More Palestinian war crimes

The “cycle of violence” yesterday:

Terrorists in Gaza murdered an Ecuadoran volunteer, firing at him while he worked in the field at a kibbutz.

The IDF attacked a group of Hamas terrorists, killing at least a dozen of them. Mahmoud al-Zahar’s son is among the dead terrorists.

Hamas responded with a volley of rockets into Sderot, harming at least one child. And how does the AP spin this?

19 Gazans, Kibbutz Worker Killed

Note the headline. “Gazans.” Not “terrorists,” or even its bogus substitute, “militants.” And note the order of importance in the lede.

Israeli troops killed a son of Gaza’s most powerful leader along with 18 other Palestinians on Tuesday in the bloodiest day of fighting in the coastal area since Hamas militants seized control last summer.

As fighting raged in Gaza, a Hamas sniper shot and killed an Ecuadorean volunteer working in the potato fields of an Israeli border farm. That killing, and Tuesday’s high death toll, stoked the flames of violence at a time when Israel and Palestinian moderates are making halting attempts to talk peace.

Tuesday’s bloodshed began before dawn when Israeli infantry, tanks and helicopters pushed into northern Gaza in what the military said was a routine operation aimed at Palestinian militants who launch rocket barrages at Israeli towns near Gaza almost every day.

Three Palestinian civilians were killed in the ensuing fighting, along with 14 armed militants – one of them Hussam Zahar, 24, the son of hard-line Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar. The Israelis pulled out Tuesday with no casualties. A later airstrike on militants firing rockets into Israel killed two more Hamas men.

As for the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas, here’s what he had to say—moderately, of course:

“Israel continues every day and every hour practicing its aggression against our people in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.

“Today, there is a massacre against our people. We are telling the world and Israel, our people cannot be silent with these crimes and it will never bring peace.”

This is from an article titled “Hamas mourns Israeli raid victims” (h/t, Omri). That’s right. Because the “victims” weren’t terrorists trying to kill Israelis. They were just, well, Gazans.

And just check out these totally unbiased story highlights from CNN, helpfully supplied so that you don’t have to read the entire article to discover its anti-Israel bias:

Story Highlights
• Hamas leaders in Gaza mourn after Israeli raid leaves 17 dead, 20 wounded
• Palestinian President Abbas calls raid a “massacre” and blasts Israel
• Hamas said it fired 15 rockets into Israel as initial response to Israel’s actions
• Israel cites ongoing battle against Gaza’s terrorists as reason for raid

Interesting, how CNN manages to leave out of the highlight that the dead are mostly terrorists, and makes sure that Israel’s reason for being in Gaza—to stop the near-daily rocket barrages on Sderot and the Negev—is last. Hamas fired more than 40 rockets, by the way. The democratically elected government of the Palestinians has admitted war crimes against Israel. Anyone out there think the UN is going to leap to condemn them? Jimmy Carter, maybe? The New York Times editorial board?

Yeah, me neither.

If I were Ehud Barak, I’d send a message to Mahmoud Zahar about his son’s death. It’d be two words long: You’re next.