Interesting take on today’s attempt by the IDF to stop terrorists from violating the Israeli border and attempting to murder Israelis. From Ynet:
IDF forces thwarted an attempt by a Palestinian terror cell to infiltrate Israel through the Gaza border fence Wednesday noon. The cell, which included four or five members, was apparently planning to place explosive devices in the area.
According to military sources, gunmen approached the fence in an area east of Khan Younis and were about to enter Israeli territory when a paratrooper force identified them and opened fire at them.
Four Palestinians were killed in the clashes and several were injured. One soldier was lightly injured in his hand and was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
The force uncovered Kalashnikov rifles and grenades on the gunmen’s bodies.
From the AP:
Israeli troops and Palestinian militants fought with missiles and mortars along the Gaza-Israel border on Wednesday, raising new concerns that an increasingly shaky five-month-old truce might collapse.
Four Hamas militants were killed in the exchange, and the Hamas military wing said it would retaliate.
And the AP’s attempt at balance:
The Israeli military and Palestinian militants gave conflicting versions of how the fighting started.
Israel’s military said it began when Israeli forces spotted armed militants approaching Gaza’s border fence, near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. The men were trying to lay an explosive device near the fence, the military said.
An exchange of fire erupted. The militants set off an explosive device and fired three mortars at troops, the military said. Israeli soldiers hit four militants and an Israeli soldier was slightly injured, the army said.
Later, Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at open fields, the army said.
Palestinian militants said the battle began when they spotted Israeli forces crossing into Gaza and fired upon them.
The military would not say whether Israeli forces entered Gaza.
Take a look at the words in bold. The AP claims this was a battle of missiles and mortars. And yet, the IDF did not use missiles in the battle with the terrorist cell. They fired missiles at an empty field (?!). But it’s a battle of “missiles and mortars,” making it sound like the IDF fired missiles at the terrorists, instead of what it actually was: Terrorists firing mortars at troops, a tactic used to great extent by Hezbullah during the 2006 Lebanon war. One IDF soldier was lightly injured on his hand. It seems the IDF has figured out those tactics by now, and thankfully, Hamas is still fighting the last war.
But the media is still the anti-Israel media that we know and hate.
Not only that, but the very fact that they would even print Palestinian claims next to Israel’s is insane. Do they honestly think that the Israeli story is likely to be LESS accurate than the Palestinian story?
Ah John, the AP has to be evenhanded dontcherknow. And we all know how objective and evenhanded the AP is in its reporting. I’m only surprised that the Israel version wasn’t buied in paragraph 27, while that of the Palis was the lede.
But the absurdity of it. Do people really think that Israel just randomly fires into Gaza on occasion? For what purpose?
Honestly, I am kinda surprised that the article didn’t read like this:
“Today, a group of violent armed illegal Zionist entity supporting settlers were charged with firing back at the poor, downtrodden and poorly armed and impoverished Gaza-ites. The settlers from Zionist entity–claiming to be “isa-rah-ieli”–taking their name from an ancient infidel people who lived in the are near where the Prophet tied up his donkey–said that the Gazans were planting explosives near one of their cursed settlements. The reporter who has interviewed these Zionist “people” has since been sacked for even considering their story having any worth to this fine AP new site. Our job is to report the news while defending the cause of the downtrodden and helping The One change the world, not record the soiled opinions of non-existent people.”
wheeeeeee…
I could keep going, you get the idea. Please feel free to add to this.
John,
Yes. Or at least they say they do. That’s why there are innumerable resolutions from the UN denouncing Israel while the place still can’t bring itself to devise a definiiion of terrorism.