The AP has been ignoring the many kassam rocket and mortar attacks on Israel (except, of course, for the ones in which the IDF manages to kill a few terrorists before they get off the missiles). But when a Grad rocket hits the city of Ashkelon, the AP has to say something. And so they minimize the risk of the rocket (it could have killed dozens), and announce in the headline that although the rocket was fired, nobody was hurt.
Rocket from Gaza hits Israeli city, no injuries
That’s rather a strange headline, isn’t it? When do you ever see a headline like “Israel bombs smuggling tunnels, no injuries”? But even more strange, let’s check on the Reuters headline for the same news story:
Palestinian rocket hits Israeli city, no injuries
They ran nearly identical headlines. Both the AP and Reuters are at pains to let us know that even though a grad rocket landed in a city of 120,000, nobody was hurt. Let’s compare ledes now.
Gaza militants fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon early Friday, the military said, a rare strike in a period of relative quiet.
The Israeli military said the rocket caused damage but no injuries. None of the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza immediately took responsibility for the attack.
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday, causing damage but no injuries, officials said.
The rare attack on the southern city, which was likely to elicit a military response from Israel, came after months of quiet following Israel’s launch of a three week military campaign in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in late 2008.
“Months of quiet.” “A rare strike.” Really?
Eight kassams and mortars were fired in June. Two kassam rockets were fired last week. One of them landed near Ashkelon. Apparently, 10 kassam and mortar attacks in June and July are considered “quiet.” Or maybe since they didn’t hit anyone, they weren’t considered “strikes.” But no, this is an entire article in Reuters and the AP, two of the larges wire services in the world, telling us that rockets from Gaza almost never happen. I think, perhaps, what they really means is that rockets from Gaza don’t happen unless they write about it happening. That would explain “a rare strike” and “months of quiet.”
In the meantime, well, watch the headlines after Israel strikes back, particularly if any Palestinians in the smuggling tunnels get hurt. Or even if they don’t. I doubt Reuters or AP will be running in the headline that although the IDF bombed the tunnels, no one was hurt.
Meryl,
you know as well as anyone that Jews are not allowed to defend themselves.
This is a centuries’ old tradition in both Europe and the Middle East.