Here’s the story: Terrorists from Gaza have been firing rockets and mortars into Israel. They shot mortars on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They shot mortars and a kassam on Monday. The kassam rocket landed near a kindergarten as children were arriving for school—which is a typical terrorist tactic. A 14-year-old girl was injured. In total, more than a dozen rockets were fired at Israel in four days, not including the ones that were blown up when the IDF killed a rocket squad before they could send them into Israel. So how does the AP write about these attacks in its first release on the story?
Violence escalates along Gaza-Israel border
“Violence.” Rocketing civilians is “violence.”
Now, let’s parse the lede:
The Israeli air force has hit seven suspected militant sites in Gaza while the Palestinian militants sent a rocket into southern Israel in a flare-up along the Israel-Gaza border.
Note that the onus is on Israel. The AP describes the Israeli airforce as being the instigators in a “flare-up.” A kassam rocket nearly hit a kindergarten, and the AP does not mention that in the lede, nor that a girl was injured. There’s a picture at this link. UPI managed to report the information that only the Israeli press is currently reporting, and also include a picture of those “home-made” rockets.
In the rest of the AP story, note that the angle is on the Palestinians. The AP names the Palestinian quoted but attributes all Israeli quotes to “the military.” Note also that the second paragraph reports the wounding of three Palestinians but does not identify them as terrorists. The AFP managed to report that they are terrorists. Lastly, the AP uncritically reports that the IDF hit a “dairy factory.” Shades of Saddam Hussein’s baby milk factory.
Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia says three Palestinians were wounded in the airstrikes. One reportedly was a dairy factory.
The military said on Tuesday the airstrikes targeted smuggling tunnels and a weapons-manufacturing facility. It says some of the tunnels were dug so militants could infiltrate Israel to carry out attacks.
We still haven’t found out why the IAF is bombing Gaza. And we’re already three paragraphs in. Remember that in many “World News” sections in your local paper, the first three paragraphs are sometimes all that you read. In those three grafs, we’ve learned that “violence” flared up on the Gaza border, the Israelis bombed seven terrorist sites while the terrorists only fired one rocket, and that Palestinians were hurt, but no Israelis. So, now what is the AP going to reveal?
The military also says the airstrikes were in retaliation for the firing of 13 rockets and mortars at Israel this week.
Israel Radio says the rocket fired by Gaza militants on Tuesday landed near a nursery school. No serious injuries were reported.
Ah. Now we get the reason, near the end of the article. But the really nasty bit of yellow journalism is the addition of “No serious injuries were reported,” because the writer can point to that and say that he did mention the 14-year-old girl’s injuries—just not that she was 14, running into a sheltered room from the shower, and struck by flying glass shards in her leg (also that the rocket missed a gas truck by mere yards).
It is articles like this that foster the pro-Palestinian side of the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. This is one of the tentacles of the delegitimization of Israel, and the dehumanizing of Israelis while humanizing the Palestinians. These are the news articles that go into thousands of American newspapers, are read on thousands of American radio stations, and are researched by thousands of American television stations for the evening broadcast.
An update went out around 7:30 this morning. Here’s the lede:
The Israeli air force hit seven suspected militant sites in the Gaza Strip in an unusually large operation early Tuesday, and Palestinian militants retaliated by sending a rocket crashing down near a kindergarten in southern Israel.
Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia said three Palestinians were wounded in the airstrikes. A 16-year-old girl told Israel Radio she was slightly wounded by shattered glass in the rocket blast.
The violence was the latest sign of escalating tensions along the Gaza-Israel border, where five militants were killed Saturday in the deadliest Israeli assault in the coastal strip in months.
Note that the AP manages to make the Israeli girl’s injury a result of the IAF bombing terrorist sites. Also that they did not name the girl, though her name is all over the Israeli media. And last, they note the killing of five terrorists, but not that they were a rocket squad, that they were about to launch rockets, and that they were proudly proclaimed as martyrs by PIJ. They make it seem, once again, that the rockets go into Israel because Israelis kill Palestinians.
The next update will whitewash the Palestinian side even further. Mark my words.
“Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia says three Palestinians were wounded in the airstrikes. One reportedly was a dairy factory.”
One Palestinian was a dairy factory? All by himself?
Meryl,Meryl, Meryl…the AP is just doing its job, reporting on “the cycle of violence that besets this war-torn land.” You don’t expect the AP to blame anyone for hurricanes or cold snaps, do you? The cycle of violence is just there.
How about organizing a boycott of the Associated Press.
How? Boycott nearly all American media? They’re ubiquitous.