Duplicity at the Mail and Guardian

The Mail & Guardian’s reporting of the current Middle East crisis this Friday showed strained signs of attempts at a cloak of neutrality, yet they still fell way short of the mark.

The editorial by Guardian writers managed to provide the necessary context to the escalations reminding us about the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the “dozens” of rockets fired into Israel that started this all.

Yet the one sided use of language weaved a tapestry whose every thread cast Israel in a bad light.

The Israeli response to the provocation was described as a "violation of the Geneva conventions". While asserting Israel’s right to self defence the Guardian described the Israeli actions as ‘war crimes that will not be expiated by occasional expressions of regret.’

The Guardian is so consumed by the sense of Palestinian victimhood that they are unable to pass fair comment on this conflict even when they want to.

Whilst I note and accept that rules of war - any war - exist, and even a minor violation of these rules does indeed constitute a war crime, I don’t see the utility of playing on these rules when only one side is held to them. For it is certain that if the bombing of a Palestinian power station is a war crime, then so is the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of deadly missiles into Israel.

There is a clear distinction to be made to the way in which both sides relate to the Geneva Conventions. On the one hand, you have terrorists organisations committed to the destruction of Israel who deliberately target Israeli civilians. These terrorists make no attempts to abide by the Geneva Conventions. On the other hand you have a democratic state acting in self defence committed to abiding by the Conventions under the most dramatic and heart wrenching of circumstances.

By only accusing Israel of violating these Conventions the M&G are contributing towards an atmosphere in which the Palestinians understand that they are never held responsible or liable for anything and so they learn that they can continue to test, escalate and provoke without any serious lashback in the arena of public opinion. And so the conflict persists.

The second item where the M&G fails is in their account of the events which has caused this deadly crisis. Whilst discussing in detail the Palestinian casualties they failed to make any mention of the Israeli teenager who was abducted and brutally murdered soon after the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier.