The carnage in Israel and Gaza on Tuesday has finally hit our press. I have seen reports today in The Star, the Business Day and the Citizen.
Israel faces a constant barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. Rockets are fired on a daily basis and force Israel to react by targeting the terrorist rocket squads. Unfortunately this is all too often overlooked by the media.
The Business Day report from SAPA-AFP was the worst. They mention that yesterday was the "bloodiest day in more than a year that left 19 Palestinians dead despite renewed peace talks".
No mention of the more than 40 rockets that were fired into Israel or the murder of a foreign volunteer at a Kibbutz in Israel shot by a Hamas sniper from within Gaza.
The Cape Times’ SAPA report doesn’t fare much better. They fail to mention that the Israeli raid that killed 19 Palestinians (most of them armed terrorists) was in response to incessant rocket fire from Gaza. They wait until the 75th line of a 90 line article to mention the foreign volunteer killed by a Hamas sniper. Astonishingly they then include this pearler
| Hamas’ armed wing also launched a volley of rockets into the Jewish state for the first time in several months, lightly injuring about 12 people over the past two days, police said. |
For the first time in several months? Are they insane? Sderot has been bombarded with Qassam missiles fired from Hamas controlled Gaza on an almost daily basis! Whether it's Islamic Jihad or Hamas that actually lights the fuse, Hamas must ultimately bear responsibility for the territory that they control.
The Star’s tiny report probably fares the best of a bad bunch. They mention the botched Israeli attack that missed its target and killed a family of civilians, they mention the 19 Palestinians killed by Israel on Tuesday and they mention the fact that the Palestinians fired “a barrage of rocket and mortar fire”. They however omit the foreign Kibbutz volunteer in Israel killed by sniper fire.
Once again the media has totally ignored the context of incessant rocket fire in which this all occurs. They ignore Israel’s restrained reaction until now to the more than 2000 deadly missiles fired on Israeli towns since Israel left Gaza.
Predictably, the Israeli haters will ignore the crucial difference between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist groups. For Israel, every dead Palestinian civilian is a mistake, a tragedy. For the Palestinian terrorists, every dead Israeli is an achievement and a cause for celebration.
Related: Sderot Under Fire - Photo Tour
Well one should be used to the fact by now, that the media, especially within South Africa, only comments when Israel responds.
Posted by: jp | January 17, 2008 at 11:33
I recall reading an article in the Business Day about Annapolis and, for whatever reason, the picture included was that of Israel's security barrier (naturally the tiny wall section, not the fence) and it was accompanied by a caption reading something like: "Israel's security barrier was constructed to keep out unwanted Palestinians"
How's that for perspective?
Posted by: Hard Rain | January 17, 2008 at 15:20
I have sent news of the rocket attacks on Israeli civillians and their effects to 702, SABC and IOL, from sources like Y Net and JPOst but our intrepid and honest SA media completely ignores these reports.
Posted by: Gary | January 17, 2008 at 17:56
Elder of Ziyon does the work that the MSM ought to be doing.
Posted by: soccerdad | January 17, 2008 at 18:59
The SA Jewish Report has an opportunity to be a true latrenative to the mainstream SA media, but alas they choose not to step into that niche and give us f all.
Posted by: Gary | January 17, 2008 at 20:05
Well, in fairness - 19 people killed (murdered? war crimes?) is nto the same as 21 person. And that town is on historic Palestine.
How is it that Israel - a country who has so many ancestors who know what it is like to suffer (think holocost) the pressure of unewanted attacks on civil liberites - OK so maybe nto as bad as the palestinians are experiencing, but bad. (In palestine the whole country is a concentration camp, and the IDF come with their daily gas chambers in the form of tanks, poisoned water, demolished homes, raped children...etc...).
When you talk about balanced reporting please first have balanced morals.
Posted by: BalancedView | January 18, 2008 at 14:26
Firstly Balancedview please define historic Palestine. It could be argued that historic Israel predates historic Palestine whatever they may be
Secondly please show me the concerted effort of the Israelis to exterminate the Palestinians and how the Palestinian's current conditions are worse than those persecuted by the Nazi's?
Lastly please tell me of one instance of an Israeli soldier raping a Palestinian child.
P.s would you please clarify what you mean in your 1st statement.
Posted by: Ariel | January 18, 2008 at 23:12
(U.N.)Balanced View,
Problem One
Until your moral compass can register that 19 combatants killed is not comparable to even one civilian deliberately targeted, then you're fighting with at least one hand behind your back.
Problem Two
As long as you think there are "rapes of children", "poisoned water" perpetrated by Israeli soldiers as a matter of course then you're swallowing blindly heap loads of lies and your idea of "balanced" is to equally believe proven lies and the liars that peddle them and people who speak with facts. In which case, your second hand is attached to the first (to be found behind your back) - both likely bound to your ankles, but I'll pretend not and continue anyway.
(Note the water and electricity in Gaza, as an example, comes from Israel. Israel doesn't need to poison the water - they just need to STOP it, in which case the kassams will stop - since you can't make rockets without electricity)
Problem Three
"in palestine" this clearly indicates you're not only fighting with both hands tied, but blind folded too. Now, if you knew something you might have phrased it more along the lines of "in gaza" or "in the west bank", in which case we would know you were lying since firstly, tanks aren't "daily" in Gaza. And secondly, you would know that the reason tanks are not required to conduct anti-terror raids in the west bank is precisely because the IDF still has control over the area -and it hasn't degenerated into the lawlessness of Gaza. (look up the word check point - look for all the stories of the evil Zionists stopping pregnant women from crossing into Israel for hospitals - then open your eyes and read the accounts of pregnant suicide bombers, ambulances smuggling weapons and of course, ask yourself with the billions in US aid why there are no hospitals???)
If you're looking for child rapes, family murders, torture, and removal of human rights you're right. You will find it all in gaza, but you'll also find it's fatah v hamas or vice versa.
Problem Four
"that town is in historic palestine" - it's difficult exactly to understand what you mean by this. It's like the rest of the arbitrary vague notions you wave around. Assuming you're talking about Gaza (or perhaps Gaza City itself?) you'd be wrong in suggesting that it's part of biblical "palestine". As to whether it's part of the British Mandate, so is Jordan, all of it and all it's cities - so what exactly are you trying to say?
Finally, your little "murdered" "war crimes" assertion shows your ignorance. Read the papers, do your research - then come and pontificate.
Oh, try remove the blindfold before you start reading.
Posted by: Hillel | January 19, 2008 at 18:48