There’s quite a telling paragraph in a Jerusalem Post article on the latest Gaza operation. The AP reported widely that the IDF took out a truck carrying about 160 kassam rockets. They also reported widely that several houses were destroyed by IDF missiles. Not as widely reported:
In the course of the operations over the weekend, the official said, the IAF also bombed the largest rocket factory in Gaza, killing the rocket-building technician and his family in a subsequent attack on their home.
There are rocket factories littered throughout Gaza. Der Spiegel profiled them in January.
The vehicle finally stops at a dirt track. The Islamic Jihad rocket factory is housed in a kind of garden shed. The hut measures five meters by five meters, metal pipes with small wings lean against the wall in the corner: Half finished Qassams. There are several tightly packed garbage bags on a shelf. “TNT,” says Abdul and produces a chunk. The explosive looks like lumpy sugar. A large cauldron is sitting ready on a gas cooker while bags with Hebrew writing are piled up high up against the wall. “Fertilizer for the rocket fuel,” Abdul says and grins. “We get it in Israel.”
Abdul is 22 but, tall and lanky as he is, he could still pass for 16. He has been making rockets for three and a half years and says he has finished hundreds of Qassams. A veteran with a double life: He studies geography during the day and makes his contribution to the Jihad at night.
If Abdul is killed in an IAF airstrike, he will doubtless be called a “youth,” when, in fact, he was a terrorist.
Also not widely reported: The IDF says that Hamas lost about 70 men in the Gaza operation. Funny how you never get the Israeli estimate of casulaties in the MSM reports—only the estimates from Palestinian “sources,” which leads to the boilerplate of “at least half of them civilians.”
Must be those layers and layers of editors that we poor little bloggers don’t have.
I know I’ll be banned for this, and I don’t particularly care because it’s the 2nd time I’ve visited your site in about 4 years, but what’s so outrageous about a story noting that a rocket-builder and his family were killed? Isn’t journalism about the details? I don’t see any hint of bias by simply mentioning a detail.
And what does it say about you when the mere mention of some guy and his family getting killed irks you? Should there be a rule that stories can’t include any mention of Palestinian deaths? Or do you feel that only Jewish deaths deserve any mention?
So go ahead and ban me, I just wanted to raise the point and I don’t expect you to have any tolerance for someone who disagrees with you. Cheers.
If nobody ever bothers to cite the IDF’s estimates, it may be because those figures are blatantly self serving. What, do you expect them to say “oh yeah we kill more civilians that combatants but it’s OK with us”??
Furthermore, the figures that serious media publish are from independent groups or authorities, such as ICRC or the UN. Oh sorry I forgot they are a bunch of antisemites?
Reuters: “Hey that guy got his head blown off and dropped his AK, civilian right?”
That is how we get “over half civilian”
Or the terrorists: “Hey Achmed, I found Muhmar, he is in about ten pieces over here, thats one dead fighter and nine civilians go tell the AP”
Say, Xysto, perhaps you should maybe put your cursor over the link that goes to the article about the dead rocket-maker and his family. It’s from the Jerusalem Post. That fact never gets into things like the wire services. That was the whole point of my post. The wire services only mention his family being killed—not that he had a rocket factory in his house, which made it a legitimate target, and the fact that his family was killed was HIS fault—not Irael’s.
See you in another two years, pal. Maybe by then you’ll get a little smarter.
JB: The wire services consistently cite “Palestinian medics” “Palestinian sources” and, best of all, Hamas and Fatah spokesmen for their body counts. They’re not independent groups. Perhaps you may also want to read the articles. You and Xystos, you have some reading up to do before you can get up to scratch here.
Perhaps YOU should read a bit more. Something else than Likudnik propaganda. Like this article http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n05/mend01_.html
for a start
Oh, I already saw that, JB. A post is in the work. This is my favorite part:
And he can’t figure out why Ma’ariv wouldn’t hire him. Gee. I can’t, either. Calling soldiers murderers? Hm. I really don’t understand why Ma’arive could possibly think this guy would be biased towards the Palestinians.