Someone at the Houston Chronicle editorial desk doesn’t like Israel. You could possibly get more biased than this headline. But I don’t see how.
Israel’s retaliatory airstrike in Gaza kills 2
Can’t find that headline anywhere else in Google News, so it’s not AP’s headline. This is AP’s headline. The stories are pretty much identical.
Israeli Airstrikes Kill Two Militants
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli planes fired on a car traveling in Gaza City, killing two militants today in one of a series of airstrikes that began before midnight with a hit on the refugee camp that is home to the Palestinian prime minister.
The army confirmed that it had targeted militants traveling in the vehicle. Hamas said its men were in the car that was hit.
An earlier airstrike had hit a Hamas training center south of Gaza City, destroying the compound and lightly injuring at least three, witnesses said.
More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids over the past 10 days, and an Israeli woman was killed by a rocket on Monday in a Palestinian rocket barrage — one of many that have severely disrupted life in the area near Gaza and forced thousands to flee.
That’s your hometown paper, Lair. What’s going on?
While we’re on the subject of media bias, let’s take a look at the IHT, a New York Times newspaper, and what they represent as the beginning of the Israeli campaign against Hamas:
The Israeli military campaign began May 17, soon after Hamas said it would resume its rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, ending a fragile six-month cease-fire. Smaller Palestinian factions had consistently violated the cease-fire, firing a trickle of rockets throughout. But the number of rocket launchings rose sharply in mid-May, and about 220 rockets have been fired toward Israel since then, according to the Israeli Army.
Really? On May 17th, the IDF just decided to go after Hamas because it “said it would resume its rocket attacks on Israel”? That’s why?
No. Because something happened in the days before Israel went after Hamas. Something called rocket attacks on Israel’s civilians. Unprovoked rocket attacks, I might add. Hamas didn’t just say they were resuming rocket launches. They did it. Amazing how the IHT can spin this. From a Ynet article dated May 15 (that would be the “mid-May” the IHT is talking about):
On a day plagued with Israeli casualties, Qassam rockets did not stop raining on Sderot and the vicinity. Late Tuesday night, eight Qassams landed in the region, in three separate salvos, with two more rockets landing just after midnight Wednesday.
No one was injured in the latest barrages, but earlier rockets wreaked havoc. Tuesday evening, a Sderot resident was seriously wounded after a Qassam rocket launched from Gaza slammed into her house. Her young son was moderately wounded.
Thirteen rockets landed in the vicinity of Sderot during this attack, causing no other injuries but substantial damage to an elementary school.
Less than an hour after the first attack terror groups launched five additional rockets from Gaza, directly hitting a second house in the city. The house was damaged but no injuries were reported. A third rocket landed in the city’s commercial center and damaged several stores.
An additional Qassam hit a low-voltage powerline, causing a temporary black-out. Residents said the barrage was one of the worst in a long time.
Later in the evening Palestinians also fired two mortar shells at a kibbutz in the western Negev, no injuries or damage were reported and officials said the shells landed in an open field.
So it seems that Hamas didn’t just say it would resume rocket attacks on May 17th. By that time, it had already fired dozens of kassams, and wounded Israelis in Sderot.
Not that the readers of the IHT are going to learn that. Not from this article, anyway.
And the anti-Israel media bias marches on.