An Iranian-supplied Grad rocket struck a shopping center in Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel 11 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The only way a Palestinian rocket can hit Ashkelon is if it isn’t one of those “crude, homemade” rockets—it has to be an Iranian-supplied and Hamas-approved Grad rocket.
The rocket struck a women’s clinic in a shopping center. Fifteen people were hurt, including infants. People—mostly women and their children—were trapped under the rubble.
The rocket crashed into a women’s health clinic on the second floor of a busy shopping mall in central Ashkelon just before 6:00 pm, wounding 15 people and burying several shoppers under piles of rubble. MDA paramedics dispatched to the scene fought to extract those trapped under large pieces of debris, including four people who were evacuated in serious condition, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, and 11 more who suffered from moderate wounds.
You would think that this would be the angle that the AP chooses to concentrate on: Women at a health clinic and their children were nearly killed today due to a long-range rocket fired from the Gaza Strip by terrorists, with the full cooperation of Hamas, the democratically-elected government of the Palestinians.
You would, of course, be wrong. This is the AP spin on the incident. Note the second graf of the lede:
A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in this southern Israeli city Wednesday, wounding at least 14 people, as President Bush wrapped up talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s prime minister.
The attack raised the chances that Israel will send large numbers of ground forces into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip – something the army chief has reportedly decided he wants to do.
Once again, the rocket hit a women’s health clinic in a shopping center. The victims were nearly all women and children. Imagine the media outrage if a tank shell went astray in Gaza and landed on a women’s health clinic. Oh, let’s be honest: You don’t have to imagine it. We’ve already seen the media blitz every time Palestinian civilians get hit. We saw it just a couple of weeks ago, when terrorists carrying explosives caused the deaths of a Palestinian family, yet the world blamed Israel for it.
Reuters took its time focusing on Israelis getting hurt by random rocket fire. But then they made up for it in style. Note the second graf of the lede here, too:
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip injured more than 30 people at a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday, the Israeli army and emergency service officials said.
The strike came as U.S. President George W. Bush met Israeli leaders in Jerusalem to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of their state — an event Palestinians commemorate as the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, for their people.
This is the new Reuters boilerplate going out on all the Israel stories. See how Reuters manages to spin even the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as a reason behind the bombardment of civilian areas by terrorists:
Hamas and its fellow Islamists say they fire rockets as part of a campaign to destroy Israel and take the land from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out when Israel was established as a state on May 14, 1948. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
One simply has to sit back in awe and wonder at the yellow journalism practiced today by so-called objective, so-called mainstream media players. And of course, there is never a word of the equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim lands during the same time period, driven out by Muslims “infuriated” by the establishment of the Jewish state. The fact that the bulk of these refugees landed in Israel and now make up a substantial part of the Israeli population is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. Because it would harm the narrative to point out that there were Jewish refugees from Arab lands whose goods were stolen from them by Arabs. Can’t have two victims in one narrative, can we?
But look at the common threads in both stories. The first paragraph of the lede describes the attack. The second graf then goes immediately into the Palestinian point of view. The attack will cause Israel to invade Gaza. The attack happened during Palestinian “nakba” commemorations. Israeli infants, victims of terrorist rockets? Unimportant. They’re not Palestinian infants, victims of a stray tank shell/terrorist exploding/kassam rocket falling short of its target and hitting Palestinians—all of which are blamed on Israel. The narrative, always the narrative—that of Palestinian victim and Israeli aggressor—must be maintained.
Watch for that narrative when the IDF finally goes into Gaza to clean out the terrorists. Hamas has learned a great deal from Hezbullah. Here’s hoping that the IDF learned a great deal as well.
I don’t know, it seems fair to me. If the Israelis hit something like a clinic because Hamas “fighters” used it as a base for firing, the media generally don’t bother mentioning it. And no doubt this women’s health clinic in Ashkelon was being used as a shield for, I don’t know, some nefarious Israeli military action or another.
Alex, the clinic’s purpose is to keep Israelis healthy — definitely a nefarious purpose according to Hamas.
aimming these wepones the hamas are using , is almost impossible.
hamas was not aming that primitive missle at nither the clinic nor the mall . it was aimed at ashkelon .
and that one unlike most of the missiles they shoot was what they call a sucsess – hurting of israel citizens.
as amain hamas said that same day – they will never recognise israels right to exist .
(so ,alex bensky, if you dont have anything wise to say i think its best if you dont say anything at all).
Shahar, Alex is nearly always being sarcastic. He basically meant the opposite of what he said. It’s not so easy to translate sarcasm into other languages.
then please accept my apolgy for the Misunderstanding (and my lame english).
No apology necessary. As I said, sarcasm doesn’t translate easily. I’m sure Alex is not upset.