The AP carried a brief note about the terrorist attack on the Erez crossing. Let’s stop and reflect a moment on what the Erez crossing is: Is it a “checkpoint”? Is it a border crossing from a territory filled with terrorists into the state of Israel? Or is it simply some random point between Israel and Gaza?
Well, the AP doesn’t think Israel has a border. So they call it a “checkpoint.”
Palestinians Attack Gaza-Israel Checkpoint
JERUSALEM (AP) – Three armed Palestinians attacked a checkpoint between Israel and Gaza before daybreak Thursday, the military said.The Palestinians threw hand grenades and opened fire on Israeli forces, and soldiers shot two of the three. Exchanges of fire were continuing with the third, the army said. There were no Israeli casualties.
The Erez checkpoint is the main crossing for thousands of Palestinian workers with jobs in Israel.
Not a whole lot of information, is it? Compare that with the Ynet news article:
Two Palestinian terrorists arrived at the Erez crossing in north Gaza under cover of the night early Thursday and proceeded to open fire and hurl grenades toward the Israeli side of the border. Givati Brigade soldiers manning the crossing killed the terrorists in the ensuing gun battle.
No soldiers were hurt in the incident.
The terrorists, Marwan Amar and Muhammad Ramadan, were both carrying Kalashnikov rifles, and one of them was armed with an explosives belt.
Once again, the AP utterly minimizes palestinian terrorism against Israel. Of course, they always maximize palestinian deaths. Inside an article about international observers being driven from Hebron due to palestinians rioting over the Danish Mohammed cartoons, we get this:
In all, 11 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the weekend, most in response to stepped up Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. On Wednesday soldiers shot and killed an armed Palestinian as he approached a Gaza-Israel border crossing.
Every one of those dead palestinians was a terrorist, killed in the act of terrorism, or being arrested by the IDF. Not that you’d know that by the lack of context. That paragraph makes it seem like only some of them were terrorists.
Oh, and notice here, the Erez crossing is actually called a crossing. Someone fire that editor. He missed a spot.
To think, that 13,000 to 20,000 Palestinians used to pass through that “check-point” every day to work in Israel. It has been consistently one of the most volatile crossings, and important points of defense between Gaza and Israel, really since 1956. But to listen to this guy, it was just a stop on the road. Good posting, Yourish, you’re right, the reporter’s a clown!
Why on Earth is there even a checkpoint between Israel and Gaza? The border should be sealed tighter then a mouses butthole. Gaza is enemy territory.
Why on earth are there any Palestinian workers in Israel anyway? No unemployed Jews I guess.
Because Palestinians make up over 30% of the Israeli labor force, taking many of the jobs most Israelis don’t want to do.
Hamas is going to have a fun time finding jobs for them when it tries to make the Pali economy independent of Israel’s. Maybe they’ll just herd them all back into the camps to exist on UN handouts, like they did when Egypt ran Gaza, before the Six-Day War. It was only after Israel occupied the place that Palis were allowed to leave their camps to find work.
I expect it will be easier for Israel to find workers to replace the Palis than it will be for Hamas to find jobs for Palis whom it no longer allows to go into Israel to work. Israel is a fairly developed country after all, while the Palestinian Authority is, by the action of the PA’s own government, an economic basket case. I doubt they can rely on their “Arab Brothers” or even the Mullahs in Iran coming through with enough gelt for a total welfare state there, quite apart from however much the Hamas bigshots will steal.
Hey scotty-boy – could you please cite some corroborating evidence for your claim that Palis make up 1/3 of Israel’s workforce?
The Israeli population is about 6-7 million, so the adults of working age are around least 2-3 million, at least.
The entire Pali population – using real numbers rather than ficticious Pali scare-statistics – is somewhere between 2 and 3 million. Most of it totally unskilled.
At the peak of peaceful cooperation, how many Palis do you think were employed in the 2-3 “economic zones”? Not more than 50,000.
The Palis who used to make good money in Israel’s construction and agricultural sectors have long been replaced by Romanian and Thai workers (can you say “shooting yourself in the foot”?).
This is a typical claim attempting to backhandedly cast the situation as a case of “oppressive white exploiters” vs. “noble savage natives”.
The only thing accurate about THAT formulation is the “savage” part…