:

The forces surrounded the homes of the three. Lerner, the army major, said all three turned down a chance to surrender. However, relatives of Abu Sharah and Suragji said they were killed without warning. Lerner confirmed that none of the wanted men returned fire, including Subeh, who had two pistols and two assault rifles on him.

There is no mention of the weapons cache. But there’s a lot of spinning. The AP makes it look like the IDF simply started shooting for no reason. They see no significance in the fact that everyone but the wanted terrorist evacuated the home, and he was found with weapons and ammunition on him, and hiding in a small space where he could shoot from a protected area. Then there’s the “Allahu Akbar” part—you know, the words that every terrorist seems to utter when he is about to attempt murder? And still, the AP wants to know why the soldiers opened fire. Gee. Let’s think.

In the third raid, troops ordered everyone to come out of the Subeh home, said Subeh’s brother, Jamal. The family evacuated, but Anan Subeh stayed behind.

Lerner said Subeh was hiding in a small crawl space in his home when he was killed. He said soldiers heard him shout “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for God is great.

Asked why soldiers opened fire, Lerner said troops “had to operate under the assumption that they (the suspects) are dangerous.”

The suspects were dangerous.

Now let’s look at the usual mounting anti-Israel spin as the story is updated. First headline:

Israel kills 3 in West Bank raids

Updated headline:

Israel kills 6 Palestinians

Note that there is no context in either headline. Not even the word “militant.”

Lead one:

Israeli soldiers stormed homes in the West Bank on Saturday, killing three Palestinians allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of an Israeli and testing an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian authorities.

Lead two:

Israeli troops blasted their way into the homes of three wanted Palestinians on Saturday, killing each in a hail of bullets and straining an uneasy security arrangement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The bolded words speak for themselves. Now to compare and contrast, the lead from the article about Meir Avshalom:

Gunmen killed an Israeli man in a shooting attack in the West Bank on Thursday as local attention was focused on Christmas celebrations in nearby Bethlehem.

A Palestinian group took responsibility for the killing.

Big difference, isn’t there? Welcome to the world of the anti-Israel media. Thanks to them, I’ll never run out of post fodder.

Update: And the latest AP updated headline?

Israel kills 6 Palestinians in surge of violence

Palestinians, not “militants.” Surge, not even the pathetic “cycle of” violence. Just a surge in violence, implying that Israel decided to go shoot a bunch of Palestinians for no reason. The lead, including the colorful “hail of bullets,” remains.