Seriously, could the AP spin this any more? Unbelievable.
Israel aircraft hit Gaza, 2 found dead
It’s like they died from a meteor strike or a plague or something. “2 found dead.” Sure, it’s accurate. But it’s misleading. Also, note that they don’t identify the terrorists in the headline. Two what were found dead? Two civilians? Two doctors? Two children? The headline implies that Israel struck Gaza just because it felt like dropping bombs on that poor, imprisoned, starving populace. Who just happened to be launching rockets designed to murder civilians, preferably schoolchildren. One of the things you rarely read in the anti-Israel media is that terrorists deliberately launch rockets during the hours when children are going to and returning from school in the hopes of killing children.
By the way, AP, you need a comma after “Strip” below.
Israeli aircraft struck the southern Gaza Strip targeting rocket-launching militants, the military said Monday, and Palestinian officials reported that two men were found dead in the area.
Now, the background: Watch how the real reason for the Israeli strikes on terrorists is obfuscated. Only the last few days are noted, not the rocket attack last week that started it all. Also note the tired, old “cycle of violence” phrase is being brushed off and given a new shine.
The strike came after two days of rocket attacks and airstrikes that risked escalating into a more serious cycle of violence, although Israel’s defense minister downplayed the chances that a large-scale ground offensive into Gaza would be launched.
And here’s the important part that should have been the initial paragraph. The men who were killed were launching a rocket into Israel. The cause and effect could not be any more clear. Unless you’re the mainstream media.
The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked a squad that had just fired a rocket into Israel. The military said it had “confirmed a hit” but provided no further details.
The strike wasn’t a result of two days of attacks. It was a strike on a terrorist cell launching rockets into Israel at that very moment. The news media does not properly assign the cause and effect. Cause: Rockets being launched by terrorists into Israel. Effect: Israel firing missiles are rocket launching terrorists. To make it seem, in the previous paragrapha, that Israel is the one initiating the action here is, well, that’s the anti-Israel narrative in plain sight.
But wait, there’s more: Here comes the obligatory “a previously unknown group”, spun a slightly different way:
Palestinian security officials said two bodies were discovered around dawn wearing the uniform of al-Ahrar, or “The Free People”, a little-known group with ties to Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers that previously had no history of violence against Israel.
In other words, they were members of Hamas who wore different uniforms so that Israel can’t blame Hamas. Israel can and does but the media won’t. They’ve been buying the Hamas lies for years. Witness the “political arm” and “military arm” of Hamas, which has no such differentiation between terrorists. It’s a fiction used for cover. Ynet managed to find out what al-Ahrar is:
Al-Ahrar consists of ex-Fatah men and is partly sponsored by Hamas.
Right. Members of Hamas.
And now, the fifth paragraph, generally the last one that shows up in your local paper’s World News section:
The men were unarmed and no rocket launchers were found in the area, the officials said.
And there we go. Israel just killed two men who happened to be standing around doing nothing. Or did they?
The Palestinians reported that medical teams found the bodies of two terrorists on Monday morning. “They did not die in vain, the national consensus on the lull won’t prevent us from taking revenge and retaliating for these ongoing crimes,” the movement said.
Instead of uncritically repeating Palestinian spokesliars accounts, perhaps the AP should cultivate the kind of sources that Ynet has, where the terrorists proudly admit their dead members’ actions. But then, they couldn’t continue the anti-Israel narrative. Then where would they be?